On Sat, 20 Jun 1998, Van Burnham wrote:
<snip>
quoting actual bids? Recently, in a so-called
"silent" email auction...I
bid $275 for a non-working Odyssey 1 (IMHO a very fair and reasonably high
bid) only to receive the sellers reply that had been forwarded to ALL
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Check
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/Odyssey/Odyssey.html and if
that's the machine you're talking about, I guess I am a very lucky being.
I knew it was early and cool, and probably worth something, but not that
people would bid hundreds of dollars for broken units! I *had* seen some
high prices quoted for complete working units, but I thought they may be
anomalies like some of those prices published in the general media for
classic computers.
I got mine in its original box, with the playing cards, overlays, manual,
dice, etc, and even the "Receive a free ODYSSEY game!" and inspection
cards. The poker chips are still wrapped in plastic. I haven't counted
to see if I have ALL the cards, but they were organized and held together
with elastic bands. I have the RF switchbox and the weird cable for it,
and the machine itself has a "RUN NUMBER 1" sticker on the bottom.
I've never powered it up because I've never bothered to go out hunting for
'C' cells, and video game systems aren't really my thing (though I do love
my Atari 2600).
I think I paid $8 (Canadian) for it at a local elementary school sale. (I
attended that very school for two years.)
I wrapped the box in a plastic bag and put it on an upper shelf, and I've
only had it out a few times to show people, and to take some crappy
pictures of it.
I guess this is a brag post. ;)
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/