PDP-8/L value

On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 10:18 AM, Mike Loewen <mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us> wrote: DEC made about 4000 of those (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/dec-faq/pdp8/section-6.html) - more than some models, less than others. Part of what makes them desirable is that they are now over 40 years old and when found, usually complete enough to run and quite portable. They use individual TTL chips, so they are somewhat easy to repair (I've fixed several), and of them have core memory (unlike later models which might or might not). My first -8 experience was with an -8/L. As I've posted many times about this exact model, in 1982, they weren't expensive (mine cost $35 and some swap goods) because they were "old". Add 28 years of demand going up and the supply going down and you have these sorts of prices (others, perhaps on this very list, had similar experiences with the PDP-8/S a few years before that - same effect, but with more scarcity). The -8/L sold new in 1968 for $10,000 (1968) dollars - it's still cheaper now. -ethan