26 Apr
2002
26 Apr
'02
1:48 p.m.
Some of the items from the "Book of Receipts" I got with the Altair
systems I purchased last month:
"*CALL*"
From Morrow Computer & Electronics Design Inc: 1
MITS Altair system,
Okidata printer, ADM 1, dual disk drives, mainframe, memory
boards,
2SIO, Prom, ACR $5000.00 + $50 to ship. - 11/29/78
From the Byte Shop: SSM-MB3 - $65, 2 2708s - $49 each,
4 1702a's for
$35, 4 S-100 edge connectors for $5 each and a roll of black tape
for
$4.25. - 12/28/76
From Solid State Music, Inc: 1 MB3 (2K/4K EPROM card) -
$64.95. 8080
Monitor on 8 1702s - $25. - 12/14/77 (why would he keep the receipt
but
not the manual!)
From Processor Technology Corp: VDM-1 Video Display
Module - $160, 3P+S
I/O Module - $125. - 4/12/76 (I have the Processor Tech price
sheet from
March 1, 1976 stapled to this receipt)
From MITS Inc: 88-16MCD (assembled) - $395, 88-2SIO w/1
port kit - $160,
88-SP K (extra Port for 88-2SIO) - $50. - 12/6/77
From Microsystems: ADM-3 Lear Siegler kit - $875. -
11/2/76
From Microsystems: 88-16MCS (16K static - Kit) $765,
88-VI (Vectored
Interrupt) $138, 88-RTC (real time clock) $53. - 4/10/76
From MITS Inc: 8800 Kit with 4K dynamic RAM, 2SIO, 4K
BASIC on paper
tape and an extra port for the 2SIO - $719. - 4/9/76
That's most of the interesting stuff. Every invoice or receipt is
accompanied by a check stub which verifies the amounts paid.
There are a ton of "repair" invoices in this book. Over the course of
about 3 years there seem to have been about 8 to 10 instances where
boards or entire systems were sent out for repair. Typical repairs cost
about $120.
This book also has several MITS catalogs and price lists which I'll scan
and post at some later date.
Cheers!
Erik
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Richard Erlacher
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 1:36 PM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Period pricing references (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid
Lusers)
That might prove VERY interesting, particularly if the dates are still
legible.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Erik S. Klein" <eklein(a)impac.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 12:31 PM
Subject: RE: Period pricing references (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid
Lusers)
I still have many of my old computer receipts.
My first IBM PC (December 1981) cost nearly $2,800 for a 64K machine,
1 SSDD
floppy (120K with DOS 1.0) and a color card with an RF
Modulator.
I have a notebook full of receipts and invoices that came with a pair
of
Altairs. In addition to the costs for the specific
machines there are
also
receipts for various other hardware items including
old Cromemco and
SOL
stuff. I'll have to take a more careful look at
some point and either
scan
those or post the prices here.
Erik S. Klein
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ethan Dicks
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 9:35 AM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Period pricing references (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid
Lusers)
--- "r. 'bear' stricklin" <red(a)bears.org> wrote:
> On another note, I concede that Byte is not the best price guide,
but
> it's the resource I had available. I'm
still skeptical the
difference
was THAT
great.
I would tend to agree with you. I remember looking at prices in Byte
and being disgusted at the time, but if you could afford to advertise
there, you weren't small potatoes.
Computer Shopper is a good place for bargain prices of the day, with
less "print lag" than Byte. One of the things I hated was seeing
for 80% of prices for what I was interested in, but I
know that things
changed too fast to commit to a price 90 days in advance.
Local sales flyers are also a good place to cull pricing information,
if
you can find them. There are a few on the web and I
have a couple
from
way-back-when.
One of the cool things about an Atari 800 system a friend gave me when
he moved was that it came with Atari official price sheets, and, since
the donor was an Engineer, he saved every single receipt for every
item he ever bought - $2,500 for the base system (CPU, 32KB RAM,
printer, external serial ports, modem, two floppies, acoustic coupler,
tape drive, manuals, joysticks, etc.) and that was about 80% of MSRP!
It's only one data point, but it is *spot on*. Some real person paid
those real dollars for a machine that is completely documented.
It's also interesting to look back at what the big iron used to cost.
Somewhere, I have a DEC third-party-reseller flyer listing the RA81
at $14,000 (we paid $26,000 for one in 1984) - that's about $33/MB,
or about 1650000% more than a modern 100GB drive ($0.002/MB)
While I don't have a massive pile of pricing data (that isn't in
the backs of magazines), I think it's an interesting category of
data to save. Sometimes the "good old days" don't look so good.
-ethan
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