Denial

Hi, I have come across a sealed, unused Vic-20 and 1530 Datasette Unit whilst clearing the house of a deceased relative. Both are boxed and still sealed in polythene so in effect, new - I haven't broken the seals and they were stored in a bedroom (underneath lots of other "stuff") so I have no reason to believe they won't work. However, wasn't sure if more collectable if still sealed?

I can provide photos on request & would prefer collection (Tyne & Wear). Post if you are interested. The serial no. on the Vic is WGB 33842.

Chris Duke

It would be great if you could post pictures here on Denial, so that everyone can drool over them

How much do you want for it?

This means one thing for SURE!

Whatever the type of VIC-20 you have in there, the capacitor in the power supply is DRY. (because it was never used in more than 30 years)

If you just plug this thing in the electrical outlet as it is and turn it on then it will work for one minute then it will DIE!

If its a 2 prong VIC in that box REPLACE THE POWER CAPACITOR. If its a VIC-20cr with round power connector DO NOT USE the provided power supply or you will destroy your brand new VIC.

Hi, if anyone is interested in this it is on Ebay now:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321746820949? ... 3d581&cp=1

Every now and then we come across such unopened Commodore computers. I only wonder how such things can happen at all. If computer equipment somehow gets forgotten in the back of some company's storage room following a bulk purchase, that is one thing, but you say this was in a private house for 30 years!

When the private individual first bought the thing, how could he forget about it or not have any interest in it at all, especially considering what a novelty home computers were at that time? Even if I had no intention of becoming a serious programmer or user, curiosity alone would have driven me to plug the thing in at least once.

For this reason I am suspicious of any sealed item on eBay.


Sent from my phizzone

Agreed. I think the main reason would be a bad gift. Like if you bought your parent a computer and then they never used it. Perhaps you had one and then they went on sale and were cheap enough to give as a gift. But your technophobe parent had no interest, and just kept watching TV.

I think a more common scenario for new old stuff is when someone buys an item and finds out it doesn't work and doesn't get to return it, either because it was a gift, or because the return period expired.

That is, assuming it wasn't from a distributer. Even stores with dead old stock sometimes never got around to sending gear back to manufacturer.

Its been used there is a rubber band around the psu wires..

If so, then "boxed, sealed, unopened" is rather misleading.