Wanted: A500 hard drive unit

[BGary335]

I have not seen one A1200 for under $200 except for one that JUST went up. Every other one I've seen is at $200 or more with gazillions of bids.

That shipping cost is the most farfetched thing you've said so far today. Unless you lived next door to the guy who shipped it to you.

No, I didn't get the HD. I don't let myself get robbed of that kind of money for a piece of plastic and a 250mb HD.

My ideas are realistic. The problem isn't that my views aren't realistic. The problem is that what's realistic and what's actually happening are two very different things.

[murple]

Have you LOOKED anywhere besides ebay? Like perhaps some of the vendors listed on amiga.org? An Amiga 1200 is pretty easy to get for under 200 bucks. Shell out anothe $5 on ebay for a 4 gig 2.5" drive and you've got a pretty fantastic system that will have plenty of room for all kinds of games, including the excellent AGA games that will not run on a 500, even with a hard drive.

I agree that ebay prices are retarded and not very connected to the actual worth of these old machines. However, if you want the stuff, there are other people willing to pay more than you, so theyre going to set the prices. You can complain about it, but thats not going to change the facts. If you want an Amiga with a hard drive, you can either pay a stupid price for an A500 hard drive and then have a pretty wimpy Amiga, or you can get an A1200 or A2000 for a somewhat reasonable price. The 1200 will be a much better machine. Or, you can just settle for your Amiga 500 with no hard drive.

You might find what you want for the price you're willing to pay, but I wouldn't count on that. You certainly won't find it on ebay... and I doubt you'll find one online anywhere. Maybe you'd luck out on CraigsList or Freecycle, but again... I wouldn't count on it.

[BGary335]

Well, even if I don't find anything for the price I'm looking to pay I'm willing to at least try. I picked up my 500, an A520 modulator, an A-Max emulator unit, and a bunch of software for $25 from a guy on Craigslist. So I've already been successful with Craigslist, and you can bet that I will continue to try and find better prices, where ever I can.

[BGary335]

So I'm currently bidding on an A1200 that just went up a little while ago on Ebay. My max bid at this point is $100. The current bid is more than halfway there already at $51-and the auction has only been up for 2-3 hours. This doesn't look good.  :cry:

[Tenacious]

Hi Bgary335

I don't think you're being unreasonable.  If I had paid big bucks for my collection I would have much less of it.  Some it jumped into my lap.

I think you are after a controller and memory expansion as well as a hard drive.  The expensive controller is GVP's models.  Supra made the XP, would take upto 8 Megs of ram and a SCSI HD, SCSI CD drives (in seperate case) could be interfaced to the back.  I don't think they support DMA, but still very usable.  I have one of these and see them on eBay regularly, it seems in the price range you want.  I think the Supra XP is compatible with their Turbo 25Mhz accelerator, too.

It can be discouraging when people (wise and well meaning, of course) tell you that your lowly machine is only good for retro games in this modern world.  There are other ppl here who do amazing things with simpler systems.   I have surfed the net with an A500.  It wasn't fast, but very gratifying to use a 20 year old machine this way!  There is room for many perspectives on this site.

I say listen to your passion for the machine and selectively to some of the "common wisdom" routinely dished up here.

[murple]

I don't think that Bgary335 is saying that the A500 is not a "lowly machine"... he seems to think its just good for old games as well. His statments actually seem to be saying that Amigas aren't worth much money because they are just good for old games. I dont think he's completely right, but then I don't think you are either. Amigas were cutting edge, now they're old. You can still do cool stuff with them, but Commodore going out of business really kinda froze Amigas in time.

Thinking you're going to find this hardware cheap on ebay or web sites is kind of unreasonable though. It SHOULDNT be, but due to the ebay mentality and some people having too much money to waste on toys, the fact is that online prices for Amiga hardware are pretty inflated. Since many sellers know that now, many sellers now only sell on systems like ebay where they can get top dollar.

I have gotten a few free or cheap Amiga and C64 items... but those are mostly accidents like yardsale finds or having a friend clean out their closet and find "old junk" they want to get rid of. You may luck out and get things that way, but if you want a specific item it can take years before you'll find one that cheap.

Since gary apparently didn't take the suggestion to read the site links and other threads here, I'll go ahead and suggest getting an Amiga 1200 from amigakit.com... dont buy a power supply (your A500 supply will work on it) or a hard drive (a much bigger one on ebay will cost you only 5 bucks). That'll get you a like new refurbished Amiga 1200 thats plenty good for most retro needs (and if you want, even pushing it to the limits and surfing the net etc) for under $200.

[TjLaZer]

Well, even if I don't find anything for the price I'm looking to pay I'm willing to at least try. I picked up my 500, an A520 modulator, an A-Max emulator unit, and a bunch of software for $25 from a guy on Craigslist. So I've already been successful with Craigslist, and you can bet that I will continue to try and find better prices, where ever I can.

You can actually get some deals on CL!  I got a A1200 setup loaded with BliZZard 1230 IV card, external Floppy, monitor etc for $20!  Also got a Free A2000, and $10 A500.  My recent deal was a FREE A4000 desktop!

But if you are not patient and can't wait 2-5 years for deals like the above, ebay is your friend.

Also you state you don't want or need a 2GB HD.  Fine.  Would you rather pay $50+ for a 500MB HD or $10 for a 2GB HD?  

I installed a 1GB SCSI HD in my A590 and it runs great.  I got the huge 1GB HD for FREE.

I think you were failing to see the obvious points that people were trying to make.

[BGary335]

I'm tired of arguing with people. Apparently intelligence is hard to come by (only two of us here have it). I posted a wanted. If you can't help me, don't post. I don't want to exchange beliefs about pricing or anything else. Either you can help me or you can't. If you can't, move on.

[TjLaZer]

You talking to me?  I am trying to be helpful man!  You need to grow up, that's what I see.

I think people were trying to be helpful.  So what you expect is if nobody has a cheap A500 HD (that is worth more than $100 as you now know) nobody should of replied to this post?  Fair enough.  But I think we were all trying to communicate and be helpful, not argue or bash you.  You are just NOT going to find a descent Amiga 500 hard drive under $100.  Thats the bottom line.  Those are highly collectible.

[murple]

Apparently intelligence is hard to come by (only two of us here have it).

It's good to see that in your looooooong 21 years on this earth you've learned to appreciate helpful advice as well as your vast Amiga knowledge.

[murple]

Thats the bottom line.  Those are highly collectible.

Dude, don't be silly! That's like saying that old Babe Ruth rookie year baseball cards are worth more than a few bucks. He hasn't even played baseball in years, much less been a rookie!

[odin]

Er...I don't get it. If the prices on E-Bay aren't realistic then how come there are people paying them? Simple economics if you ask me, supply and demand.

Also, whatever happened to that 50MByte HD you had connected to your A500? Can't you just swap that for a 200MB one? (Since you're so intent on having a 200MB one specifically).

[TjLaZer]

Dude, don't be silly! That's like saying that old Babe Ruth rookie year baseball cards are worth more than a few bucks. He hasn't even played baseball in years, much less been a rookie!

Look like it or not, an Amiga 500 external Hard Disk is worth more than your Dad's old 486 Hard Disk or even a modern SATA HD!  Amiga computers are highly collectible and fetch a lot these days.  It doesn't matter that it came out the year you were born!!  :roflmao:  It's AMIGA!  :smack:

People need to remember that even though it's old computer "junk", it's worth a lot to most Amiga "Enthusiasts".  If you are on this board you should know this...

[orange]

what about getting A1200 motherboard only, should be fairly cheap with postage, and if you are a real fan, you'll enjoy building 'powertower'. I have just seen one on amibench.
but of course the cheapest would always be friend/flea market as mentioned.
I believe A1200 has been massively produced unlike say A2000 turbo cards. One friend even told me he threw away his 030 A1200!! such a shame..  :-(

[BGary335]

The reason why Amiga stuff sells as high as it does (in response to the person who commented on it) is because people with deep pockets pay it. That doesn't make it realistic. It just means that some well off prick had his sight set on it and was willing to shell out whatever it took. Its a basic economic principle. Things sell for what people will pay in a setting like Ebay. I personally don't have the money to compete with most other Amiga buyers out there.

BTW, I got a PM from a gent who wants to sell me a hard drive he no longer uses for just a little more than the cost of shipping it to me. Don't tell me there aren't people here who will sell equipment reasonably.

[TheMagicM]

"well off prick"..

sounds like you're a little boy without a job.  If you want something in this world you have to work for it.
Supply and demand, son.   Save the drama for yo' mamma.