Amiga horsetrading, how I ended up with my A2500 system

[save2600]

After thinking about all the time, money and frustration spent accumulating and getting things to work on a Legacy system, I thought I'd share my experiences. Be neat to see what others have done and spent getting their systems where they are now. Don't get me wrong. It's all been "worth" it on many levels. Especially the education or at least, awareness side of all this.

This scenario is nothing new to many of us, but I'd consider the example below a typical horsetrading scenario and a way to get Amiga stuff closer to ‘down to earth’ prices. It shows what I paid and what I sold stuff for:

A2500 came with Multistart and 1.3/2.04 roms, A2091 6.6 roms & zero ram, GVP 030 Accelerator w/ 1mb RAM, Dataflyer 4mb Zorro II, SupraRam 2mb - all for $50 (guy just let me have a couple of his old systems for the price of shipping). Knowing I was going to soup this thing up, I sold the multistart w/ 2.04 for $30, Kickstart 1.3 rom for $10, bought 7.0 roms for the 2091 for $20 and paid $20 for 2mb ram for it. Bought 8mb ram for GVP 030 $80, $10 for 4.15 SCSI chip and then sold the complete card for $190. Also sold the Dataflyer for $40 and SupraRam for $30. This Amiga, up until now, ended up costing  me -$120  :-)

Microway FF/SD - $100, ended up selling for $85 because it could not properly handle PAL images.

Bizzard 2060 - $470
Picasso II w/ 1mb ram - $110, paid another $30 to upgrade to 2mb ram
X-surf - $113, sold for $109 after I got Deneb
Deneb - $170
USB Ethernet - $7
DKB MegaChip - $80
Flashdrives - $30
NEC SCSI CD-ROM (from Doomy!! lol) - $20

Estimated total money invested to use this particular Amiga with 1980’s-2000’s technology: $817 and I still don’t have a modern sound card  :-(  If I would not have gotten such a good deal on the A2500 initially, this thing would have easily ended up costing me over $1k  :-D

PLUS.... ongoing Nioxin and Rogaine expenses from hairloss due to trying to get all this junk to work with each other is not cheap!  lol

[Nostalgiac]

the bit were you say selling x-pert and buying deneb (and presumably a usb/ethernet stick ? ) sounds very attractive. Maybe I should do same ...

Tom UK

[sandpiper]

@save2600

Sounds like a familiar story. I have a 2500 as well and the story behind it's present configuration is a long one...

- bought the 2500 for $100 in ~1997 with 68020 card and 2090a hd controller & 40MB Ricoh hard drive that sounded like a vacuum cleaner
- installed MegaMidget Racer 68030 with daughtercard from my A500 (I spent a ton on this in ~1992-3)
-sold 68020 & a2090a for maybe $75
-bought 2091 card with GuruROM ($100)
-bought  Amiga 2320 display enhancer - $50 used
-bought GVP Spectrum Gfx card (new) $200 ~1998
-bought PP&S 040 cpu card with 32mb - $200 (used) ~1999
-sold MegaMidget Racer $150
-bought PicassoIV & GVP IO for $250 used ~2000, Spectrum now a spare
- bought Blizzard 2060 w/ 96MB Ram $600 new (last production run)
-sold PP&S 040 for about $150
-bought X-Surf $200 new
-bought Subway USB $100 new
-bought Delphina Flipper $200 new

..so after all of that I  have the following:

A2500 w/ Blizzard 2060 96MB Ram, Picasso IV, XSurf, Subway,Delphina Flipper, GVP IO with Picasso96 &OS3.9.

Doing the math I 've got about $1600 invested. I think that is pretty conservative though considering that my total doesn't count the many hard drives & CD Roms that I used over the years.

How much is it worth now?  Priceless.

This is a great machine. I prefer it to my A3000 & µA1. Not bad for a machine with "1989" stamped on the motherboard. A big part of the fun that I have had has been from upgrading & tinkering with it... I think I will upgrade the subway to a Deneb next.

 

[mdv2000]

Sounds like I am starting down this road now!

A2000 HD w/50MB HD and 3 MB of RAM off ebay - $100
9 GB SCSI drive on the way from ebay -$14
2 MB ProRAM CARD off ebay for $13
Amiga ROM Switcher with 3.1 ROM - with shipping from AUD  $30ish.
External A1010 3.5 Drive $15
Ambery RGB-Digital converter $100
RGBtoVGA-pin convertor -$30


So right now I have around $300 in my Amiga 2000HD and looking for accelerator and RTG Graphic card options.

Fortunately I've been selling comics and DVDs on ebay to fund my hobby... but for how long?
:-)

[stefcep2]

The common thread is that an A2000 was being upgraded..

[sandpiper]

@stefcep2

I think you are missing the point. A lot of the fun with an Amiga, and in this case the A2000/2500 is in the buying & swapping, or horsetrading as Save2600 calls it, to build an ultimate system.

[sandpiper]

@mdv2000

Fortunately I've been selling comics and DVDs on ebay to fund my hobby... but for how long?

Hope you don't run out of comics.

[stefcep2]

sandpiper wrote:
@stefcep2

I think you are missing the point. A lot of the fun with an Amiga, and in this case the A2000/2500 is in the buying & swapping, or horsetrading as Save2600 calls it, to build an ultimate system.

Correction: "to build an ultimate A2000, not an ultimate Amiga"

I understand OK: its bout the fun you get out of building it, not out of actually using it..evryone can spend their money as they wish ofcourse.

[save2600]

Nostalgiac wrote:
the bit were you say selling x-pert and buying deneb (and presumably a usb/ethernet stick ? ) sounds very attractive. Maybe I should do same ...

Tom UK

Yes, and thanks for pointing this out. I edited the post to reflect that purchase. There may be some misc. expenses here I might have missed, but it's pretty darn accurate. I already had on hand some pieces, such as HD's and other ancillary gear.  

BTW: Before selling the X-Surf, I did a test comprised of visiting a few common sites, such as this one and downloading stuff off Aminet. If I noticed any difference at all when browsing, I would say the Deneb/USB Ethernet combo was a tad faster and A LOT faster when downloading.

[AmigaHeretic]

Wow!  Sounds like an awesome system!


We have a saying for this kind of thing in my family though...  "The Free Boat".

My dad got a boat for free once and was pretty excited.  Before we could use it though, the paint had to be stripped off and repainted, had to put in new wood for the seats as they were splintering, put new wood edging around the outside as it was coming apart, and of course he had to buy a motor for it!!

So finally, lots of $$$ later, we got to use the "free" boat.

[save2600]

Neat "free boat" story  :-)

I suppose this kind of thing goes on with autos too. Especially freebies within family members. You learn early on to NEVER sell or give away a car to a family member... no matter how "desperate" they may be... LOL!

[jj]

Lets think cant remember years ab e exact prices

Bought Amiga A1200 when it came out - £270 I think though might have been more.

Bought 3.1 roms and disk - £30
blizzard mark IV 030 with scsi kit & 256mb ram - sold all this , no idea what i paid or soldd it form
poweflyer gold mk ii - £70
powertower £70
CV64/3d - £100
blizzard 040/25 603e 175 - £170 (deal there was sold as user couldnt get it to work)
Bvision - £90
z4 busboard - £100
hypercom - £30

various other bits and bobs £100

so over a grand on my towered miggy.  

Think I would loose money if I sold it off now