cybertrophic Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Hi, I'm a newbie (well, new to this forum, I first used an ST when they first came out - which makes me feel rather old!). I've currently got my eye on a rather nice 1040ste that I am hoping is still there come pay-day, as I have decided to give in to my teenage urge to get an STe - my father wouldn't let me get one for "study" when I was a kid, as he thought getting a 386 PC was better sense. I guess the PC was good training for my IT career, but I could have got a low-end Macintosh for what we paid for that DOS/Windows 3.1 Piece of Junk....but, I digress. Ever since I first saw one (many moons ago in, I believe, ACE Magazine), I really wanted to get a Falcon. just a bog standard 14mb job with maybe a small hard-drive to store games and files on. I'd like to do some coding and suchlike and this seems to be just about my ideal machine - advanced enough to be useful, yet still carrying that retro vibe... However, since I actually got a job that paid enough to fund a hobby I am stumped if I can find a Falcon to buy! I've trawled eBay, craiglsit, loot, gumtree, ebid...you name it, I've looked. The only machines I have seen are in the US, overpriced and would require me to replace the Power Supply... help! Surely there must be somewhere/someone that has one lying around? From what I have read - it seems that a realistic cost for a bog-standard Falcon would be £100-150, but I'm looking for advice and a little help - I'll busy myself with the STe and keep an eye out in the meantime. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anzac Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 yeah... can understand what you mean... i would also like to buy some more Atari hardware, but the prices are crazy sometimes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybertrophic Posted November 24, 2008 Author Share Posted November 24, 2008 yeah... can understand what you mean... i would also like to buy some more Atari hardware, but the prices are crazy sometimes... I wouldn't mind, but I picked up a Silicon Graphics Indigo with 21" monitor (a very useful Unix Workstation and cult icon) for less than £100...not to mention a Macintosh PowerBook G3 laptop that I can still use daily for work (including wireless internet), for £75. I don't mind paying for things that are reasonable, but I do think that either there is some German technofetish cult driving prices up, or people are just chancing their arm on eBay... Given that the SGI cost £13,000 new and the PowerBook would have been £1500-ish, depreciation alone would mean that a £500 Falcon should realistically be worth not more than £100 - £150 tops with a small factory hard-drive. To charge £300+ for a machine that is a) nowhere near mainstream and, b) effectively an evolutionary dead-end (unlike Unix or MacOS machines that are still *live* as far as the mass market is concerned) is a bit mental, really. Ok, if I could buy a new-in-box, from-a-shop, with-warranty machine for that money, then I might be tempted, but to pay that for a second hand machine that could be DOA, or at least require stripping down, cleaning, resoldering and god knows what else, seems insane. After all, as much as I love the ST and Falcon, they are basically less powerful than my iPod Touch and have zero appeal to the general public. I remember being able to pick up STs and Amigas from eBay and Loot for £20 a year or so back, so what's happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 In used hardware the law of supply and demand is what matters. The falcons are rare, very few were made and even fewer sold. Your question on what changed is the most interesting one. We grew up. We got jobs that allow us to afford a hobby and many got into computer collecting. So there is a good deal of falcons gathering dust or being put inside nylons so they don't gather dust. Taken out once a year. BTW welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klapauzius Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 (edited) You might want to have a look on German ebay for Falcons. I'd think that Falcons were (and are) more common in Germany than in any other country. Even when they say they won't ship abroad, you can always send them a nice message to persuade them to do so anyway. Here's one, less than a day to go: http://tinyurl.com/578jpr Ok, it's more than £150 already, but it has 14MB RAM, a 2.1GB internal HD and seems to be in very fine condition. Edited November 24, 2008 by Klapauzius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 300 Euros already... it will end up at around 400 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klapauzius Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 300 Euros already... it will end up at around 400 Yeah, probably... Well, you can even get 2 Falcons for the same price: http://tinyurl.com/6adjpz Unfortunately, this one's pickup only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anzac Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 there´s one in france also: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=001 it´s still reasonably priced, but i´m afraid it will end up like the others... one day i´m gonna get one that won´t be noticed by most people... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christos Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Good luck. I am protecting mine like the iris of my eye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+poobah Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 They are quite rare beasties. I have one in a DDD case, and a minty fresh one in a box. I think they will be the last items to go if sale day ever comes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrax Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 (edited) the 1040 ste your going to get in the mean time is a good choice from a compatibility point of view. It will run the software for 1040s and earlier models plus you can use the odd software that utilized its extra colour capacity. The last most atari models had compatibility issues and the early half meg models won't run a big chunk of the software which uses 1 meg memory. Edited November 25, 2008 by thrax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Falcons? I have two Falcon '030's. It takes some getting use to. Most software can be run but requires a bit of using this program or that to make it happen. Never had problem with the Falcons I ran linux with X-windows on one and used the other as my play machine. Still have both and both still work. Expect to pay $650.00 USD for a Falcon. Most people will not part with them. My cold dead fingers will be around at least one of mine . . _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonsunnyboy Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Most people will not part with them. My cold dead fingers will be around at least one of mine . Hehe, I second that! Once I was short of selling mine but as soon as I started to put it to real use, I would never want to give it away. There is a reason why Falcons do cost more than your average retro computer, they are neither common (like 1040STs or a C64) nor were they aquired without thought in the past. Those who did buy a Falcon in the 90s mostly knew what they bought and why Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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