Price Check: Radio Shack TRS-80

[rockz1200]

I bought a TRS-80 at a garage sale for $2. It is just the computer, no cables or anything.

[darthkur]

I bought a TRS-80 at a garage sale for $2. It is just the computer, no cables or anything.

 

 

Worthless. I'll give you $3 for it for your troubles. Seriously though it all depends on the model and how functional it is.

Is it a model 1 like this:

 

or model 2:

 

model 3:

 

model 4:

 

or is it actually one of the Tandy Color Computers (CoCo):

 

They all will fetch different prices. The TRS-80's tend to fetch more than the CoCo's.

[2600Lives]

CoCo's are practically worthless comparitively. 10 bucks at most. If it's a TRS-80 model 1, fully functional, say, then you may have something worth a little bit. I have one myself, and got offered 200 bucks for it at a game convention, which I turned down as I wasn't selling my stuff, just exhibiting.

[kool kitty89]

This has got me interested, we've got a fully functional TRS-80 Model 2 (boots up to TRS-DOS after imputting the date and reads disks fine -even Y2K compatible with its 4-digit year imput ), I know it's pretty useless in a practical sense, the thing was a buisness computer, so not even any games. (granted it was a lot more technically capable and expensive than the M1/3 contemporaries)

It's got the dust cover and screen cover as well, the only thing wrong is a small crack in the insulation over the kewboard's DIN connector.

 

I think we've got the manuals too, and some other binders full of Radio Shach doccuments that go with it. (they're mostly manuals/instructions in one form or another) And a lot of 8" floppies as well.

[rockz1200]

Mine is the grey coco at the very bottom. I have yet to test it...

Edited June 9, 2009 by rockz1200

[2600Lives]

Yeah, CoCo model 1s are common as dirt. There's a guy at a flea market where I live that has a whole tub full of them. He usually sells them for 5 bucks each. I got a CoCo 2 off him last year for like 7 bucks, fully functional, with a cartridge.

[Rik]

They're nice looking little machines.I'd definately buy if i saw any of those.I've never seen any of the above models in any flea market or thrift shop.

[akator]

I would love to get a working Model 3 or Model 4, unlike the ones I've overpaid for from eBay. Burned twice on eBay TRS-80s, I'm not doing that again.

 

Anyone know of a reliable source for working Model 3s or 4s?

[nathanallan]

Yeah, CoCo model 1s are common as dirt. There's a guy at a flea market where I live that has a whole tub full of them. He usually sells them for 5 bucks each. I got a CoCo 2 off him last year for like 7 bucks, fully functional, with a cartridge.

Cool, I can't find any Tandy hardware around here to save my life-- and this was Tandy country! One of these days, I may ask you to get me a tubbed Coco, 2600.

 

Little known fact(maybe): Tandy was a single company once, and now Radio Shack (no longer Tandy) owns the tech part of everything, and Tandy lives on in leather and leather-making goods. Same company, different stuff.

 

What I'd love to see is a company come out with Coco games on a TV-game thing. I'd get it for sure. My cousin had a Tandy Coco back in the day. She made fun of my C64

 

Another neat note; my typing class was full of girls in high school, I was the only boy. They were very biased. Everybody got win95 machines but me, I got stuck using a Model 3 with a 2.5" fdd that had been upgraded. Best thing that ever happened to me.

Edited June 9, 2009 by nathanallan

[akator]

Little known fact(maybe): Tandy was a single company once, and now Radio Shack (no longer Tandy) owns the tech part of everything, and Tandy lives on in leather and leather-making goods. Same company, different stuff.

 

Tandy started as a leather goods company in 1919. Tandy bought Radio Shack in 1963.

 

Oddly enough, it's a little like Coleco, which was originally Connecticut Leather Company. Apparently leather companies were bored of leather in the 60s and 70s...

[nathanallan]

Thanks for the clarification, I did not know that! So they started with leather and expanded. Neat stuff!

[FlightSuit]

That is so weird. Given the strangeness of the 1980s computer and gaming scenes, it's almost surprising that Tandy or Coleco didn't come out with some sort of leather computing accessories.

 

Heck, I'm imagining what a Coco or an Adam would have looked like if its case was made of soft cow flesh instead of hard plastic. Imagine the cooling issues! Imagine trying to set a monitor on top of a PC that's as formless as a bean-bag chair!

 

OK, it's obviously way past my bed-time, and I'm clearly not thinking straight.

 

If any of the above imagery shows up in my dreams, I hope somebody will wake me up before I have to figure out how to sew the case back together after installing an expansion card of some sort.

[Video]

I got a model 3 (or maybe four, it's in storae si I can't' check)

 

Their not really worth anything as they were sold as business computers, not as game machines (not to say there weren't games, but it's like the Apple IIe, pretty crappy from a gaming standpoint)

[kool kitty89]

Well my Model 2's even worse from that standpoint, no games at all, as it was a more expensive buisness only system. (interesting note on the Model 1 is that, due to lack of RF shealding or audio hardware, some games had you put a radio nect to the set for game sound effects)

 

The CoCo was much better in this respect, but most (if not all) of its games were available as better versions on contemporary platforms. (I'm not sure whay they went with the layout they did with the CoCo, sure it's flexible, but having the CPU doing most of the graphics and sound work limits it a lot more too, you'd think they would have kept with the Z80 of their previous designs and added dedicated sound and video chips)

[darthkur]

I got a model 3 (or maybe four, it's in storae si I can't' check)

 

Their not really worth anything as they were sold as business computers, not as game machines (not to say there weren't games, but it's like the Apple IIe, pretty crappy from a gaming standpoint)

 

 

True, the Models 1, 3 and 4 were made as business computers more than anything but there are a good amount of games that were made specifically for them. I have to greatly disagree with your assessment of the Apple ][e. There exists a gigantic library of excellent games for the Apple ][ computers.

[chrisbid]

Oddly enough, it's a little like Coleco, which was originally Connecticut Leather Company. Apparently leather companies were bored of leather in the 60s and 70s...

 

 

so we should thank polyester for helping along the gaming industry?