Help With Identifying Some Adam Items

[Mikuchu]

Hello there! I'm new around these parts and hoping some of you oh-so-in-the-know folks could help me out. Quick history first...

 

The Adam was my first computer. I was probably around 7 when we got it. It was my birthday and as was tradition my parents would give me a lump sum of money and take me shopping for toys on my birthday. This was actually a very clever way to teach me the value of money. I was quite the bargain hunter as a youngster and wanted the most bang for the buck! One birthday we did the rounds looking at toys and I already had the cart loaded and heading for the register when I saw it...the gift of my dreams! A shiny Colecovision Adam! I told my parents I would gladly put everything in the cart back if I could have an Adam. Needless to say the Adam was waaaaaaaaay over my birthday budget. However, I had an advocate on my side. My dad looked at the cart full of Barbies...then back at the Adam. Guess which deal he took! Best birthday EVAR! My dad was super creative with it. He wrote personalized login screens for each of us and he made artwork and animations using pixel mapping *shudder*. He would also make me sit for HOURS doing tutorials in Basic. Page after page of code entered...one typo and it was all for naught. Ugh. Telly Turtle was much more preferable. However, thanks largely to that experience I have a desire now to return to school for Computer Science with a programming concentration. That seed took a while to fully take root!

 

In addition to our family's Adam my father's brother had a whole office filled with Adams and all the gizmos to go with them. He ran his business on them. When he finally switched over to a Windows box for business he gave some of his gear to my dad who sat on it for years. My father passed away earlier this year and as he had jokingly promised(threatened?) the Adam gear was my inheritance. Well, that and the worlds cutest turtle! No one could ask for a better inheritance than that! ^_^

 

The problem I run into is that I now have boxes of stuff that I can barely identify let alone figure out how to price. Is there any sort of definitive price guide so I can make sure that I'm asking a fair price but also not getting completely taken advantage of? -_- <--is clueless newb...be gentle

 

Most of what I have is out of the box so I need to be able to price accordingly. Also, does anyone have any pictures of the Adam dust covers? For the love of me I can't find any. I need to identify what goes on the computer...what goes on a printer, disk drives etc. At least one looks like it could be used on the armrest of a recliner LOL. I have one disk drive cover in the box which is a Godsend. That's one less I have to agonize over. My dad did always have a sadistic sense of humor. Oh, and one of the covers doesn't have anything written on it. It's made by the same company. Is it not an official Adam dust cover then?

 

I have a ways to go before I'm ready to sell any hardware online. I still need to fire everything up to make sure it all works. That should be interesting. Me trying to remember how to operate this beast nearly 30 years later. 9_9

For that matter, my uncle had more gizmos than we had back in the day. We didn't have the modem, power supply and disk drives back then. Just how am I supposed to test the external floppy drives?! Not like I have 5.25 floppies laying around! 0_o;

Yep...dad's getting a chuckle out of this...

 

Sorry for the long rambling post. And thanks in advance for your help!

[LoTonah]

Well, don't forget to check out Youtube, there is likely a fair bit of vids showing how to operate some of the stuff. Or make your own, and link to them on here showing where you get stuck! Maybe we can help.

 

Have fun!!

[adamcon]

The best way is to figure things out is to ask with a picture. Remember, a pictureis worth a thousand words! Most of the ADAM stuff will be obvious how to plug it in, etc. If you go to my webpage and send me and email with your email address, I will send you a Coleco Disk Manager disk to use with the ADAM disk drive [free]. It is the best disk to tell if the disk drive is in calibration and working correctly. Between the disk and cleaning the disk with a special disk [i will give you one also], you will know for sure that the drive is clean and working.

[Mikuchu]

LoTonah, Funny that you mentioned youtube. I was just commenting to my boyfriend yesterday afternoon that if you don't know how to do something go to youtube. I don't care what the subject, some clever person has made a "how-to" for it. And yet it didn't occur to me to look there for Adam info. LOL.

I will indeed check that valuable resource!

 

Adamcon, pictures will be forth coming! As for the disks that would be awesome. However, I would be more than happy to pay for those and the shipping if you can accept paypal. I really appreciate the offer. That would be a life saver. I hate to try to sell something that I can't guarantee is in good working condition and I'm not keen on just saying "as is". It basically says to the buyer "This sooooo isn't going to work for you." ^_^;

 

Thanks both for the replies and I'll get cracking on those pictures!

[Mikuchu]

Okay! Here are the pics. Sorry they're not great. I was trying to get them taken before my camera batteries died! ^_^;

They are unwieldy to take pics of too. When I'm ready to sell I'll put them on the Adam components for the pictures (well except printer, don't have one of those).

Sorry for the major pic spamming. I hope I'm not breaking any forum rules about number or or size of pictures. =/

 

This is one is large and mostly square. It is also the deepest of the covers. I only included a pic of the back since that is the only area that has a notch out. I have two of these.

 

 

This is long, narrow and not very deep . I'm guessing this is for the keyboard. I have two of these.

 

Two pics here. This one I'm stumped on. It's small and square. I included a pic of the bottom so you could see it only appears to have a front flap. The rest is flat. I have two of these as well.

 

I included 4 pics of the final cover as it seems to have the most going on with it. There are notches on the back and both sides. I only have one of these.

Edited November 16, 2012 by Mikuchu

[NIAD]

Welcome to the forum Mikuchu and sorry to her of your lose. That was a great story about how you were able to obtain your first ADAM Computer and while it was your present, it sounds like your Dad got a lot of use and enjoyment out of it.... not to mention your Uncle taking a liking to the system.

 

You will find that there are many knowledgeable ADAMites around here that will be more than happy to help out with any questions that you might have... so ask away and post those pics! Actually, answers that we can provide you may also be beneficial to others that visit the forum so don't feel the least bit guilty.

 

As far as your pics of the Classic Covers dust covers, in order of the pics, this is what you have:

 

- Printer

- Keyboard

- Disk Drive

- Memory Console

 

I own all but the Disk Drive dust cover, but am very familiar with all of them from my days running an ADAM Users Group/Newletter/Mail-Order.

 

Not to be nosey, but where-abouts (general area only) do you live. As I mentioned, there are plenty of ADAM fans on this forum and if you really run into some hard times figuring everything out, maybe someone with the needed knowledge could be persuaded to help you out.

 

Looking forward to seeing further pics and providing any help I can. BTW, lots of people are always looking for these dust covers.

Edited November 16, 2012 by NIAD

[Mikuchu]

NIAD, THANK YOU!!! I appreciate your clearing up the mystery for me. I don't doubt they are hard to come by judging by the fact I couldn't find any pics or info on them. It's been a real pain as one of the more uninformed owners of an Adam to figure out what to do with it all. Oh, and I'm in Brentwood TN just south of Nashville. If I hit any problems getting everything up and running I'll post up a shout out to any locals. Thanks for the great suggestion!

 

As someone who already has most of the covers, could you tell me what a fair asking price is for them? I'm not trying to gouge anyone but at the same time I did read a bit of the auction watch thread looking for pricing ideas for my stuff and I don't want to be one of the ebay posters everyone in that thread is snickering at for overvaluing or undervaluing their stuff. ^_~

 

For that matter if anyone who owns any of the items below had suggestions for reasonable prices, please let me know. Also, is it better to bundle or piece it out? Obviously a bundle is easier for posting purposes but I know sometimes I am just looking for one item and don't want to buy a bunch of stuff to get it so I might be discouraged to bid. Any other thoughts on this?

 

 

The items I have are as follows: (keeping in mind I have yet to test anything so this list may change if I find something isn't working)

1 Adam Computer (possibly with 64k memory expander but I'll have to pop it apart to verify that, if so should I leave it in or sell it separately?)

1 Keyboard

1 Power Supply (Coleco Model# 72559)

2 Disk Drives

4 Hand controllers and 2 bases

1 Adamlink 300 baud modem (in box but box is a mess)

2 Switches (bad shape though...very sort of rusty looking)

6 Ribbons (in sealed generic bags, not on the original card)

4 Generic looking blank pre-formatted for Adam data packs still in plastic

1 Copy of 32 Basic Programs for the Coleco Adam book (think I'll keep this as it's basically my childhood between a front and back cover LOL)

Bunches of manuals including a "Learn How to Win at Zaxxon" detailed strategy guide that literally made me LOL. I clearly did not read that as a child as I sucked at that game! ^_^;

 

Software: (it's going to take forever to test all of this...but it'll be fun!!!)

3 Buck Rogers Super Game Packs (2 still sealed in plastic)

1 Best of Broderbund

1 Address Book Filer

1 PaintMASTER

3 SmartBASIC copies (1 still sealed in plastic)

1 Donkey Kong Super Game Pack

1 Donkey Kong Junior Super Game Pack

1 Zaxxon Super Game Pack

1 Much beloved copy of Stage Fright text adventure from Reedy Software (just has a printed white label on data pack, bootleg or is that normal?)

1 Lab Mouse from Reedy Software (same question as above...pic below)

[adamcon]

"1 Much beloved copy of Stage Fright text adventure from Reedy Software (just has a printed white label on data pack, bootleg or is that normal?)

1 Lab Mouse from Reedy Software (same question as above...pic below)"

 

They are both original and not bootleg, that is the way Jack did all of the games he sold. Most if not all were programmed by others, and Jack just sold them thru his Reedy Software label.

[NIAD]

Glad to help out even though in this case it's not to get someone going with the ADAM, per say, but to get it ready to part with... although that also means that eventually there will be another new ADAM owner amongst us!!! There is one AtariAge member in TN that I can think of off the top of my head and he goes by the name "The Golden Ax" although I'm not sure where he lives. Hopefully he will see this thread and chime in.

 

As far as the dust covers, I jiust randomly checked one of the old NIAD Newletters from '91 that I have available in PDF format and we used to sell each individual dust cover (in an original box from Classic Covers) for $8.95. I seem to recall these selling for a bit more, but we must have had a pretty good stock of them at this time and therefore the lower price. We also sold complete sets (in one box) for around $25. As far as current market value, it's hard to say, but your best option would probably be the eBay route and let those interested set the market value for you and keep your fingers crossed that you get a good price for each. Don't worry about what people say as you have something of value that is not easy to find. BTW, I would love to purchase the boxed Disk Drive dust cover from you when you are ready to sell.

 

As far as your list of items, definetly sell the Disk Drives separate from the rest of the system and accessries. If the Disk Drives are in good working condition and completely tested as such, you should be able to get anywhere from $150-$175 each for them. If they are not working, you could still sell them "For Parts" and start with a low auction amount as there are people that can repair them or want extras for parts. The rest of the items would probably be best to package in one auction seeing as the individual items will not garner you much money, but as a whole, you could possibly get about $200. Just remember to supply lots of clear pics, a detailed description/list of items and most importantly... the working condition of everything. Again, pricing this out can become a little tricky due to the fact that sometimes auctions take on a life of their own with bidders driving up the price and other times there is no one looking to purchase said items and you get no offers. Unfortunately, you are not going to make a killing on all this retro-gear, but now-a-days any little bit helps.

 

As far as the Stage Fright and Lab Mouse data packs... those are original data packs as were supplied by Jack Reedy of Reedy Software. We didn't get too fancy back then with professional quality labels in most cases seeing as we were selling things for very reasonable prices.

[Mikuchu]

I will admit I'm rather saddened to part with this stuff after all of these years. My boyfriend was shocked I was doing it as well. However, as I told him, I've had possession of the Adam on and off for the last two decades. I always swear I'm going to set it up but never get around to it. It's all been boxed up for so many years I feel bad about it just sitting there. Although the more I go through this stuff I have to say the more I'm tempted to hang on to it. I'm considering selling the disk drives and covers and keeping the actual computer and software. We'll see after I get it up and running to test.

 

Ideally what I've always wanted to do is have my own personal museum of gaming throughout my lifetime. I feel so lucky to have grown up watching computer technology advance and games continue to develop over the years. It really has always been a big part of my life and I would love to someday have a media room with all my old game systems including an Adam setup. I have had an Atari(can't remember the number >.<), an Adam/Colecovision, Sega Master System, NES, Genesis w/CD and 32X, a Tandy 1000 PC to play all my text adventure games on (lol...I won't be looking for a Tandy 1000 for my collection), Gamecube, Dreamcast, Wii, PS1, PS2, PS3 and handhelds galore. I rarely part with a system. I did unfortunately have some of my consoles and all of my games stolen about 15 years ago so there are holes I would have to fill. I have just never had the space to set all of that up. And the place I'm in now certainly is not suitable. However, I try to remind myself this place is only temporary and down the road I can still fulfill this goal. LOL...who knew selling some old @$$ computer equipment could be this emotional! =P

 

Good to know about the Reedy Software data packs. I do remember when computer software stores would sell shareware games on floppies in a plain plastic bag with a label on it. Man was I excited when we started getting pretty boxes and loads of swag and in game items with Infocom games and the like!

 

I agree about letting the market determine the value. I usually just slap stuff up in my ebay store at fixed price but it makes sense to do it at auction instead. That's easier than trying to guess what people are willing to pay. I'm usually just dealing with items that I know the exact value of. This is a fair bit less cut and dry.

 

Thanks again for your help and support! ^_^

I'll drop a note in the forums when stuff is going up on ebay.

[NIAD]

Wow, you got some collection of game systems and computers.

 

As far as selling off your entire collection of ADAM gear, it sounds like you may one day regret parting with it, so maybe you should consider selling off only the extras at first as well as items that you know you absolutely do not need or want to keep. I've been down that road of selling off a collection and then later regretting it.

 

Well, you'll know a lot better once you have everything setup and running if selling is the right thing to do.

Edited November 17, 2012 by NIAD