Author: Mike Byrne
Date: 18:53:04 10/27/04
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On October 27, 2004 at 20:53:22, Ismenio Sousa wrote: >Today there are so many electronic chess sets with so many features and being >mass produced at a scale that is even bringing the price down to levels that >can't be compared to prices from the 70's and 80's. The prices are better - in general strength and features are down from the heyday of chess computers. As fare as collectibility, you essentially have two classes from yesteryear - very rare, very old chess computers that had limited runs -- like Chess Challanger 1 - but are void of strength and features or high quality wood units that have plenty of features and great strength, In general, for wood sets, the greater the strength the greater the collectibility. Because of their high relative cost when they were first produced - they are limited runs. The TASC 30 is the top common collectible that is still occasionally available and will go for over $2000. The TASC R40 is too rare to even see one for public sale ever. If one did become available , we are talking in excess of $10K and probably closer to $20K. It is hard to fathom current units that will become collectiblity as the oldies. There are two many being produced, most of them are not wood and they do have the playing strength. (I have concluded that SD is about the same as Diamond II) The current wood models, like the Senator/Magellan could potentially have some collectibiliy value but unlikely to approach anything like the R30/Genius 030 etc. But because they are wood and other moduls will work with them, they will always hold a value of $250 if working. The one plastic model that is now discontinued and show signs of collectibilty is the Mephisto Atlanta. Brand new untis still were available for just over $200 four years ago. The exchange rate has raised the price and there are no longer new ones available. I see then going for close to $400 on the German ebay site. That unit is like the Magellan (with hash tablles) thus stronger than the the current Senator model. The downside about Magellan/Senator/Atlanta is that are all using the Fritz program from 1995 and is running on a weaker processor than the Genius 68030, TASC R30 etc thus it is weaker unit than those machines. The nice thing about the Atlanta is that it has LEDS on every square and not too many plastic units have that feature. The most collectible units of the current era would be prototypes never released or perhaps some extremely limited edition models. You would have to know somebody to get one of those at a good price. These are just my quick rambling thoughts , the most knowledgeble person on this forum with respect to collectibilty , prices value etc is our own Steve B. Before you do anything, talk to him and get his input. Whether you listen to him or not is up to you, but I place a very high value on what his opinion is. Good Luck! So, my very speculative >question is: if you had to pick, what models would you buy today that you think >will become desirable items for collectors many years from now? (decades >maybe?). > >I know it's very hard to answer this but if you had to focus on unique features >and "first to offer..." what would it be? > >Ismenio
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