I found two old laptops from the 90s. How much might they be worth?

[Quadrum]

I found a couple of decently old laptops, one is a GoBook from Micron with 8mb of ram but that is all I could figure out. The other is an ibm thinkpad 300. Any clue what these could be worth?

[akio123008]

I guess not much. If you keep it long enough it may become true retro gear but I'd say for now that kind of stuff is just old trash. I'm not an expert though, perhaps I'm wrong.

[Intergalacticbits]

I wouldn't get your hopes up.  Last time I checked old laptops are not worth hardly anything.

From the 90s you said, stuff that old, my guess would be they are worth about a dollar.  

 

Sorry dude.

[Quadrum]

Only reason I was wondering was because the ibm thinkpad 300 was the first non-tablet thinkpad but oh well. Thanks anyways

[TempestCatto]

Yeet them into the nearest dumpster like a prom night baby and never look back.

[Kilrah]

I've been looking at and buying a couple of laptops from that era, if in pristine condition with all accessories you could be looking at $100 or so, but if not you'll probably be lucky to get 20 bucks.

But you might want to throw them on eBay and maybe get lucky... the thinkpad could indeed have some value to some collectors, the other seems like a very average no name thing.

[Najila42]

IBM thinkpads as far as I know are somewhat sought after, but for the most part they're just a part of the sea of old hardware that's too new to be really considered vintage, but too old to be anything useful. Things like even old Dell Dimensions from the early 2000's may never really see the vintage charm as something like an IBM PC XT or other, mainly because of the dime a dozen existence among other things. In a weird way, they're still somewhat connected to modern computers. However, some people absolutely love them and collect them, so that's the niche you'll have to cater to. Vintage hardware has no practical use, you just have to find someone who'll want em Look online and see what they have/are going for, maybe they might be a little bit more than what you think they're worth. I personally really enjoy collecting vintage hardware (I've got an IBM XT 286, one of or THE rarest ibm PC ever made), so just see what you'll find!

 

[Intergalacticbits]

1 minute ago, Quadrum said:

Only reason I was wondering was because the ibm thinkpad 300 was the first non-tablet thinkpad but oh well. Thanks anyways

You can always just search online to see what it might be worth.

That's how I found out my old but not that old laptops weren't worth anything.

At least you'll have a better idea of their worth.

[mr mans]

Depends on their condition. Early-mid 90's IBM Thinkpads in great condition are starting to fetch $200-$300+ prices

[Bombastinator]

Collector value is hard to predict.  Generally to be desirable a thing has to be the best or most powerful or most beautiful of its type.  Rarity also helps.  
as tools They’re not useful functionally anymore, assuming they still function, unless one of them has a dual core cpu and 4gb of memory. Their batteries will be long dead and probably unsafe.  Such things are still powerful enough to do basic things like type email and run a lightweight OS like some Linux distros.  Systems like that have been known to be refurbished by volunteers and given away to people who had no computer at all.  So still nothing dollar wise but might still do someone some good as devices.  
 

so while there may be some functional value, basically theyre e-waste.  E-waste can have a positive or negative value depending on where in the recycling process you jump in.  They do have some valuable metals in them but such things are hard to remove.  To make it more fun two of those valuable metals are lithium which is highly flammable, and cadmium which is highly poisonous.  One or the other or both will be inside the battery.  I’m seeing a sorting fee of $0.30 Per pound for e- waste.  It’s possible they’re worth negative money.  If you take them apart and don’t hurt yourself. Motherboards can be mined for the gold on their contacts, and wires can be mined for their copper.  There’s also those batteries. 

[Marbo]

It all depends on the rarity and how sought after they are. They're certainly not worthless. 

 

In good working condition maybe $50 if pristine then maybe upto $100.

 

 

You will very rarely find old computers that get anywhere near what they cost when new, nevermind taking inflation into consideration. 

 

But if you have something a little different who knows? 

I saw a 16k issue 1 ZX Spectrum sell on ebay a couple of weeks ago for over £500. Average condition, unboxed, no cables or psu. They were £99 when new in 1982. Had it been an isuue 2 or later it would probably have sold for around £40.

[Guest]

I think 70~80s collector computers max out like 2-300 for rare stuff or sought after stuff. 

 

When each brand of computer was a different os & everything. 

[Michael McChesney]

My first PC was an Everex (ever heard of them?) desktop with a 486 66mhz with a 420 MB HD and 8 GB of ram and running Windows 3.1 purchased in 1995.  I upgraded to Windows 95 a few months after getting it.  I ended up donating it to the Salvation Army after getting a new PC in or around 1999.  I really regret doing that.  I think it would be cool to have a 25 year old antique like that.  I suppose I could find a similar system on eBay, but my apartment is currently completely cluttered as my family home was sold last week.  That meant all those boxes of things I was storing there had to be either thrown away or brought here.  It also included my mother's 2 most recent PCs.  One of them was only a couple of years old.  I bought it for her because I thought her then PC was just too slow.  I just refurbished it as an HTPC for my nephew's father. 

 

I just reconnected and started the older one this morning.  I was reminded why I had decided to buy my mom a new one.   OMG it is slow.  It took 30 seconds to open a picture.  It's an HP tower running an AMD E1-2500, with 4GB of ram and a 500GB HD.  I looked up the CPU and apparently it was intended for low end notebooks.  Which is really interesting because this desktop uses an external power supply like a notebook.   But it is soooo slow.  It can't just be the lack of an SSD.  My mother was constantly getting her PC loaded up with malware.  I finally figured out where it was coming from.  She would go to infected websites to read spoilers for General Hospital.  I had set up her new PC to boot without requiring a password.  I ended up creating an account without administrative privileges so the infected sites couldn't install malware.  But as I said I just set that up as an HTPC.  But I don't know anyone else that needs/would want an HTPC and this PC doesn't have HDMI out anyway, only analog graphics.  Any suggestions on what to do with it?  I am leaning towards just salvaging the hard drive and maybe the ram.  I wonder if I could get Windows 3.1 to run on it?

 

[Quadrum]

On 7/26/2020 at 12:38 PM, Michael McChesney said:

I wonder if I could get Windows 3.1 to run on it?

 

Funny thing I have an 80s laptop that runs 3.1 and it still works but I want to hold on to it for now.

[panzersharkcat]

Yeah, depending on the price, I actually might be interested in buying that ThinkPad.