What does something like this go for?

[creatine28]

I'm interested in buying this Commodore SFD1001 drive I found on Craigslist, but Im not sure what something like this goes for, or is even worth.  So I dont know what a good offer would be.  Can anybody help?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/sys/1797139874.html

[orchidius]

Idk, but full commodore systems including the little printer and diskdrives go for arround 50€ here in Belgium... Won't be worth a whole bunch I guess

[RandyT]

Idk, but full commodore systems including the little printer and diskdrives go for arround 50€ here in Belgium... Won't be worth a whole bunch I guess

Google is your friend.......

It looks like a 1541, but it's not.  There are probably only a couple hundred of these units left in the world.  One guy I found said he paid over $80 just for the proper cable to run one.

I think it's one of those "if you have to ask how much, you don't know what it is and you can't afford it" situations.

RandyT

[creatine28]

I did a search in Google and I was able to come up with this link, saying that its rare and there's probably only a few hundred of these drives left in the world.  Not sure how accurate that is?

http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/hardware/hardware.htm

Per the site above:

The Amazing SFD 1001

What is so unusual about this drive, you ask? Well simply put, this drive allows you to store a full meg of data on regular single density disks!! Pretty amazing when you consider when these drives were made!! (early 1980s.) There were hard drives at this time with 1 meg capacities and this drive manages to do it on cheap single density disks!! We can only put 1.44MB on High Density floppies even today (2002). There are probably only a few hundred of these left in the world.

Courtesy of Paul Gable.

The SFD-1001 which was sold mostly through liquidators was an IEEE-488 based drive. Back in the days when these were being sold I heard it said that SFD stood for 'Super Fast Drive' because it was parallel.

At the time when 1541's reigned, C= drive speed was incredibly slow.

Courtesy of Daniel Bingamon

The SFD1001 works on C64/128 & possibly the PET.Australia's Trevor Roydhouse indicated that he paid $80 just for the cable required to get it connected to a C64 and that with some mods, he got it working on a VIC!

[creatine28]

Idk, but full commodore systems including the little printer and diskdrives go for arround 50€ here in Belgium... Won't be worth a whole bunch I guess

Google is your friend.......

It looks like a 1541, but it's not.  There are probably only a couple hundred of these units left in the world.  One guy I found said he paid over $80 just for the proper cable to run one.

I think it's one of those "if you have to ask how much, you don't know what it is and you can't afford it" situations.

RandyT

Yeah you're probably right, since I cant find very much info on this drive, it must be pretty rare and expensive. I totally remember this drive back in my old c-64 days, I remember it was the drive that all the BBS's used since it held 1 whole meg of data on a floppy.  hahahaha.

[RandyT]

I did a search in Google and I was able to come up with this link, saying that its rare and there's probably only a few hundred of these drives left in the world.  Not sure how accurate that is?

Well, if you do a search for someone selling one, you come up dry.  They were talking about how rare and difficult they were to find back in '05.

The collectors have scooped them up by now.  You may get lucky and find someone who inherited a C64 BBS system and doesn't know what it is, but I think you could get old waiting for that to happen.

The seller obviously knows what he has, as indicated by his "Please, Serious offers only" statement.  All you can do is make an offer for a little less than what you are willing to pay and see if you get a response.

RandyT

[ark_ader]

I wouldn't bother - buy this instead:

[Havok]

I wouldn't bother - buy this instead:

So, you're saying to buy nothing?

If anything, he should be buying this!

[FrizzleFried]

Been a long time since I seen one of those.  I used to run a warez BBS off 2 of those and 2 1541's... 1200 baud FTW!

[FrizzleFried]

I did a search in Google and I was able to come up with this link, saying that its rare and there's probably only a few hundred of these drives left in the world.  Not sure how accurate that is?

http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/hardware/hardware.htm

Per the site above:

The Amazing SFD 1001

What is so unusual about this drive, you ask? Well simply put, this drive allows you to store a full meg of data on regular single density disks!! Pretty amazing when you consider when these drives were made!! (early 1980s.) There were hard drives at this time with 1 meg capacities and this drive manages to do it on cheap single density disks!! We can only put 1.44MB on High Density floppies even today (2002). There are probably only a few hundred of these left in the world.

Courtesy of Paul Gable.

This isn't entirely true.  When the SFD-1001 drive hit the scene there were 5, 10, 20,  even 40 MB hard drives.  Hell,  you could spend $800 and get a Lt. Kernal hard drive for the Commodore 64 even...20MB.

[RandyT]

This isn't entirely true.  When the SFD-1001 drive hit the scene there were 5, 10, 20,  even 40 MB hard drives.  Hell,  you could spend $800 and get a Lt. Kernal hard drive for the Commodore 64 even...20MB.

I think what the author was stating is that they were on par with some hard drives available at that time, not that they were larger or preferable.  I also think your dates are a little off for those capacities and prices.  I paid 6 bills for a 65meg in '89 I think.  That was considered mass storage.  I still have a Compute! magazine or two floating around here from the early 80's with very, very expensive 5 meg drives listed for sale.

RandyT

[FrizzleFried]

All I know is that my buddy Tom bought a Lt. Kernal 20MB hard drive for $800+... must have been 1985-1986 at the latest.

[MonMotha]

My PC XT clone had a 20MB HDD some time in the mid-80s.  It was also decked out with a full 640k of RAM and I don't think cost more than a few thousand, so the hard drive couldn't have been more than a thousand or so of that.  Upper 3 figures to low 4 figures for a 20-40MB HDD in the mid-80s sounds about right.  It would have been much higher even in the early 80s, though.

[fallacy]

Just how old are you people? why would you want that 

[Havok]

Just how old are you people? why would you want that 

We're the age that was around for arcades. Not the crap they try and pass off as an arcade now. I always wonder why the younger kids get into this stuff - they think an arcade is some skeeball and skill cranes.  Using old 8 bit computers is a nostalgia thing for when we were growing up. I have my Duo Core Windows 7 machine, and right next to it is an Atari 800XL...

[fallacy]

We're the age that was around for arcades. Not the crap they try and pass off as an arcade now. I always wonder why the younger kids get into this stuff - they think an arcade is some skeeball and skill cranes.  Using old 8 bit computers is a nostalgia thing for when we were growing up. I have my Duo Core Windows 7 machine, and right next to it is an Atari 800XL...

I’m 31 and was around for the 80’s... kind of. I don’t remember any computer games being remember able. Battle Chess and Leisure Suit Larry are the only one that even come to mind. MMM Leisure Suit Larry, first pixilated porn pick ever!

[Havok]

So you're close, but not quite old enough. And I think Custer's Revenge was first:

[GregorDV]

Since this seems to be the thread for wildly off topic old-school interest, does anybody have any of the old Computer Shopper magazines in a basement?  I need a riser for a monitor at work, and would love to have half a foot of geek cred on my desk holding it up.

If you do, let me know.  I'll pay in cash, tokens, or joysticks.

[RandyT]

Since this seems to be the thread for wildly off topic old-school interest, does anybody have any of the old Computer Shopper magazines in a basement?  I need a riser for a monitor at work, and would love to have half a foot of geek cred on my desk holding it up.

If you do, let me know.  I'll pay in cash, tokens, or joysticks.

You're about a year too late for me to help you.  I think I had a cubic yard of those things stowed away that I finally forced myself to get rid of.  Those books were so big, they would be pretty valuable today...not because their size gave them any intrinsic value, but because of storage fees 

RandyT

[solidteezme]

I wouldn't bother - buy this instead:

So, you're saying to buy nothing?

If anything, he should be buying this!

For sale on the website now!

[chopps]

I had 2 of those sfd1001 drives back in the late 80s/early 90s.  Very important, make sure you have a heavy duty power supply for your c64 (i think i had a power supply from the c128).  the ieee bus card that you connect them with seems to draw alot of power and will fry your c64 without it.  I blew atleast 1 system before i got the bigger power supply...

[solidteezme]

Here are the re-release commodore's

http://www.commodoreusa.net/index.html

ark_arder's link was confusing!

[I/O]

Here are the re-release commodore's

http://www.commodoreusa.net/index.html

ark_arder's link was confusing!

Those are impressive, and fairly priced, yes?

[solidteezme]

Here are the re-release commodore's

http://www.commodoreusa.net/index.html

ark_arder's link was confusing!

Those are impressive, and fairly priced, yes?

I dont think i would mind one sat on my desk, Have to make room first though!

[Havok]

Those are impressive, and fairly priced, yes?

There's a thread kicking around about these - the guy is not affiliated with Commodore and is just slapping a badge and re-branding someone else's computer.

[RayB]

Here are the re-release commodore's

http://www.commodoreusa.net/index.html

ark_arder's link was confusing!

Those are impressive, and fairly priced, yes?

They are laptops without screens!

[creatine28]

Hmm, looks like one of these drives (SFD1001) finally just came up on ebay.  It's all beat to hell, and it doesn't come with cables or an interface. I'm interested to see what it goes for.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150478154691