Tag Archives: flea market

Sinclair ZX81

Sinclair ZX81 (1981)

I bought this computer from the son of a retired dealer and repairman at my usual market in November 2011. I remember visiting his father’s shop in the late 1980s and buying a copy of GEOS for the Commodore 64. However, I’m still undecided about whether to continue going to the monthly Sunday market, as even the “basement clearance” sellers are now charging eBay prices. A few years ago, given how often I visited, when I asked the price of a Commodore 64, I was told, “15 euros because it’s you”. The last time I was there, I asked the price of some Game Boys on the counter. The answer I received was “The price is on the back”, without so much as a glance in my direction. Between €80 and €120. In the last six months, I’ve only bought a power supply for a Nintendo DS Lite.

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Olivetti Prodest PC 128

Olivetti Prodest PC 128 (1986)

AKA Thomson MO6

I recently bought this computer at the local flea market. I still wonder why Olivetti put that thing on the market when the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum were selling like hotcakes. And it wasn’t even something Olivetti designed or produced – it was just a rebadged Thomson MO6.

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Sportron

Sportron (~1978)

I found this console a couple of weeks ago at the usual flea market; usually I don’t look for these items (you need a warehouse to collect all the variants), but I liked it and for 5 euros I decided that it was worth the risk – flea market findings are often cheap but nobody guarantees that what you buy will work. At the end it was working fine. Continue reading

Sega Master System (1986)

Sega Master System

Once a month I go to a local flea market where sometimes – not very often – I find something on the junk dealers’ market stalls. I have “rebuilt” the complete system in two months: the first month I found the main unit, a broken control pad and the power supply unit; the second month, from the same seller, I got the light phaser, a working control pad, and a classic cartridge of Sonic The Hedgehog. Continue reading

Atari VCS (1977)

Atari 2600

Last Sunday, like every second Sunday of the month, I went to the flea market of Udine (I live 10 minutes away from the city). I hadn’t found anything interesting in months, but this time I brought home an Atari VCS, renamed “2600” a few years later, with a dozen games and some instruction booklets, but without joysticks or paddles. Continue reading