Retro Finds of the Week! (Vol. 3)
October 3 - 9, 2022
It’s been a little while since we looked at some retro goodness found in the wild, so join me as we look at some of the cool and odd things that people have thrown out, tried to sell, or just happen to still have in their production environment.
Goodwill finds
The other day I happened to be near a Goodwill when I took my lunch break so I popped in to have a look-see at what they’d gotten in since my last visit. The first thing to catch my eye was this Sony NSZ-GT1 Internet TV Box from 2010. It’s a 1080p streaming box similar to a Roku or AppleTV but with a built-in Blu-Ray player. This unit was in decent shape, but it was missing the QWERTY remote. I had no use for it anyway.
Next up was an early HD flat screen TV from Magnavox. These old units were 720p and have not exactly aged well, but it could be decent for a spare TV or for use with 7th generation or earlier console games. I couldn’t find a model number on this thing, even on the back. Nevertheless, I didn’t need another TV so I left it. Even if I’d wanted it, the $40 USD price tag was a bit much for something like this.
A little further down was an odd stack of old goodies. An Onkyo TA-RW244 tape deck, a Black & Decker dust buster vacuum (my grandmother used to have one of these, just not a B&D one), and an old clock. The wood grain caught my eye, so let’s take a closer look at that one!
To my surprise, it was a Radio Shack branded digital clock. A Plug’n Power Remote Control Timer to be exact, and it still worked! I didn’t really have a use for it, but with a price tag of only $4 USD, I was certainly tempted. I couldn’t find a manufacture date for it, but based on the box in this listing, I’d guess it was from sometime in the 70’s or 80’s.
Last up was an old Panasonic PV-L353D VHS camcorder. It came with a bag and several attachments, but I’m not really interested in getting into the VHS home video scene. Still, it was a cool find.
Other Finds
Later in the week, I was sorting through a box of stuff that a friend gave me and found your run-of-the-mill 3.5 inch floppy drive along with it’s IDE cable. It’s black front plate means it likely came out of a mid-2000’s XP machine. I was hoping to add it to my Windows 10 box, but that motherboard unfortunately doesn’t have a connector for it. I’d still love to have an onboard floppy drive for that computer, but for now it’ll have to wait.
Last, but certainly not least, I went into the mail room where I work — I have never actually gone in there before — and I found this beige beauty! It’s not a computer, but it’s still got that corporate charm of the late 1980’s.
This is an IBM Wheelwriter 3 electric typewriter. These things were manufactured between 1988 and 1989 and weigh in at a decent 27 pounds! I wasn’t able to find the original retail price, but you can pick up a refurbished one today for around $500 USD or more. Like other IBM typewriters and computer keyboards of the era, it featured a glorious buckle spring keyboard just like the venerable Model M that came with Big Blue’s PC line.
Did it still work? You bet it did. Just listen to those keys, and the hard click of the power switch!