You may remember the story I told in class about buying an Amiga computer and the salesperson asking if I wanted to add a $500, 25 Megabyte hard drive. I of course said I could never fill up a 25 Megabyte hard drive.

Originally released in the mid-’80s, The Commodore Amiga was a great computer, at the time a graphical and system powerhouse, far outshining other machines of the time. It was used to make graphics for the NFL, for television shows and advertisements, and the editor used to do all that was known as the Video Toaster. The Toaster won an Emmy for it’s design, and it was developed by Brad Carvey, brother of Dana Carvey, who used his brother as the inspiration for his character Garth Algar in the Wayne’s World skits and movies.

Of course, there was also Dungeon Master.

Here is a video of a computer animated figure juggling three balls, using the now outdated process of ray-tracing. This type of animation was unheard of at the time, especially the ability of the balls to reflect the surrounding surfaces. We take it for granted now, but for 1986 it was unbelievable (warning: Loud, repetitive, irritating noises in this video).

So now maybe you’re thinking to yourself “where can I get one of these amazing machines?” If you have a ton of money burning a hole in your pocket, you can go right to this Ebay auction and pay $5,900 plus $1,000 shipping for one of your own. That includes no accessories, no software, no nothing. Also note he states it’s sold “as-is,” meaning no guarantee it works, he does not accept returns, and from his narration regarding the feedback he’s received it has remained unsold for over two years. I can’t imagine why.

We can argue the actual value of the thing all day, but there is no way it would cost him $1000 to ship it, regardless of what the value of the machine itself actually is. If you STILL have a ton of money you just can’t seem to get rid of, there’s this Powerbook auction,  this auction for LAN Manager software from Microsoft that can no longer be used, is for an obsolete OS, and comes on floppies, or there’s this auction from the same fool auctioning off that Amiga for its printer: $3900 for the printer and $750 shipping. That’s right – $750 just for the shipping, for a dot-matrix printer, that he states in the description is pick-up only anyway.

I have one I’ll sell you for a measly $2000. It’s a deal!