What do with it vintage Thinkpads?

[leoblob]

Hi,

I have 3 vintage thinkpads I don't use anymore and I'm looking for ideas on what to do with them (use them for something, try to sell them, recycle them as parts)...

1. A Thinkpad 360 - 486/33 with 12megs of RAM, b/w screen, DOS, windows 3.1, OS/2. ±800 MB drive (not original) in remarkable condition with original boxes and packing materials. Needs a BIOS battery I do believe. This is a very early TP

2. A Thinkpad 365X - P120 - with 72 megs of ram, active matrix color screen. Win 95 (maybe 98?) again in remarkable condition with original boxes. I think this hard drive is around 6 megs (not original)

3. A Thinkpad i1400 - Celeron 266 - with 128 megs of RAM. Win 98, ±6 meg hard drive. This one shows regular use. Is not all beaten up but it does look used. No box or packing materials.

So - any suggestions about what I should do with these veterans?

Thanks,

Bob

[ajkula66]

The first two could be sold to the right buyer(s) given the boxes and condition. No clue on the value, though.

As for the i series...no idea.

[Medessec]

Yeah, the 360 and 365X are pretty nice, genuine vintages. The 360 has the first generation of UltraBay, which... doesn't have a CD-ROM option if I recall. The 365X is a more beefy, midrange performer. If I was collecting... and I could afford it, I'd probably be willing to pay up to $120 for both. Some around here would probably be willing to pay more, but you should probably post an ad and see what people think... ebay would be a sure thing though. Especially with the accessories you have.

The i1400 is basically, by the looks of it... a cruddier i1480, which is vaguely related to the 570, 600, and early A-series. It's probably not worth much by itself... Not a lot of people seek out the i-Series. I wouldn't want it, unless it was on top of a crap surplus pile for $10.

[ilakast]

3. A Thinkpad i1400 - Celeron 266 - with 128 megs of RAM. Win 98, ±6 meg hard drive. This one shows regular use. Is not all beaten up but it does look used. No box or packing materials.

I had one and wasn't impressed (plastics are of horribly poor quality). The best use for that would be as a CD player. No need to boot it up, just by using the buttons at the front you switch on, pop a music CD in and press the play button. Speakers are decent as well.

[BillMorrow]

the "I" series were made under contract by a Taiwanese company if I remember correctly..
it was built to a price and is thus not a business class thinkpad..
they worked well enough..
I had one for a short time and used it for music..
now of course gigabytes of music can be carried on a smartphone or in a cloud..

sic transit gloria..

[leoblob]

My i1400 still works after all these years, but it clearly doesn't have the build quality of the other two, and it has a very clunky, ugly look to it. By contrast, the 360 is gorgeous. The proportions are just right. The B/W screen makes for a thinner top cover. The 360 is also completely tool-less. You can get at/take out the drives, RAM, etc, with no tools. The 365 doesn't have that elegant design.

By the way -- carefully looking at the headline of this post, I must admit that English is my native tongue and I spent 2 decades employed as a copy writer... so I have no idea what happened there.

[Temetka]

By the way -- carefully looking at the headline of this post, I must admit that English is my native tongue and I spent 2 decades employed as a copy writer... so I have no idea what happened there.

First time I read the thread and my brain auto-corrected the title. But since you pointed it out, I re-read it. All I can say is that happens to the best of us.