Want a brand new TRS80 or shortwave or Radio Shack logo?

Online bankruptcy auction is in progress. Some unusual and interesting items.

https://www.auctionbill.com/texas-auctions/radioshack-auction-1-s-403220.html

I didn't want a Trash-80 WHEN they were new. Not scheduled for my Frontal Lobotomy in the near future, so, again, I'll pass.

I'm having real issues understanding how folks can bid on this stuff. Damaged, partial, broken....$57 to $115 on two Trash-80's.
Of course there is the real-to-real tape deck..Realistic (ally)?

Somebody would have to PAY me to take any of that Rat Shack carp (sp).

TOC said:

I'm having real issues understanding how folks can bid on this stuff. Damaged, partial, broken....$57 to $115 on two Trash-80's.
Of course there is the real-to-real tape deck..Realistic (ally)?

Somebody would have to PAY me to take any of that Rat Shack carp (sp).

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Don't bid!

Well, as one who worked for the Shack back in the day ('72-'78), I can tell you that many of the products were quite good. (Go ahead, laugh...) I started out part time while in college and gradually worked my way into store management, and even had a joint venture store with them for a couple years. Tandy was a trend-setter; Lewis Kornfeld was a very good company president; and you couldn't beat the marketing. Remember the "Flyer-side Chat"? And there were plenty of opportunities to make a very good living back then managing a store.

If I didn't already have several Radio Shack products (STA-120 receiver, SA-2001 amp [two of them!], Optimus T-100 speakers, Realistic Miracord turntable, Optimus cassette deck, etc.), and really trying to down-size these days, I'd be interested in bidding on some of that stuff, just for the memories. The STA-120, by the way, was top-rated back then ('73), but little-appreciated due to the prevailing opinions that Realistic was a junk brand.

I wasn't into the CB thing, but their Navajo base unit was also top-rated.

Anyway, it was sad to see them go downhill. The electronic hobbyist has nowhere to go these days.

By the way, most of their home stereo speaker cabinets were constructed of plywood and walnut veneer; competitors' offerings were particle board with vinyl "woodgrain". And the ratings were also quite good.

My wife had a business for quite a while and one of her major customers was Tandy Leather - she made clothing patterns for them. At some point they bought Radio Shack & eventually renamed the company to that name. I never had - or wanted - one of their computers but had some of their speakers (Minimus II?), radios, and a stereo receiver and was very happy with them. I still have a small hexadecimal calculator with the RS brand & it still works 50+ years later. And as Mickey says, they were the only source of electronics bits & pieces for many of us where there were no other local suppliers. I wish they were still around.

I was a short wave geek in the late 50's and early 60's and bought from Lafayette, Allied and Radio Shack. When I was on that "afternoon pass" from basic training I went into a Radio Shack to get a feeling of "home". They were part of my life for a long time.
BillM

"Jerry Pournelle wrote in 1980 that "the basic TRS-80 is a lot of computer for the money. It comes ready to run right out of the box, and it can be set up by three boys – ages 9, 11, and 13 ... The Tandy/Radio Shack documentation is excellent, and there are a lot of good programs available". He noted that while "just about every component of my TRS-80 has taken a trip to the local store to be fixed", "none of that cost me anything; it wasn't even inconvenient, especially with local Radio Shacks all over the place ... Given the price of the TRS-80, Tandy's quality control is better than you'd expect." Pournelle criticized the quality of Tandy's application and system software—including the "needlessly complex" TRSDOS—and high cost of its peripherals. He reported, however, that with the Omikron board, additional memory, and 8- and 5 1/4-inch disk drives, "for a total cost of under $5000, you have a 48 K-byte machine capable of running all the TRS-80 programs, CP/M software, and top-grade text editors like Word Master, Magic Wand, Electric Pencil, and the Proteus editor ... all without building a single kit".[SUP][61][/SUP] Three years later Pournelle was less positive about the computer:[SUP][51][/SUP]

Have to admit, I got the TRS-80 (Kyocera) Model 100 and Model 102 laptops when new. Used them in my master and doctoral studies, and still use the 102 in work at the air museum. I find it much more robust and "visible to my ol' eyes" than a smartphone or ipad type critter.

They run on four AA batteries, and I got the optional ROM plugins, which include word processing, database, spreadsheet.

Pretty cool to have a computer from the early 1980s which I still use.

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I must confess I had completely forgotten their "label" - so, when I read "realistic tape deck" my first thought was - what? a fake display model? :blush: And then I remembered. doh!

Never had a Trash 80. My first "computer" was a TI 99/4A (The one Cosby used to sell). Its used a Cassette deck as storage and TV as monitor. I remember programming a Black Jack game with it using "TI Basic". Was't much but was a good way to learn programming in Basic.

Basil said:

Never had a Trash 80. My first "computer" was a TI 99/4A (The one Cosby used to sell). Its used a Cassette deck as storage and TV as monitor. I remember programming a Black Jack game with it using "TI Basic". Was't much but was a good way to learn programming in Basic.

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I still have my TI99 that I bought for my son when he was three years old. I bought it for him to learn to read and do math. Since he couldn't read the text instructions, I bought a whole bunch of voice modules which was innovative back then.

Basil said:

Never had a Trash 80. My first "computer" was a TI 99/4A (The one Cosby used to sell). Its used a Cassette deck as storage and TV as monitor. I remember programming a Black Jack game with it using "TI Basic". Was't much but was a good way to learn programming in Basic.

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It wasn't my first but I still have my TI-99/4A. Did similar with the TI Basic.

Not to forget the mighty Timex Sinclair 1000 - the "$100" computer.

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I had a Sinclair.... as I remember it was programmed in basic.

NutmegCT said:

Not to forget the mighty Timex Sinclair 1000 - the "$100" computer.

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and 30+ MPG diesels to boot, who would have seen that coming? :grin:

DrEntropy said:

It wasn't my first but I still have my TI-99/4A. Did similar with the TI Basic.

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I don't have my TI-99/4A any longer but I still have my TI-59 calculator. One of the first fully programable calculators. I used it for my BSEE. I also still have the thermal printer that came with it, thought I doubt that the paper could be found anywhere these days.

This is funny, actually. Like in the year 2025 folks waxing long on how great Yugos were.
I remember the RatShack stuff. I remember having to take it back time and time again for repair or replacement.
I remember the long giveaway flashlights you dropped in the trash can on the way out the door (if you were smart).
Did some stuff work? Most likely. My guess is QC and dollars did not meld well.
I remember the bags of electronic bits. I don't know if any or all of them were new. Depending on where you were located, it probably was the only source of bits. I probably still have some.
We still run across those wonderful small speakers. And pitch them.
I remember sending a stereo receiver back three times and it still didn't work right.
Oh, well.

We had a VIC-20 by Commodore as a first computer, which was a more consumer-oriented version of their PET. That was replaced by an Apple II-E, IIRC. The Apple served the family long after it had been considered obsolete. The first computer I bought for myself was a V-Star 486 PC in the early 90s. That was replaced by an HP, which was replaced by a series of Dell desktop computers.