Profitable geekery
A month or two ago, I was looking for something to use as a case for a mini-ITX board. I went to a thift store, thinking maybe I'd find an interesting lampshade or something. No, but I did see something else I recognized: a Radio Shack Microcomputer Trainer Kit, which I had seen just once before in my life, in 1978. $5. Hmm...I could probably fit the board under it...
So I opened it up to take a look. The kit was there, with the manual and the wires; so were (a) a Radio Shack 30-In-One Electronics Project Kit, and (b) a Timex-Sinclair 1000, with some sort of cartridge labeled TS-1016 (I later learned it was a RAM expansion pack). Hey, says I, I could use the Microcomputer Trainer and sell the rest for more than $5. So I bought it.
As it turned out, I wound up mounting the mini-ITX board in a hamster ball (that's still in progress), and the stuff from the thrift store was just sitting around. Then I happened to notice the same microcomputer kit for sale on eBay; when I saw it, it was going for $20. Hmm, maybe I should get around to listing mine. A couple of days later, the other one's auction finished; it sold for $64. OK, I definitely want to sell it.
So, night before last, I listed mine--and it's already up to $31. A lucky bit of thrift-foo there. :-)