I'm thinking of selling my Panasonic Turbo R GT MSX computer.
The reason I'm thinking of selling? I rarely use it. It seems a shame to see a beautiful machine sitting and gathering dust.
I've been a serious collector of vintage games consoles and computer hardware for about 18 - 20 years so my collection (in my wife's words) has "become excessive".
The Turbo R. isk drive works: It's been serviced once to replace the belts but it has never stopped working in all the time I've owned it. If you search the forums here you can probably find the post I made when I first bought it back in 2003 (?).
It's got a Japanese power plug, obviously (I didn't realize this when I bought it, being naive and only ever having owned UK MSX systems).
It has a keyboard overlay strip - literally a strip of grey plastic that fits over the top row of keys showing alternate key press info for something: I've never figured out what exactly it is for as I can't read Japanese, but it was there when I bought it.
It also still has the Panasonic clear plastic sticker just under the space bar that I have seen on a lot of Turbo R machines. It would have been removed, back in the day, if I'd bought the machine new, but whomever the owner was decided to keep it on - I've never understood why people leave the shop display stickers on things, but I know some people also keep their sofas in the plastic coverings, so each to their own.
There's nothing much else to say about it - if you know what one is, you know it's a beautiful machine.
This one is clean, unscratched, well looked after and never abused. While it's not in 'factory' condition, it is still very nice - it has no problems and no damage to it anywhere.
I can ship it anywhere in the world, for a price, BUT it WILL be packed up VERY VERY well, that's not negotiable. This will add at fair bit to any world wide shipping costs and I'm in the UK, so bear in mind that cost. I won't sent it uninsured - I do want payment upfront BEFORE I send it anywhere and I'd appreciate proof of address etc as I've been scammed one tie too many.
I'd estimate shipping UK to UK to be around £44 (as I said, it will be very well packed and protected - so virtually impossible to damage) - I've been buying long enough to know that crap packing ruins everything. The things I've bought that have arrived smashed to bits is heart breaking, all for the sake of some skinflint skimping in packing material - it's not worth it).
Now, why am I only POTENTIALLY selling it?
Well, as I said, I don't use it so it's never even been switched on for two years (until today - it's been on for 4 hours now and it's working great). It's such a beautiful machine that I have a problem parting with it, UNLESS it goes to someone who really deserves it. By that I mean: I don't want to sell it to someone who will stick it in a cupboard (like I did) for 5 years then flog it on for a profit (assuming MSX is collectible in 5 years).
I'd LOVE it to go to someone who knows what it is, knows how it works, knows the MSX scene and how important this machine was for its time (I know it wasn't 'important' in a World sense - that's not what I mean). If you get what I'm talking about, you're probably the person I'd like to buy this machine.
I may consider swapping it for something - no idea what, but I'm open to (sensible) suggestions.
If you're interested, I can of course post photos (or send them to you if you email me). I haven't taken any pics yet, but I I will shortly (I've just had my Covid jab a I feel awful, so I may take a day or two to respond).
A bit of history on my collection:
I do have a LOT of stuff: I collect Digital Audio Tape machines, Games Consoles (I have one of each of most popular stuff, I'm missing some though. I'm trying to only collect things that have their boxes now, so they are complete.
As far as MSX hardware goes, I don't just collect the computers: I have Toshiba Music system keyboard, boxed and working - it's a beautiful machine that keyboard - very heavy and great quality. I will sell that too actually - for the right price.
