Western Electric 1953 box of 1698 point contact transistors

[ShadowX]

I have an orginal box of Western Electric A-1698 transistors in a set of 20 serialized pieces (sn 21 to 40). The date code is Nov 1953. These are point contact transistors similar to the 2N22 transistors shown below.

http://semiconductormuseum.com/PhotoGallery/PhotoGallery_2N22.htm

I am wondering how much would this set be worth today. I'm not looking to sell it since it holds sentimental value, but just wanted to know its value.

 

[(*steve*)]

Their worth is what they mean to you.

Their selling price depends on what they may mean to others. If selling at auction, you require more than one person to want them or you won't get the best price.

Their intrinsic worth is very low. I wouldn't be designing a circuit using them, so I wouldn't want to buy them to use.

I guess you know all of this. And unless someone here has some experience with selling this sort of tech history, I'm not sure we can help you a great deal.

But it's very interesting that it's the second box of them. Do you have any other documentation about them -- that would add more value to a collector I imagine (original sales receipt, printed specifications from the period, etc.).

 

[ShadowX]

I thought some of the folks here may be collectors of antique electronics. I got this package from Goodwill for practically free in the 1980s. I remember there were hundreds of boxes of similar parts that someone donated. Most of them probably ended up in landfills now. I kept the box of the most interesting looking pieces. There are no documentation and the box is really old and faded. The parts inside is pristine and has never been used.

I happen to find it again recently, so I looked up the part information online. I was surprised it cost almost $1000 in today's dollars just for this small box with 20 parts in the 1950s. I thought these parts looked very interesting, so I bought them. I always wondered if the parts were worth anything. Its more of a nostalgic value to have a piece of history dating back before ICs and computers.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Resqueline]

Give it some time and I'm sure someone more experienced with collectors value of such items will stumble across this post.
I for one would love to have such early transistors in my "collection" (even if they're not certain to work) though not for "any price".

The most vulnerable age for all kinds of stuff is around 30 years, but now that they have survived to 60 years old it's certain to attract more attention (& hence value).

I remember once calculating the actual puchase value of valve radios in the 50's and was astonished that people were willing to spend a full years salary on these things.
But electronics was all quite groundbreaking, exclusive & novel back then.

 

[ShadowX]

Here are the images of the transistors for anyone who is interested. The A1698 transistors are serialized as shown. I have never seen a complete serialized set of 20 transistors with the box anywhere on the internet.

 

[(*steve*)]

That is actually very cool.

 

[ShadowX]

That is actually very cool.

It's amazing what people throw away without knowing the value. You still find lots of treasures in donation places and swap meets. I wish I kept more of the other electronic parts, but at least these parts were saved from the landfill.

 

[(*steve*)]

These are things that have no value to anyone other than someone who has some sort of emotional attachment to them.

If I had them, I would keep them very safe and only take them out to show the geekiest of my friends (like the people here )

 

[davenn]

...............

If I had them, I would keep them very safe and only take them out to show the geekiest of my friends (like the people here )

HEY! I resemble that remark! haha

Dave

 

[ShadowX]

These are things that have no value to anyone other than someone who has some sort of emotional attachment to them.

If I had them, I would keep them very safe and only take them out to show the geekiest of my friends (like the people here )

I thought it had no value too, but someone just bid on Ebay up to $237 for just one of these transistors! People are nuts for paying that kind of money.

 

[VCHIP]

I thought it had no value too, but someone just bid on Ebay up to $237 for just one of these transistors! People are nuts for paying that kind of money.

I was just reading this thread and was getting ready to say $200-$300 ea. I actually have one of these in my collection. I think I paid about $200 for mine about 5 years ago.

I'm the author a collector's guide for early microchips. Early microchips, transistors, core memory planes, computer tubes, etc are all collectible these days.

To those who say old chips are transistors are worthless, an extremely rare variety of an Intel 8008 sold earlier this year for $4600 to a Russian collector. There's about a dozen early chips that now bring over $1000 when they show up for sale and hundreds that sell for $200-$1000.

Nuts? Think of it this way. 1000 years from now, will anyone remember anything we see on the nightly news tonight? No. But there will be a big dot on the timeline of history on our generation marking the invention of the microchip. The invention of the microchip will go down in history on par with the discovery of fire as one of the great turning points of mankind. In 100 years every museum in the world will want the worlds first microprocessor under glass in their lobby and they won't all be have to have one because most of them were melted down for the gold in them back in the 80's.

Put a little note in that box of transistors for your kids or whoever finds them one day after you're gone explaining that these are rare historic relics from the dawn of the information age so they will be preserved for future generations.

 

[CDRIVE]

There's an irony here. The 1N34 is a very old diode. Born during the vacuum tube era, It's still viable today. While it doesn't command a collectors price, it's as popular for it's purpose as it ever was in its prime. When surfing pages devoted to crystal radio you'll soon see that despite the plethora of diodes available today the 1N34 still reigns King for crystal radio designs.

Chris

 

[BobK]

I'd guess that the crystal radio "industry" has kept the 1N34 in business. Germanium has a distinct advantage over silicon in that application. There are probably other low voltage signal appliations in which it outperfroms silicon as well.

Bob

 

[dag]

I'd guess that the crystal radio "industry" has kept the 1N34 in business. Germanium has a distinct advantage over silicon in that application. There are probably other low voltage signal appliations in which it outperfroms silicon as well.

Bob

Germanium also happens to have the opposite tempco of silicon, so are sometimes used in temperature compensation apps even in very modern circuits.

 

[dag]

I'm the author a collector's guide for early microchips. Early microchips, transistors, core memory planes, computer tubes, etc are all collectible these days.

Wow, you might be just the person that would know something about a piece I picked up at a garage sale. It's a paperweight distributed by NEC, I think in the '70s. It's one of those clear encapsulations that includes a bit of core memory matrix, a supposed hard disk pickup head, a 7400 series IC without its body, and a completed 7400 series IC. It's been kicking around my junk collection for years, but it just occured to me that it might be worth something. Any idea?

 

[VCHIP]

Wow, you might be just the person that would know something about a piece I picked up at a garage sale. It's a paperweight distributed by NEC, I think in the '70s. It's one of those clear encapsulations that includes a bit of core memory matrix, a supposed hard disk pickup head, a 7400 series IC without its body, and a completed 7400 series IC. It's been kicking around my junk collection for years, but it just occured to me that it might be worth something. Any idea?

Some of the early promotional stuff can be worth a lot.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Clock...939?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2bbc5c2b

There was an Intel ashtray with a chip die silk screened on it that can sell for $$$ when they show up on EBAY.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...045573.m570.l1313&_nkw=intel+ashtray&_sacat=0

 

[ShadowX]

I was just reading this thread and was getting ready to say $200-$300 ea. I actually have one of these in my collection. I think I paid about $200 for mine about 5 years ago.

I'm the author a collector's guide for early microchips. Early microchips, transistors, core memory planes, computer tubes, etc are all collectible these days.

To those who say old chips are transistors are worthless, an extremely rare variety of an Intel 8008 sold earlier this year for $4600 to a Russian collector. There's about a dozen early chips that now bring over $1000 when they show up for sale and hundreds that sell for $200-$1000.

Nuts? Think of it this way. 1000 years from now, will anyone remember anything we see on the nightly news tonight? No. But there will be a big dot on the timeline of history on our generation marking the invention of the microchip. The invention of the microchip will go down in history on par with the discovery of fire as one of the great turning points of mankind. In 100 years every museum in the world will want the worlds first microprocessor under glass in their lobby and they won't all be have to have one because most of them were melted down for the gold in them back in the 80's.

Put a little note in that box of transistors for your kids or whoever finds them one day after you're gone explaining that these are rare historic relics from the dawn of the information age so they will be preserved for future generations.

You're right. Its almost impossible to find another complete set like the one I have. I see a number of them pop up once in a while on Ebay, but not as a set. These transistors are one of the first generation which launched the technological growth in the last 50-60 years. Its a nice bit of history of a by-gone era.

 

[ShadowX]

Wow. Someone actually just paid $300 for one of these things. Maybe the socket is whats rarer than the transistor.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Ele...=&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557