As a collector, once you have a machine – in working and great cosmetic condition – you are not yet out of the woods. You try to find the user manuals as well as any other document that helps better understanding the era your machine belonged. I recently found an advertisement brochure for the HP-65 in a garage sale. The booklet is in good condition, and it really does what marketing is supposed to achieve: create the envy to acquire the object (whatever it can be, a potato or a luxury pressure cooker). Here, it is the smallest computer ever made in 1974! I like the double quotes around the word computer. I imagine the HP lawyers saying “you cannot say that”. And the PM answering “don’t confuse me with facts”. Well, the man in the picture seems happy and has definitively a head start into the 21st century over us. I image pretty well how such an advertisement convinced Wozniak to buy one. And it was a pretty good outcome since he sold his to co-fund Apple! I could not resist throwing in a few pics on my HP-65, and my HP-67 (that I prefer to the 65).
