Millions of Americans have plunked down hundreds, even thousands of dollars apiece for computers that turned out to be high-tech white elephants. Owners of low-cost home computers have been particularly hard hit. Among them, they have 2 million Texas Instruments 99/ 4As, 1 million Commodore VIC 20s, 700,000 Timex Sinclair 1000s, 200,000 Coleco Adams, 135,000 Franklin Aces and now at least 250,000 IBM PCjrs–all of them orphans.
“A lot of orphan computers end up in the closet because people don’t know what to do with them,” says Susan Mahoney, who directs a Timex Sinclair User Group out of her home in Waterbury, Conn. Her 600-member organization, one of 100 such U.S. chapters devoted to Timex alone, helps bring those computers back out of the closet. The Timex groups exchange newsletters, sponsor joint meetings and cooperate in finding spare parts.