I love the ones with LED and VFD displays. I'm the proud owner of five, a Texas Intruments TI-30 (1979, eBay, $5), a Casio CQ-1 (1976, eBay, Christmas gift, sketchy switch), a General Instrument EZ3500 (1976, thrift store, $4), a Texas Instruments TI-1025 (1978, eBay, $7), and a Simpsons-Sears Digi-Matic M8-3 (1975, thrift store, $0.50, missing battery cover).

got a royal 81m from a bunch of junk a neighbor was going to pitch.funny it says royal 81m on the front but model ua 127 on the rear?
vfd and cigarette pack sized.
i have many others as i keep old electronics in general.
dont remember the ti with a vfd.
all i have seen from that era were red led

I own a TI-36 solar, a Craig 4521, a TI-1025, a TI-1200, a 1978 TI-30, and a TI Business Analyst I in the case with the book. The Business Analyst has key bounce so bad, it's almost unusable. I have a picture, but it's too big to fit or something. I have no idea how to get pictures on the non-gallery side of LG.

Cool! Yeah, my TI-30 has really bad key bounce. It gets a little better if you use it a lot, but overall it makes it unusable. I'm glad other models like the TI-1025 used a different type of key. I'd like to sell the TI-30 and get one of the more capable models like the SR-52 or TI-59, but I don't know what kind of keypad they use. Perhaps if I email the guy who runs the DataMath site he can tell me...

Below the place where you type your reply you'll find a Choose File button. You can upload a second file by clicking the "(more attachments)" link. pictures can only be up to 512 KB in size. If it's too big you can use Paint to resize it.

My TI-30 has a little bit of key bounce, but it is still very usable. I used my TI-30 through two years of algebra I. I will probably use it next year for geometry. I've gotten plenty of comments from other people about it!

Paint? Keep in mind, I have to upload all my photos from my iPhone because my computer and my camera DO NOT get along.

I actually have to use my TI-1025 for school, as I have some classes that require a calculator, but you can't use a scientific one. It gets compliments as well. 

Oh, right.  I guess I can't help you there since I never use an iOS device on here.

I have a vintage Nixie Tube calculator.  Photos are in the gallery.  it is cool because it takes about a second or so for the thing to "compute" the answer and the Nixies "scroll" as it does so.  Unfortunately, some of the keys do not always work properly, but all the Nixies do. 

That is amazing DieselNut!

I like collecting anything that is electronic old or new.  So I guess I could be considered one.

I have 2 vintage ones.

I have a Sharp ELSI MATE EL-8180 with a built in thermal printer that works flawlessly.  I got it at a yard sale.  It runs off of 3 AA batteries and you can plug in an external power adapter.

I also have a Texas Instruments..something.  I misplaced it about 2 or more years ago...  It does have a VFD display and runs off of a 9 volt battery.  It has a nice golden bronze finish with imprinted buttins that the numbers are printed white on and they are plastic and all work, but I think one of them is slightly stuck.

EDIT:I I will post a pic of the Sharp as soon as I can get it sized down.

Let's see if this works...

Cool! I'm curious, does your TI-30 exhibit any key bounce?

I did some reading around, and I definitely need to get a TI-59. It probably won't be until Christmas, but I'm definitely getting one. The programming features, magnetic card reader, and ROM modules are too cool.

The TI-30 exhibits some minor key bounce, but it is still very well usable. What started my calculator collecting was when I watched UXWBill's video of his TI-1025. I then bought a TI-1025 off of ebay. Then, when I started 8th grade 2 years ago, I bought the TI-30.

Here are some pictures of my Sharp.

So, I've discovered that I really want an HP calculator, not just for a collection piece, but to actually use. For as long as I've been interested in vintage calculators, I always dismissed HP. I didn't like the idea of their strange form of input (Reverse Polish Notation, or RPN), so I've never cared if I ever had one at all.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, and my Electric Circuits professor brings in his HP-25C to use while we work out problems in the class. After class, me and a couple of other guys were interested to see it, so he let us play with it for a while. The other guys had it first, and naturally they couldn't add 2 and 2 on it to save their life. I actually knew enough RPN to do single-operation calculations, so I showed them and multiplied 6 and 3 (6, Enter, 3, multiply). The prof went on to explain to us how RPN worked with the stack and all, and how he bought the calculator some 35 years ago, and how he's dropped it and spilled stuff on it and it still works, and he hacked the battery pack so the cells were replaceable, etc...

Over the next couple of days I looked at a couple of RPN tutorials on YouTube, following along on the online HP-15C simulator (hp15c.com), and I've come to realization of how absolutely brilliant, efficient, and natural RPN is to use compared to algebraic input once you get the hang of it, and I really want an HP calculator. I have a feeling that if I got a hold of one, I could very well become a permanent RPN user.

Naturally, I want one of the many older models with the LED display. The problem is that they (and literally every single HP calculator ever made, even recent models) are extremely valuable on the used market. You'll pay, at the very least, $50 for a tested, working, decent condition early LED HP calculator. $100 to $200 is more typical. Just a quick look on eBay brought me to an UNTESTED HP-67 which sold for $230. Another problem is that HP used rechargeable battery packs in all their LED calculators, and so 35-40 years later, MOST of the ones on eBay have corroded battery compartments. If one doesn't, it will usually sell for a mint.

It might not be any time soon, but someday I really want one. I've considered getting one of the newer LCD units in the meantime, but even those sell for $30 or $40 for a working unit.

hpmuseum.org has info on almost every HP calculator ever made. HP makes one RPN model today, the HP-35S, which retails for $70. I encourage anyone interested to look at some RPN tutorials and follow along on a simulator, and see for yourself.

Cool! If by some miracle, I was to obtain an RPN calculator, my teachers would come completely unglued. If they found out that I was using something that they didn't know how to use, they would throw a fit. In 8th grade, my teacher kept getting mad because of the minor key bounce my TI-30 had!

Phhht... Don't they have their own calculator they can use? 

Here in engineering, the profs don't care what you use. I know at least two profs that use HP calculators (and one apparently doesn't know how to use algebraic!), so they let us use whatever we know how to use. We're the only ones that are gonna use it, after all. Some profs actually encourage using a programmable calculator to speed up repetitive, lengthy calculations on tests. We couldn't dream of being able to use one in high school - too many people would misuse them by typing all their notes into them.