Brand new floppy disks on sale in 2020

[Halcyon]

I was at the local supermarket in Lyons, ACT this weekend and noticed they were still selling brand new boxes of 1.44MB BASF/EMTEC floppy disks for AUD$7.75.

The guy at the counter had a chuckle that I got a kick out of it, although I'm assuming the disks are older than he was considering BASF haven't made floppy disks for some 20+ years.

On the shelf above they were also selling blank VHS tapes.

I'm guessing by now they are there more a novelty for the store than an actual serious shelf item. Needless to say, I was tempted to buy a few boxes. ;-)

[james_s]

Wonder if they found a few cases of them in the back somewhere?

I still use floppy disks for my scope and a few vintage computers, not much else though.

[wraper]

I'm assuming the disks are older than he was considering BASF haven't made floppy disks for some 20+ years.

Probably they are not that old, just sold under BASF brand but produced by someone else. When BASF sold off floppy production facilities, they still continued to be sold under BASF brand.

[Halcyon]

I'm assuming the disks are older than he was considering BASF haven't made floppy disks for some 20+ years.

Probably they are not that old, just sold under BASF brand but produced by someone else.

As far as I know, Verbatim and Sony were the only ones actually manufacturing new floppy disks until recently (apart from maybe a few select no-name Chinese companies). BASF sold their magnetic disk business to Turkish company RAKS in the late 1990's.

I might buy a few boxes and see if there are any indications of a date, however I suspect they are new-old stock.

The guy at the store said they had been there that long, they have been deleted from the POS system (presumably whenever they last updated it). I'm guessing they just run it through as a manual item now.

[wraper]

Sony were the only ones actually manufacturing new floppy disks until recently

Sony is out of that business since 1998. BASF sold magnetic division to RAKS Holdings A.S. in 1996.

[Halcyon]

Sony were the only ones actually manufacturing new floppy disks until recently

Sony is out of that business since 1998. BASF sold magnetic division to RAKS Holdings A.S. in 1996.

Sony were still making new disks well into the 2000's. Some reports suggest up to late 2009, even as late as 2011.

[wraper]

If you will be again in that store, I suggest looking for any date code or actual manufacturer name.

[ebastler]

I'm guessing by now they are there more a novelty for the store than an actual serious shelf item.

Looking at the surrounding shelves, it seems floppies are considered a snack these days... 

[NivagSwerdna]

Looks like they are below the prevailing ebay price.... be brave... buy the lot! 

[Halcyon]

Looks like they are below the prevailing ebay price.... be brave... buy the lot! 

I think there is a good reason why so many remain on the shelf ;-)

[NivagSwerdna]

Looks like they are below the prevailing ebay price.... be brave... buy the lot! 

I think there is a good reason why so many remain on the shelf ;-)

Coward 

[ebastler]

I think there is a good reason why so many remain on the shelf ;-)

Early BASF floppies had a mixed reputation in Germany even when new. The popular quip was that the company name was an acronym for the unique feature of these floppies, the "Byte-Abweisende Schutz-Folie" -- "byte-repellent protective film". 

[Bud]

Hold on to your hats, with the popularity of retro computers they will make a fortune out of it !

[austfox]

What brand were the VHS tapes, and at what price?

[Halcyon]

Early BASF floppies had a mixed reputation in Germany even when new. The popular quip was that the company name was an acronym for the unique feature of these floppies, the "Byte-Abweisende Schutz-Folie" -- "byte-repellent protective film". 

Brilliant!

What brand were the VHS tapes, and at what price?

They were AUD$4.49 each for an E180 tape. I can't recall the brand but I think they were possibly Maxell.

[bsudbrink]

A shame they don't have 8 incher's or 5 1/4 hard sectored.

[rsjsouza]

A Local internet store of surplus electronics (BGMicro) had several boxes of floppies unlabeled but the sleeve said they were Compaq. I bought a few units and found out they were 2S-DD after finding out they could only be reliably formatted with oldes OSes, as the " /4" option did not work on XP and newer.

[Alex Eisenhut]

I have several wrapped NOS boxes of BASF 5.25" floppies... Now I might toss them.

[Ed.Kloonk]

might be of interest to some of you..

[Halcyon]

I have several wrapped NOS boxes of BASF 5.25" floppies... Now I might toss them.

Can you toss them in my direction?

[Alex Eisenhut]

I have several wrapped NOS boxes of BASF 5.25" floppies... Now I might toss them.

Can you toss them in my direction?

PM me your address.
I can send you two unwrapped boxes but the disks look new in one of them.
My hoarding OCD forces me to hang on to the shrink-wrapped ones. One box says IBM formatted.
What kind of vintage system are you using?

[bsudbrink]

I hate to do this to Halcyon, but if that "reversible" box contains its original disks, they are a bit rare and collectable.  They will be factory punched with two write protect notches and two index "access windows" so that they can be inserted into a single sided floppy drive in either orientation.  Nicknamed "flippies" they were only manufactured for a year or so.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Damn, sir or madam, you know your floppies! That is indeed what they are. But that's OK, my floppy weirdness knows no bounds.

https://youtu.be/-pXLLb2alI4?list=PLfABUWdDse7ZrFxNtQapQXYRRxto4C9ZH&t=297

I really can't use all these disks. They're more like trophies at this point.

[daveyk]

"BASF haven't made floppy disks for some 20+ years."

My understanding is that 3.5" floppies were last produced in 2012.  I don't know what brand, but a few years ago, I bought a bunch of boxes (from Staples of all places still had them).  There is an industrial instrument that I repair and calibrate.  Its primary method of allowing me to get a test data calibration table file off its hard drive is via a 3.5" floppy.  Also setup files. other than from the hard drive, can only be load from floppy.  The bad thing is because of some special software you can only put one setup file per disk.  It's not space, but when you save a setup, two files are saved.  Only one had a unique name, the other file is a common name (used by all setup files) and that files contains most of the unique setup parameter.  The name file is only for the directory display.  Stupid instrument software.  So, that's not a problem keeping 20 floppies for 20 setups, the big problem is keeping 20 floppies that can be read by the instrument (never an issue) and read by a USB-Floppy drive.  Those "newer" USB-FLOPPY drives are very picky to which floppies they work with.

[SiliconWizard]

A thought I just had - isn't there still maybe a (very) small market for floppy disks outside of vintage computer afficionados?

I think many older CNC machines used floppy disks to transfer machining code, and I guess some of these machines must still be used today.

[guenthert]

['']
There is an industrial instrument that I repair and calibrate.  Its primary method of allowing me to get a test data calibration table file off its hard drive is via a 3.5" floppy.
[..]

  Floppy drives almost universally (*) used the Shugart bus, so it ought to be possible to replace the hardware for which one can't find the media anymore with some emulator.  Ah, google finds such floppy emulators starting at $16.


*) all IBM PC clones, good share of CP/M machines (including the Amstrad CPC home computers), but not Apple or Commodore home computers.

[ebastler]

I think many older CNC machines used floppy disks to transfer machining code, and I guess some of these machines must still be used today.

I thought older CNC machines used punched paper tape?