ZX Spectrum 48k Charity Raffle

This year, I am raising money for the Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation to help them continue their “Meaningful Encounters” programme, which my employer supports.

The programme focuses on a group of young women (Year 10 students), and aims to help them get started with STEM careers.

This is extremely important, as there is still a disproportionately low percentage of women working in STEM across all age groups, and a disproportionately low number of local young women who pass their GCSEs, especially so in the North East UK.

To this end, I am raffling off my restored 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k “rubber key” model (Issue 3B), along with an assortment of goodies which make it usable in the modern era – this bundle would make an excellent gift for a loved one who owned a Spectrum back in the day, as a treat for an 8-bit computer collector, or even as an investment for resale.

The charity raffle bundle includes the following items:
– 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k “rubber-key” (Issue 3B), refurbished.
– Original cardboard box.
– Original polystyrene inserts.
– Original user manuals.
– Original UK power supply, refurbished.
– Composite video cable.
– Cassette deck cable (ear/mic).
– DivMMC Future SD card reader and joystick interface from TFW8b.
– Original ZipStik brand joystick.

The refurbished computer has had the following work performed:
– Composite video modification installed, allowing use with modern TVs.
– Modern switch-mode regulator installed, improving reliability.
– New power and ear/mic connectors installed, improving reliability.
– New electrolytic capacitors installed, improving reliability.
– Modifications installed to reduce “jailbar” effect, improving video quality.
– Modern-made keyboard membrane installed.
– Modern-made keyboard metal faceplate installed.
– Soak testing performed to ensure that everything is working as it should.

To give an indication of the value of the items involved, if I were listing this bundle on my eBay page, I’d be asking around £350.00.

There are now also second-place and third-place prizes, comprising a £40.00 Amazon voucher and a £20.00 Amazon voucher, respectively.

Tickets cost £10.00 each, payable via the raffle’s own Virgin Money Giving page – to purchase a ticket (or tickets), please make a donation via this page totalling the number of tickets you’d like to purchase.

It is important that you provide a full name and make your donation amount public, so ticket numbers can be tracked and the winner can be contacted.

Any anonymous donations, or any donations which are not multiples of £10.00, will be treated as goodwill donations and will not be provided a ticket (i.e. a £35.00 donation will only get three tickets, a £5.00 donation will get no tickets, etc).

GiftAid is excluded from the ticket totals, however I’d encourage you to select GiftAid where appropriate, as the UK Government matches 20% of your donation amount.

Ticket sales will be capped at 100 tickets, however there is no lower limit to the number of tickets available, and the draw will go ahead regardless of the number of tickets sold – there is also no limit to the number of tickets which can be purchased by an individual.

Each ticket will have an associated number (i.e. 1 – 100), which will be assigned in a first-come first-serve fashion using the donation history on the Virgin Money Giving page.

The names of all the entrants and their associated ticket number(s) will be made available on the Virgin Money page before the draw.

All of the latest information will be made available on the Virgin Money Giving page.

If you have any questions, you can get in touch with me via my contact page.