On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, Marvin wrote:
> Carl R. Friend wrote:
>
> > This is another hot-button issue with me, having seen what the
> > price of Altairs and the like is now. (No, the price is not
> > justifiable - other than the machines are very "trendy" right now
> > and speculators think they can make a killing on them.) However,
>
> I would disagree with your statement that the price is not justifiable; as
> we all know, the price of something is the price people are willing to pay.
> The more people that are looking for these classics, the more they will be
> saved from the unmentionable that happened to the PDP9, etc. For my part, I
> would rather such computers were desireable enough that they are worth more
> to a collector (cost wise) than salvage dealers; the marketplace will
> decide what they are really worth. And just to call a spade a spade, of
> course I would rather acquire these machines for free!
The problem I see with this view, is that it does not fully take into
consideration the class/capabilities/intent of "people" who are throwing
these outlandish amounts of money around!
The 'speculators' who are out to try to make a quick buck on these
machines while having no regard for their preservation or history will
only make life much more difficult (and expensive) for those who would
preserve both the machine and its history.
Once the percieved value of a given item is (publically) driven up, either
by speculators with too much money to spend or too many badly out of touch
New York/L.A. Times articles, it can take a very long time for the prices
to return to reality (if they ever do).
And once an item is in the hands of one of these money oriented types, it
may well languish in a vault(sic) until someone will pay the 'proper'
prices, or when the novelty has worn off the item may still end up in the
trash rather than being released for a more reasonable price. (don't
laugh, I regularly deal with a *lot* of these types!)
There has got to be a balance somewhere, I'm just not sure how to get
there.
Are *you* prepared to pay $500US for an Osborne or a TI99-4a ???
-jim
---
jimw_at_agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
Received on Tue Aug 12 1997 - 11:46:41 BST