A moment of silence, please

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Tue Aug 12 16:48:44 1997

James Willing wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, Marvin wrote:
>
> > 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.

I think that there will always be people around who don't have the "purest"
motives for doing anything, and collecting computers is no exception.
Antique dealers could be considered collectors only in it for the money, BUT
without that force being present, a lot more collectibles would be in that
great landfill in the sky.

> 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.

I think art would also fall in the catagory of how much is it *really*
worth. Who was that guy a number of centurys ago, Michael something or
other, who did some artsy things that many people consider worth a lot of
money now? Do you think that his paintings, etc. would have stayed around
if some significant value had not been placed on them?

Another thing to think about is the opportunity that the speculators
provide. I don't recall the number of museums spread around the world, but
it is at least a dozen or two :). Right now, I am in the learning stages of
finding out what it takes to run a museum and donations seem to be a
biggie. If a non-profit status museum is available, I can't imagine any
speculator trashing something instead of taking a tax rightoff.

And yes, this type of stuff WILL make it harder for people to collect
computers. HOWEVER, we are still at the stage where the perceived value of
most older computers is not very high thus making it relatively easy for
anyone who has the desire to get a fairly complete selection of computers
relatively inexpensively. And since we seem to be some of the few concerned
with the preservation of old computers and their history, that leaves us in
a rather responsible position and I think the future will look back kindly
at our efforts!

> Are *you* prepared to pay $500US for an Osborne or a TI99-4a ???

No, but I do have a couple I would sell for $500 US :)!
Received on Tue Aug 12 1997 - 16:48:44 BST