A moment of silence, please

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Wed Aug 13 10:48:14 1997

> > 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.

Dig the mixed metaphor!

Seriously though, there are two processes at work here. One is that
those who grew up with such machines have got the nostalgia bug. This
starts prices rising, which in turn attracts speculators. The latter
fuel the second process - articles get published about how fast the
market is growing, etc.

One hopes that in a few years time, they will become unfashionable once
again, and we will see a return to the situation when these machines
first became unfashionable - they crop up at car boot sales, etc., for
not much money.

> 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.

Do keep us posted! There are plenty of us on this list who dream of
converting our private collections into musea when we retire - or
before! - who would welcome any info on the subject.

> 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!

And however much we dislike the price spirals that occur, we must
remember that unless people know that collectors want these machines,
they'll put them in the dustbin.

That is one reason why, unlike Sam, I do not often haggle. If people
know that the Philips G7000 videopac computer that they priced at four
pounds at the car boot sale will get snapped up for that amount of
money, and tell people at work etc., others will think twice about
throwing out the PDP8 or whatever. If, however, they price it at L4 and
can't even get that for it, they will think that computers are not
collectible. (What is the G7000 anyway? Yes, I did buy it! It has an
8048 as the CPU, of all things!)

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

No, but I'd rather pay $500 for an Osborne than see the last remaining
one disinegrate between the teeth of a rubbish crusher like that PDP9.
Received on Wed Aug 13 1997 - 10:48:14 BST