Backwater areas Was: Re: Cross listing Ebay items

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_wco.com>
Date: Mon Jun 15 21:50:27 1998

On Mon, 15 Jun 1998, William Donzelli wrote:

> Say a real goodie shows up, like a perfect DEC Straight-8 or an unbuilt
> Altair kit. Assume the price is good, like $250 for either. Assume that
> you have the time and a working car, plus a loved one that will not scream
> too much. Assume that the current owner can not ship the thing. How many
> miles would you go?

Assuming I was the only one who knew about it and who was going to know
about it? For an unbuilt Altair or a DEC straight-8? Well, first I'd
find out if I knew anyone in the seller's area who I could have go pick it
up, and if not, then I would check if I knew anyone who was going to be in
that area. If not, then I'd examine the prospects of someone I know
visiting that area in the next n months. If that didn't look good, and I
absolutely could not bribe the seller with any amount of money under $100
on top of the sale price to ship the thing, then I'd drive about 400 miles
or so.

I just got an ISIS development system this way. I'm in the Bay Area
(California), the ISIS is in Las Vegas. Its a 10 hour drive, and I hate
Vegas, so there's no way in hell I'm going to drive it. Shipping would
cost a bundle. The price is $75. I know that my older brother, who lives
in southern Cal, goes desert racing in the Vegas area at least once a
year, so I called him and found out his wife was going to be visiting
family in Las Vegas this last weekend. Also, I found out my little
brother, who lives in Sacramento and thus passes me by on the way to
SoCal, is going to be driving down to visit my older brother next
weekend. So my sister-in-law hauled the ISIS from Vegas to SoCal, my
little brother will be hauling it from SoCal to me.

As Hannibal of the A-Team used to say, "I love it when a plan comes
together."

Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Mon Jun 15 1998 - 21:50:27 BST

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