Spring Cleaning

From: Stephen Dauphin <ai705_at_osfn.org>
Date: Tue Nov 3 15:46:46 1998

On Mon, 2 Nov 1998, Dellett, Anthony wrote:

> offering these for sale here first before sending them off to ebay.
>
> IMSAI 8080 W/8080 Processor Card, SIO4 (Godbout w/docs), RAM64 (Godbout
> w/docs), PIO8 (IMSAI)
> Kaypro I (incl. boot disk)
> Kaypro II (incl. boot disk)
> Kaypro IV (incl. boot disk)
> NorthStar Horizon (not working)
> NorthStar Advantage (works completely, with boot disk)
> Osborne I (not working)
> Osborne Executive (incl. boot disk)
> Processor Technology SOL w/SOLOS personality module
> Sanyo CP/M System (with software)
>
> 8" DS/DD Floppy Drive (in wooden enclosure) and Controller (Godbout w/docs)
> 8" SS/SD Floppy Drive (no enclosure)
> 8" SS/SD Dual Drive Subsystem (ICOM)
> 8" Hard Disk Drive in enclosure w/controller (Fujitsu Hard Drive, Godbout
>
> A word of warning... I'd like to sell these things to someone on the list
> but I'll only accept "reasonable" offers.

On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Bill Sudbrink wrote:

> What is a reasonable offer on an IMSAI, collector
> to collector? If we're talking ebay values,
> forget it. There will also be the additional

On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Doug Yowza wrote:

> $200-$300 depending on condition and what's included. The docs alone
> might bring up to a $50 premium. Of course, price is normally a market
> driven thing, and you happen to be in the second hottest market in the
> world by being on this list. A list-driven bidding war once drove the
> price up to $1000 of a *very* complete IMSAI with a bunch of spare cards
> and docs.



Exactly the problem. A list bidding war doesn't seem to me to be a whole
lot better than an Ebay one. I would be prepared to offer $20 to $250
depending on the item, but I am sure a lot of people on this list would
do the same. Does it matter that it is actually going to a good home?
What about a promise that it won't be sold until someone pries my
eventually stiff fingers off of it?

I would expect virtually all other collecting fields have gone through
similar turmoil. You take some stuff, you take some people who want it
and the only way to keep score is with money.

I suspect reasonable is a bit higher than my guess or Doug's. To me
collector to collector is either trade or maybe 4 or 5 cents on the
original retail dollar.

If it doesn't mean that, then it may as well be put on Ebay. Why?
Admittedly I have not bought a whole lot of currently "hot" collectible
computer items, but in aggregate, my Ebay purchases, hardware, software,
new and old, come in at less than a double digit percentage of what was
quote/unquote the MSRP.


                                           -- Stephen Dauphin
Received on Tue Nov 03 1998 - 15:46:46 GMT