eBay (aka: ePay, eVay, oyVay, etc...)

From: Hans Franke <franke_at_sbs.de>
Date: Mon Oct 26 07:26:06 1998

> It sounds like this is a "bad" thing. Is it? If so why? It would seem that
> eBay is making a market for older computers that before didn't exist. Now
> is it that the 'old timers' who were used to picking up C64's at a garage
> sale for $1 will now have to pay $25 are grumbling? Doesn't this
> potentially increase the value of your own collection many fold? Isn't that
> a good thing?

As a matter of nature, I don't care for the monetary value of
my collection. What I care is to get new exciteing finds.


> Traditionally there is a rush of "collectible fever" (if
> you've ever dealt with collectibles, and my Dad has for many more years
> than I) where lots of people rush in an buy anything that may be
> collectible hoping to get in at the bottom of the next "beanie" craze, then
> there is a rush of junk dealers who prey on those bozos and come in and
> sell them a bunch of "L_at__at_K! R_at_RE!" Commodore 64's or 486SL machines for
> over market prices, and then there is a general "crash" of the market as
> the bozo's leave and prices go back to more rational levels (but usually
> higher than they were before the "collectible" craze hit) and then, if they
> are truely collectable (and there are many properties of things that make
> them so) then the price begins to reflect actual rarity, condition, and
> that imponderable "desirability."

Actual rarity ? Hmm so lets see - a PET is more rare than a KIM ?
Or a Apple I five hundret times rarer than a NASCOM-I ? Come real
prices beside the usual 1 to 100 USD are just rubbisch. Just follow
Jim about his Intellec/Altair thing. For shure, the Intellec is a
nice thing, but everybody just looks at the Altair.

I have to stay on swap meets and garage sales - and maybe I find
an Apple 1 :)))

Gruss
H.

--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
Received on Mon Oct 26 1998 - 07:26:06 GMT

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