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

From: Doug Coward <dcoward_at_pressstart.com>
Date: Mon Oct 26 20:35:14 1998

Chuck McManis said speaking of EBAY:
>It sounds like this is a "bad" thing. Is it? If so why?

----- START RANT -----------------
Yes, it a Baaad thing. I was very happy when my computers were "worthless"
(to everyone else), thank you very much for asking.

1) Computers are appearing everywhere. I don't have to look so hard
   any more. As a result I don't yell "Yipee" as loud any more, especially
   when I realize what it's going to cost me.

2) A good portion of the discussions on this list are about what some
machine is
   worth. A hobby that allows a person to gain complex knowledge of
   so many aspects of their machines and it history has been reducted
   to the level of baseball trading cards and "beanies". I would
   rather hear about how someone just got a machine running for the
   first time in 15 years.

3) I see a "Low Tech" craze coming. People will be mounting S-100 boards
   to hang on the wall. Just like the people that buy old magazines,
   cut them up to frame the old advertisements. By piecing out a computer
   they make alot of money, and someone has a piece of Americana to
   decorate their den, but it's taking technology out of context.
   This will come when the prices "crash". Imagine you need a S-100 disk
   controller. You find one,it costs a fortune and you need to chip it
   out of a block of Lucite, because someone made it into a paper weight.

4) I don't care for the way it makes people react. The following is from
   the CP/M list last weekend:
>About a week or so I let loose that I had a few IMSAI chassis available.
>This resulted in a deluge of mailings. I was rather amazed at this - that
>anyone would want them at all.
>I offered them for free (postage) and still am doing so. A couple of
takers
>have been identified.
>What I cannot abide is a few that got real abusive. I was offering
something
>for nothing, yet a few insisted on demanding they get the equipment. I
>received some nasty insinuations and threats. This I will not
tolerate and
>each party has been told so personally.
>I wish to reiterate here that I am appalled at the behavior of these
few. It
>was fortunate that the majority had better manners. I nearly tossed the
>whole batch in the garbage.
>Excuse the venting - Sorry about the whole mess
>Rich Raspenti

5) "Beanies" are made to be collectible. They don't have a story to tell.
          They don't have a functionality that is greater than the sum of their
   parts. You don't play with them. You just display them.

And that is the biggest problem. When a treasured possession becames too
valuable to use for fear of damaging it, that defeats MY purpose for
collecting computers.
                  - the not so oldtimer
----- END RANT -------------------------

> 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?
> 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."
=========================================
Doug Coward
Press Start Inc.
Sunnyvale,CA
=========================================
Received on Mon Oct 26 1998 - 20:35:14 GMT