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

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_freegate.com>
Date: Tue Oct 27 00:51:47 1998

At 06:35 PM 10/26/98 -0800, Doug Coward's Rant...
>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.

So you would prefer that these computers silently went into the land fill
rather than have you see that they exist and perhaps rescue them? Perhaps
this come under the heading of what you don't know doesn't hurt you...

>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.

I think for many of the posters on the list "worth" is irrelevant in terms
of SELLING computers, but many of us find it worth something to acquire
them. If the promise of wealth, or even just something for what they
consider to be "junk" gets those machines out into the open at least if
gives you the _choice_ of deciding what it would be worth to you to get one
of these computers.

>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.

Again, I'll argue its better than having someone make it into dust because
the fingers on it had .001 oz of gold. At least I can chip out the lucite,
I can't reassemble a board that has been crushed!

>4) I don't care for the way it makes people react. The following is from
> the CP/M list last weekend:
        [description deleted]

Rudeness is a fact of life, I suspect it is more the caliber of people who
are on the internet has gone down rather than a sudden rudening of the
world. And yes, there are people who hear stories of the guy who pulled an
Altair out of the dumpster and sold it on eBay for $5K. That brings a
newer, less savory, portion of the population into the mix, and yet as your
story shows, the seller can choose not to sell to rude people. Further you
can always post a message saying in effect "I'm not rude, I'm not turning
these things around for a quick buck, I'm a serious collector who will care
for your machines." You'd be suprised that a lot of folks will be
responsive to this.

>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

But you haven't changed and nor has your equipment. A friend of my Dad has
a '55 Porche Roadster that he bought new and kept up. Only 1,500 made,
appraised at $158,000. He still drives it, plays with it. Even though by
"adding miles" he reduces its value. The same it true with these old
machines. You use them or you don't. I power on/off my PDP-8/e knowing that
this might be the time it burns out a light bulb, but I do it anyway
because I'm more entranced with the machine than with its value. So what
good does it do to attempt to deny that some other types of collectors exist?

So this bad thing you rant about has the effect of making computers you
would never have heard about available to you. That is what a market is all
about, bringing goods and consumers together.
The supply of classic computers is steadily shrinking, the quantity of
people interested in owning one is increasing. I share your sense of
'grief' that the "easy pickings" are harder to find (except for Megan of
whom I"m intensely jealous this evening!) but it is inevitable, and it
will only get worse. Or start collecting PC clones, they'll continue to be
cheap for a while...

--Chuck
Received on Tue Oct 27 1998 - 00:51:47 GMT