My problem stems from the fact that there are WAY too many things for me to
handle at once, Sam. You wanted me to pack the stuff and have it shipped
via an economical method but which required me to package and haul the
stuff some 45 miles to the airport area. I just haven't the resources
(personal) or the time to do all this under my present circumstances.
What's more, I've had to move TONS more stuff from the basement to the
covered storage outside, and it's pissing my neighbors off. Some of them
understand, but many don't. Now, if you can think of a workable way which
doesn't involve a major outlay on my part, in advance of the fact, and
doesn't involve many hours of packing and hauling time, mine, I mean, since
I have to pack and haul from inside the house to outside, I'm listening, so
to speak.
Those ALTOS boxes I bought on your behalf are still in the car, by the way,
but I can't open the trunk because I was rear-ended by an illegal alien
with no insurance . . .
In the meantime, I'm going through the just-now-moved stuff to ensure I
don't expose otherwise sensitive and potentially fragile hardware to
unfavorable conditions. What this amounts to is looking through the stuff
I've had help to haul from the basement in the last day or two, in the
dark, and examine it in the daylight, to ensure it retains some of its
remaining worth, if I can do anything to that end.
Keep in mind that I'm stressed to the MAX right now, because I have a new
30-hour-a-day, 8-day-per-week job for anew client, in addition to all this
other headache. What's more, I'd like to avoid the exchange of dollars for
anything other than expenses because of the accounting headaches that
creates. I had this stuff in two sections of the basement because some of
was known to be of some value and therefore worth preserving. That's of
less concern to me now than it once was, but it is of some importance to me
to avoid discarding the stuff in a way that will result in no benefit to
anyone.
I'm willing to ship, via USPS because I visit my P.O. box several times a
week, those items I can easily ship. I have physical limitations which
render me unable to lift items with much weight or raise my arms much above
the level of my shoulders. I don't have a lot of boxes in which to ship
things, nor do I have the time or the desire to shop for boxes and
packaging materials. I would, of course, consider bagging a board or
documentation, and taking it to Mailboxes, etc, to have them package and
ship it at the expense of the recipient. However, I don't have lots of
cash to invest in speculation on COD shipments. I can do this a little,
but I have a boy at Harvard and one (who didn't want to go to MIT because
his brother was already in Boston) at Georgia Tech. You know that's not
free!
The reason I decided to get into the pile of miscellaneous hardware and
move it out is because I'm in the "proof of concept" stage with my new
client and while packaging doesn't matter at this point, I do have to have
hardware on which to implement the concepts and I no longer go out and buy,
randomly, hardware which suits the task, first because it often doesn't and
secondly because it ultimately winds up in "the pile."
I doubt that you intended to publish this communique' but I'm also
publishing my reply so I won't have to explain to every individual why I
don't have inventory listings of all the stuff in "the pile" or in "the
heap." This stuff is the product of over twenty five years' accumulation
of hardware I bought at market price and which has not found another home .
. . yet. I remember what some of this stuff cost, so I'm reluctant simply
to toss it where it will produce no further value. Those old Apple-]['s
still do, faithfully, the job they could do back in the '70's, though no
better, and the CP/M boxes will still turn out the payroll, though not in
color and without the fancy noises. I try to pass this stuff on to people
who will get some benefit since it's worthless lying around unused.
Clearly, you're in the business of distributing such items as we discussed
before. I have no problem with that. I just can't afford to expend my
limited resources making the business of getting these items moved to your
venue convenient for you. Things were different two to three weeks ago,
when I didn't have the trunk of my car sealed by the damage, and when I
didn't have the problem of making room for additional residents in my
house.
As I've said before, I don't mind giving stuff away to someone who will use
it. If I "get" something for it, I prefer it not take the form of cash,
because of the tax-related bookkeeping hassles.
As I pick my way through "the pile" looking for resources I can use for my
present task, I'll make a list of what I see. In some cases, I'll know I
have other parts, or documents, or whatever, which might "go with" these
and probably won't have time to find them. I will however offer a partial
list as time allows and as I go back inside to "take a load off."
Does this make any sense to anyone?
Dick
----------
> From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: attention MITS fiends . . .
> Date: Saturday, February 20, 1999 10:30 AM
>
> On Sat, 20 Feb 1999, Richard Erlacher wrote:
>
> > I'm trying to make room for a child and her progeny in my basement,
hence
> > have moved some items into the carport . . .
> >
> > Since todays weather is good, I'm out sifting through the stuff looking
for
> > items of interest, and find I have a MITS modem board.
> >
> > Would this be of interest to anyone?
>
> Richard, what happened?
>
> You were going to consolidate all the stuff in the carport and then
> determine a total shipping weight so I could figure out how much I owe
you
> for it.
>
> Now you are offering up bits & pieces to the list. I thought we'd
already
> had a deal on everything.
>
> I am very confused as to why you are doing this.
>
> Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar_at_siconic.com
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> Always hasslin' the man.
>
> Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 02/15/99]
Received on Sat Feb 20 1999 - 12:53:29 GMT