Alto II (was Re: PDP-8 prices

From: Doug <doug_at_blinkenlights.com>
Date: Sun Jan 24 21:36:46 1999

On Sun, 24 Jan 1999, Marvin wrote:

> I don't know if you noticed or not, but the email address of the seller is
> at spies.com. For those of you who might not be aware, spies.com is one of
> the largest repositories of arcade game related materials. The guy who runs
> it seems to be very well regarded in the collector circles.

That's the guy. He's also well regarded by Alto collectors:
        http://www.spies.com/aek/xerox.html

So, don't worry, if you don't pay him $5K, it'll still have a good home.
$5K seems like a reasonable price, BTW (assuming he doesn't have a $20K
reserve). Only 1000 or so were made. It's historic. It would be easy to
justify. Who's gonna do it?!

Not me! I have absolutely no desire to spend $5K on the thing. And this
confuses me a little. It's near the top of my wanted list, and I can
afford it, but the prospect doesn't interest me even a little bit. For
some reason, I find the idea somewhat offensive.

I guess it's because I think of an acquisition sort of like an "adoption".
I'm willing to house the thing, and spend a good chunk of time trying to
get it working, keep it working, and make it accessible to others. Why
should I have to pay $5K on top of that?

$500 seems to be my limit for what I consider a reasonable acquisition
fee. Maybe that will go up as this crazy price spiral continues, but to
pay more than that, I think you really have to be in the speculative
investment mindset, and I'm not.

-- Doug
Received on Sun Jan 24 1999 - 21:36:46 GMT

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