See embedded comments below, plz
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Sellam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, July 01, 1999 8:08 PM
Subject: Re: State of the Hobby
>On Thu, 1 Jul 1999, Richard Erlacher wrote:
>
>> This argument is getting to where it's pretty silly.
>>
>> I don't see how anyone can complain about buying used computer hardware
for
>> considerably less than it cost when new.
>
>It's called "inflation". Look it up.
>
Nope, Sam, once again you demonstrate your proclivity to yack before you
look. Inflation would make the current price HIGHER. That's why a $1 item,
so priced in 1967, costs over $3 today, and, in some cases, >$4. Perhaps
you need to look it up.
>
>> The mythical "free Altair" which pops up again and again is generally
sold,
>> even in "better than new" (properly assembled and functional) condition
for
>> significantly less than what it cost new, in "real" dollars. -- YES --
even
>> on eBay!
>
>Would you buy a 1967 model Beetle for what a 1999 model costs?
>
If, as is the case with many "antique" computers, it is, in fact in better
condition than when it was new, having been properly assembled, all the
routing errors on the PCB corrected, and proved running. If it had been as
well preserved as may computers I've seen dating back to then, I'd probably
say "yes." Naturally, the fact that nothing built in Mexico with the shoddy
quality control standards they must have to use to get anything from their
assembly lines approved at all, makes me wonder whether I'd want one of the
new ones at all. In '67, I bought a VW beetle for just under $1300. They
cost significantly more than that here in the US, but I was in Germany. If
I encountered one in like-new condition, in like-new state of wear, with all
the features intact, it would probably never be offered for anything nearly
so low as the '99's.
>
>> In a recent auction on eBay, a MITS Floppy Disk Drive was auctioned off
at
>> $565. "WOW!" you may say, but that unit cost $1300 when new, and that
was
>> in dollars that were a DOLLAR, and not just the price of a candy bar.
I'm
>> presently in the process of selling off excess 8" floppy drives for $5
each,
>> functionally tested and aligned, plus the estimated cost of packaging and
>> shipping, since I don't want more work on top of the alignment and
testing,
>> estimated by Mailboxes, etc, which is where I'll have them boxed and
>> shipped. I've offered these same drives to people, as is, for just the
cost
>> of shipping, and most wouldn't pay even for the shipping.
>
>Which may very well prove one point being brought up, that some people are
>not collecting to use or preserve, but merely to display and trophy.
>
>Still, your price comparisons are nonsense.
>
>> When I bought my first pair of 8" floppy drives they cost $675 each. The
>> last pair I bought cost $470 each in 1981. In 1980, it seems to me, a
>> typical S-100 CPU cost $250. A floppy controller cost about the same,
and a
>> terminal cost $750.
>
>Yeah, but today I can get a 3.5" floppy drive that holds more data and is
>faster, for $35.
>
I don't doubt that. Most anyone else could buy them for the normal market
price of $22. Nevertheless, what would you have to pay to get an 8" drive
today? The 3.5" drive may be better, but can't read 32-sector hard-sectored
media very well. Nor can it read the venerable IBM 3740-formatted
diskettes which were standard distribution media for CP/M.
>
> I can get a Pentium-II CPU at 350Mhz for certainly
less
>than $250, and a floppy controller is built into the motherboard I buy for
>under $100. So how does your price comparison stand up now?
>
>P.S. It would be nice if you'd edit the superfluous quoted reply out of
>your message before sending it. Bandwidth is a precious commodity in
>third world countries.
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar_at_siconic.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
>
> Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0!
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 05/25/99]
>
Received on Thu Jul 01 1999 - 21:26:03 BST