Are you sitting down?

From: Anthony Clifton - Wirehead <wirehead_at_retrocomputing.com>
Date: Thu Jun 3 23:06:56 1999

You're going to want to. =-D

All right, it's not THAT earth shattering but here's the scoop.

I have in my garage:

(1) PDP-11/34 with RK05j and RK05f
(1) PDP-11/84 with RA80 and TU80
(3) PDP-8/I, one with high speed paper tape punch reader and
    one with DECTape
(1) ASR-33 which goes with the 8/Is

RSX-11 manual set, full schematic print sets for the 8/Is,
OS8 and other utilities and things on paper tape and several
manuals for the 8/Is.

There is also lots of miscellaneous stuff that goes with these
including some spare parts etc.

I would like these machines to leave my garage, preferably all
at the same time, and travel to someone else's place who has:

1. Enough space to give them a permanent home
2. Enough time to restore and preserve them as they SHOULD BE
3. Enough love for them to not turn them into some kind of weird
    investment scheme for EBay
4. ...and Enough money to bring an appropriately sized vehicle
    with a lift gate to Des Moines, Iowa to retrieve them

BUT, before I do this, this is an important transfer and it's
VERY important to me that these machines end up somewhere they'll
be loved and appreciated by someone who understands what it takes
to care for them and feed them. I understood this when I got them.
Fortunately, my career went in an unexpectedly profitable direction
that unfortunately leaves me with inadequate time in the foreseeable
future to restore these beautiful machines. I want to see them get
restored and be preserved properly, which I just don't see myself
being able to do. I feel I need to stick to smaller machines, like
S100 boxes etc that are within the boundaries of what I can reasonably
do.

At any rate, I intend to only sell these to someone on ClassicCmp.
They will NOT appear on Ebay, Usenet or any other forum frequented
by people who are not necessarily collectors. The 8/Is are 3 out of
a set of just under 4000 ever produced. I am not interested in some
investment weasle grabbing these to put on Ebay.

So, with that in mind, I would like to recupe (sp?) at least enough
money to cover my costs in retrieving them. Would it be better, in
your minds, to auction these to ClassicCmp members or to set what I
feel is a fair price and see where things go from there? Which would
be more ethical? My costs were about $700 all told, just to be totally
honest about it.

I'd like ideas, suggestions, etc. If anyone REALLY, REALLY wants these
and just know you have to have them, and you have the above characteristics
and you have money, trades, etc. I'm willing to consider that too.

Basically, I just want to do the right thing by these machines and end
up breaking even either financially or in some way that makes me feel
that it was all worthwhile.

Thanks...

Anthony Clifton

PS: I'm not getting out of collecting. I just think it's more
realistic for me to focus on S100 boxes, CP/M machines, MicroVaxen
and MicroPDP type machines...given my time constraints.
Received on Thu Jun 03 1999 - 23:06:56 BST