pdp8/f (now Amiga poster)

From: Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list_at_wfi-inc.com>
Date: Sat Oct 16 12:07:08 1999

Poor John...

I was to be the recipient of one of those manuals, gratis. But $163 was a
little over my budget (cough). As someone who really enjoys SGI hardware
(and looks forward to it becoming "obsolete - <rubs hands>), I was
heartbroken to have it go on eBay. But they were John's books, and bully
for him that he got $163. I just tell myself that he needed the $163 more
than I needed that book and everything's ok. I'd feel bad if he'd given it
to me and I later found out he could have sold it for that much...

Personally, I try to make sure that old/rare stuff ends up with someone
who is the previously discussed "enthusiast" type. Example: John Lawson
gave me a nifty SparcServer 600MP board a while back that he had no
interest in. I had a real interest in it, but no suitable VME chassis (I
didn't want to stress the 4/110) and I posted a tentative "available" on a
Sun newsgroup. I was shocked! Someone offered me $300 for it! I checked
the email address, went to the website...price-gouging reseller. Ugh. So I
gave it to a guy who had a full server chassis *shrink-wrapped* on the
pallet in his garage...

Ah well,


Aaron


On Fri, 15 Oct 1999, Peter Pachla wrote:

> Hi Tony,
>
> > Are you saying that you offered something for free here (or for the cost
> > of shipping, or whatever), somebody told you it was worth real money on
> > e-bay, so you decided to sell it there?
> >
> > If so, then I regard this as _very_ unethical behaviour, and not at all
> > what I'd expect from a classic computer enthusiast.
> >
> > My policy is simple. If I offer something for sale, and set a price, then
> > that's the price I would accept for it....
>
> Sorry for quoting so much of the message.
>
> I have to say that I agree with everything you said, to my mind it's a simple
> case of good manners. Once you've made a deal with someone you simply don't
> back out just because you got a better offer etc - it's just NOT done! :-(
>
>
> TTFN - Pete.
>
> --
> Hardware & Software Engineer. Sound Engineer.
> Collector of Arcade Machines, Games Consoles & Obsolete Computers (esp DEC)
>
> peter.pachla_at_wintermute.org.uk |
> peter.pachla_at_vectrex.freeserve.co.uk |
> peter.pachla_at_virgin.net |
> peter.pachla_at_wintermute.free-online.co.uk | www.wintermute.free-online.co.uk
> --
>
>
>
Received on Sat Oct 16 1999 - 12:07:08 BST