Goodwill Museum ??? (Was: Goodwill Computerworks Museum is open)

From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke_at_mch20.sbs.de>
Date: Mon Aug 21 11:16:12 2000

> Sellam your last comment is consistent with many other similarly
> 'ridiculous' (your word not mine) ones. Did you take the time to fully
> evaluate the potential of this endeavour?
> [...]
> What that Goodwill store is doing is a good thing for several reasons:

> 1..the items have been rescued and are being preserved.
> 2..the items are being exhibited to the public (and those of us who have
> tried to exhibit this stuff know how difficult it is to encourage people to
> take the time to come and see it), so the store is also educating the public
> about the technology we love so much because they have a captive audience,
> 3..the store is fostering the growth of our hobby which is essential for our
> hobby to continue and thrive
> 4..the store has (knowingly or not) made a strategic marketing move and will
> hopefully benefit by attracting more people than would ordinarily go there
> and the increased customer volume can boost sales (to help the needy)

> What appears to some to be a silly, mis-guided stunt, can be a helpful
> win-win-win achievement. Let's encourage the person at that store instead of
> complaining behind his or her back.

Well, I'm still not 100% custom to your scheme of 'Goodwill'
stores (but I stop already for every Thrift/Goodwill store
when raiding (sp?:) the US), nonetheless I can't figure what's
good when they shelf the computers instead of selling it.

Just assume they get an average of 100-200 Bucks per Computer
(since there is possible rare (in publics opinion) stuff, the
average may even be higher), multiplied by 100 (that's their
number of museum computers, acording to the web site) you'll
get 10 to 20 KBucks - quite a lot of money to help people.

Of course, one may argue these computers will gain value and
therefore it'll be a good deal to keep them until a C64 sells
at $1k - just, AFAK, it's not their mission to aquire real
estate and earn intrest, but rather earn money _now_ by selling
donated stuff. And 'saving' the machines for a later, high price
sale is nothing else than an invest.

Also, a museum needs, as we all sadly know, SPACE and space
is an equivalent for money - in this context even more, since
they not only have to lease the space, but also don't generate
income from the leased space (ok, I know, at least in Texas
the equation of space and cost is a bit different and less
prior than over here).

Conclusion: (and some may don't like it)
If they recognize old computers and are willing to invest
some additional handling to maximize earnings the best
modus operandi is to auction them of at eBay and use the
money acording to their carta.

Gruss
H.
(OOO)

--
VCF Europa 2.0 am 28./29. April 2001 in Muenchen
http://www.vintage.org/vcfe
http://www.homecomputer.de/vcfe
Received on Mon Aug 21 2000 - 11:16:12 BST

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