On Thu, 15 Jun 2000, Douglas Quebbeman wrote:
> > Now, do you understand?
>
> I used to do the exact same thing. During a period of marginal
It seems that we're both much more in agreement with this situation
than I realized; we both understand the usefulness of Usenet and how
much fun it could be to purchase things at bargain prices and haggle
over prices. On the other hand, I can understand the neeed for a
seller to try to maximize his gains from the sale of an item,
particularly in cases such as your Audi which was a restoration
project.
Let's say someone purchased a rare DataGobbler Model XYZ9, that was a
rusting hulk, missing various ICs, wires disconnected, smashed light
bulbs, etc. and spend years reverse engineering it, sanding and
re-painting the chasisto make it look like new, finding replacement
components, reconnecting everything, and writing some rather neat
hacks to run on it. To sell that to a haggling buyer on Usenet at
some low price would not be sensible; the restorer would most likely
want, and deserve, to get a very good price in order to part with
this, whcih would probably be difficult to do, and, hence, auctioning
it off to the highest bidder, with the beginning price being set
somewhat high, would be, I think, most reasonable.
On the other hand, when some random company has just decommissioned a
fully depreciated DataGobbler Model XYZ9, and reaped the tax benefits
for this depreciation, and is about to toss it into the scrap heap and
get perhaps $25 for it as scrap value after someone from the scrap
dealer shows up and spends 2 hours taking it apart to move it, and it
has no sentimental value, well, then, it seems only logical that it
should go to some haggler on usenet to take home as a bargain find.
> I wish to God I'd sold it in auction format, whether on
> E-Bay or not. I'd have gotten what I paid for it, plus
> more, instead of taking a $1500 loss.
I'm sorry to hear about your taking that loss.
> R.D., you and others may have more faith that the long-sought-
> after item in front of you on E-Bay will be available later
> somewhere else in better shape for even cheaper; I guess I
> lack faith. When I see what I want and I want it badly enough,
> I'll pay the going rate to get it. Sometimes I regret it.
Yep... I've done that as well, but I've also found great bargains like
a free 11/44 system with a printing console, RL02s and a couple of
11/03s with RX02 drives - of course, it took many hours of difficult
work to take the dirty, dusty, systems apart, get them home, etc.
...and, one day I may get the 11/44 running again, as soon as I fix a
CPU board problem, once I find probes/pods for my Gould logic analyzer
(a cheap hamfest find)... anyone know where to find these?
> I do understand taking a stand; I won't eat at the McDonald's
> that's closest to my office because one day I went there and
> a busload of school children were on some kind of field trip
> and being served to the exclusion of adults with 30-minute
> lunch breaks. The adults supervising the children, and those
> running the store, could not only not imagine why I was upset,
> but thought I was out of place for even suggesting that they
> should have scheduled their trip for another part of the day.
That was most inconsiderate of the store; they could have had a couple
of registers open to serve the adults as well as serving the busload
of children. All were paying customers, but, that bus-trip could have
been coordinated with the McDonalds so as to cause the least amount of
inconvenience for everyone.
> But I love the new McExtra or whatever it's called and I gotta
> drive way outta my way to get one because I've chosen to take
> this stand. Maybe someday, E-Bay will piss me off enough I'll
> take my business elsewhere. But for now, if I don't like the
> price, I just don't bid.
Of course, we've both probably heard the saying "Don't cut off your
nose to spite your face."
Regards,
R. D. Davis
--
R. D. Davis
rdd_at_perqlogic.com
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd
410-744-4900
Received on Thu Jun 15 2000 - 11:09:27 BST