I'm not so sure the scarcity of a computer, taken by itself, is a meaningful
factor in determining the price on eBay. The Altair has gotten a lot of
help from the "revenge of the nerds" thing on PTV, and there are a lot of
folks who can remember not buying one back in the '70's because they were
expensive, who now have more dough than they need.
If it's well promoted, as the Altair has been by virtue of that PTV piece,
among others, it matters little that the Altair was, in reality, a VERY
mediocre product that barely worked when it did and mostly didn't. People
did use them, after much effort, to accomplish useful work, however.
I know of one civil engineer turned accident-reconstructionist who lost
money during the years he used time-shared DEC computers but started to turn
a profit once he bought his Altair. I doubt, by the way, that the value of
the DEC service was a factor. Having nothing more than a teletype and a
timeshare account was common back then.
A lot of people spent lots of time sweating over an Altair, SOL, or IMSAI
just to prove their decision to buy the thing wasn't misguided. Those are
the guys who are bidding them up, I'd guess.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: johnb <dylanb_at_sympatico.ca>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 10:05 PM
Subject: Re: Ebay Altair
>
> <snip>>
> > > I generally find eBay sells items for *less* money than the real world
> when
> > > it comes to classic computers. A *lot* of deep pocket collectors won't
> use
> >
> > False.
>
> False? I *have* been asked by many deep pocket collectors not to put any
> sort of large , really rare computers on eBay. I sold the PDP-15, a couple
> /35s and a few other 8s through private offers. I personally don't think
> eBay is the place to sell *huge* minicomputers. It was requested by 3
> already that I NOT put the PDP-10 on eBay as they would not bid, and
really
> that would not be too tasteful in my eyes anyway.
>
> <snip>
>
> > This makes no sense. eBay prices as a rule are always much more than
once
> > can expect to find in the "real world". In fact, "real world" prices
have
> > gotten inflated from people selling their old computers for eBay prices
> > (I'm sure many here have come across people selling old computers, or
> > really just about anything these days, and saying something to the
effect
> > of "I can get $X for this on eBay!!")
>
> It makes perfect sense. You get 4 or 5 multi-million $$ deep pockets
> specifically looking for old minicomputer stuff and bidding heavily on
eBay
> and watch what would happen. Look at what happened to the Cray manual when
> someone here on the list tried to bid against Nathan [closed around $2700,
> and he was *not* going to be outbid]. Quite a few deep pocket collectors
are
> now looking at *preserving* either their first computer or put together a
> small museum. $10,000 is nothing to pay for a small rare computer when you
> have a billion. Put up something like a KA-10 on eBay for auction and
inform
> a few deep pockets and watch the bids[I know of 3 *really* deep pockets
that
> want one - period! ]
>
>
> BTW: I put the PDP-11/35 on eBay *only* to show what these computers were
> *really* selling for.. I was a bit upset as I got *less* than I usually
do.
>
> As for using auctions to value computers? Sotheby's uses past auction
sales
> *to* determine value all the time.
>
> >
>
> > > personally will have a running KL10 available for offers but would not
> want
> > > to sell such a mini as a "featured catagory item" on eBay - some items
> just
> > > don't sit well on eBay.
> >
> > If it's too big to ship via UPS then it generally won't do well.
> >
>
> Shipping a PDP-15 to the West Coast was under $2000. A PDP-8/I rackful to
> the west coast - $800US. A PDP-11/35 to Chicago was under $200US (and
would
> not fit on a UPS truck). 40,000 pounds of computers to the West Coast
(from
> Toronto) - $7000US + ins. Airlines charge $1.20/pound on average to the
US.
> Trucks are much less if a large load is going. Shipping is a non issue
when
> it comes to heavy computers anymore.
>
> All depends how rare the computer is.
>
> > As I have always maintained in the past, eBay has done nothing but
> > artifically inflate the prices for old computers to the detriment of
this
> > hobby (and others as well).
> >
>
> I (most of all) am really fed up with eBay. I have lost several *volume*
> PDP-8 and PDP-11 deals because the individual involved happens to look on
> eBay to see what they are going for. I specifically lost 3 PDP-8/Es in NC
> for a few hundred $$$ because this guy saw an 8/E sell on eBay for $1400US
> just before the deal closed :-(
>
> http://www.pdp8.com/
> John
>
> > Sellam
> >
> >
>
Received on Tue May 09 2000 - 23:26:29 BST