Ebay Altair

From: John Wilson <wilson_at_dbit.dbit.com>
Date: Wed May 10 03:31:48 2000

On Wed, May 10, 2000 at 01:46:43AM -0400, William Donzelli wrote:
> When you go to sell the KL10 and set it as the benchmark value, please
> divide your value in two, as RCS/RI received a KL10 for free.

And there were originally plenty more where that one came from, but the
guy who owned them at the time (he had at least a dozen, plus piles of tape
drives and over thirty RP06es) was unable to find takers for his machines,
even for free. Not even the low-serial-number model A that he had (I wish
I'd had space for it, as it was I just got the TC11/TU56 off the FE). So he
ended up driving a liftgate truck slowly across a scrap yard, pushing KL10
racks out the back every few feet, it was heartbreaking.

I'm sure John B will be quick to differentiate between a 100% restored KL10,
and one with problems like the one RCS/RI got, but practically speaking it
probably doesn't make much difference. A machine full of >20-year-old wire
wrap backplanes is going to be inherently unreliable, just because it works
today doesn't mean it's not going to take a little tweaking the next time
you want to take it for a spin. And keeping a string of RP06es and a TU78
alive is no picnic.

Anyway I think it's funny how opposite the viewpoints are here. On the
one hand there are people who appear to believe that the value of a machine
is approximately equal to the maximum that any sucker has *ever* paid for a
similar machine. Meanwhile, the rest of us say "hey I got five of those
for free, working and with docs/software, therefore yours is worthless too".
Neither one is quite accurate...

I seriously think eBay is likely to trigger some kind of 12-step program
for auction junkies. Really, it's a bit like gambling, people get really
competitive sometimes and end up paying prices that have nothing to do with
anyone's concept of what the item is worth, just because they feel that they
need to win at any cost. So I think these ridiculous prices for old computer
junk are more of an indicator of the buyers' compulsions, than anything to
do with the real value of the merchandise.

Meanwhile, I really do like eBay for getting ahold of stuff that is *not*
considered "collectable". I bought my floppy disk duplicating machine that
way for 1/3 what a refurbed unit would cost from a dealer, same deal for my
gummed tape machine, also got a nice linear tracking turntable for practically
nothing (those show up all the time). My wife uses it to get out-of-print
art/photography books for less than what the bookstores charge (and they
hardly ever really find anything anyway). There are plenty of things which
are too specialized to be easily bought/sold through local classified ads,
but not specialized enough to demand ridiculous prices and ruin the market
for mere mortals, so something like eBay actually helps everybody in that case.

John Wilson
D Bit
Received on Wed May 10 2000 - 03:31:48 BST

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