Ebay madness

From: Gunther Schadow <gunther_at_aurora.regenstrief.org>
Date: Fri Aug 3 17:40:18 2001

Well, I haven't watched the szene until april/may this year, but
I'm not too confident that prices are dropping. Actually I think
we ought to keep a low profile in order to keep this classic computer
stuff from becoming a fad. Things like newspaper features will
eventually hurt us, because the one main issue with classic computer
stuff is that it's rare.

As Chuck mentioned the VAX 4000/300s on ebay their prices are up
by now. I would be surprized if they sold for less than $150 this
time. It isn't over until it's over, as they say. The only reason
for prices may be moderate right now is it's vacation time.

Have you watched the PDP-8's. It's now the 3rd in the last 3 weeks
or so, the first two have not sold under $500 and this one is at
$200 last time I looked. The PDP-11s sold for same amount almost.

Watch how the UNIBUS and QBUS SCSI cards trade. Over $200 minimum.

Who are the buyers? Some have so high feedback numbers that I'm
afraid those are traders who try to make money out of this.

In conclusion, I really think that newspaper features about vintage
computing and conferences with lots of publicity do hurt the vintage
computer hobbyist because they invite people who merely have money
to spend on a fad.

regards
-Gunther


Steve Robertson wrote:
>
> >Some more interesting Ebay madness is that some nice VAX systems are going
> >quite cheaply. There is a 4000/300 on Ebay for less than $20, the CPU alone
> >is worth that, and if it has memory too... A 4000/200 in the nice BA215
> >case sold recently for $60. So you see the market works as you would
> >expect, these things come out of the woodwork and the prices on ebay
> >reflect the increased availability.
> >
> >--Chuck
> >
>
> Seems to me that prices on eBay have dropped over the last year or so. This
> could be because of the depressed economy or the fact that some of us
> collectors are becoming "saturated".
>
> I've certainly slowed down on my purchases. Nowadays, a computer's gotta be
> really cheap before I'll buy it.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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-- 
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D.                    gschadow_at_regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist      Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor        Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960                         http://aurora.regenstrief.org
Received on Fri Aug 03 2001 - 17:40:18 BST

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