Ebay madness

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Fri Aug 3 19:36:12 2001

At 05:40 PM 8/3/01 -0500, you wrote:
>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.

No, its not rare yet, its just hard to find. One of the things ebay has
done is bring a lot of stuff out into the open. When I got my first PDP-8 I
thought this was perhaps the most unusual event in the world, when I got my
fourth I realized that in fact they are out there but one has to look for them.

>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.

The 4000/200 was actually closed at $60. Where as a few months ago just the
CPU card (a KA660) would have fetched $100 - $150. Item 1259494060 (a
4000/300) closed for $51. Prior to this I hadn't seen a 4000/300 go for
less than $300. That is prices coming down.

>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.

Except that last year a PDP-8 would fetch $2000 now it can't break $1000.
Again, how many people in the world want a "real" PDP-8? Not as many as you
would think.

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

This becomes a bit different since SCSI cards are highly leveraged, not
only do they let you use more modern (and currently dirt cheap) drives on
your classic machine they often enhance the number of OS options you have.
That puts them in demand.


>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.

Well we know that some of them are dealers. Mitch from Keyways buys things
on Ebay for resale as does "uechi."

>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.

I have to agree with Sellam here, if it gives the perception that lots of
people want to own one of these machines then it is "good" because more
people will save them.
--Chuck
Received on Fri Aug 03 2001 - 19:36:12 BST