How many collectors?

From: Michael Nadeau <menadeau_at_mediaone.net>
Date: Sat Aug 4 09:08:26 2001

About a year ago, I started to catalog all the web sites devoted to
collecting computers, including everything from game consoles to big iron. I
stopped when I realized the futility. At that point, I had between 2500 and
3000 sites in a database.

Most of those were highly specialized for specific brands or models, but
those collectors were serious enough about the hobby to create a web site.

--Mike

Michael Nadeau
Editorial Services
603-893-2379
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck McManis" <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 2:43 AM
Subject: Re: How many collectors?


> At 10:44 PM 8/3/01 -0700, Ernest wrote:
> >I think that I read in one of the articles about VCF east that Sellam
> >thought that there might be 500 serious collectors....I'm interested
> >in peoples opinions on this. Also, this post is NOT about
> >Sellam's exact quote, it's about the idea behind it.
>
> The number certainly "feels" right. It is a fairly small community. Go to
a
> few VCF type things and you'll see the same bunch of folks.
>
> There is certainly the question "What is a 'serious' collector?" and one
> cannot easily define that term. In my opinion a serious collector is
> someone who does the actual work behind researching a particular aspect of
> computers. Then they collect artifacts that are relevant to that research.
> Just like art collectors will focus on a particular artist or period,
> serious computer collectors will focus on a particular machine,
technology,
> or some similar aspect.
>
> Casual collectors are people who are unwilling to throw out anything, so
> they have developed a "collection" of a bunch of old computers, but by the
> same token they've never gone out and bought anything after the
> manufacturer was out of business and/or not supporting their stuff
anymore.
> If you are the original owner (or someone in your immediate family is the
> original owner) of all the stuff in your collection then you are a casual
> collector.
>
> Speculative collectors don't know anything about the machines they have
> collected except what the last one sold for on Ebay or at some other
place.
> The fact that they are trading in computers is more a coincidence with
> their perception that computers will appreciate faster than the inflation
> rate than it is because they actually love computers.
>
> Of course in the commercial hardware there is a group of people who have
to
> support "old" machines and they don't collect so much as stock spares.
They
> may or may not appreciate the machines they buy and sell, generally they
> are pretty knowledgable about them.
>
> --Chuck
>
>
>
Received on Sat Aug 04 2001 - 09:08:26 BST