How many collectors?

From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
Date: Sat Aug 4 11:09:58 2001

On Fri, 3 Aug 2001, 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 can't remember
> the exact quote but it was something like that.

I think in a partially drunken spewage of "facts" during an interview I
said 500-1000. I think it's definitely closer to 1,000 worldwide. It's
may be even higher, but I was trying to be conservative.

> I was just curious to know if that number (whatever it was) is
> approximately correct? How do you define "serious collector?" Is it by
> number of machines a collector has? Would someone who has a handful of
> very rare computers qualify as serious? What if someone spent years
> doing an educated hunt for just one particular system that no one else
> has, and found it. Would they be a serious collector? Or is it based
> on the kind of computer being collected -like DEC vs. Apple, etc.?

If we define "serious" as someone who actively engages in computer
collecting activities (goes looking for them once in a while, maybe even
has a website), I think that number is definitely between 500-1000
(worldwide).

Drop "serious" from the equation and what you have is probably more like
5,000 collectors worldwide. Probably more.

(And I want each and every one of them to come to the VCF ;)

Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
Received on Sat Aug 04 2001 - 11:09:58 BST

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