Ebay madness

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Sat Aug 4 17:39:14 2001

I've been surprised at the number of "collectors" who don't care a bit about
whether an otherwise pristine piece of hardware is working or not. All they
seem to care about is how "cool" it looks. Frankly, to me, a computer that
doesn't compute is just a bunch of parts taking up more space than they should.

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Duell" <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: Ebay madness


> >
> > A big factor is the relative completeness of the unit. If a collector is
> > supposed to want it, it must be really complete, with manuals, brocheures,
> > diskettes, etc. A cheapie might be incomplete and non-fucntional as well.
> > Collectors don't always demand the units be functional, but they do demand
they
> > be complete, at least so there are no obviously missing parts.
>
> I think this depends on the collector, or at least how you define
> 'collector'.
>
> In my case, I want to be able to get the machine working. So I do care
> about _some_ manuals. I don't need yet-another-learning-BASIC-book. I do
> want schematics, ROM sources, memory maps, etc. System disks are, of
> course, essential, but only if I don't already have them/can't get them.
>
> Ditto for missing parts. Obviously if PCBs are missing, etc then the
> machine is good for parts only. But if it's missing 'cosmetic' parts like
> nameplates, then that's fine.
>
> I don't care at all about advertising flyers. If they're with the machine
> then of course I collect them and keep them carefully. But I wouldn't pay
> extra to get them. They are just not that interesting to me.
>
> I've bought a few HP calculators cheaply from other collectors because
> they're a bit beat-up. Damaged/missing labels, worn legends on the
> keyboard overlay, etc. I can understand why these machines are worth less
> than perfect examples, but they're ideal for what I want -- machines to
> use and to take to bits and learn about. Actually, I'd rather have a few
> more beat-up machines like this (provided I can get them working) than 1
> perfect example which I would probably be afraid to use, and certainly
> wouldn't want to take a soldering iron to.
>
> -tony
>
>
Received on Sat Aug 04 2001 - 17:39:14 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:33:31 BST