On December 3, Douglas Quebbeman wrote:
> Have 5.25 inch floppy drive cleaning kits
> become unobtainium, or only for the clueless:
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1305651479
>
> This is up there with the $500 Kaypro...
Value is in the eye of the beholder, man. Why is it automatically
"insane" when someone else views omething as being more valuable than
we do?
The resale value of the stuff we hack on is going up, and we have to
learn to deal with it. It has been for some time. People are buying
it at these prices, and it's not just one or two people. Let them
spend their money...if they're happy with their purchase, what's wrong
with it?
Further, one mustn't lose sight of the fact that different things
are more readily available in different geographic areas than in
others. Just because there are fifty AppleIIs at the corner yard sale
in your neighborhood doesn't mean there are fifty of them at EVERY
corner yard sale.
As a case in point...I'm no newcomer to this field; I've been doing
pdp8/pdp11/vax stuff for a solid fifteen years. My first real system
was a pdp11/34 which I sold about ten years ago, and have regretted it
every since. I've wanted another one for several years, and had been
looking for one in earnest in the Washington DC area for a solid three
years...never managed to get one, and believe me, I know where to
look. I finally bought one locally for about $400, indirectly from a
surplus dealer who was sharking on the "antique computer craze" trying
to make a ton of money on it. I'm sure he got it for free, and he
laughed all the way to the bank. However, I'm VERY happy to have it,
and I love the machine. If I hadn't paid that $400, I wouldn't have
one. They're simply unobtainium in the DC area.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL
Received on Mon Dec 03 2001 - 15:25:49 GMT