How much should I pay for a Decstation VT78?

From: Ian Koller <vze2mnvr_at_verizon.net>
Date: Sat Dec 29 07:13:41 2001

Tony,

> but then again if I'd not bought it and the other ones hadn't turned
> up I'd be kicking myself now. So on balance, no I'm not complaining.

 There's the karma thing too. If you hadn't bought the first one,
the other three might never have appeared either.




Tony Duell wrote:
>
> >
> > I have the opportunity to acquire a Decstation VT78 (basically a PDP-8
> > crammed into a VT52 terminal) but the price seems a bit steep. I've
> > been looking for one for abut 2 years and this is the first one I've
> > come across. It doesn't include the cart or any drives. Any thoughts
> > on how high I should go?
>
> How much do you want it, and more importantly how much can you afford?
>
> The only time I would worry about the exact 'value' of a machine is if I
> intended to immediately sell it. Obviously if I wanted to do that then
> I'd want to make a profit so I'd not want to pay as much for the machine
> as I could sell it for.
>
> But if I wanted to program/modify/use the machine, then how much I'd be
> prepared to pay would be ultimately governed by how much money I had
> spare (and what other toys I was intending to spend some of that spare
> money on).
>
> Suppose I spend $100 on a machine and later find out that somebody else
> has got one for $50. I'm not going to be particularly annoyed. Why should
> I be? I'm likely to get at least $100 worth of enjoyment from it.
>
> Another example : last year I managed to find a peripheral for one of my
> machines that I was looking for. Although it didn't work, it looked to be
> in reasonable condition, and I was happy to pay \pounds 25.00 for it. And
> I did manage to repair it (1 afternoon's work and a simple IC). A month
> or so later I was given another (working) one free of charge. And last
> week I was given 2 more of them. Do I regret buying the first one? I
> guess I complain that I didn't really need to spend that money, but then
> again if I'd not bought it and the other ones hadn't turned up I'd be
> kicking myself now. So on balance, no I'm not complaining.
>
> -tony
Received on Sat Dec 29 2001 - 07:13:41 GMT