pdp 11s to be auctioned at Goddard

From: Mike Ford <mikeford_at_socal.rr.com>
Date: Wed Mar 21 15:22:14 2001

>> I've been to several of these. While otherwise wonderful, these
>> auctions have classic "government auction" problems. You'll see, for
>> example, a lot consisting of three pallets of stuff...one will contain
>> a Dynabyte or something like that with ZERO cash value but that you'd
>> really love to get, and the rest of it will consist of 2.5 pallets of
>> dead VGA monitors. During the auction you'll find some guy who bids
>> the lot up to $3,000. Wondering why, you watch him loading it into
>> his truck at the end of the day...and underneath the dead VGA monitors
>> will be one HP 8566B spectrum analyzer or something like that, that he
>> will have ALREADY SOLD on his cell phone for $20,000.
>
>In your expirence, and using the above example, could you approach the guy
>and make an offer for the Dynabyte or will he get pissy or greedy?

You don't try, you don't know. With most of these guys its business, but
time is money, so don't expect to haggle over $50 to $100 when they are
working on $10,000. Don't get in their way, ie don't expect them to put the
cell phone call on hold to chat. Wait til they look halfway free, then tell
them two things; first that you want some specific item, and make a fair
offer for it. A really good phrase is that you have one and need some
parts. Don't offer too much, but make it worth his while to talk to you, ie
$20 to $50 unless it has some obvious value. Lots of the time if an offer
is genuine, but small to them they say take it.
Received on Wed Mar 21 2001 - 15:22:14 GMT