Just curious. In what other marketplace can you ignore the 10 highest and
the 10 lowest prices on an interesting vintage computer and have anything
left to average? I would be thrilled if there were 30 Commodore 65, Atari
1450XLD or SOL-20 sales in a year to determine their value, but I don't
think that's going to ever happen. If you significantly stretch out the
time frame you are averaging over you are going to smooth over important
events affecting the value of vintage computer equipment. As an interested
party I plan on buying Mike and Sellam's book but we have to realize that
eBay has an impact on the value of our collections and while like most rabid
collectors the dollar value of my collection is not what is important to me
it certainly will be important if I ever have to deal with my insurance
agent.
As for eBay, the last time I checked the eBay dollars I was spending and
being paid in were worth the same as the dollars my employer is paying me
every week. I would not have been able to acquire the 300+ computers I have
if it were not for eBay. Newsgroups and mailing lists are great for sharing
ideas, offering assistance and making contacts but they are really a pretty
poor way to buy, sell and trade interesting vintage computers. I for one am
damn thankful eBay is as successful as it is.
Nick Miller
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sellam Ismail" <foo_at_siconic.com>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: Help with pricing on vintage computers?
> On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, John Allain wrote:
>
> > There's Mike Nadeau and Sellam Ismael's "real"
> > book on the subject, wherever it is.
>
> It's on Amazon, for one ;)
>
> > Spend 2 hours a week on eBay category 1247
> > http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/list/category1247 or the search
> > engine to know their prices for whatever it is that you want.
>
> Ugh. I cannot express enough how much I abhor eBay prices. Unless you
> knock off the top 10 highest and bottom 10 lowest prices then take the
> average, the prices on eBay only reflect pricing in eBay dollars, which is
> to say it is based on some pricing that is of another dimension and has no
> meaning in our own universe.
>
> The corollary is that if there are not enough representative samples to
> knock off the top 10 and bottom 10 then eBay is not suitable to use as a
> means to price things.
>
> Buy Mike's book instead.
>
> Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
> International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
>
> * Old computing resources for business and academia at
www.VintageTech.com *
>
>
Received on Sun Jan 12 2003 - 17:28:46 GMT