Price Check on Aisle 5

From: Fred N. van Kempen <waltje_at_pdp11.nl>
Date: Mon Sep 15 11:20:01 2003

Chris,

> Where is a good resource to find out saleable values of classic computer
> hardware? I know eBay isn't really all that great because it isn't
> consistent enough. What goes for $5 today may go for $500 tomorrow, and
> then not sell at all the next day.
Sadly, that IS the reality of things. Retro computing seems to be the
ultimate in terms of 'market working'... things many collectors want,
but only few seem to have, can, and, quite often, will get, insane
price tags.

> Like many others, I'm painfully short on money right now, and I've just
> lost my storage area, so I can't hang on to things much longer. So I'm
> trying to find out what is worth what, so I know what to try to sell,
> versus give away, versus throw away (I'm already making the tough
> decision on what to keep, but that's not really based on monetary value
> so much as personal value to me).
Although I am fortunate enough to be mostly a buyer, I too decided to
get rid of some of it- mostly because it's either not my "core" stuff
(DEC PDP11-VAX-MIPS-ALPHA and stuff linked to it), or I have too much
of the same stuff, which takes up too much space. Sad :(

> not just the value in terms of what its worth IF you can find a buyer...
> but also value in terms of will it sell at all? (It doesn't do me much
> good if something is "worth" $100, but no one really wants to buy it
> right now).
Worth is defined by how many people want it. I have several nice
DSSI tape drives and library systems here, which are worth a lot,
but so far, nobody was willing to wheel 'em outta here... so.. their
value currently is (EURO *)NULL.

Cheers,
        Fred
-- 
Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist
Visit the VAXlab Project at                     http://www.pdp11.nl/VAXlab/
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Email: waltje_at_pdp11.nl         BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Received on Mon Sep 15 2003 - 11:20:01 BST

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