Quothe Patrick Finnegan, from writings of Sun, Apr 18, 2004 at
08:27:35PM -0500:
> Because there are some people willing to pay money for machines. Nearly
> every machine I'd stick the "really cool" label on, I paid for. Some
> things are hard to find, and even harder to get anyone to give up.
> UNIBUS '11s are a good example.
Hmmm... and humph! See below...
> And, I'd disagree that these things don't have any value. The have
> value, if not for any better reason than for insurance purposes. Also,
> saying they aren't worth any more than it costs to transport them hurts
See, this is what happens when collectors start poking their noses
into hobbies that were once inexpensive. Prices start to go up and
then only the collectors with deep pockets filled with money that
comes loose from them too easily, who are more interested in long-term
profits than fun, can afford the toys. If I was earning several
billion dollars a year, I'd still refuse to pay high prices for old
computer systems, since that would take the fun out of the hobby.
> in the long run. There's people that send this stuff to scrappers
> because they think it's worthless. If I can keep one more functional
Convincing people that this equipment might be _wanted_ by some
people, and convincing them to let hobbyists preserve it for good
reason, would be the better solution than making them think it has
some ridiculously high value. That eliminate the little variable
called greed that's bound to creep into the equation.
> saved that one. I don't care that I don't have it as much as *no one*
> has it. I'd rather see this stuff get preserved than get far enough
> down the train to end up in a dumpster or in a scrap yard. Sure, it
Surely most of us feel that way...
> might be a little more expensive, but it seems worth it to me.
...but I, for one, don't feel that needless inflation has to come into
play in order for equipment to be preserved.
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
Received on Sun Apr 18 2004 - 21:52:20 BST