----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronald Wayne" <AppleTO_at_gmail.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 6:50 PM
Subject: Re: eBay madness
> On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 15:53:27 -0400, Ed Kelleher <pres_at_macro-inc.com>
wrote:
> > Most complaints I think are just sour grapes. :-)
>
> Sour I may be, but there were plenty of sources of neat computer
> "junk" before eBay. And I liked those sources, thank-you very much.
> They cultivated a sense of patience and appreciation.
>
> In my books, collecting old computer stuff has as much to do with the
> hunt as anything else. If the hunt is turned into a keyword search
> and instant gratification, it looses its appeal. Why? I think it's
> because you learn a lot more about computers while hunting them down
> than you do with them at your finger tips.
>
Yes, there were probably places to find old stuff before eBay came along ,
but there was no single place that had the quantity and variety of equipment
with pictures!
I never learned that much from my computer search besides how to search. My
learning experience is from visiting forums and websites dedicated to the
equipment I like, searching Google for conversations about specific
hardware, software, and problems along with books, magazines and mailing
lists like this one. Then there is the knowledge learned from hooking the
things up and running something on them along with upgrades and other mods.
I think you are confusing the thrill of the hunt with the fun of playing
with the equipment itself. Some people love to tell a story about how they
found a part for their classic car in an old barn, or how they found an
expensive painting 300 miles away at a county auction, and then there are
always the funny stories about things that happen on the way to pick
something up. I don't see eBay being the one stop for everything store,
quite a bit of my collection was found on newsgroups, forums, and some from
people on this list. eBay is just a convenient source for some items that
would take years to show up in your local searches if ever. Believe me I
appreciate the deals I found on eBay and have the patience to wait for them
to come along 6 months or even years after I started looking for them. I
will also keep looking on the sources that have worked for me in the past.
Received on Tue Aug 31 2004 - 19:33:17 BST