Speaking of eBay

From: Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink_at_verizon.net>
Date: Wed Dec 29 09:32:11 2004

> > A hefty price for a 5.25" floppy and 6 sheets of paper. . .
>
> No kidding!
>
> This is like the Nassau solder wierdness on ePay. search for
> "nassau solder". Apparently it was a captive manu of solder
> (yes, the Sn/Pb stuff) owned by Western Electric (one can
> imagine they used enough of the stuff to own a factory). It still
> doesn't explain the outrageous prices people pay for the stuff.
>
> The choices are:
>
> a. People are incredibly stupid, and believe anything they are told.
> b. There is Something We Don't Know.
> c. Both.
> d. Neither.
> e. WTF, Over?
> f. Did someone say lunch?
>

I don't recall where I read it now... (somewhere in a newsgroup) but
it seems to be fueled by Japanese vintage (read tube) stereo collectors.
The original service and repair manuals spec that particular kind of
solder and there seems to be a belief that the modern equivalent is not
mixed (alloyed, whatever) correctly. So if you pay big bucks for a
tube stereo but it is repaired with the "wrong" solder, you still don't
get the "magic" sound you're looking for, hence you'll pay several
hundred bucks for an old spool of solder. Apparently, they'll even have
working units that appear to contain "incorrect" solder disassembled
all of the "bad" solder removed and then reassembled with the "right"
stuff.
Received on Wed Dec 29 2004 - 09:32:11 GMT