the end of that time, the highest offer of reasonable value will be awarded
the item. If no offers are received on an item, or the offers are
insufficient, a new date may be established. If an offer is received
that is considered to be unlikely to be matched/exceeded, an item may be
awarded prior to the end of the seven day period.
Since the intent is not to start 'eBay' like bidding wars, the quantity of
or amounts of offers received will not be disclosed either on the page or
through direct communication.
Once an item has been awarded, payment for the item and shipping must be
received within seven days or the item will be offered to the next closest
offer.
Optionally, COD shipment can be requested on a Money Order/Certified Funds
basis, but any COD items will be shipped via 2-3 day method with the
accompaning increase in shipping/handling rate.
There will be one exception in the method of awarding of items with regard
to determination of 'winning' offer. A year or so back, Sellam spearheaded a
fund raising drive when a major part of the collection was in imminent
threat of being lost to a storage auction.
Were it within my pervue at the present time to allow it, I would offer
any of the people who donated funds at the time free choice of some number of
items that they wished in return for their past support. However, since my
current situation does not allow this I offer the following: Any person
who had donated funds toward the collection's past storage fees who makes
an offer on any item or items will be awarded the item if their offer is
within 25% of the highest offer received for that item during the
offering period.
Hardware and peripheral items will be listed first. Over the next few
weeks/months printed materials will be getting scanned for archiving and
then added to the offering. Many of the printed items had not been
listed on the 'Garage' site so there may be some interesting appearances.
For any given item, if it remains unclaimed for an extended period it will
become subject to disposal by whatever means necessary.
Unpleasant on many levels, but this is what has become necessary.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What has lead to this action:
The collection as it currenty exists is the end result of nearly thirty
years of working in the computer industry and represents both machines
that I had personally worked with or had a significant interest in, and
machines that I was merely trying to save from the scrap heap.
The sad part about history is that while important, it also tends to be
large and fairly heavy. This is true regardless of if you are speaking about
books, media, or hardware. And while books and media can be preserved in
more 'compact' forms, this is not true for the hardware of which I have a fair
amount.
As one accumulates more, unless they are particularly fortunate or adept
at things financial, they also accumulate ever increasing costs for the
continuing storage and preservation of the materials. After a while, these costs can
become overwhelming.
At one point, I was paying over $400.00 a month in storage fees for the
parts of the collection that did not actually reside in the Garage (when still
located in Oregon). And while I have been able to significantly reduce
the storage fees since the move to Kansas, they are still nearly $100.00
a month.
While this may seem a somewhat minimal (if not insignificant to some)
amount to deal with, it is actually a larger percentage of my monthly
income with the career change that accompanied the move. So in fact, the
burden has actually increased.
To put this in perspective, when still in Oregon I had personal debts
(mortgage, recurring storage charges, and such things) of over $200,000
which I just never seemed to gain any ground on.
Since the move, I have been able to reduce the remaining debts to right
around $40,000, but have again found myself in the position of just not
being able to gain any ground on them, and more disturbingly as things
slow in the summer season I find myself actually losing ground.
This adversely impacts both the business and family, as we have twice had
to move when unable to keep up with little things like rent, utilities,
etc...
And I've had it with schlepping boxes! And I want to oversee the
redistribution of the items in the collection before I lose control of it.
Establishing and building up the new business/career has taken more time,
investment, and effort than originally expected. And while in general
terms we are not as far off 'plan' as it could have been considering the
current state of the local and national economy, I just can not continue
to ask my family to make additional sacrifices in order to continue to
maintain the collection and then have to struggle by week by week. Were
it just me, it might not be an issue but that is not the situation.
I have maintained the collection as well as financed (when needed) new
acqusitions almost completely out-of-pocket over the years, and long ago
stopped trying to figure how much had been spent in the efforts. It was
just getting too depressing... Even when something is given/donated it
still comes with an attached cost: transport, shipping, storage,
repairs/restoration, etc... There is still 'no free lunch'...
So... barring the arrival of some unforeseen benefactor or a sudden
'lucky streak' in PowerBall, (of course, hard to win when you can't
really afford to play, eh) the sad reality is that it is time to let it
go...
Some may ask, 'if things are that dire, why not a major eBay effort?'
Well; two reasons. I suppose the 'self-serving' one first - I would
prefer that the items went to someone who has some true appreciation for
them rather than just someone who has some money to drop and a big
'bidding jones' on at the moment.
And then, the 'real world' reason - I can't. In part because I owe eBay
money from past auctions and in part because of complaints filed due to
excessive delays in getting items shipped. (Truth sucks some days, eh?)
To get back to some level of 'stability', I need to raise just shy of
$10,000 by mid-August at the latest. Should that effort fail, well...
Unpleasentness at the very least... And to salvage the latest house deal
I need to come up with $2500 in the next couple of weeks.
Life just keeps getting better, eh? (major ironic flag here)
Over the past few months, I've already sacrificed some (non-computer
related) items that had more meaning to me than a large part of the items
remaining in the collection. What an unpleasent realization THAT was one
recent morning...
It just has to stop one way or the other...
All items that have been offered recently will continue to be shipped as
quickly as time and finances permit. Much of the time it is a matter of
getting payments in fast enough to stay ahead of the bills so the bank
does not take the money before I can get to it...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My warmest regards and thanks to all who have supported my efforts over
the years. My primary regret is that I did not have the skills necessary to
accomplish the greater goals.
Further announcements to follow...
-jim
---
jimw_at_agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Received on Sun Feb 27 2005 - 13:35:59 GMT