On Mon, 22 Sep 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
On Mon, 22 Sep 1997, Zane H. Healy wrote:
I guess I'm in the wrong part of the West
Coast! In the Portland area I've
only gotten lucky enough to find stuff that cheep once or twice. Plus it
seems like most stuff is either a C64, a 1541 drive, or a TI-99/4a, and
they are always bare. You can't find stuff like power supplies, cables, or
whatever else it takes to make them function without a LOT of looking. The
average price at GW in this area for any item of this class is about $10!
I think my best find ever around here was a TI-99/4a with PS, modulator,
cassette cable, and 3 carts (which included extended BASIC) for $4.
Needless to say this wasn't at GW it was another local Thrift Store which
happens to be litterly next door to GW.
Here's a hint for everyone...don't waste your time at Goodwill (well,
usually). All the good stuff is at those for profit or non-chain thrift
stores. Look for places like Thrift Town, Thrift Center, Thrift This,
Thrift That, etc.
I've heard that Goodwills take all the computer junk and auction it off.
I never, ever find any computer stuff at Goodwills or Salvation Army's.
I used to find stuff at the Salvation Army, and occasionally find some
software (found an MSX cassette of all things at one recently) but never
any hardware.
I think it varies with the locale! In San Diego, Goodwill accumulates
the donated hard/software and offers it up at a biennial sale. Now days,
most of it is PC clone stuff, certainly, but 8-bit stuff does show up.
There are some good buys and some lousy ones. Just like most sales!
Salvation Army, on the other hand, apparently sells their donations
through their stores as it comes in and is priced. Pretty skinny market,
as I see it.
- don
Sam Alternate
e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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