16 Nov
2006
16 Nov
'06
4:03 p.m.
On Nov 16, 2006, at 5:09 PM, Richard wrote:
That's definately at work in the Heathkit category. There are also
certain things that get priced all crazy because of the level of
interest (and not just auction fever). Things like the CompuColor
terminal, the ASR-33 teletype (there's one in good shape going for
$500+ right now on ebay),
If I had it (I'm broke right now) I'd pay that in a heartbeat for
a working ASR-33. Where I live, they're scarce as hens' teeth. A
friend up in NY has offered me one for free, but I can't seem to
scrape up enough time and money to go get it.
Perhaps I'm just underestimating the 'I simply
have to have that!'
factor which seems to play a part in a lot of transactions,
though :-)
Quite possibly. That happened to me when I bought my H-8. Boy
was I eating ramens for a while after that. I'm willing to bet,
though, there's a bona-fide personal affinity at work in a lot of
those situations...not just "auction fever". the Tektronix 40x0 storage scope terminals
and the ADM-3A terminal are all bid up beyond what any other kind of
serial terminal could command. Now the CompuColor and the Tektronix
have some interesting capabilities, but the ADM-3A is really quite
plain from a functional viewpoint. Its just that it was *the* period
CRT for 70s micros and showed up in all the advertising and whatnot so
there is quite a bit of interest in it. Its not just the case styling
because the ADM-5 has the same case styling and it doesn't generate as
much interest as the ADM-3A.
Now that's an interesting point. (I didn't even know there *was*
an ADM-5 until maybe ten years ago, but everyone has heard of the
ADM-3A from "back in the day")
This suggests that the commonality or rarity of a particular piece
of hardware can have TWO effects on its value: Rarity may push its
value up (due to, well, rarity), while that same rarity can push its
value down because people generally don't seem to get too excited
about things they have no idea even exist.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Cape Coral, FL