Thinning the herd.

Hunter S. Thompson once said; ".... but once you get into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can..." My drug, of course was classic computers. I shared this "hobby" with my father, whom was retired USAF and retired TWA aircraft mechanic. We would tinker with all sorts of stuff we collected and finally when we had no more room, built a small storage shed.Then a few more, until we had about 2-3. When I had to downsize because of the economy and moved, I stored my collection inside the various sheds we built on his large parcel of land in the Sonoran dessert, Putting them away when we finished or stored them to await further restoration. I don't know how many pdp's or HP we restored or fix to working condition, then gave away to students in the area. I was the bigger collector though. I was most interested in all the DEC stuff we got at auction for next to nothing; alphas, vax;s the occasional pdp's. But I also collected anything that was "pre-80's' Well, my father passed away last month. We had already stopped working on stuff when he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. I would always be back at the shed picking through stuff for my projects. Unfortunately, much of the stuff that was well-ordered and nicely on racks, etc was taken doen when my dad would be searching for stuff and couldn't remember what he was looking for.A lot of the stuff was "reordered" and some "lost" or stored in one of the sheds that lost it's roof in a fierce storm and was all waterlogged. But a lot is still OK. It took me only a few days recently, to realize, that I should be thinning this heard down. My mother may decide to move as she gets older and I cannot move all this stuff to storage. Much of it is commodity stuff. By that I mean it was part of the "lots" we would buy at the university auctions. For one item we wanted, we had to but the whole lot. Much was discarded, but some of it still remains. Sun and SGI stuff, older HP stuff. The stuff I valued, DEc stuff and my pre-80's stuff too need to be taken care of. I have decided to "sell" a bunch of the stuff. Those that will still fetch a decent price on Ebay. Most of the money will go to my mom as her income has been greatly diminished by my fathers death. And besides, she put up with us for all those years. Other stuff, I'll sell to anyone interested in throwing a few buck my way. A lot of stuff is just to be given away. So I"ll be doing triage at first. It is getting "warm" here in SE arizona, on it way to HOT and I'll be doing triage slowly, in the morning and it will take months. There is a lot of stuff I'll give away to anybody that wants it, some is in great condition, some terrible, I'll let you know which. I have lots of odd cabling and lots of odd stuff. If you are looking for something. let me know. I also have lots of documentation and some of it I know Al Kossow was interested in. I soon as I find a cheap/fee web space. I'll start posting what is available, rather than cluttering this mailing list. But here are a few things: A complete IBM RT system (romp processor) with most/all the software and documentation. A couple of AT&T systems, a "lot" of qbus pdp and vax stuff. An 11/04 unibus system with third part floppy's and an TV07 tape drive ( tape drive complete but not functioning) along with the "PDP" rack it's in. A Tektronix 4051 computer, a OSI superboard, a few HP 9000/300 systems. Lots of tabletop vaxes and alphas. a lot of vt 520 terminals, as well as some ADM-3A, VT100's, Vt 220. Vt 320''s and other odd terminals. A few of the Qbus Mac cards. If you are near Tucson Arizona or are coming to the area this summer, you may be able to pick it up in person, or maybe pick through all the stuff. This is not a fire sale! I have decided to let it go slowly as the day may come where I would have to get rid of it fast, but not now. But I'm ready to deal and while most of this stuff isn't really rare and expensive, it;s still worth a few sheckles to collectors. and the money's going to a good cause. Cheers Tom P.