4 Aug
2001
4 Aug
'01
4:09 a.m.
On Fri, 3 Aug 2001, Ernest wrote:
I think that I read in one of the articles about VCF
east that Sellam
thought that there might be 500 serious collectors. I can't remember
the exact quote but it was something like that.
I think in a partially drunken spewage of "facts" during an interview I
said 500-1000. I think it's definitely closer to 1,000 worldwide. It's
may be even higher, but I was trying to be conservative.
I was just curious to know if that number (whatever it
was) is
approximately correct? How do you define "serious collector?" Is it by
number of machines a collector has? Would someone who has a handful of
very rare computers qualify as serious? What if someone spent years
doing an educated hunt for just one particular system that no one else
has, and found it. Would they be a serious collector? Or is it based
on the kind of computer being collected -like DEC vs. Apple, etc.?
If we define "serious" as someone who actively engages in computer
collecting activities (goes looking for them once in a while, maybe even
has a website), I think that number is definitely between 500-1000
(worldwide).
Drop "serious" from the equation and what you have is probably more like
5,000 collectors worldwide. Probably more.
(And I want each and every one of them to come to the VCF ;)
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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