Sounds like a great way to raise funds for the museums
would being
passed up this way. The museum could always auction off what they
didn't need, on site or on the Web, offer on lists like this one to the
highest bidder, etc. Funds raised this way could then go for museum
support, other acquisitions, expansion, public education programs, etc.
RCS/RI does this alreay (and also because we are moving away from the
micro and workstation arena). Too bad one of our first Ebay customers
turned out to be a big jerk...
On the flip side, we at RCS/RI can not devote tons of time to selling
stuff at auction, so lots of what we get does end up not being sold, but
given away and so forth.
I think the vintage computer field is slowly heading
in the same
direction as the antique/vintage radio arena, which is fairly mature at
this point. The parallels are significant and I'm sure many of you are
aware of this. We can all learn by the mistakes and achievements made
there and structure ourselves (vintage computer collectors/historians)
/preservationists) accordingly.
It is actually happening without the need to "structure ourselves". It
happens with all new fields of collectables.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org