17 Jul
2014
17 Jul
'14
3:05 a.m.
I've been helping in some restorations recently (both my own, and someone I
know's Sun 1...) and one of the questions
that have come up is valuation (say for insurance, etc, or acquiring
another system...)
Is there some sort of collected list of values of some of vintage machines
that have sold, either ebay, privately,
auction, etc.?
I know that something is worth only what someone will pay for it, but for
insurance purposes at least you'd need
some sort of benchmark to give to the insurance company... I know you don't
get a good valuation if you let them do it...
When considering insurance, I think the questions to ask are if the system is a
total loss, would it be possible to replace it with an acceptable equivelant
and if so, how much would it cost to do this. However difficult this is to
calculate in a way acceptable to the insurance company now, bear in mind that
in the event of a claim, they are probably going to go over values with a fine
toothed comb and by then, costs and availablilty may well have changed.
If it isn't possible to replace it, then there is no point in insuring it.
Someone who regards classic computers as some sort of investment would probably
disagree but I don't think that's what we are about here. Museums would
probably disagree for different reasons.
Regards,
Peter Coghlan.