12 Nov
2007
12 Nov
'07
6:34 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at gmail.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: Commodore 65 = $5,000
You are very wrong. The Big Boys are just as open and
nice as the
average collectors. Most are happy to show off their toys, and many
will indeed trade. The Big Boys also tend to have plans for their
estates, including their expensive collections - something the average
collectors are sorely lacking.
Of course, when someone like you whines about them, smears their
names, and somehow places your collecting philosophy above their's -
well, I would not be expecting any invites and time soon...
--
Will
Sure some Big Boys are nice enough to show you around their collection, if
you happen to meet them socially and live in their area. What would be wrong
with having the top 1,000 computer rarities being spread out among 1,000
different people in different parts of the world instead of in one persons
private collection 99% of people cannot go to see even if it was open to the
public?
When I was in highschool my friends and I used to collect coins, stamps,
baseball cards, and comic books. A friend and I used to go to the local
stamp and coin dealer on Saturday mornings to buy our supplies and read the
Linn stamp news to see what items they had picked to explore in that issue.
Sure enough when the owner was done buying or selling to the bigger
collectors he would bring over a rarity for us to look at and tell us the
history of the item. For a kid with little money trying to save up for
college that was a very nice thing to do. These days the smaller shops are
gone and the larger ones are by appointment only and you better have a good
reference and a big bank account to get in. A friend in college was very big
into comic books when he was young and had some rare older items he would
let me look at, these days the rarities are encased in a plastic holder,
graded, sealed in a tamper proof case, and are not to be opened and looked
at. Give it some time and the rare vintage computers will be in the same
boat as the rest of the hobby market (an investment). There have been
articles in the Wall Street Journal about the vintage computer hobby. Its
just nice being able to enjoy a (what used to be a geek only) hobby without
having to invest a mint into it. Stamp collecting used to be a cheap hobby
until is started attracting considerable attention in the 1930's (pricing
guides) and became an investment in the 1980's (crazy price increases).
Who's name did I smear? I mentioned Bill Gates because people know him as
being very rich (and as others have pointed out he isn't even a vintage
computer collector). As you mentioned the bigger collections tend to be
better looked after when the person dies, so its not all bad. I just have a
bad feeling when a hobby turns into an investment, and people show up just
to make money.
TZ