25 Oct
2001
25 Oct
'01
6:22 a.m.
Love it or hate it, eBay is the most credible source
of pricing or value
that I know of. Last night, really the past week, I have been digging
deeply into the purchases I have made in the last few months, and I found a
really cool looking box, HP SureStore 12000e. 10 minutes on the HP site,
and I knew all about the buttons on the front, but not what the damn thing
WAS. 2 minutes on eBay and I knew I had a nice 48 GB DDS tape array storage
thing worth $175 or so, that had drivers for windows etc. that I could
download for free (and had the links to do so in the eBay ad).
Love it or hate it? I think love-hate is what most people experience. I've
found some great deals on eBay, esp. since they added the BuyItNow option. I
got an Intraserver dual channel U2W SCSI controller that had the VMS-enabled
ROMs for $75 that way. I also got a TZ867 that I upgraded to a DLT4700 for
$250 when the product wouldn't sell due to the seller's shipping costs (the
seller is local and I picked the item up; original opening bid was $500). The
drive included the library cartridge (usually sell for ~$50.00 alone on eBay
and four OpenVMS distributions tapes I added to my library). I also find good
deals due to typos or odd categories (such as a TKZ60 drive for $5.00; now all
I need is a SCSI 9-track drive to cover the media I need to access).
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/