1 Jul
1999
1 Jul
'99
7:40 a.m.
Many systems develop a negative value. We were given one system, for
instance, which would have cost the owner $1,000 to dispose of. We have
several other systems which would have represented a significant cost to
their owner if they had not been given to us.
As for the $1300 MITS drive, has anyone ever heard of depreciation?
After 5-10 years it is worth NOTHING. Something to counterbalance the
belief in wonderful deals on eBay.
On Thu, 1 Jul 1999, John Foust wrote:
At 11:02 AM 7/1/99 -0600, you wrote:
M. K. Peirce
Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
215 Shady Lea Road,
North Kingstown, RI 02852
"Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
- Ovid
In a recent auction on eBay, a MITS Floppy Disk Drive was auctioned off at
$565. "WOW!" you may say, but that unit cost $1300 when new, and that was
in dollars that were a DOLLAR, and not just the price of a candy bar.
I suppose there must be a web site, somewhere, that would let you enter
a date and a US dollar amount, and would show you the equivalent value
in today's dollars, accounting for actual inflation, etc. in the
intervening years.
Which reminds me, when I was in high school, we sold candy bars to
fund the purchase of a few K of RAM for the IMSAI as well as a floppy drive.
I'm presently in the process of selling off
excess 8" floppy drives for $5
each,
Similarly, you'd think there would be a web site somewhere to
remind people of the rapid devaluation of the value of computer
equipment - say, perhaps the flip side of Moore's Law, that shows
how simply purchasing and opening the box of a new computer causes
a significant drop in value, followed by subsequent halvings of
resale value every six months, until it quickly reaches the
"nuisance fee" level mentioned above, where the cost of shipping
and packing seems to exceed the street price.
- John