Ed's response [WAS: Ebay reaches new low]

Ed, since I started this thread, maybe I can respond to some of your points. I don't blame e-bay or you for running the ads (it's a free continent), but I think you've crossed a line of common sense or fair business practice. In short, my objections to your ads are as follows: 1) You're selling such tiny pieces that they'd be easy to fake 2) Even as collectibles, they're not very interesting, and 3) I'd prefer to preserve old computers, not cut them up for scrap. Sorry for hurting your feelings, but consider: There are a lot of scammers out there - in the art and antiques world, fakes and reproductions abound. Old and historic computers are starting to attract serious money, so the incentive to create computer fakes is growing. To be blunt, you carve your scrap into such small pieces that I could saw up an old file cabinet or raid my spares box and I could make pieces indistinguishable from what you're selling. You don't even have any pictures of the parts in place before you carved up the machine to act as a "provenance" - the bills of sale just prove that you had a Univac at one time. Please note, I'm not accusing you of lying or faking anything - I'm just saying that it would be easy to produce such fakes, so "buyer beware". And, even as collectibles, I don't feel that what you're selling is not very interesting. Old vacuum tubes, circuit boards, and hard drive platters/innards at least have some visual interest. If you can sell 6" x 10" pieces of painted metal as historic computer collectibles, you're a heck of a salesman. Most importantly, the members of this list are generally people who want to preserve/restore old computers in working condition. We are always on the prowl for rare or unusual computers and spare parts. Increasingly, some older computers are being carved up to produce collectibles like the ones you sell. A concrete example is core memory planes from PDP-8 computers; some people rip these out of old 8s and hang them on the wall as art - most of us would prefer to preserve the working machine. Just my thoughts. Mark. -----Original Message----- From: helicopterman(a)webtv.net <helicopterman(a)webtv.net> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, November 10, 1999 3:58 PM Subject: Re: Ebay reaches new low lings:((