30 Apr
1999
30 Apr
'99
10:25 p.m.
Dwight wrote:
We are actually quite spoiled from getting $50k computers for nothing, and
you become jaded thinking everything should have that sort of discount. Its
a marketplace, and I freely admit it is a heck of a lot nicer to be on the
buying end with no other serious bidders. Two months ago I was at an
auction of telephone equipment, maybe $75k in phones and related PBX type
boxes, with one little lot of a dozen old macs at the end. I almost bought
them for pennies on the dollar, except for one other person bidding, and
found myself really grousing at paying 10 cents on the dollar. Twisted.
The amount of items we have to pay a serious amount as a percentage of new
cost is so small we have no good reason to complain. Thats the way the old
stuff is, a buck for the printer, and $25 each for a cartridge and a AC
adapter to make it work.
I can't understand why anyone would expect
too high
a price for these, though. Although not common, many
were just tossed out.
There is an item in my collection for which I had to pay five times the
original list price, because of this very phenomenon. Things that used
to be common as dirt and got thrown away when they became obsolete are
sometimes amazingly hard to find.