7 Apr
2013
7 Apr
'13
12:31 a.m.
Tony,
I'm sorry for your loss as well.
It's interesting to hear people's thoughts on this subject. I have something like
60 computers of varying kinds. Most of them aren't rare enough to be museum pieces.
Quite a few of them are US only models which I didn't sell on before moving to the
UK. My deal with myself was to stop collecting (hoarding) and do work with a museum. I
think I do more retro-computing now than I ever did as a collector alone, and on much more
interesting systems. I'd love to think I could just dump them all on the museum if I
fell under a bus, but that's not fair on them. Who really needs a NTSC Atari 600XL
with a 110 power supply in England? I might as well bin it for all the use it would be to
anyone, or for the cost of posting it back to the states. And yet, that's the last
thing I want to do. But at the same time, even as I sit here I know the collection is an
albatross weighing on me. I don't even use them anymore. All my retro-computing
energy goes into museum work. None of my family or work colleagues are interested? so
what to do.
Here my solution for what its worth -- eBay the lot, starting now. many of them at a
loss, back to the US. Alternatively, maybe I'll do a VCF East with a stand. Either
way, if I want them preserved, I'll end up having to pay for it. Anything I want to
keep playing with goes to the museum here if it's not an unnecessary duplicate. If
it is, then I eBay it and play with the museum's copy. I'd love for there to be
an instant answer, but this whole divesting thing will take me years. But for me creating
a 'collection' to pass on isn't really an option.
I'll watch other responses with interest.
-Colin
On 6 Apr 2013, at 21:42, ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
Since my father passed away a couple of months ago I
have been giving
serious thoguth to making a formal wil myself (when my father was around,
he would have known who to contact about various things).
My first ;'choice' is to give everything to a personal friend who has
been on this list. He shares enough of my interests that he will realise
what is valuable and what is perhaps not so valuable. But the problem is
tha said friend is about the same age as me, and it is not certainn he
wil loutlive me. Of course if he passes away long before me, I can
producve a new will, but it is worth putting a clause in the one I am
currently writing to say what happens if he is not around.
Now, as well as my classic computers there's also cmaeras, books, tools,
test gear, other electronci stuff, etc.
I would rather leave everything to one person/orgnaisation (rather than
say 'the classic computers go to <a>, the tools go to <b>, etc) or worse
still 'I leave my PDP11/45 system to <foo>', etc. In the latter case if I
have, say, swapped my 11/45 for an 11/790 at some point then <foo> gets
nothing, even though it was probably my intention that he would get the
11/70. In the former case, there could be disputes as to what category
certain things fall into -- is the 'Datacopy 300' (an early digital camera
that needs a classic PERQ to run it) a 'classic computer peripheral' or a
'camera', for example.
Does anyone have any serious suggestions for an organisation (and yes, I
am considering computer museums here, no matyter what I may have said i
nthe past) who would be prepared to take the lot and pass on that which
was of no use to them to other organisations or enthusiasts?
-tony