Computer Hardware Documentation Bidders Mailing List?

Over the past couple of months, I've been trying to accumulate some basic DEC documentation. There is quite a bit available on the web, but I've needed a number of manuals/schematics/etc. that I haven't been able to find, and as a result I've been forced to use E-pay more than I would have liked. I don't know how many of you out there have checked the DEC/PDP offerings on ebay, but there has been quite a lot offered recently in the way of documentation. Unfortunately, I find myself bidding against people who share my same interest, and it saddens me since I've always felt that documentation should be available for everyone who wants it (please, no flames! This is just a personal opinion) Documentation is unique in that, in many cases, a photocopy (or scanned image) in place of the actual document would be just as useful to me as the original since my interests lean towards restoring the hardware, rather than collecting the "original" documentation. I also see small manuals/schematic sets/etc. being broken up into indivudual items and going for what I believe is much more than they are worth (again, no flames!, this is just my opinion). It has occured to me that if a mailing list were set up where a person could post their intention of bidding on a specific piece of duplicatable documentation, then other potential bidders could contact the initial poster and work out a deal where they could "share" the cost of the initial poster's bid (plus copying charges), in return for not competing with the initial poster's bid.You may have noticed that I have avoided the problem of copyright infringement. I believe that with documentation of the vintage that I am refering to, such issues are probably moot, especially since In many cases the companies no longer exist. As far as the sellers on E-bay go, they have a significant advantage since their individual items remain on the block for days, rather than minutes as in a "real" auction. (but let's not turn this into yet another "is E-bay fair?" thread :-) Also, I wonder of some of the on-line "Computer Museums" might consider hosting an on-line documentation repository, where people could submit scanned schematics/manuals/etc. for (free) web-based access and archival purposes. It would be a tremendous service to our on-line community. Currently, this is being done by a number of very helpful individuals, but I would think that some of the "real" museum sites might be more capable of organizing such info and supporting the amount of storage needed. Again, I'm just throing these ideas out to see if anyone thinks they have any merit... -al- -acorda(a)geocities.com