26 Oct
1998
26 Oct
'98
12:35 p.m.
Chuck McManis said speaking of EBAY:
It sounds like this is a "bad" thing. Is it?
If so why?
----- START RANT -----------------
Yes, it a Baaad thing. I was very happy when my computers were "worthless"
(to everyone else), thank you very much for asking.
1) Computers are appearing everywhere. I don't have to look so hard
any more. As a result I don't yell "Yipee" as loud any more, especially
when I realize what it's going to cost me.
2) A good portion of the discussions on this list are about what some
machine is
worth. A hobby that allows a person to gain complex knowledge of
so many aspects of their machines and it history has been reducted
to the level of baseball trading cards and "beanies". I would
rather hear about how someone just got a machine running for the
first time in 15 years.
3) I see a "Low Tech" craze coming. People will be mounting S-100 boards
to hang on the wall. Just like the people that buy old magazines,
cut them up to frame the old advertisements. By piecing out a computer
they make alot of money, and someone has a piece of Americana to
decorate their den, but it's taking technology out of context.
This will come when the prices "crash". Imagine you need a S-100 disk
controller. You find one,it costs a fortune and you need to chip it
out of a block of Lucite, because someone made it into a paper weight.
4) I don't care for the way it makes people react. The following is from
the CP/M list last weekend:
About a week or so I let loose that I had a few IMSAI
chassis available.
This resulted in a deluge of mailings. I was rather amazed at this - that
anyone would want them at all.
I offered them for free (postage) and still am doing so. A couple of
takers
have been identified.
What I cannot abide is a few that got real abusive. I was offering
something
for nothing, yet a few insisted on demanding they get
the equipment. I
received some nasty insinuations and threats. This I will not
tolerate and
each party has been told so personally.
I wish to reiterate here that I am appalled at the behavior of these
few. It
was fortunate that the majority had better manners. I
nearly tossed the
whole batch in the garbage.
Excuse the venting - Sorry about the whole mess
Rich Raspenti
5) "Beanies" are made to be collectible. They don't have a story to tell.
They don't have a functionality that is greater than the sum of their
parts. You don't play with them. You just display them.
And that is the biggest problem. When a treasured possession becames too
valuable to use for fear of damaging it, that defeats MY purpose for
collecting computers.
- the not so oldtimer
----- END RANT -------------------------
It would seem that
eBay is making a market for older computers that before didn't exist. Now
is it that the 'old timers' who were used to picking up C64's at a garage
sale for $1 will now have to pay $25 are grumbling? Doesn't this
potentially increase the value of your own collection many fold? Isn't that
a good thing?
Traditionally there is a rush of "collectible fever" (if
you've ever dealt with collectibles, and my Dad has for many more years
than I) where lots of people rush in an buy anything that may be
collectible hoping to get in at the bottom of the next "beanie" craze, then
there is a rush of junk dealers who prey on those bozos and come in and
sell them a bunch of "L@@K! R@RE!" Commodore 64's or 486SL machines for
over market prices, and then there is a general "crash" of the market as
the bozo's leave and prices go back to more rational levels (but usually
higher than they were before the "collectible" craze hit) and then, if they
are truely collectable (and there are many properties of things that make
them so) then the price begins to reflect actual rarity, condition, and
that imponderable "desirability."
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Doug Coward
Press Start Inc.
Sunnyvale,CA
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