heck, are 11/785s extinct?

There may not be many 11/78x machines in hobbyist hands. There may not be too many corporations subscribed to this list :-) It took me many years (admittedly in the UK) before I came across a uPDP-11. I've never seen a Robin (hint,hint...). You need to be patient. In my experience, the docs and hardware will come along at different times - never turn down an incomplete package (I'm preaching to the converted here since you have the innards already !). How many VAX-11/78x machines were produced? These days you expect that thousands of any machine would be sold (except maybe the specialised supercomputers). I believe that for the VAX 9000 series, only 400-500 made it out of the door. The same order of magnitude may well be true for the VAX-11/78x systems. How long have people been collecting such large machines? I don't have the room - I could not realistically find room for a VAX 4000 right now, never mind anything bigger! I don't know anything about the 11/780 => 11/785 upgrade but I would be surprised if the backplane had to be replaced. They may all be in dealers wharehouses and defence sites and nuclear power stations. I did hear of three being decommissioned in the UK a few years ago but that's about it. I suspect the underlying assumption is just that there are not that many of the beasts still around. I guess by the time I have the room for one of these, there won't be any left! Antonio