4 Aug
2001
4 Aug
'01
10:47 a.m.
I disagree.
Collecting firearms has been greatly complicated by recent laws, yet
it remains very popular. Getting old iron shipped does not require the
paperwork and problems having a rifle or handgun shipped across state
lines does.
Vintage hardware is valuable, and will appreciate in value. Demand will
rise, and supplies will only drop for the really classic stuff.
What do you think people might pay for a working Imsai 8080 in 20 years?
Jeff Hellige wrote:
Take a big step
back and look at us, we are half way to the loony bin for
collecting this stuff. Old computers are NOT an investment opportunity, and
nobody normal is going to start thinking they are from a few human interest
stories.
I'd have to agree. Most of it isn't worth enough to make
having to deal with how bulky it is worth while from a dealer's
standpoint. It's not like coins and stamps where you can toss all
the really common stuff into a box. This is what will keep
speculators zeroing in on specific machines to buy/sell vice doing as
they did with the various other hobbies and buying everything under
the sun. In that respect, due to the space requirements, this hobby
is more like the classic car collector. In that hobby it's still
possible to get some really nice cars for a reasonable amount but
certain specfic areas, such as 60's muscle cars or your luxury cars
from the 30's, are well outside the price range of most.
This isn't to say there isn't some pretty good price gouging
going on with regards to some classic computer stuff, because there
is. The few truly high dollar machines though aren't indicative of
the valuation of the rest.
Jeff
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