21 Aug
2000
21 Aug
'00
4:16 a.m.
Sellam your last comment is consistent with many other
similarly
'ridiculous' (your word not mine) ones. Did you take the time to fully
evaluate the potential of this endeavour?
[...]
What that Goodwill store is doing is a good thing for several reasons:
1..the items have been rescued and are being
preserved.
2..the items are being exhibited to the public (and those of us who have
tried to exhibit this stuff know how difficult it is to encourage people to
take the time to come and see it), so the store is also educating the public
about the technology we love so much because they have a captive audience,
3..the store is fostering the growth of our hobby which is essential for our
hobby to continue and thrive
4..the store has (knowingly or not) made a strategic marketing move and will
hopefully benefit by attracting more people than would ordinarily go there
and the increased customer volume can boost sales (to help the needy)
What appears to some to be a silly, mis-guided stunt,
can be a helpful
win-win-win achievement. Let's encourage the person at that store instead of
complaining behind his or her back.
Well, I'm still not 100% custom to your scheme of 'Goodwill'
stores (but I stop already for every Thrift/Goodwill store
when raiding (sp?:) the US), nonetheless I can't figure what's
good when they shelf the computers instead of selling it.
Just assume they get an average of 100-200 Bucks per Computer
(since there is possible rare (in publics opinion) stuff, the
average may even be higher), multiplied by 100 (that's their
number of museum computers, acording to the web site) you'll
get 10 to 20 KBucks - quite a lot of money to help people.
Of course, one may argue these computers will gain value and
therefore it'll be a good deal to keep them until a C64 sells
at $1k - just, AFAK, it's not their mission to aquire real
estate and earn intrest, but rather earn money _now_ by selling
donated stuff. And 'saving' the machines for a later, high price
sale is nothing else than an invest.
Also, a museum needs, as we all sadly know, SPACE and space
is an equivalent for money - in this context even more, since
they not only have to lease the space, but also don't generate
income from the leased space (ok, I know, at least in Texas
the equation of space and cost is a bit different and less
prior than over here).
Conclusion: (and some may don't like it)
If they recognize old computers and are willing to invest
some additional handling to maximize earnings the best
modus operandi is to auction them of at eBay and use the
money acording to their carta.
Gruss
H.
(OOO)
--
VCF Europa 2.0 am 28./29. April 2001 in Muenchen
http://www.vintage.org/vcfe
http://www.homecomputer.de/vcfe