On Mon, 2005-03-21 at 11:38 -0500, dvcorbin at
optonline.net wrote:
----- Original Message -----
David H. Barr wrote:
<big snip>
>>outmoded technology, and some must needs
simply wash their hands of
>> the whole mess.
Alas, you are correct. But things can be a little better if....
a) Collectors such as those on this list make themselves known to organizations such as
TheGoodwill
I've tried that one here and it just doesn't work unfortunately. The
people in the individual stores are willing enough - plus they often
understand that items might be historically significant, rare etc.
Problem is that they still have to play by the rules of the organisation
that they work for, which is worried about being sued if someone
electrocutes themselves on something sold by their organisation (sadly,
"sold as seen" doesn't seem to carry any weight in this country any
more). Hence all they can do is recommend that people take electrical
items to the local tip, or try and sell them privately through the local
paper (which luckily *is* still legal here :-)
There is still one goodwill-type place in the nearby city that can
accept electrical goods apparently; I assume they send them all off for
PAT testing and then apply an appropriate markup to them before selling
them. Unfortunately going to that particular store is too much of a
detour for me to justify, and it's rare I'll need to head into the city
for anything else.
So my experience has been that the individuals running the stores are
willing and everything, but simply unable to bend the rules set out by
those up top somewhere (who in turn are probably following some rules
set by the Government - or even further afield within the EU). It's a
shame if it means historically interesting / important items get junked
(whether they happen to be computers or not!)
cheers
Jules