6 Oct
2013
6 Oct
'13
9:50 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of David Riley
Sent: 06 October 2013 21:53
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: "Gold recovery" sellers on eBay
On Oct 6, 2013, at 3:54 PM, "Mark J. Blair" <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
ignorant
What's with all of the sellers on eBay in the
Vintage Computing section
selling ICs and boards for "gold recovery"? Are
they just scamming folks, or do they actually believe they're selling
something of value? Do
people believe that if they buy some PCB for $25 shipped, there will be
more
than $25 worth of gold on it after they manage to etch
away everything but
the gold with acid? Am I missing something, or are those sales about as
honest as the typical 419 email scam? TANSTAAFL...
thinking
they
Sorry, but I just had to rant there for a moment.
I feel like there's a little ignorance on both sides... lots of idiots can recover $25 worth of gold from a PCB (not
impossible, but unlikely),
and
lots of folks thinking, "This board looks like
it's got some gold on it, I
bet I can
sell it!" I find it appalling... in a lot of
cases, it's a lot like
grinding up a Ming
vase just to get a few milligrams of, say, uranium or
other precious
metals
from the clay.
I'm told that's one of the reasons it's hard to get hold of a VAX-11/780
these
days... there's enough gold in those (about 2 oz)
that at today's prices,
they
could yield about $2500 or so. Very sad.
- Dave
I think I would make an effort to raise $2500 if I was offered a 780, and I
had room, and could afford the actual shipping. I am sure others on this
list would too. Let's hope there are some more still in hiding.
Regards
Rob