11 Mar
2009
11 Mar
'09
9:31 p.m.
On Wednesday 11 March 2009, Richard wrote:
In article <49B80F86.9070207 at update.uu.se>,
Pontus <pontus at update.uu.se> writes:
eBay is one method of determining value, but any one-time search you do
won't have enough data to really be useful, since they only go back 2
weeks in completed item searches.
Richard wrote:
Nope. Not when it comes to determining what people are willing to
pay for a PDP-11. I did some checking on ebay and machines much less
capable or vintage than an 11/44 were selling for more than $100. In article
<p06240825c5dd0c2a411d(a)[192.168.1.199]>9]>,
"Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> writes:
No offense, but I'm getting one for free. Is that relevant? I think he wants way to much. I paid $100 for
mine about 11
years ago, [...]
No offense, but I don't think a price from 11 years ago is
relevant anymore. Examples:
$475 PDP-11/73, item # 300295154117
$200 PDP-11/73, item # 250375935263
$105 PDP-11/05 boards and backplane, item # 230327891779
$99.99 PDP-11 header panel only, item # 230327888816
My understanding is that a PDP-11/44 is much less of a commodity item
than either of those machines. Given that the plastic header panel
sold for what someone paid for an entire 11/44 11 years ago should
indicate what has been happening in this marketplace.
I'm amazed that an 11/73 or 11/23 would go for that much... I guess I
should start selling off my pile of QBUS stuff (though that itself will
probably cause a dip in prices).
More search results:
<http://tinyurl.com/d4a4h2>
I totally agree with this, though. In some cases, prices even *one*
year ago are net all that useful for determining value.
What it is worth is highly subjective.
Yes, but I don't think you can argue that a price from 11 years ago
is going to be even marginally relevant to prices today, even when
accounting for a temporary dip in prices because people are less
willing to buy now than they were last year. What I've noticed on this list is that the people
here have a
tendency to undervalue what other people are willing to pay for
vintage computing gear. Whether that's because they are just too
cheap to pay a higher price or because they are living in a past-time
when vintage computing collecting wasn't popular (I paid $100 11
years ago) or whatever, I don't know. However, it has been
consistent observation in my experience.
Deals can still be had, but they are not typical. I've received some
stuff for free and other stuff I had to outbid other collectors in
order to get it.
I think that deals are more commonplace than you think, just people who
don't go searching for deals (ie, university and business surplus sales
and auctions, dumpster diving, digging through scrap heaps, and things
that people aren't willing to ship) don't see them, because they're
hidden behind a layer of obscurity.
I get tons of great deals (which is a problem, because I end up with too
much stuff) from Purdue's surplus place, where a lot of the
non-commodity items just get recycled and the general public doesn't
ever see them. I've heard from at least one other person that another
university's surplus place does the same thing... so if you don't have
connections at these places, you won't see the "good deals".
In any case, the value of an item depends as much upon who has a chance
to buy it, and what they're willing to pay, as anything else.
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org