11 May
2009
11 May
'09
3:23 p.m.
Been there, done that - I didn't get my VAX 6660 through the US Mail. :-) More than
anything, it amuses me that the shipping of a vintage system or component can be the bulk
of its total purchase price.
I once purchased a Digidata 9-track drive for $20 - it was $100 to build a shipping crate
for it! It arrived all in one piece, and the crate was so nice I put wheels on it and use
it as a rollaround workbench.
Then there was the time I purchased a machine from Guy Sotomayor. He suggested that,
rather than shipping the machine, we meet halfway - in Eugene, Oregon - and handle the
deal. It probably ended up costing me about the same as shipping (driving my Mercedes
450SL at 15 mpg), but it was a lot more fun to meet face-to-face and chat over breakfast.
Besides, I knew that both parties to the 'shipping' would treat the machine with
due care! (Guy had built a really nice shipping crate. Unfortunately, it wouldn't
fit in the trunk of my car. So we had to uncrate the machine in the parking lot....)
You're right, it's rarely worth taking a 'road trip' these days, and the
better shipping companies offer a good deal. However, the recent decline in the market
took a big bite out of my discretionary funds, so my personal purchasing has been somewhat
constrained as of late.
And I agree about the C64s. :-) -- Ian
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Richard
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 2:38 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: govliq: Gould Concept/32 model 32/67 & Kennedy 9-track
tape (Jacksonville, FL)
In article <FF6AB92D97A23A409701CDBF66F03FCD2E96AD77 at 505fuji>,
Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> writes:
The price itself isn't too bad right now -
it's the shipping to
Seattle!
Try 1600 lbs of Evans & Sutherland image generator in two cabinets,
that'll
put a dent in your wallet!
For freight shipping, I look at it this way...
What would it take in your time and expenses to go to where the item
is located, load it on a truck and drive it home? Most of the time,
its cheaper to have a service (even Craters & Freighters which isn't
the cheapest service as they focus on quality of service not price)
handle the details than it is to do it myself. The only time I took
the trip myself was when I had a friend that was willing to help me
load and it was literally a penske truckload of stuff that was coming
back (4 rack SGI reality monster, Challenge XL, Onyx XL, deskside
Crimson, box of spaceballs). Even then it only just about broke even
with what it would cost a service, when you consider time off from
work, food, gas, hotels, truck rental, etc.
For all the other monster stuff I've accumulated, its been worth it to
have a service handle the details.
Currently the rates for pickup+packing+freight amount to about
$1-$1.50/lb of freight, depending on distance travelled. I have
pretty much gotten used to having to ship things because there just
isn't anything locally vintage-wise. This ain't Silicon Valley and
there are no big government installations around (LLL, LBL, LANL, INL,
NASA, etc.). The universities here seem pretty good on turning over
their old computer stock fairly quickly, so there aren't a lot of
holdouts laying about in property surplus.
The collectors of arcade games and classic cars face pretty much the
same issues.
Yeah, shipping wouldn't be an issue if I collected C=64s, but where's
the fun in that?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for
download
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