29 Dec
2004
29 Dec
'04
2:23 a.m.
On Tue, 28 Dec 2004, Tom Jennings wrote:
<mode="evil genius">
That might be a fun way to kill the market. Flood eBay with dozens of
countefeit versions of highly sought after games like this. Put something
on either the disk label or in the documentation that can identify it as a
fake but not be obvious, or perhaps put a data marker on the disk
somewhere. Sell them for a BuyItNow price of $4.95, but of course
insinuate in a very weird way that this is not an original version. Once
enough bogus versions are out there it should kill the urge for people to
pay unwarranted sums for old software. Or it might backfire. I don't
have enough time to even consider such a plan so if someone actually does
this it's not me.
</mode>
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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> This one
may be insane - or maybe it's me.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5150431291
Wow, and just when you thought the true depths of
madness had been
reached. Vintage software is the next frontier upon which siege will be
lain with exploitation to follow but I just can't see this ever getting a
ROI worth the $1,225 price tag being offered here. If it's not a hoax
then surely it should be.
I'm sure it's abundantly obvious, but counterfeiting items like
that is technically trivial. Probably at least *some* of those
extreme collectors know *precisely* what the package looks like;
you'd have to use the right old copier, etc. You might even
put the right files on a vintage diskette; but if that wasn't
possible, you could use a strategically bad diskette and say
"gee sorry, it *is* 25 years old..."
I'm not suggesting this be done, I don't work that way, and
I think it would be disgusting behavior -- but it also seems
utterly inevitable. With that kind of money to be had for 10
cents worth of vintage materials the temptation has GOT to be
there! At least hardware you can stub your toe on.