22 Feb
2002
22 Feb
'02
4:33 p.m.
Thank the gods for true friends!
I 'd be looking for my shotgun and the rock salt.
I have a similar situation. My employer ( a family owned company) gives
me all retired machines. I share them with other employee's, but that
is my choice. They know I resell some of them, trade some of them and
even recycle some back into useful boxes around the office. I've turned
several Pentiums into print servers, LRP boxes, mail servers (linux of
course) and other things that a low horse powered box is perfect for.
If some one decided to try and wiggle in under me, I'd be royally pissed
off. I really have no interest in DEC equipment or other "big iron" so
if I ever find some, the list is the first place I post it to.
This was a total breach of "Collectors Protocol" as far as I'm concerned.
Doc Shipley wrote:
Y'all,
I posted a couple of days ago with questions concerning the value of,
and locating info for, a PDP11/93, for which I'm negotiating . I got
some good responses on-list, and a couple of very helpful suggestions
off-list.
And today, one enterprising soul, a long-standing list subscriber,
found MDR's website from my email address. He both emailed and called
my boss today trying to buy the machine out from under me.
His statement to Mark, that he thought I was trying to cheat my
company of fair value, would have rung a lot less false had he
(A) Done me the courtesy of trying to clarify the situation with me
first,
(B) Not also expressed what Mark called "near-rabid" interest in owning
the machine himself,
and
(C) Not asked Mark specifically to refrain from telling me about it.
Fortunately for me, Mark Rodriguez was my friend long before he became
my boss.
For the record, my employer knows that some of what I pull out of the
pile is for my collection, and some gets sold. He rather expects that I
make a profit. As long as he gets more than the scrappers pay, he feels
that he's ahead.
As far as the idea that I should tell *any* prospective seller what
I might charge for the item I'm buying, *if* I resell it, that's just
ridiculous.
Mark's impression, which I trust, was NOT that this person was trying
to protect MDR from being cheated. Mark believes that it was an
outright attempt to make sure that the caller got first crack at a
PDP11/93.
I think that truly sucks. If this is the way we are, I'll be
unsubscribing damn soon.
And yes, I know who it was.
Doc
.