23 Feb
2003
23 Feb
'03
4:03 p.m.
This is truly amazing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3403344993
I have no affiliation with this auction whatsoever. I do wonder what my
wife would say if I bought this, though. "Honey, clear out the guest
room, I have a mainframe coming!"
Erik S. Klein
www.vintage-computer.com
23 Feb
23 Feb
4:18 p.m.
Wow, that's incredible!!
I wish I had the space, needed knowledge, etc.
Chad Fernandez
Michigan, USA
Erik S. Klein wrote:
This is truly amazing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3403344993
I have no affiliation with this auction whatsoever. I do wonder what my
wife would say if I bought this, though. "Honey, clear out the guest
room, I have a mainframe coming!"
Erik S. Klein
www.vintage-computer.com
10:16 p.m.
On Sunday, February 23, 2003, Erik S. Klein wrote:
Uh, I live in Norman, where this thing is!
I'm seriously thinking about what I would need to rescue this beast. I
probably have room for it in my garage (tight fit though), where it would
sit for several years until I could afford my own place (which very well may
be a warehouse with a bed in one corner :-) ). I see two problems with this
monster:
0. Some of those cabinets are *wide*. It seems like it may be too big to be
handled with a lift-gate-enabled Ryder rental truck.
1. I think he's looking for lots of money here. I'm not a poor college
student any more, but I'm not rolling in dough, either. The reward-expense
ratio for this may just be too low for me to act. There are other (almost
equally) cool machines that are smaller and could be obtained for less
money, if my suspicions are right about this seller's reserve price.
However, this is in my own town, and I'd hate to see it go to the scrapper.
Argh.
Does anyone have any comments, especially WRT the transportability of this
machine?
--
Jeffrey Sharp
10:43 p.m.
Replying to myself:
On Sunday, February 23, 2003, Erik S. Klein wrote:
Uh, I live in Norman, where this thing is! ... I'm seriously thinking
about what I would need to rescue this beast. ... The reward-expense ratio
for this may just be too low
Other issues:
2. Power. I doubt I'd ever be able to plug it in. I used to have a VAX 8600
but gave it away because it would be too troublesome for me to provide
power. This Univac would be even worse than that.
3. Little or no spare parts. I like spare parts.
As saddening as it may be, it looks like I should just stick to minis and
shut my mouth. :-( Oh well, if anyone comes to get this thing, I would like
to be invited to at least see it. I'd be glad to help with loading, etc.
--
Jeffrey Sharp
11:01 p.m.
On Mon, 24 Feb 2003, Jeffrey Sharp wrote:
On Sunday, February 23, 2003, Erik S. Klein wrote:
[...]
Does anyone have any comments, especially WRT the transportability of
this machine?
This one is definitely a museum piece. My hope would be that the
Computer History Museum ends up with this (assuming they don't already
have one). Given its age, an extensive restoration effort would be in
order if it any attempt were made to run it.
I don't think any mere mortal with a rental truck would be able to move
something like this. It'd take a large truck and the help of quite a
few friends.
-brian.
24 Feb
24 Feb
3:35 a.m.
Does anyone
have any comments, especially WRT the
transportability of this machine?
This one is definitely a museum piece.
4:48 a.m.
Brian Chase wrote:
This one is definitely a museum piece. My hope would
be that the
Computer History Museum ends up with this (assuming they don't already
have one). Given its age, an extensive restoration effort would be in
order if it any attempt were made to run it.
Per the auction....
Please, I know how to scrap this out myself, so Scrappers need not bid
nor Museums concerning donations.
So I guess the guy doesn't want it to go to a museum, but it sure would
be a lot for a simgle collectot to handle.
Chad Fernandez
Michigan, USA
4:56 a.m.
Per the auction....
Please, I know how to scrap this out myself, so Scrappers need not bid
nor Museums concerning donations.
So I guess the guy doesn't want it to go to a museum, but it sure would
be a lot for a simgle collectot to handle.
Noooooooo he didn't say he didn't want it to go to a museum, he said he
didn't want it going "as a donation". Reading between the lines - I'm
guessing it's fine with him if it goes to a museum, but he's not going to
DONATE it. He wants CASH.
Jay West
2:53 p.m.
On Mon, 24 Feb 2003, Jay West wrote:
I kind of view this as the same as someone who finds a complete dinosaur
skeleton and decides to auction it off to the highest bidder.
Sure, it's that person's right to do whatever they want with it, but there
is a higher cause that they are just not keen to.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
Per the
auction....
Please, I know how to scrap this out myself, so Scrappers need not bid
nor Museums concerning donations.
So I guess the guy doesn't want it to go to a museum, but it sure would
be a lot for a simgle collectot to handle.
Noooooooo he didn't say he didn't want it to go to a museum, he said he
didn't want it going "as a donation". Reading between the lines - I'm
guessing it's fine with him if it goes to a museum, but he's not going to
DONATE it. He wants CASH.
3:15 p.m.
Jay West wrote:
Noooooooo he didn't say he didn't want it to
go to a museum, he said he
didn't want it going "as a donation". Reading between the lines - I'm
guessing it's fine with him if it goes to a museum, but he's not going to
DONATE it. He wants CASH.
Jay West
Yeah, I realized that after I sent it. It was time for me to go to
work, so I couldn't retract it :-)
Originally, I thought he meant that he didn't want it to be a static
display in a musuem where patrons were charged a "donation". Your
version makes more sence :-)
Chad Fernandez
Michigan, USA
5:03 a.m.
Chad Fernandez Wrote:
Per the auction....
Please, I know how to scrap this out myself, so Scrappers need not
bid
nor Museums concerning donations.
I read that as he doesn't want to donate the computer. I.e. he wants
some money. If a museum ponied up the required cash, I'm sure he'd be
as happy to collect from them as from any other collector.
I hope this does make it into a "public" collection such as the CHM or
some similar organization. I'd hate for this rare and impressive a
machine to spend any more time in "storage."
Erik S. Klein
www.vintage-computer.com
4:12 a.m.
Jeffrey Sharp wrote:
Does anyone have any comments, especially WRT the
transportability of this
machine?
No idea - but YOU CAN BET it would be foolish not to let other people
other people pack and ship it. It may be worth paying the owner to keep
it in storage until PROPER arangements can be made. This is not
some PC you can get at wallmart.
Ben.
10:02 a.m.
I'm seriously thinking about what I would need to
rescue this beast. I
probably have room for it in my garage (tight fit though), where it would
sit for several years until I could afford my own place (which very well may
be a warehouse with a bed in one corner :-) ). I see two problems with this
monster:
I think this is larger than you think. I doubt it would fir into a single
or 1 1/2 car garage.
Does anyone have any comments, especially WRT the
transportability of this
machine?
A few of us are card carrying Univac movers, and I can tell you that they
are not at all fun to move. Univac made things like IBM, but did not put
casters on anything. They also did not put handles, or nice places to
grip the cabinets. At bare minumum, you need a pallet jack to move one of
these.
This is very interesting, but a real gamble. It is hard to see what is
there, and what is not.
I am disappointed that the seller wants a cashiers check within 3 days
of the end of the auction. This is pretty severe, and probably too much
of a strain on many bidders.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
1:15 p.m.
On Monday, February 24, 2003, William Donzelli wrote:
I think this is larger than you think. I doubt it
would fir into a single
or 1 1/2 car garage. ... This is very interesting, but a real gamble. It
is hard to see what is there, and what is not.
Indeed. Here is what the seller emailed to me:
"You wouldn't be able to see anything but the flooring for the computer
which is stacked on the tail end of the trailer. Everything else is so
tall you would not be able to tell anything about it. If your wondering
what the environment is like that it has been kept in, I can tell you
that. It HAS NOT been kept in a temperature controlled area, it is just
like the description said, a semi-trailer. If I can answer any questions
do not hesitate to email, but I am looking for serious bidders."
It sounds like a recon mission wouldn't tell us much. I don't have $1200 to
spend on getting a peek at it. With the crazy money he wants and all of the
extra stipulations, I'll bet this gets scrapped. At least there were
pictures available for download. ;-(
So close, yet so far away...
--
Jeffrey Sharp
23 Feb
23 Feb
10:23 p.m.
Very, very cool. I wonder if the computer is water damaged.
Any idea year was this system manufactured? Any specs?
I'd don't think my wife would appreciate having this around the house,
no matter the coolness factor.
Thanks,
Chandra
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin@classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Erik S. Klein
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 10:19 PM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Univac III on eBay
This is truly amazing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3403344993
I have no affiliation with this auction whatsoever. I do wonder what my
wife would say if I bought this, though. "Honey, clear out the guest
room, I have a mainframe coming!"
Erik S. Klein
www.vintage-computer.com
24 Feb
24 Feb
5:27 a.m.
If I had a job right now, I would buy it. I don't really care about the
condition.
Peace... Sridhar
On Sun, 23 Feb 2003, Erik S. Klein wrote:
This is truly amazing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3403344993
I have no affiliation with this auction whatsoever. I do wonder what my
wife would say if I bought this, though. "Honey, clear out the guest
room, I have a mainframe coming!"
Erik S. Klein
www.vintage-computer.com
7753
days inactive
7753
days old
15 comments
12 participants
participants (12)
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allain＠panix.com -
aw288＠osfn.org -
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
cbajpai＠attbi.com -
classiccmp＠vintage-computer.com -
ekklein＠pacbell.net -
fernande＠internet1.net -
jss＠subatomix.com -
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
vance＠neurotica.com -
vaxzilla＠jarai.org -
vcf＠siconic.com