21 Mar
2001
21 Mar
'01
3:28 a.m.
On March 21, Bill Sudbrink wrote:
For those in the Washington DC area, the 3/29 auction
will include
several pdp 11s. Look at:
http://sales.gsfc.nasa.gov/items.cgi?salenumber=80322620010016
I've never been to one of these (I keep wanting to but can never seem
to make the time), but I understand that stuff goes at scrap prices.
I've been to several of these. While otherwise wonderful, these
auctions have classic "government auction" problems. You'll see, for
example, a lot consisting of three pallets of stuff...one will contain
a Dynabyte or something like that with ZERO cash value but that you'd
really love to get, and the rest of it will consist of 2.5 pallets of
dead VGA monitors. During the auction you'll find some guy who bids
the lot up to $3,000. Wondering why, you watch him loading it into
his truck at the end of the day...and underneath the dead VGA monitors
will be one HP 8566B spectrum analyzer or something like that, that he
will have ALREADY SOLD on his cell phone for $20,000.
The bottom line is this...these types of auctions are great and lots
of fun, and people like us can get good stuff cheaply through them.
But keep in mind that there are hardened, experienced professionals
that show up for every one of these, and make a ton of money doing it.
If you get in their way, you will be steamrolled...that's all there is
to it.
My intention is not to discourage anyone from going and trying...by
all means, go! Just watch out for the guys I talk about
above...you'll recognize them as soon as you see them start bidding.
And if you do go to this one, and happen to see an overweight guy with
big bushy brown hair, that's probably me. :)
That said, I may try to make it out for that one. There are a few
RK07 drives in one lot as well...I love RK07s! :-)
-Dave McGuire
21 Mar
21 Mar
4:13 a.m.
For those in
the Washington DC area, the 3/29 auction will include
several pdp 11s. Look at:
http://sales.gsfc.nasa.gov/items.cgi?salenumber=80322620010016
I've never been to one of these (I keep wanting to but can never seem
to make the time), but I understand that stuff goes at scrap prices.
I've been to several of these. While otherwise wonderful, these
auctions have classic "government auction" problems. You'll see, for
example, a lot consisting of three pallets of stuff...one will contain
a Dynabyte or something like that with ZERO cash value but that you'd
really love to get, and the rest of it will consist of 2.5 pallets of
dead VGA monitors. During the auction you'll find some guy who bids
the lot up to $3,000. Wondering why, you watch him loading it into
his truck at the end of the day...and underneath the dead VGA monitors
will be one HP 8566B spectrum analyzer or something like that, that he
will have ALREADY SOLD on his cell phone for $20,000. 
7:22 a.m.
I've
been to several of these. While otherwise wonderful, these
auctions have classic "government auction" problems. You'll see, for
example, a lot consisting of three pallets of stuff...one will contain
a Dynabyte or something like that with ZERO cash value but that you'd
really love to get, and the rest of it will consist of 2.5 pallets of
dead VGA monitors. During the auction you'll find some guy who bids
the lot up to $3,000. Wondering why, you watch him loading it into
his truck at the end of the day...and underneath the dead VGA monitors
will be one HP 8566B spectrum analyzer or something like that, that he
will have ALREADY SOLD on his cell phone for $20,000.
In your expirence, and using the above example, could you approach the guy
and make an offer for the Dynabyte or will he get pissy or greedy? 
6:07 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great Bill Sudbrink once stated:
In my experience (auction at a university, lost some cool HPs and monitors
to a pair of guys like this) they'll probabably say no right there, call us
back later once we've had time to inventory the stuff (and the cynical side
of me would like to add: and set a price to gouge you since you've actually
shown an interest).
-spc (Never could get a hold of them ... )
I've been to several of these. While
otherwise wonderful, these
auctions have classic "government auction" problems. You'll see, for
example, a lot consisting of three pallets of stuff...one will contain
a Dynabyte or something like that with ZERO cash value but that you'd
really love to get, and the rest of it will consist of 2.5 pallets of
dead VGA monitors. During the auction you'll find some guy who bids
the lot up to $3,000. Wondering why, you watch him loading it into
his truck at the end of the day...and underneath the dead VGA monitors
will be one HP 8566B spectrum analyzer or something like that, that he
will have ALREADY SOLD on his cell phone for $20,000.
In your expirence, and using the above example, could you approach the guy
and make an offer for the Dynabyte or will he get pissy or greedy?
10:32 p.m.
In your
expirence, and using the above example, could you approach the guy
and make an offer for the Dynabyte or will he get pissy or greedy?
In my experience (auction at a university, lost some cool HPs and monitors
to a pair of guys like this) they'll probabably say no right there, call us
back later once we've had time to inventory the stuff (and the cynical side
of me would like to add: and set a price to gouge you since you've actually
shown an interest). 
9:22 a.m.
That said, I may try to make it out for that one.
There are a few
RK07 drives in one lot as well...I love RK07s! :-)
Makes me wish I had a place to store a bunch of DEC stuff if
I did happen to have the winning bid at this one. Lot #78 and #79 is
just full of it. And I live right across the street from Goddard!
Alas, too many computers, not enough space.....
Jeff
--
Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems:
Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
10:38 a.m.
That said, I
may try to make it out for that one. There are a few
RK07 drives in one lot as well...I love RK07s! :-)
Makes me wish I had a place to store a bunch of DEC stuff if
I did happen to have the winning bid at this one. Lot #78 and #79 is
just full of it. And I live right across the street from Goddard!
Alas, too many computers, not enough space.....
Jeff
--
Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems:
Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
8675
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participants (6)
-
bills＠adrenaline.com -
jhellige＠earthlink.net -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
pechter＠pechter.dyndns.org -
spc＠conman.org