LET'S RESOLVE THIS ISSUE was (Re: Made a deal to get a Vax6000,2Fujitsu Supercomputers and TOPS10???) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

25 Nov 1999

-----Original Message-----
From: Allison J Parent &lt;allisonp(a)world.std.com&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Thursday, November 25, 1999 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: LET'S RESOLVE THIS ISSUE was (Re: Made a deal to get a
Vax6000,2Fujitsu Supercomputers and TOPS10???)

...
 <That's life. I *really* find it hard to
understand why scrapping a Vax
<11/780 would break your heart when there are probably at least 100,000 lef
<in mills out there... and no one wants them!

As a collector I'd think you'd at least know the numbers produced and the
current population.  11/780s have actually become quite scarce being 20
years old, slow by even microvax standards and power hungry.  I'd bet
finding more than one or two would be less than easy.

The question is, do you know if it's common or scarce?

That's easy Allison.

I have refused three Vax 11/780s this year so far the went to the
shredder... I don't know how many more in the spring I refused as I was not
taking any more systems from factories/liquidators[ things were slow].

Now that I have a site on the Internet  and a presense on this list.. I have
a pile of wish lists, requests, orders, etc...

and I now have 1 person out of a few hundred that is willing to purchase 1
Vax 11/780 *just* over my scrap cost. *All* the others aren't interested.

No one else wants them... and many factories kept them in *stores* when they
were finsihed with them as most don't bother even scrapping the stuff.

I generally figure out current population by the number of requests I get to
pick up a model of a mini. Also, I look at what the collector community is
looking for. Further, I have yet to find a Museum even willing to pay a
*scrap* price for such a unit (let's not even talk about shipping costs).

BTW: This company has put a request to their board for $1.7 Million to
remove all the rest of the minis by spring and replace them with an NT
system. I will no doubt be getting a call to pick up more Vaxes (already saw
2 11/750s - Uggggggh), a Mentor mini (business basic running inventory), and
a pile of other minis I have not seen yet. I do know I will be getting a
pile of ASR-33s... no idea why they held onto them.

If you have items you are seriously looking for please-mail me. I won't be
dragging everything to the shop.

john

...
 Allison