On Sat, 12 Nov 2005 21:30:58 -0500 Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> wrote: One of the things that historical preservationists can easily miss is that the history and pedigree of every single item added to upgrade an old system like an Altair adds rich history and interest to the system. Every tweaked, hacked, and upgraded (well, some of them anyway) system should have significant merit in and of itself. In that early era of Personal Computing, everything was always half-homebrew anyway. Points like that are missed by people of a 'Collectable' mindset who migrate over from different hobbies. Then again (off-topic drift to illustrate point begins here) there are people like me who sometimes prefer to collect items with a provenance. For example, I have a marvelous old Spanish 8 Reals coin. A 'Piece of 8' that is the size of the US Dollar. It is badly worn, so worn that the date is gone, and it's slightly bent, and was bent early enough in it's life that there are deep wear patterns on one side. I bought it at a coin show. I walked up to a dealer table, saw it, and inquired about price. The dealer threw it onto a scale and sold it to me for bullion value. In other words, to some collectors, it is worth nothing, as it's not a pristine 'collectable.' But as that particular coin is what evolved into a 'Siver Dollar' in the US, and because it dates from the early 1800s, it's likely that it circulated in the US as a 'silver dollar' for many years. It has enough wear that it's been handled by thousands of people. It has, needless to say, a lot richer history than a similar coin in mint condition that has sat in some rich collector's cabinet for aprox. 200 years. Yet it has 'melt value' collector's worth according to the established 'dealer' network. I'm so glad there are people who think differently than me, so I can get stuff like that coin for almost nothing. (end of off-topic drift)