State of the Hobby - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

1 Jul 1999

--- John Foust &lt;jfoust(a)threedee.com&gt; wrote:
...
  At 11:02 AM 7/1/99 -0600, you wrote:
 I'm presently in the process of selling off
excess 8" floppy drives for $5 
 each, 
Hmm... Whatcha got?  I'm looking for an 8" drive that I can attach to a PeeCee
to read/write my old disks.  I do have a 1/2-height drive that came with a
DataRAM PDP-11 clone (along with an ST506 interface that emulates an RL02,
but with no docs).  

Do you have any +12v/+5v 8" floppies, or only 24v-motor ones?

...
  Similarly, you'd think there would be a web site
somewhere to 
 remind people of the rapid devaluation of the value of computer 
 equipment - say, perhaps the flip side of Moore's Law, that shows
 how simply purchasing and opening the box of a new computer causes 
 a significant drop in value, followed by subsequent halvings of 
 resale value every six months, until it quickly reaches the 
 "nuisance fee" level mentioned above, where the cost of shipping 
 and packing seems to exceed the street price. 
The general trend I've seen is 10% of MSRP at five years old, 1% at ten
years old.  There are exceptions, but it's a good rule of thumb  (Think
about what was new and selling for big bucks in 1989, then figure out what
Goodwill is getting for it right now, for a comparison).  In 1984-1985,
a PC-AT was (decked out with 40Mb disk and a meg or two of RAM) $5K.  Ten
years later, they were well below $100 and frequently spotted at $50.  There's
the 1%.   

It's not absolute, but it gives me an idea about what to pay for an item,
Altairs and Apple I's notwithstanding.

-ethan

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