21 Jun
2004
21 Jun
'04
3:58 p.m.
The MIT Swapfest, also known as "Flea@MIT" is a great event. I lived in Boston
for four years, until last month when I moved, but I went to the swapfest many
times and always found interesting things. There is a small-ish outdoors area
and a huge indoors area. There are even people selling snacks (usually
doughnuts and barbeque food, coffee and Coke) by one of the entrances. LOL,
just don't do what I did the first time, and think the small outdoors part was
the whole thing!
22 Jun
22 Jun
11:43 a.m.
Oddly I've seen a fair ammount of vintage stuff get tossed at the end of
the MIT Flea.
Where are all the local collectors in Massachusettes?
evan wrote:
The MIT Swapfest, also known as "Flea@MIT" is
a great event. I lived in Boston
for four years, until last month when I moved, but I went to the swapfest many
times and always found interesting things. There is a small-ish outdoors area
and a huge indoors area. There are even people selling snacks (usually
doughnuts and barbeque food, coffee and Coke) by one of the entrances. LOL,
just don't do what I did the first time, and think the small outdoors part was
the whole thing!
23 Jun
23 Jun
12:11 p.m.
On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, Bob Shannon wrote:
Oddly I've seen a fair ammount of vintage stuff
get tossed at the end of the
MIT Flea.
Interesting. I've been attending MIT Flea for 10 years, and was just
lamenting with friends about how nothing resembling "vintage stuff" even
appears there anymore - much less gets tossed.
The interesting junk seems to go straight to Ebay without stopping.
It's still a fun time, though!
Where are all the local collectors in Massachusettes?
evan wrote:
Can't help you with that. We drive down from Burlington, Vermont.
24 Jun
24 Jun
1:38 a.m.
Interesting. I've been attending MIT Flea for 10
years, and
was just lamenting with friends about how nothing resembling
"vintage stuff" even appears there anymore -
The MIT, as with other flea markets that I've seen has a sweet spot of
6 year old equipment, plus or minus 3 years, that can be found.
( 20 years ago it might have been 8 +/- 4 )
When the thing you're looking for is older than that, it was tough
even before eBay. This lesson I learned, hard, with a desired
IBM 5100.
The Suns and Macs mentioned this month can be augmented with
a 1990 Canon video still camera, and large quantities of Alphas
and SGI's seen last time out, all of which will be gone gone gone
in 10 years.
John A.
2:16 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Allain" <allain(a)panix.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 9:38 AM
Subject: Re: MIT Swapfest (was: DEC at MIT)
What you find on eBay and fleemarkets is equipment recently taken out of
service because it is obsolete or just needed to be replaced for other
reasons (software requirements). Once a machine, part, or bus type has been
out of service for more then a few years its very hard to find them in any
decent quantity. If you have an infinite amount of storage area the easiest
way to make money is to just grab everything that's obsolete and unwanted
for free (or very little cash) catalog it and wait 10-15 years until
everybody wants it at inflated prices. If your a packrat and live to a ripe
old age your probably sitting on a goldmine.
For whatever reason a few months back I started putting a 486 VLB system
together like the one I used to own when they were high-tech. Do you know
how hard it is to find caching VLB controllers and highend videocards these
days on eBay? Gravis Ultrasounds are even hard to find on eBay and they
always sell too (so its not like you cant give them away). The cards I
mentioned were made in the millions not that long ago, did they all get
landfilled already?
Interesting.
I've been attending MIT Flea for 10 years, and
was just lamenting with friends about how nothing resembling
"vintage stuff" even appears there anymore -
The MIT, as with other flea markets that I've seen has a sweet spot of
6 year old equipment, plus or minus 3 years, that can be found.
( 20 years ago it might have been 8 +/- 4 )
When the thing you're looking for is older than that, it was tough
even before eBay. This lesson I learned, hard, with a desired
IBM 5100.
The Suns and Macs mentioned this month can be augmented with
a 1990 Canon video still camera, and large quantities of Alphas
and SGI's seen last time out, all of which will be gone gone gone
in 10 years.
John A.
2:36 a.m.
If your a packrat and live to a ripe old
age your probably sitting on a goldmine.
Sounds a little delusional.
Years ago a friend of mine heard about the change of the pure
copper penny to alloy so he made about a hundred rolls of them
and sealed the rolls in custom made wood boxes of about 20
pounds each. Then I showed him an article saying that the
changeover had happened nearly two years earlier.
massive OH S**T look on his face.
John A.
s/your/you're/
7:02 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Allain" <allain(a)panix.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 10:36 AM
Subject: Re: MIT Swapfest (was: DEC at MIT)
Well the people who hoarded silver coins before the 1964 changeover did
pretty well (extremely well if they dumped the coins during the 1979-80
period when it was $50 an ounce).
If your a
packrat and live to a ripe old
age your probably sitting on a goldmine.
Sounds a little delusional.
Years ago a friend of mine heard about the change of the pure
copper penny to alloy so he made about a hundred rolls of them
and sealed the rolls in custom made wood boxes of about 20
pounds each. Then I showed him an article saying that the
changeover had happened nearly two years earlier.
massive OH S**T look on his face.
John A.
s/your/you're/
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