At 11:03 PM 5/14/98 -0500, Doug Yowza wrote: These net auctions cause a great deal of thought in my brain, which is driven by a pure-gold capitalist heart. At first I thought they'd be a great place to pick up bargains on trailing-edge contemporary PC and consumer stuff, but whoa... look at those prices! Sure, they start at $9.00, but you can watch them zoom right up to conventional Best Buy or CDW retail prices *or more*. The question "Yeah, but who pays retail?" is answered "Lots, and many pay more." Someone did their homework when they developed this online auction concept. Or perhaps it exposed its true nature once someone implemented it, and let the market drive it. (Although I wonder if we don't know important details such as the rate at which the auction house successfully collects its percent, or whether auctions have been rigged by shills working for the seller, etc.) So when the historical computer sells for what we (the dumpster-diving cheapskates) see as inflated prices, we may instead me seeing the evolution of a "retail" price for our old junk, and perhaps the anecdotal reports can provide a "dealer" or "wholesale" price, or at least provide the mean. We grimy collectors know that much computer equipment is tossed in the trash, fed to scrap collectors, or is still sitting in warehouse corners. That alone fuels a desire to pick up collectibles for no cost. Just yesterday I introduced myself to a local junk dealer. I missed some kind of mainframe from a local business by a month... but now he knows he can sell me junk for higher than the scrap value, so perhaps he'll remember me for next time. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>