I'm reminded of a quote which talks about a millstone around some ones neck. I feel sorry for the guy. Zane At 7:12 AM -0700 11/20/10, cctech at vax-11.org wrote: -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | | Photographer | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | My flickr Photostream | | http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/ |

At 01:50 PM 11/20/2010, Teo Zenios wrote: Time is money. Maybe you can find someone who'll collect, prep and ship for love and no concern for time. If you can't, then how much return on your time - even before any investment - would you like to receive? I don't mind doing it for amateur love or for the concern for finding a good new home for a unique item, but handling a garage full of junk is a completely different story. - John

I actively seek out the non-working (but complete) units, on the grounds that I am more likely to be able to afford interesting items that way. As I think you all know, I enjoy tinkering with old computers, so cleaning them, fixing them, and getting them going again is fun for me. It's why I take part in this hobby. I do not buy as an investment, hoping to resell later for more money. And jsut as well. Let me take a concrete example of a fairly rare item in my collection. An HP9125A plotter for the HP9100 calculator. I bouight one on e-bay last year, for around $250. It was described as 'does not power up'. When it arrived, I discovered that was an honest descriptrion. The machine was complete, but indeed, it didn't power up at all, not even when connected to qa working HP9100 (these plotters have a relay inside, driven by the -15V logic supply of the 9100 that switches the mains on ot the plotter PSU). A similar plotter sold on e-bay recently for over $2100. It was described as working, and I have no reason to doubt this. So if we take that as a fair value for aworking HP9125, I could say I'd added $1800 or so to the value of my unit by repairing it. Now consider what that repair involved. I had to work out how the plotter should operate (the HPO 9125 service manual does not contain scheamtics, so I had to trace out schematisc of all the PCBs. All I had as a reference was the HP9100 interfaceing manual). I then cleaned up the relay contacts in plotter and found that the PSU worked (the fault was the relay). But the plotter didn't After a bit of testing I found that the X-axis motor was dead. So I made 'keepers' so I could dismantle th motors without damaging the permanent magent fields, I took both motors apart -- my intention was to use the apprently working Y-axis motor as a reference -- and measured hte armature winding resistances. I then found that both mtoors were defective. Soi I carefully unwound both armatures, got some suitable wire, and rewound them. Actually, I got the commutator conenctions wroing the first time, so I had to do it again. In the end I had 2 motors which ran nicely, and which had much the same votlage-speed chracteristic (did I mention I had to build a stroboscope to check the motor speeds...). And yes, I now have a working HP9125 plotter. Now, I don't know how much you think my time should be worth, but lets say $50 an hour. So to add $1800 to the value of my plotter, did I spend more than 36 hours? You bet I did. A lot longer... Financiallym therefore it would seem to make little sense to spend the time to restore even a fairly high value item like this, let alone a relatively common and lower-value machine. But fortunately, the fun I get But I know I'd not take on a large pile of unknown macjhines with the intention of doing them up and seleling them at a profit. -tony

----- Original Message ----- From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 5:39 PM Subject: Re: HUGE old computer lot, maybe some gems This thread shows the same pics. http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?22399-Selling-large-…

In article <4CE860D1.3010607 at gmail.com>, leaknoil <leaknoil at gmail.com> writes: I volunteer at a local recycling center. They've never seen an Apple II of any variety. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

On Sat, 2010-11-20 at 09:43 -0800, Zane H. Healy wrote: That one comes from the Bible. For it is Writeth: "For those who cause harm to vintage computers, it is better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and jump into the sea."