At first i treated this as troll bait.? Then thought about it some. First despite caveats I don't have space so the likelihood is nil. Also its outside what I do collect, that crates conflicts for space, power and documents. The reasons I could give for one or another are multidimensional. Esthetic, the early 11/70 was of an era and that had a look.? The later one as well. Historical significance,? thats limited to the general model the biggest fastest 11 made but having say serial number 001 or whatever was first off the line for sale is as significant as the last one off the line or both.? Also any along the way that had a instruction set or major hardware difference of some historical note.? An example of that would be an 11/74 as those were truly rare (maybe 4 assembled). Operational, as in running it. definitely a late model near last built as it would have all the ECOs, be the least old, and should run well Opportunity to save a machine that might be scrapped.? In itself thats important and it would be model independent. Being a Qbus 11 collector there are still critters I might gather.? Allison

Speaking of cabinet variants: if you ever run into a "Corita" cabinet, with the abstract art on the side, be sure to hang on to it. I'm not sure how many were built, probably not all that many. Another variation I know of: I think it was the Vaxstation-2 that came in a small roll-around cabinet. I once (at DEC) had a prototype version of that enclosure. I'm not sure if it ever made it outside DEC. You can tell it from the regular one because it's a bit slimmer, and especially because the top covery is a thick piece of hardwood (somewhat like a heavy cutting board) rather than the painted sheet steel with louvers that the production unit has. paul

On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 12:56 PM Glen Slick via cctalk < cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: As-is for $10K seems a little bit steep for a starting bid. But I haven't tried to buy an 11/70 recently, so maybe it's reasonable? Pat

On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 12:57 PM Glen Slick via cctech < cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: Not for $9800, can't afford that much dough. The paddle color does not mean as much to me, more interested in whether it's serviceable and supportable. I don't really have a strong preference other than "can I make this run and do something with it". I just wanted to be sure I was not missing something about the 570 to justify what seems to me to be a high price. There is nothing that I could easily find that distinguishes the 570 from the original version. Thanks for replies... Bill Bill

While I love the original purple tones and the H960 cabinets, perhaps because they fit with most of the other DEC gear I've collected, I think that the commercial blue tones and Vax style cabinets are sexy as hell too. If I had loads of space, money and time, I would love to have all of the varieties. Unfortunately, I only have a minimal of money and time and my space is pretty full. I don't think that I am alone in these conditions or more people would have collected all styles of these machines. Finding a complete machine (sans disks) like the one recently on eBay is pretty rare any more and I would not be surprised if someone would pay the asking price. I recall passing on opportunities to add a Vax 11/780 to my collection and now I wish I had, but also don't know where I would have put it or how I would have moved it. That being said, I also worry that the number of people who even care any more are dwindling and so when it comes time for someone to decide what to do with my collection, it might not easily find a home. --tom