I have no need of any of the parts myself, but I sure hate the bid or it gets scrapped idea. I wonder about the contents, in the best case its all the parts that break and need replacing, but in the worst case its all the parts LEFT OVER after selling everything that is likely to be needed as a replacement in 20 years. The reason I am saying this is that I ran across 400 boxes of Apple repair parts, bought them, and discovered that a good 90% of them will NEVER be used. People just aren't repairing 13" monitors, and a host of other odd bits. Look before you leap.

On Friday 08 November 2002 18:07, Jeffrey Sharp wrote: I could come up with an initial $100 too, if it would help. Is anyone stepping up to start collecting promises? Sincerely, Chris Craft, RetroComputing Nut.

Sounds like _everyone_ on the list would have to buy a ticket for it to fly. But seriously: FI: the URL is here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2068638523 the partslist is here: http://pages.prodigy.net/ppsjm/PART%20NUMBER.htm it's not all Mxxx'es, there are a lot of discretes. I would need to know more about the contents of the hold before commiting. The seller says he's looking into providing discriptions. If I get them, the list will too. The seller also says "SERIOUS bidders may meet us in Burlington for viewing Tuesday between 9-11". Would somebody near there like to go look for us? John A.

I go by there every day to work up in nashua... I could stop by. I wouldn't mind some company, however, to examine the stuff, but if it is 10-12 skids worth, only the top layer or so would really be visible, unless the auctioner is willing to really allow examination... Megan

--- John Allain <allain(a)panix.com> wrote: Do you mean by this that for only $1000 he'll blow us off, or that he _won't_ blow us off? The only 11/70 part that I'm (casually) looking for is one or two toggle-switch front panels. Mine have the RDM console. Functional but boring. Most of my DEC stuff is on the lower end than the 11/45- 11/70 range (11/44, 11/24, 11/34...) As I said... for a semi-random 10% of the load, I'm interested at 10% but I don't need 4 (more) tons of DEC stuff unless it's all odd items. 1-800-DIGITAL? :-) Oops... you said "decent". -ethan __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos http://launch.yahoo.com/u2

On Mon, 11 Nov 2002, Ethan Dicks wrote: Given that the auction states he can get $4000 for it as scrap, I'm sure he'd not be interested interested in an offer of only $1000. I thought it decent enough of him to offer it for only $3500. That's really not that much money considering it's 3-4 tons of stuff--even if 90% of it by mass turned out to be cables. I think trying to coordinate a purchase between multiple parties would get very messy on such short notice and without having some single trusted party to aggregate the donations and to handle payment. There are certainly a few people here I'd trust in that role, but the people I'd trust might not be the same ones that everyone else would trust. Then there are logistics of distribution to be considered, and anicillary costs such as storage and shipping. Out of curiosity, I asked the seller about the timing for removal, the square footage the gear occupies, and the cost of shipping it to a location where I could store it. He estimates having it ready to go in about 30 days time. As is, it's ten skids of 4x4' dimensions, so 160 sq ft minimum for storing it. Based on what he looked up at freightquote.com, he said it'd be between $1500-$2000 to ship 1000 miles. It'd be a little cheaper if I didn't need a truck with a liftgate, but I don't have a loading dock :-) And when I look at $5000, that amount is a bit much--even given that I think the contents are still worth it. -brian.

On Tuesday, November 12, 2002, John Allain wrote: That's what I was afraid of. An outer shell of boards and front panels to interest us, and an inner core of nuts and bolts to rip us off. I have to retract my pledge ($100 down, up to 15% later). I've just found out about a VAX 6000 almost in my own backyard, and I'm going to try very hard to get that. I have a 220V outlet in my living room for *some* reason[0]. It must be destiny! Finally there is some big iron that I don't have to drive 1024 hours to get to. [0] I suspect it was once used for a window air conditioner. -- Jeffrey Sharp