My problem stems from the fact that there are WAY too many things for me to handle at once, Sam. You wanted me to pack the stuff and have it shipped via an economical method but which required me to package and haul the stuff some 45 miles to the airport area. I just haven't the resources (personal) or the time to do all this under my present circumstances. What's more, I've had to move TONS more stuff from the basement to the covered storage outside, and it's pissing my neighbors off. Some of them understand, but many don't. Now, if you can think of a workable way which doesn't involve a major outlay on my part, in advance of the fact, and doesn't involve many hours of packing and hauling time, mine, I mean, since I have to pack and haul from inside the house to outside, I'm listening, so to speak. Those ALTOS boxes I bought on your behalf are still in the car, by the way, but I can't open the trunk because I was rear-ended by an illegal alien with no insurance . . . In the meantime, I'm going through the just-now-moved stuff to ensure I don't expose otherwise sensitive and potentially fragile hardware to unfavorable conditions. What this amounts to is looking through the stuff I've had help to haul from the basement in the last day or two, in the dark, and examine it in the daylight, to ensure it retains some of its remaining worth, if I can do anything to that end. Keep in mind that I'm stressed to the MAX right now, because I have a new 30-hour-a-day, 8-day-per-week job for anew client, in addition to all this other headache. What's more, I'd like to avoid the exchange of dollars for anything other than expenses because of the accounting headaches that creates. I had this stuff in two sections of the basement because some of was known to be of some value and therefore worth preserving. That's of less concern to me now than it once was, but it is of some importance to me to avoid discarding the stuff in a way that will result in no benefit to anyone. I'm willing to ship, via USPS because I visit my P.O. box several times a week, those items I can easily ship. I have physical limitations which render me unable to lift items with much weight or raise my arms much above the level of my shoulders. I don't have a lot of boxes in which to ship things, nor do I have the time or the desire to shop for boxes and packaging materials. I would, of course, consider bagging a board or documentation, and taking it to Mailboxes, etc, to have them package and ship it at the expense of the recipient. However, I don't have lots of cash to invest in speculation on COD shipments. I can do this a little, but I have a boy at Harvard and one (who didn't want to go to MIT because his brother was already in Boston) at Georgia Tech. You know that's not free! The reason I decided to get into the pile of miscellaneous hardware and move it out is because I'm in the "proof of concept" stage with my new client and while packaging doesn't matter at this point, I do have to have hardware on which to implement the concepts and I no longer go out and buy, randomly, hardware which suits the task, first because it often doesn't and secondly because it ultimately winds up in "the pile." I doubt that you intended to publish this communique' but I'm also publishing my reply so I won't have to explain to every individual why I don't have inventory listings of all the stuff in "the pile" or in "the heap." This stuff is the product of over twenty five years' accumulation of hardware I bought at market price and which has not found another home . . . yet. I remember what some of this stuff cost, so I'm reluctant simply to toss it where it will produce no further value. Those old Apple-]['s still do, faithfully, the job they could do back in the '70's, though no better, and the CP/M boxes will still turn out the payroll, though not in color and without the fancy noises. I try to pass this stuff on to people who will get some benefit since it's worthless lying around unused. Clearly, you're in the business of distributing such items as we discussed before. I have no problem with that. I just can't afford to expend my limited resources making the business of getting these items moved to your venue convenient for you. Things were different two to three weeks ago, when I didn't have the trunk of my car sealed by the damage, and when I didn't have the problem of making room for additional residents in my house. As I've said before, I don't mind giving stuff away to someone who will use it. If I "get" something for it, I prefer it not take the form of cash, because of the tax-related bookkeeping hassles. As I pick my way through "the pile" looking for resources I can use for my present task, I'll make a list of what I see. In some cases, I'll know I have other parts, or documents, or whatever, which might "go with" these and probably won't have time to find them. I will however offer a partial list as time allows and as I go back inside to "take a load off." Does this make any sense to anyone? Dick ---------- <classiccmp(a)u.washington.eduhence for you already dastar(a)siconic.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --