At 08:07 AM 7/3/98 -0400, Doug Spence wrote: All I can say is that it doesn't hurt to tell everyone you meet that you're interested in old, junky computers, the kind that you're about to throw out, the ones that can't run Windows. :-) Tell everyone in the store. Tell them three times, three different ways. Leave your card. Leave an extra six cards. Write "Likes Old Computer Junk" on the front of each. This will at least improve your odds of avoiding this depression in the future. In their defense, they exist to attempt to sell the stuff they get. If it's not selling, what else are they supposed to do? If you want to be sad, ask to see what they cull at the start of the pipeline, when they perform triage as items are donated. I get similarly upset at the triage performed at the my favorite local junk spot, the University of Wisconsin -- Madison Surplus sale, as judged by what I find in the dumpster, and the condition and organization of what I see in the sale area. The almighty PC reigns, but are stripped and separated into bins: keyboards here, monitors there, cases here, spare cards here, manuals over there. I've found two of my Teraks in this shape: main unit separated from extra disk drive separated from monitor and keyboard, and any ancillary docs are long-gone. In the dumpster goes anything not easily identifiable as PC or office equipment, but they're quite lax about that, too - I've seen laser printers and faxes only a few years old tossed, along with desks and chairs that aren't stylish enough to sell quickly. If I ran the zoo! - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>