At 07:32 AM 10/24/01, Bill responded: When I hear this sentence, "... old computer stuff worth $x, help me sell it on ebay." All sorts of bells go off. If it really is "worth" $100K US, and he only owe 3-4K in back rent, then selling it $10K/week on Ebay would not only pay off his rent but be a good living for the next two or three months. However, as most people who haunt Ebay are aware, it has done its job of finding both the sellers and buyers and the market forces have significantly dropped the price of things you can buy. It used to be a MicroVAX 3100 could get you $50 - $100, now they regularly go unbid at $9.99. A VAX 4000/400 that would have brought $500 - $1000 a year ago sat unbid at $300. The only thing to have held its value are Qbus/Unibus SCSI controllers. So when I read messages like the one Bill originally forwarded, the natural cynic in me suspects a person who wants someone else to invest all the sweat and pain for selling a bunch of stuff on Ebay and getting a cut of the profits. My practical side, wonders why he just wouldn't sell them to another dealer that had space/time/willingness to stock them or whatever. --Chuck

At 12:08 PM 10/24/01, "Merch" wrote: Sunnyvale California, the heart of Silicon Valley, where a 3 bedroom house that's about 72" from the neighbors house, has 1500 square feet, no yard, and "needs work", was sold in 2000 for $650,000. (yes, it got that bad, yes there is much, much pain around here these days) And in case it wasn't obvious, in my message I was being a bit facetious in that $10K/week would be a great wage (even after taking $1K - $2K out for expenses). So why doesn't this guy want to live that life? Or perhaps the inventory really can't be sold for $100K, perhaps it can only be sold quickly for $10K (making your wages about $150/week after expenses) Its the thing that bothers me about the discussions of "worth" on this list and elsewhere, the time component. Sure if you have the one part someone needs to survive when they need it, it is "worth" a ton of money to them. If on the other hand nobody needs or wants the part you have then its "worth" is $0.03/lb as scrap. Note: I don't know Ken and in no way am I impugning his reputation so while this came up in the context of what he has to offer, it isn't directed at him! I have experience that it is not uncommon for someone to use the "time critical" value of something's worth vs its actual current worth, in order to inflate the value of a transaction. Stock brokers do this when suggesting that a stock "will be worth $X" and so "$Y is a reasonable investment." As I try to keep my hobby "income impact neutral" for some reasonable window, the value proposition of this stuff is an area that I am quite interested in. --Chuck