28 Mar
2007
28 Mar
'07
1:10 a.m.
There are a pair of these drives on eBay, with 10
hours
and a few minutes to go. The current high bidder is
a gold scrapper (jeepguymud), and he hacks up old
mainframes and sells gold parts on eBay. Anyone
in the Cincinatti area?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220094878959
--Bill
28 Mar
28 Mar
8:52 a.m.
On Mar 28, 2007, at 4:10 AM, William Maddox wrote:
There are a pair of these drives on eBay, with 10
hours
and a few minutes to go. The current high bidder is
a gold scrapper (jeepguymud), and he hacks up old
mainframes and sells gold parts on eBay. Anyone
in the Cincinatti area?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220094878959
Ahh crap, he scored a bunch of mainframe stuff two days ago that
was here in Florida, including a Multiprise for $300...so I guess he
hacks up new mainframes too. I was thinking of trying to grab it but
I don't have the budget for it.
Crap. If I'd known he was a scrapper I'd have done more.
-D.
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
10:13 a.m.
I'm in Columbus, Ohio ~2-3 hours from Cincinnati. What did you have in mind?
I'm not personally interested in the units but I don't want them to be
scrapped either. By the way, are there any other known Ebay "Scrappers" to
be ware of?
,George Wiegand
----- Original Message -----
From: "William Maddox" <wmaddox at pacbell.net>
To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 3:10 AM
Subject: IBM 3420 008 Magnetic tape storage on eBay -- needs rescue
There are a pair of these drives on eBay, with 10
hours
and a few minutes to go. The current high bidder is
a gold scrapper (jeepguymud), and he hacks up old
mainframes and sells gold parts on eBay. Anyone
in the Cincinatti area?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220094878959
--Bill
12:08 p.m.
On 3/28/07, George Wiegand <ics65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
I'm in Columbus, Ohio ~2-3 hours from Cincinnati.
What did you have in mind?
I'm not personally interested in the units but I don't want them to be
scrapped either. By the way, are there any other known Ebay "Scrappers" to
be ware of?
Aw man, that's sad. Pictures like these should be part of some of
'scared-straight' shock campaign to prevent old machines from going to
disreputable 'collectors.'
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250098792167
--
Si.7k
10:58 a.m.
On Wed, 28 Mar 2007, William Maddox wrote:
There are a pair of these drives on eBay, with 10
hours
and a few minutes to go. The current high bidder is
a gold scrapper (jeepguymud), and he hacks up old
mainframes and sells gold parts on eBay. Anyone
in the Cincinatti area?
That may well be the saddest thing I've heard in some time and almost
brought a tear to my eye. What kind of beast is this 'jeepguymud'...
If only they were in the UK.
Andrew
1:51 p.m.
That may well be the saddest thing I've heard in
some time and almost
brought a tear to my eye. What kind of beast is this 'jeepguymud'...
CRIPES...
First off, if anyone is even a halfway serious IBM collector and
doesn't have a 3420, you are clearly not expending any energy.
Everytime I think that the world supply of 3420s is drying up, more
appear.
Second, if is very unwise to bad mouth a scrapper. If anyone STILL
does not know why, go and read my various rants about it in the
archives. And this time think and absorb what I wrote.
Third, jeepguymud is not a bad fellow - we have dealt before. I
suspect he is rather new to the scrap gold business, as many of his
purchases lately seem extremely unwise. For example, that 3990 in
Florida will probably yield $100 in scrap, but shipping and labor is
going to kill him (I was quoted just over $520 to get the thing to New
York). And then all that stuff located near Washington is really
gold-poor.
Fourth, jeepguymud is not the bad guy here - one of the sellers is.
The guy just outside Washington with the 9370 system was going to sell
it to me, just after his first try marketting the 2440 on Ebay. I even
met his price for it all.
--
Will
29 Mar
29 Mar
12:22 a.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
I educated a scrapper, and bought a data center from him as a
result about 15 years ago. The sad fact is that there is no where
near enough of us to soak up all the old mainframe gear out
there, and there is no way I could think to take all the equipment
that has to go away from business operations and try to offer
an alternative, so that is just the fact of life.
There are not many functional 3420s, and these are pretty sad.
I had 8 of them, and I had an IBM CE tell me that I'd have
the most headaches with them of all the gear I collected. I
sold the pile I had, and I don't know if they have gotten
them going, but I suspect they will have to either have a
lot of luck and patience, or a retired IBMer to help, or
they will just shred a lot of tape.
Remember they can read forward at 200ips, and rewind
at an incredible rate. They have very large DC motors
which if off a tiny amount will cause real bad things to
happen to your tape.
I have drifted off my topic here, but the bottom line is
these were nice for parts as the seller said, but they were
no prize. I would not cry a lot once one of these or the
DASD got this damaged to see it get ground up, as parts
That may well
be the saddest thing I've heard in some time and almost
brought a tear to my eye. What kind of beast is this 'jeepguymud'...
<snip> from these would do more harm than good in most cases
Jim
9:54 a.m.
New subject: General rescue (was: IBM 3420 008 Magnetic tape ...
I educated a scrapper, and bought a data center from
him as a
result about 15 years ago. The sad fact is that there is no where
near enough of us to soak up all the old mainframe gear out
there, and there is no way I could think to take all the equipment
that has to go away from business operations and try to offer
an alternative, so that is just the fact of life.
Just remember to keep posting these opportunities to the list when
they happen, so the list members can make that evaluation (no
where near enough takers) for themselves.
I think we hear this story, 'there Was no way I could take it all
myself' a bit too often. We should instead be notified when the "was"
is an "is". When this Does happen, I thank those posters... keep
up the good work.
John A.
more DEC than IBM, but still...
1:40 p.m.
The sad fact is that there is no where
near enough of us to soak up all the old mainframe gear out
there, and there is no way I could think to take all the equipment
that has to go away from business operations and try to offer
an alternative, so that is just the fact of life.
I do not think it is sad. The scrappers do play an important role in
the world, so if a large computer gets scrapped, it is actually a good
thing. They do a good job recycling the materials, and way down the
line we see this at the checkout line in the supermarket. About the
only time I would get sad is when the machine getting scrapped is
relatively important historically and rare.
If a 3420 gets scrapped - big deal. Same with 99.9 percent of the
machines that are coming out of service - DECs, Suns, IBMs, DGs, HPs,
etc.. Even if a PDP-11 gets scrapped - big deal. Except for a few
models, there are oodles of the things in collectors hands.
There are not many functional 3420s, and these are
pretty sad.
3420s were always a bit demanding - and this gets magnified when their
service life is examined. Most 3420s were running all day, every day,
for many years. They also lasted far longer than IBM ever envisioned -
30 plus years. The drives we see on minicomputers never got the
workout that 3420s received over thier lifetimes - not even close.
I have drifted off my topic here, but the bottom line
is
these were nice for parts as the seller said, but they were
no prize. I would not cry a lot once one of these or the
DASD got this damaged to see it get ground up, as parts
from these would do more harm than good in most cases
DASDs are a bit different - they are far more rare. The DASDs (hard
disk in IBMspeak) available in the 1970s (3330, 3340) are extremely
rare, and even those in the 80s are nearly as rare (3370, 3380).
--
Will
30 Mar
30 Mar
12:13 a.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
I won't try to quote you (goofed last time), but agree with your
reply. I do wish there were more with resources of good storage
to save what is out there now. I just won't condemn the scrappers
out of hand for being scrappers.
The one I used as an example was able to get much more for a
lot of his stuff after he met up with some of us who could
help him learn, and to his credit he stayed very friendly in
his pricing with everyone.
The ones who go from chop up to "enlightened" and try
to jack the prices out of sight are the frustrating ones.
This is way off the topic mentioned, I don't know if the
scrapper who bid on the 3420 (I don't think he got it,
or wasnt winning last count I had) has nothing to do
with being a good guy or bad guy as I am describing
here.
Jim
6476
days inactive
6478
days old
10 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
allain＠panix.com -
andy＠smokebelch.org -
ics65＠sbcglobal.net -
jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
silent700＠gmail.com -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com -
wmaddox＠pacbell.net