Well I think the bids on PDP 8s will finally tone down on EBay. The guy that
paid $1300 for the case needed it because he had CPU boards. He bid $300 on
my boards and placed ANOTHER 7 bids in the last 15 miniutes to make sure he
would not get snipered under $1000 for them. It looks like he really wants
to run a PDP 8/e. But... I see this morning someone put up a PDP 8e doc set
on EBay so I wonder how many $100s he will pay for that.
Now that he has what he wanted it looks like the 8 stuff will sell for the
usual $500 or less on EBay.
P.S. If someone put up a Desktop Honeywell 716 on EBay I would probably do
the same thing.
john
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin McQuiggin <mcquiggi(a)sfu.ca>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, October 14, 1999 2:00 AM
Subject: Re: collectors vs. enthusiasts
At 05:14 PM 99/10/13 -0600, you wrote:
I think we are seeing some of the same thing in
computers,
and eBay (and other auction sites) make it easy for them.
Hopefully this is just a passing fad. If enough of these
"investors" get burned they may not return.
For what it's worth, I'm also an enthusiast/collector of old radios from
the 1920s and 30s, and eBay has caused the same thing to happen with prices
in that realm. Old radios and speakers are changing hands at values far
above what they're actually "worth", based on the number still in
existence, the technologies used, etc.
This cost craziness has even spilled over into the local secondhand/antique
market, where radios that used to be fairly priced at say $100 are now
price tagged at say $400-$500.
I think that speculation on eBay has caused prices to rise artifically, to
the detriment of those who seek to acquire for love of the technology and
the fun of getting old radios (or old computers) working again. These
things are significant parts of history that will be lost unless some folks
care enough to preserve them.
Kevin
---
Kevin McQuiggin VE7ZD
mcquiggi(a)sfu.ca