This is a fairly important time. When a dealer gives up his lot it means that prices go lower, but, at some point in pricing it won't be worth the effort and a holder might toss everything to a scrapper. ultimately there won't be much left. Are we there yet? Yes, with PDP-1's and 8's. I'd be willing to pay a 10% share for 10% of the lot provided the right things are in there. We could start by assigning values to all the items and then letting shareowners draw off small percentages in round robins until all the shareowner lots are exhausted. This mainly to prevent any *one* experiences to the most people, while honoring price paid, probably what Ed was getting at. I asked the seller if he could translate the part numbers (the only things currently listed) into product names so as to assist the selection/ decision process. He's looking into it. it'll all be over in a week anyway, but its worth some effort. John A.

To John Allain: I wonder if the Vendor would be willing to take a deposit on the load to extend it's 'execution date' by enough time to see if a rescue effort by a List Consortium is a feasible thing??? Of course It'd most likely be non-refundable, as I'd expect, but it might be worth asking... Just a Thought. John

Jerome Fine replies: There does not seem to me to be much that I could use of the PDP-11 boards - except maybe the RQDX1 that I think I recognized. So I doubt that I would want to pay for a 10% share. However, there seems to be enough interest already for 35% of the total. And some have expressed an interest to contribute something just to save the load. Might a lottery be acceptable that would help if 100% is not subscribed? Depending on how much could be raised by selling tickets for $ 10 each that gave one chance at a 10% share with any extra providing for storage until the load was divided up and shipped. Everyone could buy as many tickets as they want with 35 tickets being needed to each additional 10% that is not subscribed. While the above is only a suggestion and is probably not a sufficient overall method of handling, it might just be useful enough to start someone thinking about a complete solution. I will buy one ticket even though I doubt there is anything I can use. If sufficient others post a non-refundable deposit for 10% based on there being enough of interest for them, there might be sufficient to bid for the whole lot. An initial suggestion would be $ 35 as a deposit for a 10% share. You need many fewer people this way. Only 100 total against 350 for a lottery. Just some suggestions!!! Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine -- If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the 'at' with the four digits of the current year.

On Friday, November 8, 2002, Sellam Ismail wrote: Maybe someone who has most of 'em already, like yourself. :-) -- Jeffrey Sharp