On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, John Foust wrote: Well, since you brought it up, there were two reasons for the VCF: 1) I needed a way to turn this hobby that was sucking tons of money out of my pocket into a tax write-off and, 2) Upon realizing there were many, many people interested in this hobby (that realization came when I first subscribed to the newly formed ClassicCmp mailing list) I wanted to create a yearly convention where collectors could gather to share their hobby with others, see and hear the people who made the stuff they collect, and be THE place for finding that one computer thing you've been looking for all year. In fact this was initially the primary motivation...to have stuff come to me rather than having to go out searching for it. In reality, what happens is that by the time the VCF opens, I'm so broke from organizing everything that all I can do is drool over what I see in the flea market and envy the people who actually get to take home the goodies. So far, as far as being THE venue for buying/selling/trading old computer things, I say that the VCF is second only to eBay. But the advantage of the VCF is that you can get stuff MUCH cheaper than you would have to pay on eBay. Last year all sorts of excellent stuff got sold for very reasonable prices. Due to anonimity concerns I can't be specific, but an Apple 1 was sold at VCF 2.0 for a franction of what it would have went for on eBay (no, don't e-mail me privately for more info either, I can't say any more :) And of course I'm very wise and anticipated a market that hadn't yet reached its full potential. And the chicks really dig it. So there you have it, the real story. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Always hasslin' the man. Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 02/15/99]