Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000

[Marc Verdiell]

I talked to the owner maybe 6 months ago. It was a bizarre and difficult
interaction. He refused to let me see the units, and insisted I give him an
offer first. He would not even give me the list of the items he had. We went
into a circular discussion: that I couldn't give him an offer if I didn't
know nor see what the items were, to which he replied that if I were a
serious buyer I would make him an offer beforehand, therefore I was not
serious and he would not show me the items nor give me the list. So that was
not very helpful. Then later on he sent me 3 or 4 close up pictures of only
the name badges of some of the machines (one badge from HP, maybe two of
IBM). I got the distinct impression that either something was fishy or that
the guy had unreasonable expectations. Or maybe both. I just gave up. Looks
like you are faring much better than me, so that's positive. I am interested
in the IBM system, the tapes and tape controller units mainly, if you don't
want them.
Marc


On 1/9/15 6:38 PM, Lyle Bickley wrote:
> When Bob and I initially talked to the owner, he told us that what he 
> had was a major find for a collector. He spoke in glowing terms as to 
> the condition of the 4341 and the HP mini (de-installed from a running 
> environment and then stored for many years). So as you would expect, 
> Bob and I were very anxious to see both systems. What we found was a 
> serious disappointment. As Bob said, the 4341 and the HP mini were 
> crammed into a storage unit with lots of other junk. It was impossible 
> to see/determine what system components were actually there. There was 
> no way to know how complete or what features either system had. 
> Repeating what Bob said, everything was water damaged, rusty and in 
> poor condition - and I do mean everything. We told him that his asking 
> price was too high - and that the condition of the systems was so bad 
> we wouldn't even make him an offer. Lyle 
Well that's a disappointment.  I'm still going to take a look at it 
tomorrow...but I'm going to be prepared to walk away from it.

TTFN - Guy