Good haul of old pc stuph

[Roger Merchberger]

Rumor has it that John Allain may have mentioned these words:

>Big rule of low(er) price negotiation.
>The more enthusiasm you show, the higher price you get.

Merch's Corollary:

The farther away from home you are, the more costly your car parts are. 
"Don't let 'em see your Michigan license plates in Oregon."
;-)

>Another rule: asking more than 50% off is asking almost too much of anyone.

Depends on how unknowledgeable the people are of what they're selling. The 
last 2 CoCo2's I've seen at garage sales were marked at $70 and $75 each - 
bare, no carts, minimal cables. One wanted an extra $20 for the CCR-81[1] 
tape deck. We're talking 4, maybe 5 years ago, tops... Pentium 3's & 
Athlons were cheap & plentiful at the time.

The first one I told the people that the machine w/tape deck was worth 
about $10, they thanked me for the info and asked me what I'd pay for it. I 
said $5. They were quite surprised, but when I told 'em I had 5 already (I 
was underestimating) I didn't need another one very badly. They sold it to 
me for $5.

At the second place, I told them the same thing, they got all indignant, 
looked at me cross-eyed and said "Like you'd know." I told them "I do - I 
own several and I keep up with what they're worth." They then accused me of 
trying to undercut them - I told them "I own six now, I don't need another 
and I'm not buying yours no matter the price." They said "Would you take it 
for $1?" I refused & walked away.

>Just say "This machine will not run any modern software at all -- no
>internet."

Many would not believe the sign. A lady bought a Ford dealership 68020 Unix 
server because it was in a big case. She asked me afterward: "It's bigger 
than my machine now, so it'll run Windows faster, right? ... And boy this 
sucker's heavy!" I calmly explained to her that it would not, and at first 
she wouldn't believe me, until she couldn't figure out where to plug in the 
PC monitor & keyboard.

Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

[1] The CCR-81 is notorious for being not very trustworthy with one's data. 
If you're looking for a Tandy data tape deck, search for the CCR-82 - 
*very* good deck.

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | A new truth in advertising slogan
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers | for MicroSoft: "We're not the oxy...
zmerch at 30below.com          |                         ...in oxymoron!"