Oops -- hit 'enter' too soon -- rest of message here -- RE: Need contact information for dkdkk

[Teo Zenios]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Battle" <frustum at pacbell.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: Oops -- hit 'enter' too soon -- rest of message here -- RE:
Need contact information for dkdkk


> 'Computer Collector Newsletter' wrote:
>
> >>>>I paid over $1100 for my dual 133 BeBox.  I bought it during the "dot
> ...
> > Granted, on specific items, as I said about the Curta in my other reply
just
> > now.  We just can't have one person being irresponsible and manipulating
the
> > whole market for everyone else.  It's one thing for prices to change
over
> > time, but to have one person come in out of nowhere and start f-cking
with
> > everything just because he can isn't right.
> ...
>
> Paraphrase: when I do it, it is OK, but when the other guy does it more
than me,
> it is wrong.
>
> As has been pointed out, the price is set by the 2nd highest bidder, so DK
isn't
>   to blame.  If DK makes lower max price bids but which are still high
enough to
> win, it won't drop the price of auctions one whit.  The only way to get
the
> average price down is to ask him to lose more auctions.  Do you think
he'll
> agree to it?
>
> Besides, haven't we seen this a number of times before?  fdbruce is
selling all
> sorts of "interesting" (to me) machines on ebay for the past few months.
A year
> or two ago he was one of those deep pocket buyers.  He got tired and now
they
> are getting injected back into the system.  No harm done.  Well, other
than he
> is currently selling a "in need of repairs" Sol-20 and separately a
microcomplex
> 80/64 video mod board which obviously originally was part of the at
modified
> Sol-20 (without this board, that Sol won't do anything).
>
> DK's intentions are not our business.  I doubt he is using them to test a
> grinding machine.  These machines will appear again.
>
> How many people on this list have systems, most of which will sit in a
pile
> somewhere until they get resold on ebay or traded for some other system?
Isn't
> this a waste?  How is it much different from DK's presumed "sin" of
hoarding?
>
>

I agree with what was said above completely.

The only thing that will harm the hobby long term is if people pay very
little or nothing for classic machines so there is no reason for the owners
to sell them instead of scrapping them. Most people who blow allot of cash
on any hobby and get bored will sell the collectable back to other hobbyists
eventually. Overpaying on a public auction site just gets more people
digging through their collection to turn up more of the same for sale.

A waste to me would be a private collector having multiple copies of a
desirable and somewhat rare machine/part/manual/etc and sitting on it for a
few decades.