Ebay: "new" 029 Keypunch

[Jules Richardson]

Dave McGuire wrote:
> On Dec 30, 2008, at 7:41 PM, William Donzelli wrote:
>>>  Still, considering that someone snatched that one up with a buy-it-now
>>>  option instead of waiting out the auction tells me that they aren't
>>>  common on ebay either.
>>
>> Lots of people, including some of the mainframe collectors (big guns),
>> still think that the 029s and 129s are really rare. I suspect they are
>> not looking past their screens. For those of us that are actually
>> doing the legwork, the things just come around.
> 
>   I'd sure like to know what planet you're on in which 029's "just come 
> around".  Perhaps you'd be willing to share the wealth a bit? ;)
> 
>   The closest thing to "vintage hardware" I've seen in this part of the 
> country is a middle-aged AS/400 and an Osborne 1...The only truly 
> interesting thing I've found here was the System/36 (5360) I picked up 
> last summer.

Vintage availability always varies by area - I've seen precisely nothing up 
here, although doubtless a few odds and ends exist down in Minneapolis (but 
that's still a 10 hour round-trip for me, so I can't easily find things and 
just hop in a vehicle to go get them).

However, experience in the past has been that there's two routes to vintage 
collecting:

    1) Ebay
    2) Not Ebay

:-) The second route seems to find more obscure stuff (as well as 'common' 
items) and typically for free or beer money - but it's a lot of work to get 
yourself established as a collector of ${foo} and then to actively seek out 
items. The old time vs. money equation, I guess.

cheers

Jules