New subject: Philips G7000 (was Re: Re[2]: A moment of silence, please)

13 Aug 1997

...
   The
'speculators' who are out to try to make a quick buck on these
 machines while having no regard for their preservation or history will 
 only make life much more difficult (and expensive) for those who would 
 preserve both the machine and its history. 
 I think that there will always be people around who don't have the "purest"

 motives for doing anything, and collecting computers is no exception. 
 Antique dealers could be considered collectors only in it for the money, BUT 
 without that force being present, a lot more collectibles would be in that 
 great landfill in the sky. 
Dig the mixed metaphor!

Seriously though, there are two processes at work here.  One is that 
those who grew up with such machines have got the nostalgia bug.  This 
starts prices rising, which in turn attracts speculators.  The latter 
fuel the second process - articles get published about how fast the 
market is growing, etc.

One hopes that in a few years time, they will become unfashionable once 
again, and we will see a return to the situation when these machines 
first became unfashionable - they crop up at car boot sales, etc., for 
not much money.

...
  Another thing to think about is the opportunity that
the speculators 
 provide.  I don't recall the number of museums spread around the world, but 
 it is at least a dozen or two :).  Right now, I am in the learning stages of 
 finding out what it takes to run a museum and donations seem to be a
 biggie.  If a non-profit status museum is available, I can't imagine any 
 speculator trashing something instead of taking a tax rightoff. 
Do keep us posted!  There are plenty of us on this list who dream of 
converting our private collections into musea when we retire - or 
before! - who would welcome any info on the subject.

...
  And yes, this type of stuff WILL make it harder for
people to collect 
 computers.  HOWEVER, we are still at the stage where the perceived value of 
 most older computers is not very high thus making it relatively easy for 
 anyone who has the desire to get a fairly complete selection of computers 
 relatively inexpensively.  And since we seem to be some of the few concerned 
 with the preservation of old computers and their history, that leaves us in 
 a rather responsible position and I think the future will look back kindly 
 at our efforts! 
And however much we dislike the price spirals that occur, we must 
remember that unless people know that collectors want these machines, 
they'll put them in the dustbin.

That is one reason why, unlike Sam, I do not often haggle.  If people 
know that the Philips G7000 videopac computer that they priced at four 
pounds at the car boot sale will get snapped up for that amount of 
money, and tell people at work etc., others will think twice about 
throwing out the PDP8 or whatever.  If, however, they price it at L4 and 
can't even get that for it, they will think that computers are not 
collectible.  (What is the G7000 anyway?  Yes, I did buy it!  It has an 
8048 as the CPU, of all things!)

...
  > Are *you* prepared to pay $500US for an Osborne
or a TI99-4a ??? 
No, but I'd rather pay $500 for an Osborne than see the last remaining 
one disinegrate between the teeth of a rubbish crusher like that PDP9.