Date   : Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:32:13 +0200
From   : "W.Scholten" <s-whs@...>
Subject: Re: No, please don't! (tell about car boot finds)

Littlefield Aaron wrote:

> Sorry if you find this boring Wouter (no bad feelings meant by the way), but
> I find it fascinating to hear what people have found in the wild (so to
> speak), I certainly wasn't intending it to be a bragging competition. If
> it's any help the B+ I referred to earlier cost me a hefty sum (so it was no
> bargain by any means!). 

Well, price isn't everything, you can brag about the rare or mint stuff
you've got for example :)

It usually goes in that direction which is why I don't like such topics.

> The main reason I raised the issue is to find out how much stuff is still
> out there, because all of my hunts around car boot sales etc have been
> pretty dire.

I'm also interested in that and I've given a little information on this
subject in my 'collecting is a bad idea' essay on my webpages. I don't
think you'll really get an answer here, at least, not from examining the
responses of a few people.

> Acorn bits seem to be pretty sparse - and that's surprising
> considering how many were sold. I just wondered where everybody else found
> or obtained their hardware because other than flea-bay (which I admit is a
> collectors playground), I just don't see (or hear of) Acorn machines
> anymore. I'm sure there are plenty hidden away in lofts and attics - I'd
> just love to get my hands on them, as I'm sure would many other users on
> this newsgroup.

The situation here in NL is obviously worse than in the UK for BBC
materials, but to give you some information:

   1. Apart from ebay.co.uk, a lot BBC stuff I got (from 2000-2006) was
from wanted ads, and occasionaly people who visited my website. The
'rare' and most desirable stuff, I usualy bought from sellers on ebay.
Note that for 'rare' you should really read 'only appears for sale a few
times a year'. See also point 3 and my essay on e.g. the number of ZX80s
for sale. There may be exceptions, perhaps the PET and FIT testers can
really be considered rare, as shops were the only ones who could
buy them and probably threw them out when BBCs were no longer
interesting from a commercial standpoint.

   2. The wanted ads were relatively succesful because the 2nd hand
website I usually put them on, was a) the most visited website of its
kind, and b) for some reason had an acorn category with just 10-20 ads
at any one time. I've not put up wanted ads for about a year (still
trying to reduce the clutter in the attic), but I'm sure now that that
category is gone, it would be far less successful.

      The people who responded, were usually the first owners. I noticed
no decline in offers of BBC stuff (i.e. until ca. mid 2005 as opposed to
the general decline in flea markets (see next point)

   3. People on dutch mailing lists have complained that they only found
(from ca. 2003 on) PC stuff on flea markets with few exceptions. Note
that in NL, we don't have garage sales, or even car boot sales. Nothing
comparable to UK/US anyway.

   4. I estimate that lots of old hardware is still in the hands of the
original owners. That stuff may only get on the market for special
reasons (lack of space, death of owner etc.). What has been sold when
the 8 bit stuff was still worth something (well, a lot more than the
little amounts they go for today), was sold if the owner at that
particular time wanted to sell (note: they probably are less inclined to
do so if they've invested more by buying lots of software/hardware add-ons).

It was worth very little shortly after (to the 2nd/3rd owners) as it was
bought by people who probably have little emotional attachment to this
stuff (exercise: Think of reasons why this is so). This is probably the
stuff that has ended up at flea markets or was thrown away. Original
owners are often very hesitant throwing it away or selling for little
money as it's still of value to them (emotional attachment). This is
unlikely for most computers that people bought after ca. 1984 as
computers/PCs were often being used more as tools than for/as a hobby.

  5. Here in NL, BBCs (or any other computer) were hardly used in
schools. The majority of machines went to individuals. In the UK, of
course a lot of machines ended up there, but what proportion?

All in all my estimate is that the best stuff is still out there, with
those original owners who were not selling them on quick enough (value
decrease meant selling was not an attractive proposition later on). I
think the ZX80s offered on ebay clearly demonstrate some of my points.

-- 
Wouter
---
BBC micro | Calculators | Classic PC games: http://www.xs4all.nl/~swhs/whs/