Yeah, it's the question on all retronauts' lips... Richie and I were discussing this only this morning and I'm sure YOU guys have your thoughts on the matter too - please record em here. This guy takes an example vintage machine as a case study - a VIC-20 - and so the majority of this clip might well only appeal to Commode fans but his observations at the beginning - and beginning of the end (around 26:30) apply to the whole scene so even if you don't watch it all, do Fast Forward to there!
Yes they are and I’m also seeing people break up perfectly good computers and sell the constituent parts for exorbitant prices.
Yes they are but I have to say that at this moment I'm glad because I'm about to unload some as money again remain tight, had to nibble a little in to the crowdfunded money to pay for some uni stuff and unexpected bills from the bloody council because of Serena moving out (apparently we are now better off so they can charge us more, so how am I better off if you rip it from me...) But to be honest the prices I see are just ruddy stupid, its pricing the user out of the market in favour of the collector who just sits on the machines. Not a great thing, I'm very much in the using crowd and the notion of a machine just sat there doing nothing annoys me so the thought in my head is to get it out to someone who will use it. I won't be without real hardware but the few spare I have will be going along with the Amiga 1200, I just don't have the space for it and its just sad to see it in a pile doing nowt. Always said I'd never see it go but it needs to be used...
As I said when I went birthday shopping for myself, after looking at the prices of C64's and other micros I want, I stuck with upgrades for my Atari's instead because the prices are so outrageous. It is a real shame that people have become so bloody greedy. Though I do agree with Paul, if you are forced to sell due to financial difficulties it's a great time to do it. I wish I wasn't in dire straights 15 years ago selling for a fraction of their value now. But then if I had the stuff still, I wouldn't be selling as things aren't as dire for me currently, or, if I was, there are other alternatives these days like crowd funding. Too many who are merely selling for profit are out there now, it's like a gold rush for vintage micros. Hopefully things will calm down eventually, especially for computers that sold in the millions or tens of millions. There is just no reason to be paying as much now for a C64 as it's original retail or higher, when they are so common and surely not nearly as many people wanting them as when they were sold for retail back in the day. Some micros are rare as they didn't do as well, and as these machines reach 30, 40 or more years old, I'd expect the less common micros to go up in value, but not ones that are plentiful compared to vintage users and collectors combined, surely. One would think the vintage market would be flooded and prices forced to drop as they just won't sell for such ridiculous prices after all the rich vintage users and collectors get what they want. But from what I can tell, comparatively rarer hardware, like Atari 8-bits vs. C64's, are selling for the same or even less than common C64's! That makes no sense, it's all down to evilbay/greedbay/epay or whatever you refer to eBay as, causing greedy bastards to price things so high, just because some arsehole priced them too high to start with, sold to some moron and other's follow suit since it sold. The snowball just grows and spreads out far beyond eBay.
What I don't get are the the folks who pay top dollar and then put the item in storage along with the other 10.... I collect films but I do watch them, why collect computers if you don't use therm.. Saying that, I have the 21 or is it 22 films from the Marvel superhero phase but still not watched the last two Avengers films fully with Cindy, I've seen them on my PC but just setting up the middle room as my surround sound area with a big TV (ok a semi big tv 42"). Want to have the old DTS shaking the bastards upstairs
I think I'll have to borrow the installation I helped install at our local theatre, and loan to you, you'll just need to install an additional electricity meter to go with the 16, 4KW Amps, install all the woofers dont bother with the baby smaller speakers, and move out for a bit. be intresting to try hehe.
