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How far would you drive to p/u a vintage puter?

C

Chris2005

Banned
Joined
Mar 4, 2005
Messages
572
Location
Pennsyltucky LOL LOL
What would you consider excessive? Is ~300 miles too much? What if it was something SO RAAAAAARE. And pristine condition. And cute as a button. Come on guys, give me some feedback.
 
Chris2005 said:
Come on guys, give me some feedback.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that. It never worked for me....

Hey, if its something you really want, and you can afford to do it. Then go for it!!

-Vlad
 
US to Germany

US to Germany

I once called my friend's girlfriend in germany to buy me a 286 AT in a city that she had to get on a train to go to. That was back in 1989 and a 286 AT was still a top of the line computer. The computer had to be shipped to yet another city in germany. :shocked: How is that for a far distance?
 
It depends on the computer, the condition, and price. There are certain machines that I'd drive 3, 4, 500 miles for, or further, if the price were right.

--T
 
Chris2005 said:
What would you consider excessive? Is ~300 miles too much? What if it was something SO RAAAAAARE. And pristine condition. And cute as a button. Come on guys, give me some feedback.
Click to expand...

I've driven as much as about 100 miles (one way) for an interesting item.

Mostly, though, I'll ship stuff even from that distance if at all possible.

As an example, I just shipped some stuff from Reno to San Jose for about $40 which was about 1/2-2/3 of what I'd have spent on gas, plus the time it would have taken to go and return.

For especially interesting stuff I'd drive anywhere I can get to and back in a day. So if someone in LA or SD offered me an Altair or something I'd hop in the car right away! :)

It hasn't ever panned out, but I've considered trucking somewhere (or flying out and trucking back) for collections of interesting gear. . .
 
Erik said:
I've driven as much as about 100 miles (one way) for an interesting item.
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I've driven to Detroit (100 mi.) on several occaisions to pick up some free goodies. Saginaw is about 70 mi. and I've made that trip a few times too. 500 is not out of the question, I'd make a thousand-mile round trip for a cheap-or-free Altair or Imsai.

--T
 
nice guy

nice guy

A very very nice guy once drove from St. Louis to meet me in Ann Arbor to drop of two NorthStar Horizons and a huge stack of Byte magazines.

All the guy wanted was a night in a decent motel.

I don't recall but I think I gave him gas money as well. I certainly should have.

-m

EDIT, yeah, St. Louis Missouri not Michigan.
 
Someone recently drove up from Texas to ComputerHell. When he got here, he exchanged his rental car for a Ryder truck for the trip back home. His only regret was that he hadn't got a bigger truck (I was very generous).

--T
 
darn it.

darn it.

that reminds me, I forgot to help clean out ComputerHell when I was home for Christams.

I don't even recall what you had that I wanted. ;)

oh well.
 
A friend of mine took a combined vacation and computer pick-up trip a few years ago, when he had sourced a couple of cheap Amigas, I believe a 2000 and a 3000. He went from here to Malmö, Gothenburg and then back. I don't know the exact mileage, but somewhere around 800 miles roundtrip. And Amigas are not that rare. Not sure if the seller(s) would consider shipping. Take into account that gas costs at least twice or maybe thrice as much over here than in the US.

Personally, I've went to Stockholm and back over the day a couple of times, but that is only about 135 miles roundtrip, so not a big thing.

(ok, miles = km/1.609)
 
Last summer I drove about 150 Miles round trip to pick up some free stuff I needed and made out pretty well.

I would realy have to want the item(s) and they would have to be bulky and heavy to make a roadtrip worth my time.
 
I had my brother pickup a few TI machines and PEB expansion boxes in California. When I went home for christmas, I boxed up the limit on the plane. Then I was random selected for inspection (pre 911). The lady at the counter said "just tell me what is in the boxes". So, 2000 is my max, but I've driven up to Michigan to rescue Apple IIs by the truckfull. My old highschool teacher told me 3 years ago he has the schools old SWTP SS50 6809 system and matching terminal! I want to get ahold of him again when I go back out there. That I won't fly home but I'll Fed ex it.


Vince
 
OK, I tried to avoid this thread, but I must once again say that I moved my massive collection 3000 miles from Toronto to where I am now. I had a 17' Uhaul and an 8' trailer. I moved very little personal furniture when I moved to my retirement home. I would say personal possessions and furniture would likely fit in the 8 ' trailer. It took my son and I 20 hrs to load it all from my former basement apartment. Much was abandoned, mostly old XTs which I had found somehow significant enough at the time to retain them. It was an aborted attempt at a computer museum in Tororonto and I even thought it would be cool to have one in the middle of central Manitoba

It was quite mad.

Another massive move was by a Toronto guy who bought the stock of the DEC Maynard complex after Compaq bought them out. Using UHauls and friends and family he managed to remove and store in any available space
in Toronto the guts of DEC history. I volunteered to help with hopes I could score a DEC PDP-8 but he declined. I think he figured I would want payment.
'No man I will even pay my motel bills, just give me a PDP-8"

For a while he also maintained the PDP-8.com site. I think some outfit in Niagara Falls, US eventually bought all the stock.

Since I live in the boonies, a trip to Winnipeg 300 miles away for any reason, medical or other, is always an occasion to check out the thrifts and also any computer recyclers. And yes I would go to Wpg. should a desirable box come available, even if I desire to sell off my collection on E-Pay. Go figure ??

Lawrence
 
I have driven 600 or so miles (one way) to pick up a couple of systems I
wanted. Long weekend that was. It all depends on how much you want
the stuff and if you don't mind driving long distance.
 
I've flown 1800 miles (on a commercial flight) to visit the people who re-sparked my interest in the PCjr. While I was there I helped sort the storage shed where the rest of the PCjr parts were. It wasn't a drive to pick up a machine, but I think that is in the same category ..

It was a great trip too .. it's always nice to see the human faces on the other side of the phone or email account.
 
For an original apple one I would drive 500 miles and then hit ebay 5 mins later ;)

Chris2005 said:
What would you consider excessive? Is ~300 miles too much? What if it was something SO RAAAAAARE. And pristine condition. And cute as a button. Come on guys, give me some feedback.
Click to expand...
 
"His only regret was that he hadn't got a bigger truck"

does this mean that you sold him the stuff you were going to ship me? I havent heard back from you in a while
 
Well, Im in the middle of moving, but Ill be setting up my computer room in my new house on thursday. So let me get everything hooked up and going and then Ill be able to answer that a little easyer in a couple of weeks.
 
I've never had to go too far for computer stuff since I moved to the pacific northwest, it seems our thrifts are busting at the seams with weird old hardware. Everytime I think the stock has fallen out, I find another source, or one of the thrifts gets some more old goodie stuff. Since I've been up here so far I've scored.....

-Zip 100 Drives for 4 bux a piece
-A 386 DX with a full size AT motherboard with plenty of parts that I needed
-720K Floppy Diskettes for $.99 a box of 10
-360K Floppy Diskettes SHRINKWRAPPED in original box
-1.2M Floppy Diskettes SHRINKWRAPPED in original box
-Old Monitors for as little as a $1
-COUNTLESS game controllers, I've found darn near everything here, including Gravis Gamepads, Microsoft Sidewinder stuff, Driving Controllers, True Thrustmaster stuff (I have a Thrustmaster Wheel and pedals that works great for Car & Driver).

With me moving into my first apartment (studio) at the moment, I'm trying to hold off on getting anymore stuff to keep clutter down. It's practically left me having to stay in the house to keep that darn card or cash in my pocket. I can walk down the street and find stuff to buy.
 
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