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XT IDE Ordering interest? (Was: Xt-ide

XT IDE Ordering interest? (Was: Xt-ide

  • 1

    Votes: 59 52.7%

  • 2

    Votes: 38 33.9%

  • 3

    Votes: 8 7.1%

  • 4

    Votes: 5 4.5%

  • 5+ (please post how many below)

    Votes: 2 1.8%
  • Total voters
    112
james1095 said:
I don't see a problem with reselling them, so long as they are not resold at a profit.

It seems there's still plenty of demand for these cards.
Click to expand...

That's the trick though - you and I might resell them with no profit, but the people we sell to? or that they sell to? Once they look on eBay and see those 5qty 8-bit IDE's at a $198 BIN, they'll be listing the XT-IDE's right on there thinking that these things move like hotcakes!

If hargle, lynch, or any of the other designers and programmers on this project wanted to make a profit, they could sell them on eBay themselves and be done with it. They don't - the intent was to keep the XT-IDE a community project, so while they can't control what you and I do, they can state their desires not to have it resold on eBay or for a profit, and if/when they ever see that happen... they can exercise their right to not share any future designs with the community at large, rather instead sharing only with a few select individuals.

My opinion? I'm new here... no one knows me from Adam, yet I was able to come on here, email these guys, and purchase a prebuilt XT-IDE and pcb's for 2 more - no questions asked. That's kind've cool. I've been on boards before where such projects were only available to select, trusted board members and possibly people that those members vouched for.

While I can see the side of "I've put dozens of hours into this, I'm not gonna give it away to some jerk so they can make money off of my sweat," I really do prefer the outlook of "This is a cool project I've made, let's put it out to anyone that wants it with the honor code that they're not going to try and make money off of my work." This seems to be the outlook of the guys behind the XT-IDE, XT-to-AT adapter, S100 and Z80 systems... and I respect that.
 
I wonder if that project might be enhanced to a hdd/fdd xt multicard having 4 FDD up to 2.88 mb format ea. and embedded CF adapter?

Place your ad on http://www.phantom.sannata.ru/forum/ and big Russia buys several thousands of your kits.

Maybe it will more worthy to move very manufacturing into China? US manufacturing cost looks a bit biting for a mass hobbyst.
 
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ua1osm said:
I wonder if that project might be enhanced to a hdd/fdd xt multicard having 4 FDD up to 2.88 mb format ea. and embedded CF adapter?

Place your ad on http://www.phantom.sannata.ru/forum/ and big Russia buys several thousands of your kits.

Maybe it will more worthy to move very manufacturing into China? US manufacturing cost looks a bit biting for a mass hobbyst.
Click to expand...

Well.... First of all, welcome to the forums...

I do think you may want to read up a little on what this project's intent was, so that you may understand why mass production isn't a focus of the creators/developers.
 
Purchase IDE cards

Purchase IDE cards

How do I contact you to pay for the kits. Let me know. By the way, I just picked up a Zenith Data Systems machine (8088 2M memory).
Thanks,
Mike
 
Yes, I somehow think you can get a card for much less.
That card is $200, and has less features than our card. (520MB limit I'm sure)
Our card costs ~$30.

If you want one or more, send me a PM and I will add you to the queue for the next batch.

Mikecomp: if you are seeing this and haven't seen that you've got a PM from me about ordering, check your messages.
 
Hi! There are still plenty of XT-IDE PCBs available if anyone would like some. Please contact me at LYNCHAJ@YAHOO.COM for the boards. They are $12 with $2 shipping in the US and $5 elsewhere. Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Sorry just coming to this late as usual..., I was considering offering a handful of boards made up and configured for basically cost price via my 'vintage-blog' - of course fully and obviously credited to the creators of this superb little board - would this be frowned upon?
 
pearce_jj said:
Sorry just coming to this late as usual..., I was considering offering a handful of boards made up and configured for basically cost price via my 'vintage-blog' - of course fully and obviously credited to the creators of this superb little board - would this be frowned upon?
Click to expand...

I think it should be Ok (at least that's what I find logical), since you are planning to provide credits and selling them for cost-price. However, you should wait for Hargle's reply just to make sure.
 
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Go for it!
I encourage people to:
1) buy kits to sell to others to help others defer some of the costs.
2) solder them and sell them to others.

We get slightly better deals doing 10 boards/IC sets at a time, plus a savings on shipping. I charge $15 for soldering and testing fees. If someone else wants to do similar, especially people in other countries, then you can absolutely save some expenses for individuals in your area-that's a win-win.



My only request is that profit for profit's sake is not very nice. Cards similar to this are on ebay for hundreds of dollars. I can see that could make a very tempting thing to try and profit on. I obviously can't stop a free market, but I can publicly humiliate and shame you. :)

Not saying that pearce_jj or anyone else is planning on doing such a thing, the above it just a blanket statement to anyone who is reading.
 
sept 12 2010

here we go again!

ten more kits are on their way to me. shoot me a PM if you are interested. Current prices are ~$30 for a kit + shipping.
 
For those in and around Australia who buy a kit from hargle, I will build the kit for you for free.
You can get hargle to post the kit direct to me. I then build the kit and then post it to you (with you paying for that postage).
 
Maverick1978 said:
That's the trick though - you and I might resell them with no profit, but the people we sell to? or that they sell to? Once they look on eBay and see those 5qty 8-bit IDE's at a $198 BIN, they'll be listing the XT-IDE's right on there thinking that these things move like hotcakes!

If hargle, lynch, or any of the other designers and programmers on this project wanted to make a profit, they could sell them on eBay themselves and be done with it. They don't - the intent was to keep the XT-IDE a community project, so while they can't control what you and I do, they can state their desires not to have it resold on eBay or for a profit, and if/when they ever see that happen... they can exercise their right to not share any future designs with the community at large, rather instead sharing only with a few select individuals.

My opinion? I'm new here... no one knows me from Adam, yet I was able to come on here, email these guys, and purchase a prebuilt XT-IDE and pcb's for 2 more - no questions asked. That's kind've cool. I've been on boards before where such projects were only available to select, trusted board members and possibly people that those members vouched for.

While I can see the side of "I've put dozens of hours into this, I'm not gonna give it away to some jerk so they can make money off of my sweat," I really do prefer the outlook of "This is a cool project I've made, let's put it out to anyone that wants it with the honor code that they're not going to try and make money off of my work." This seems to be the outlook of the guys behind the XT-IDE, XT-to-AT adapter, S100 and Z80 systems... and I respect that.
Click to expand...

If a quantity of them were offered on ebay BIN at cost plus the fees ebay gouges for, I bet the prices on the others would come right down. If similar cards are fetching high prices, there is clearly a lot of untapped demand out there. Once more people are aware of the XT-IDE availability, the incentive to resell for profit will evaporate.
 
james1095 said:
If a quantity of them were offered on ebay BIN at cost plus the fees ebay gouges for, I bet the prices on the others would come right down. If similar cards are fetching high prices, there is clearly a lot of untapped demand out there. Once more people are aware of the XT-IDE availability, the incentive to resell for profit will evaporate.
Click to expand...
The only problem is that those who sell the expensive ones on ebay don't look for other items and does not adapt their price. They are the ones who sell common items normally worth $10 for $60 or more.
 
It is an interesting idea though, put some up on ebay and see where things go. I totally agree with per, in that most of the jerks that are trying to fetch top dollar for something vintage aren't going to recognize our product and lower prices, however, if we can help 1 user out there by not giving their money to those jerks and also selling them a better product, that's a win-win.

I really figured that with the 20 or so prototypes that we did, then the bulk run of 100 cards, that we'd totally tapped out the market for these things.
Boy was I wrong! Sales haven't slumped much at all. I think I've done 4 or 5 additional runs of 10 cards, and they keep disappearing. In fact I dipped into my personal stock just yesterday to fill an order.

My problem is that I honestly don't want to spend that much more time on this stuff. Yeah, it's a great card, but I want to try using one for a change instead of building + kitting them in my free time. :) I want to write that CD-ROM driver. I want to work on the PCjr version of it. I want to be able to go see a movie sometime.

If I end up with an extra one from this run of ten that I'm doing this month, I'll put one online for a BIN price at my current rate and we'll see how fast it goes. Maybe.
Like I said, part of me doesn't want to know.
 
FWIW, if you're planning another production run, I'd be interested in another ten boards at some point to resell complete (soldered/tested/flashed) in the UK. As I said before, cost plus a tiny margin to cover wastage etc - probably about £35 all in.
 
per said:
The only problem is that those who sell the expensive ones on ebay don't look for other items and does not adapt their price. They are the ones who sell common items normally worth $10 for $60 or more.
Click to expand...

I have to wonder if they actually sell these items, or just keep listing them over and over. I saw an early 8 bit Sound Blaster someone was trying to get over $120 for. A few weeks ago I happened to find one in a thrift store for $1.99. Now these don't grow on trees, but they're not particularly rare either.
 
james1095 said:
I have to wonder if they actually sell these items, or just keep listing them over and over. I saw an early 8 bit Sound Blaster someone was trying to get over $120 for. A few weeks ago I happened to find one in a thrift store for $1.99. Now these don't grow on trees, but they're not particularly rare either.
Click to expand...

My favorite is there is a guy that's trying to sell the same Sony 3.5" drive mechs used in Tandy computers for $286.08 "or make offer." I offered him $9 for one, and he rejected it. Now, granted, a reasonable person might say that the price I offered could be considered unreasonably low, but $286 is clearly over the top. I sent him an email saying "you do realize your asking price is outrageous, right?" He sent me a comical reply back..


"The only other MFD-63W-70D drives that have been offered in the last few months went for $50. see items 370298035555 and 230459561977. Mine is the only such drive that is remaining for sale. I am the number one seller of 720K drives in the world and I know what these drives have cost me, I have put years of effort and thousands of dollars into my 720K floppy drive collection. So to answer your question, no, I don't know that the price is outrageous. Most of my 720K drives sell for similar prices and the buyers are usually grateful that somebody went through the effort to preserve and, if necessary, refurbish such a rare item."

It's still listed at the same price, Make Offer.

EDIT: I never bothered to respond back to him that I might be more than a bit lucky to score a working drive out of a donor Tandy 1000 off of eBay for far less, but whatever... clearly crazy.
 
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