• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here
  • From now on we will require that a prefix is set for any items in the sales area. We have created regions and locations for this. We also require that you select a delivery option before posting your listing. This will hopefully help us streamline the things that get listed for sales here and help local people better advertise their items, especially for local only sales. New sales rules are also coming, so stay tuned.

eBay Auction for a "VERY RARE" XT-IDE board

Status
Not open for further replies.
Since when does the XT-IDE come with an agreement stating that the purchaser and assembler is not allowed to use and resell it as they see fit? Is there some contract or licensing agreement that I am unaware of?
 
Crypticalcode0 said:
Andrew what would a XT IDE board cost according to the BOM?
Click to expand...
When I last filled XTIDE rev2 orders, a *fully* populated board coming in right at $50, but that was buying things in bulk of 10 from jameco. You'd probably end up spending maybe $55 at most. Drop the UART support and you could probably get the cost under $40. I only filled orders with UARTS, so I don't technically know how much of a savings there would be, but that 16550 chip is pretty expensive.


as far as this auction goes, I miss the old "contact buyer" ability from ebay so you could head off these kinds of trainwrecks before it was too late.
Maybe we could ask a question of the seller via ebay so that it gets posted on the auction page itself- question would be something along the lines of "hey, isn't this the same card that sold (probably to you) for no more than $35?" ;)

Ah, perhaps the silkscreen in the future should be like old punk vinyl records which always said something like "Pay no more than $3 for this record!" right on the sleeve...
 
I myself always wanted to get an XT-IDE but never figured out how to order one. I tried but failed.

Maybe the assembly cost is worth it to some people who just want a prebuilt one.
 
vwestlife said:
Since when does the XT-IDE come with an agreement stating that the purchaser and assembler is not allowed to use and resell it as they see fit? Is there some contract or licensing agreement that I am unaware of?
Click to expand...
There were no signed contracts, but I made things pretty clear:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/archive/index.php/t-18242.html

What this is:
An 8-bit ISA IDE controller for PATA hard drives. Plug one into your IBM PC, XT, Tandy 1000 series or other 8-Bit ISA bus. It features a flash upgradable EEPROM for BIOS updates. The BIOS has some neat features like a boot menu that allows you to boot from your B: drive.
...
The card really is pretty amazing. It works as you'd expect it to on a modern machine. You plug it in, attach a drive, fdisk and format the drive, and then you can boot to it and start loading in files. You can even take the drive out, put it in a modern machine and read/write files to it.

The *entire* project is open source, from the schematics, layout, utilities and BIOS. We're doing this because we love our old machines, and we love you.

By purchasing one of these cards, you must promise to not attempt to re-sell it on ebay. You will be publicly humiliated and shamed if you attempt it.
Click to expand...
I think that's pretty clear. Anyone who was in early enough to order one that didn't even have the bracket mounting holes most certainly came across this (and other) discussions about it.
 
A few months ago someone was selling on eBay a Tandy 1000 system containing an XT-IDE in it. The seller advertised it here on the forum and no one had any complaints about it. So is it OK to be resold as part of a computer, but not OK by itself?
 
West

"By purchasing one of these cards" refers to the card alone, not if it is part of a whole sale.

I am aware that such actions reflects bad on the community for the perspective of builders and designers and anyone who worked on the initial XT-IDE boards.
So I wouldn't mind nailing the guy to a wall of shame of sorts for his action.
This reduces my willingness to releasing some of mine designs to the community.
 
Last edited:
yes, selling an XTIDE inside a machine gets a bit fuzzier on the karma scale, considering you can't really distinguish between where the price of the box stops and where the price of the XTIDE card begins.
It's a bit of a moot point though. The machine was first advertised here. There were no takers, so THEN it went on ebay.
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?29130-Tandy-1000-SX

IIRC, it didn't bring in more than $40, and the auction wasn't worded to make it sound like it was anything rare or unique. In fact I think the XTIDE barely got a mention.
 
hargle said:
Anyone who was in early enough to order one that didn't even have the bracket mounting holes most certainly came across this (and other) discussions about it.
Click to expand...

That also means we're coming up on three years after the card was ordered and assembled, so clearly the seller isn't just in it to make a quick buck. (Obviously he WILL make a buck on the deal, just not a quick one by any means.)
 
Hi

While there is nothing illegal about reselling your XT-IDE on ebay and there is nothing anyone can do to stop someone from doing so it is really bad form. There is an ancient saying something to the effect of "don't make your friends feel like chumps or soon you will have no friends"

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
Can't anyone see this as positive? For example, the buyer might not be a user here. They'll see the URL on the silkscreen, check it out, and poof we've got a new user in the community. That's a good thing, right?
 
hargle said:
There were no signed contracts, but I made things pretty clear:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/archive/index.php/t-18242.html

"By purchasing one of these cards, you must promise to not attempt to re-sell it on ebay. You will be publicly humiliated and shamed if you attempt it. "
I think that's pretty clear. Anyone who was in early enough to order one that didn't even have the bracket mounting holes most certainly came across this (and other) discussions about it.
Click to expand...

lmao.. well I guess that clause was held up. Just for argument sake though, I don't see any harm done. It's not vintage, but how many were released? 100? Probably technically does qualify as "rare" since the majority of the owners have been here. Also, to the sellers defense, there's nothing indicating they're the original buyer and we've seen two I think included in auctions (both offered here first) THEN went to ebay out of lack of interest and you're right, they hardly cleared $65 for the computer+card.

It's a damn useful card and there haven't been that many out there or premade for an end-user and non soldering geek. The seller actually put the auction for $30 which IIRC is close to the purchase price of the card in the first place but that was not-assembled. The price it's at right now isn't the sellers fault or karma.. it's supply and demand. Several folks have bid it up to the $76 themselves (with 2 days left). I think it's rather interesting that it's selling for so much more than a system including one but perhaps it's usefulness hasn't previously been as public.

Out of curiosity, did all of them have the n8vem tag at the bottom?
 
@Trixter no offense but use your favorite search engine and search for these words ISA, IDE, Controller.

Tell me if you cannot find a reference to this place in the top 5.
It's how i found this place. ;)
I was shocked that ISA to ATA only takes 6 IC's total!
 
Last edited:
barythrin said:
[snip]
Out of curiosity, did all of them have the n8vem tag at the bottom?
Click to expand...

Hi

All the PCBs I had made contained the N8VEM tag. That's the hook for me... the XT-IDE is the "gateway" for home brew builders to whet their appetite so they'll come over to the more hard core home brew computing projects. This has worked amazingly well.

C'mon, start making your own boards... its easy! There's more it came from! Yes, I am a bad person. ;-)

Actually I don't really care too much if someone sells their XT-IDE on ebay. Its tacky and I recognize it really bothers some of the builders here. However it is just not that big of a deal in the final assessment.

Hopefully the CPLD XT-IDE project will take off soon and they can take it to the next level.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
I saw that card while looking for stuff and I did notice the WWW.Vintage-Computer.Com on the card. While I recognized it as being one of the cards I have read about here since joining last year I was not aware of the details regarding the agreement of those that bought one to not sell it on eBay or whatever. I never bid on something until the last due to the fact it has always proved to be a waste of my time so I am not one of the current bidders. Now that I am aware of how the people responsible for its development and sale feel here at VCF I will not be attempting to purchase it. I am glad I decided to get online today and shop and then come here to relax for a bit; otherwise I could have very well been the one to buy it; I usually always get what I want when on eBay. Whoever the person is he is a bit flaky in his description don’t you think? He lists it as VINTAGE-MODERN; that is a new one on me. What I would really like to know at this point is, are any of those cards still being produced or available? Had I been around at the time orders were being taken I would have picked up a couple of them myself. It is GREAT work and I am surprised somebody somewhere has not picked up on it and stolen the idea from you guys!
 
Right. I can solder but I really have no desire to build one of these cards from parts. I'd pay $100 for a prebuilt one just so I didn't have to do it myself.
 
Stone brings up a good point - it could be a second,third,or even fourth owner. I kind've doubt it - but it could be! So I'll amend my statement to read that "IMO, there's a 95% chance that the guy's an asshole." ;)

As for the auction listing it with the Tandy 1000, that was ChromeDome45. Knowing what Frank paid for the Tandy 1000, and for the XT-IDE, not to mention refurbing some of the other parts to working condition, he was a FAR cry from breaking even money-wise on that sale, let alone labor-wise. In addition, IIRC, his auction also pointed to here, and outside of a single line of the card's function, the focus was on the Tandy 1000 (which was really in immaculate condition). Frankly, with the demand of people at that time wanting an XT-IDE, it really surprised me that no one was willing to just take the whole system for the $75 Frank asked for in the forum (still at a loss of money, btw) and then just resell the Tandy 1000 on eBay.

And yes, Trixter, I thought of the new users that this auction might funnel here.. but I still viewed it as more of a negative, since the guys bidding it up so high obviously were too stupid to be funneled here ;)

Vwest, I agree that I own the XT-IDE units that I've bought, as does every other XT-IDE owner... but as Andrew said, I wouldn't attempt to sell it at a profit out of respect for the effort and hard work that was placed into it here. The only circumstance I can see even possibly bypassing that would be if I needed to put food on the table - and in that case, Hargle and Andrew would get a PM explaining the situation.
 
Maverick1978 said:
it really surprised me that no one was willing to just take the whole system for the $75 Frank asked for in the forum (still at a loss of money, btw) and then just resell the Tandy 1000 on eBay.
Click to expand...

Often the cost of freight is a consideration. Where I live, it is highly significant. Recently I bought a working system (in USA) just for the motherboard, asked the vendor to keep the system and just send the board to Australia. Location, location, location.
 
Maverick1978 said:
And yes, Trixter, I thought of the new users that this auction might funnel here.. but I still viewed it as more of a negative, since the guys bidding it up so high obviously were too stupid to be funneled here ;)

Vwest, I agree that I own the XT-IDE units that I've bought, as does every other XT-IDE owner... but as Andrew said, I wouldn't attempt to sell it at a profit out of respect for the effort and hard work that was placed into it here. The only circumstance I can see even possibly bypassing that would be if I needed to put food on the table - and in that case, Hargle and Andrew would get a PM explaining the situation.
Click to expand...

It still doesn't sit well with me that the gang here is accusing this person of flipping the card for profit, three years after it was ordered and assembled. Unless you have contacted the eBay seller, none of you know the real backstory here, so please don't speculate and make public accusations against his character. It makes us look bad as a forum.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top