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(From cctalk) "Tech Pickers" TV show looking for cast

I've done similar things, but not at that magnitude. I've given someone $60 for something he only wanted $20 for; this was because the item was in better-than-described condition, and the guy was an upstanding person. Item in question was worth between $60-$100. But yes, I'm not above (below?) giving people a fair price when they don't know what they have.

This happens rarely, of course. Overwhelmingly, people price stuff way above what it is worth.
 
geoffm3 said:
I guess I'm in the minority but I don't particularly find the picker guys on American Pickers particularly slimy, at least in the episodes I've seen.

Let me ask this question: if any of us stumbled across someone selling a desirable computer artifact, something like say a Lisa at a flea market for $20, would we point that out to the seller and give him $600 for it? Remember too that the pickers are running this as a business, and they aren't going to want to pay top dollar for something that they are going to want to turn a profit on, especially if they are putting any amount of time into it.
Click to expand...

I have not seen the picker shows in years but from what I remember they dig through a ton of rusty junk to find a prize that needs some work and they know where to find buyers looking for that exact kind of thing so it is profitable. If a picker didn't snag the item it would be left to rot until recycled or lost forever. Most of the people they buy from are hoarders who got the stuff for little or nothing and demand (sometimes way too much) for their prizes. For every $20 Lisa you will find at a garage sale you will find 1000 C64's that are rare and "worth" $300+. Computers have no real set value and a rarity can look just like a common item to 99.999% of the people who look at it. Its like finding a Picasso at goodwill and paying $20 for it, very few people would have a clue what it is. Another issue is does that $20 Lisa work or does it need major repairs and cleaning (basically a specialized art) to be worth near $600? How much is your specialized knowledge and sweat worth in turning a turning a worthless turd into a valued item?

If I offered some old lady $20 for a 1 OZ gold coin she can sell for $1000 anywhere in her city then I am ripping her off. Vintage computers and old electronics in general are basically junk to pretty much the whole world and only have value (and everyone in the hobby you ask will give you a different number on that value) to a select few so pretty much anything goes.
 
Unknown_K said:
Vintage computers and old electronics in general are basically junk to pretty much the whole world and only have value (and everyone in the hobby you ask will give you a different number on that value) to a select few so pretty much anything goes.
Click to expand...

The only thing I would find interesting would be how they could make money at this.
Their list of connections to collectors would have to be very deep. I have been into collecting
computers since the 70's, and I know maybe 100 people at most who I could turn a profit on
selling something I have. Most collectors are cheap.

I would think it would turn into an exercise in bulk eBay or other bulk-broker dealings where you
try to find a middleman stupid enough to think THEY could make money on it.
 
Al Kossow said:
The only thing I would find interesting would be how they could make money at this.
Their list of connections to collectors would have to be very deep. I have been into collecting
computers since the 70's, and I know maybe 100 people at most who I could turn a profit on
selling something I have. Most collectors are cheap.

I would think it would turn into an exercise in bulk eBay or other bulk-broker dealings where you
try to find a middleman stupid enough to think THEY could make money on it.
Click to expand...

There is money to be made in any hobby if you have enough exposure to the general public as well as the targeted collectors. I am sure the pickers people had a huge increase in sales at their retail store after that show went on the air plus people are now trying to sell direct to them. For every computer hoarder in the hobby there are probably hundreds of people who might want one specific model computer for personal reasons and having a show where people realize then can find what they are casually looking for cheap and easy will trigger sales. I still think the hobby is at a stage where people can make money on the side from it but very few can make a decent living from it. A few years ago computer collectors were looked at like they were crazy, now its just a tolerated small hobby, major TV exposure could be that kills it altogether (if buyers and sellers look and act badly) or makes it explode into a thing (which will implode like any other fad).
 
Unknown_K said:
I have not seen the picker shows in years but from what I remember they dig through a ton of rusty junk to find a prize that needs some work and they know where to find buyers looking for that exact kind of thing so it is profitable. If a picker didn't snag the item it would be left to rot until recycled or lost forever. Most of the people they buy from are hoarders who got the stuff for little or nothing and demand (sometimes way too much) for their prizes. For every $20 Lisa you will find at a garage sale you will find 1000 C64's that are rare and "worth" $300+. Computers have no real set value and a rarity can look just like a common item to 99.999% of the people who look at it. Its like finding a Picasso at goodwill and paying $20 for it, very few people would have a clue what it is. Another issue is does that $20 Lisa work or does it need major repairs and cleaning (basically a specialized art) to be worth near $600? How much is your specialized knowledge and sweat worth in turning a turning a worthless turd into a valued item?

If I offered some old lady $20 for a 1 OZ gold coin she can sell for $1000 anywhere in her city then I am ripping her off. Vintage computers and old electronics in general are basically junk to pretty much the whole world and only have value (and everyone in the hobby you ask will give you a different number on that value) to a select few so pretty much anything goes.
Click to expand...

Precisely my point. I couldn't have said it any better myself.
 
Trixter said:
I've done similar things, but not at that magnitude. I've given someone $60 for something he only wanted $20 for; this was because the item was in better-than-described condition, and the guy was an upstanding person. Item in question was worth between $60-$100. But yes, I'm not above (below?) giving people a fair price when they don't know what they have.

This happens rarely, of course. Overwhelmingly, people price stuff way above what it is worth.
Click to expand...

I exaggerated a bit in my example of course, but I'm in the same boat as you. I like a deal, but I don't want to rip people off for my own benefit. If I were running a business instead of having fun with this as a hobby I'd have to look at the aforementioned Lisa as a speculative buyer and as we all well know at this point, pretty much all of them are not in pristine working order and usually have extensive damage to boot. If I were to pay someone the value of their time to put it back into working condition, I might not make any money at all on it. Conversely the owner may not care to restore it either, so it will sit and deteriorate further until they just toss it. Thankfully many of us on this forum have the expertise and training to fix these things, but not everyone does.
 
I like deals because I don't resell. If you look at it as just a money sinkhole hobby then you look for deals (cheap, maybe not working but fixable, did I say cheap?!). Over the years I sold a handful of items I just didn't want anymore, most below market value. But I have to admit one collector did offer me a quite large amount for one item I had and took it, plus I made a few hundred on some game carts for a pre Atari era machine because it just didn't fit in my collection (common when you have to take it all on large lots). There just come a point where somebody just wants something more then you and is willing to pay a mint for it so why not (apple I anybody?).

Some people flip all the time to afford what they buy and some people just plain speculate with mixed results.

Of course now that my basement is filled with "treasures" I need to figure out what is no longer needed, wanted, or redundant so I can better use what I have.
 
I made a very nice profit reselling an IBM M15 ergonomic keyboard I found at a thrift store. However, that chain of thrift stores has now been known to look up items on eBay, and put ridiculously high prices on some items based on whatever the highest asking price they could find is -- such as a 1980s "ghetto blaster" boombox they had on the shelf with a $700 price tag on it.

(And Firefox's auto-spell-checker is telling me "boombox" is misspelled. Really? It's always been one word as far as I can remember...)
 
Unknown_K said:
I have not seen the picker shows in years but from what I remember they dig through a ton of rusty junk to find a prize that needs some work and they know where to find buyers looking for that exact kind of thing so it is profitable. If a picker didn't snag the item it would be left to rot until recycled or lost forever. Most of the people they buy from are hoarders who got the stuff for little or nothing and demand (sometimes way too much) for their prizes.
Click to expand...

Remember this incident?
The machine did eventually appear on ebay after what I can only assume was a lot of pressure from people who saw the show but they pulled and junked all the disk packs. That alone is frustrating as RK media is uncommon and here they literally had a six foot mountain of boxed media, all junked because of "grandma's secret recipes".
I'm worried how much more hard to find hardware will be lost like this simply because the network doesn't want the liability risk associated with old media.

I like deals because I don't resell. If you look at it as just a money sinkhole hobby then you look for deals (cheap, maybe not working but fixable, did I say cheap?!). Over the years I sold a handful of items I just didn't want anymore, most below market value.
Click to expand...
I find you make way more friends in the community by keeping the prices friendly and trading hardware around (or just giving it away) than you do by acting like someone who expects an equal or higher return on what they paid to initially buy, store and maintain the equipment. Worse yet, telling people they cannot buy things because you don't believe it will be appreciated enough. Who are you to judge??
If you want to expect market value, well look at the Amiga community. ;)
 
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Inflated prices for items are not just something that is an Amiga community issue (when is the last time something amiga related item hit close to $1M like an Apple 1?).

There should be a balance between free and $$$$ in the hobby since at one extreme nothing is saved because it is worthless and the other only people with deep pockets get to collect.


Next: are you referring to me in your quote about judging people on sale prices? I never said anything about that.
 
Unknown_K said:
Inflated prices for items are not just something that is an Amiga community issue (when is the last time something amiga related item hit close to $1M like an Apple 1?).
Click to expand...

Yes, but there is a major Amiga-oriented classifieds forum where "no price driving" is the rule. In other words, no public bargaining. If you do privately negotiate a lower price than what the seller was asking, it is to be kept in secret, as the rules there state, "discussion of prices is strictly prohibited."

To be fair, there is a large community, mostly in Europe, for which that structure works perfectly fine; but obviously we have a different way of doing things on this forum, which is why I'm here, and not there. :)

And as for the sky-high Apple I and early Apple II (non-Plus) prices, that's because there is legitimate historical interest in the earliest products of the #1 tech company in the world, whose co-founder became a cultural icon for multiple generations.
 
Trixter said:
Speaking of Sellam, he would be perfect for a show like this. Unfortunately I don't know how he's doing; I haven't seen any updates from/about him since the warehouse incident.
Click to expand...

I was following his case through the court record and since one of the later entries was "Notice - Other (of Plaintiff's incarceration) filed by Ismail, Sellam on 10/29/2014." I would say it's not going all that well for him.
 
It can be difficult to understand docket entries of a court in a state where one does not practice, but none of this looks good for Sellam Ismail. As I read the docket entries, his motion to stop the sale of the property he claimed was his with a temporary restraining order or with an attachment was denied. It appears that the sanctions were levied because Mr. Ismail failed to respond adequately to discovery requests. If he keeps going down that road, his complaint may be dismissed as a sanction.
 
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