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Is there a market for VC?

S

Shegan

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Joined
Mar 23, 2006
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Is there an actual market for vintage computer or is it more a labor of love and curiosity?

I keep thinking I should keep some of the hardware I have laying around (nothing really vintage yet).


Have a great day!
 
I think the "market" is on an as-needed basis for companies that have old hardware on the books and it would cost more to lose it than to throw it away. People up top don't like to throw anything away, it'll smash down into the bottom line :$. And there are a bunch of systems that use older hardware that are just easier to replace rather than upgrade. For example, a small newspaper publisher may print theri own papers, and scan their own pictures. If the scanner breaks after about 3 years then you'd think that you could go and pick a new one up from the store, but the new scanners being sold aren't compatible with the older computer they are employing. So they go scout to see if they can find a similar or exact model of scanner they had before. Same with modems in hospitals. The insurance companies still use the same old mainframes, cause they used the same hardware from back in the day, the technological world passed them by but it works for them. And the hospitals have to follow suit by keeping older modems that will talk to those old servers that they use. That was the case in the hospitakl that I worked at in Tennessee for a while. They had a modem the size of a stack of three small ones all hooked up via a cable as thick around as your thumb with a note on it that said "DON'T UNPLUG" to a dumb terminal nearly as big as two big old laserjets set side by side.

So it's blind money that gets machines, blind money that also keeps them there till it catches on fire.

I think I can speak for a lot of people here that it's the love of the machines and the myriad things you can do with them that we like about them.

Didn't mean to be so long-winded. :)

Nathan
 
Well I hate to differ Nathan but most computer companies would rather scrap computers than keep them for later generations of users. They are motivated by bottom line profits and surplus or out moded computers are usually consigned to landfills. There are numerous stories about mass burials by computer companies. Even local maker's bins are often a source of computers if one can evade the security guards. Their profit is on the new user who is dazzled by the promotions and garners more bucks than the loss on "outmoded" hardware they throw out.

Reminds one of the burying and burning of food during the great depression in order to keep commodity prices up. Same mindset, different product.

lawrence
 
It's sad in a sense that Computers get thrown out everyday &
down-under there's literatally businesses which make money
from recycling these computers. The corporate world simply
updates in a nuber of years - obvioulous as to the number of
generation upon generation of computer user there is which
might choose to cease fire on a brand of computer.

Sadily well this has extended to the console world - it's sole
purpose was simply to be a game-playing race of people. But
what about the people who used to own Atari's, NES, Gameboy,
Sega Master Systems, Super Nintendos , Sega Megadrives (or
Sega Genesis or whatever it was called), etc, etc. Surely
everyone hasn't turned away from those machines - I still get
out my ol' Atari from time to time. Sure not as many people
use them now as to back then, but that's never the case.

People can throw out a decent system - say some PC based
machine, heck why not turn it into some Games machine or
something. The internet has an unbeliable source of software
just waiting to be found. Even the good ol' PCs/XTs/ATs etc
could have something going for them.

The other day - I thought that instead of having some flash
machine for some kids to play on - perhaps they should get
some ol' 486 or Pentium & have some Games to go with it. Those
machines could so easily have heaps of DOS games on them & DOS
games are nothing to sneeze at either - there's heaps of
decent Freeware games available & all cost zippo.

Cheers.
 
I didn't mean computer companies, I meant consumer companies that use computers. In that hospital that I was working at they still had that dumb terminal cause the insurance company put it in, and they said to keep it. I woulda done some COOL stuff with that huge machine! It might not have been really good as it was, but after a few case mods, I think it coulda made a great, say, Top Gun arcade box, it was almost that big, heh.

I wish that companies wouldn't scrap the machines, (though I like getting them when they do) and they WOULD make great gaming boxes or DONATIONS to places like churches or other non-profit org's. Great tax write-offs if nothing else.

That mindset, "step on they brother," really gets to me. I guess it's the po boy in me. But yeah, I get that part.
 
A theory.

A theory.

Just a theory which I was hinting at in my last post, but
successful could you be at setting up your own business?

This could be:

* Targeting parents with kids who want to play games.
* Offer a selection of Popular Freeware games.
* Further Installation.
* A user friendly Menu system - for easy access to the games.

Could it be possible to promote vintage computers into the
equasion there with games to keep the kids tied up for hours.
Or is there a sense that a cheap service won't work & most
people would go out & buy now technology for their kids?

The only problem I can find with this is getting hold of
Hardware & heaps of it. Sure many IBM based machines (which is
what the intent is) be found around - how would you cheaply
recondition a machine with Free software if it's already
knackered (techs kinda job - I'd simply replace the Hard Disk
for example).

Also the use of Free software in a business which makes money?
I thought people aren't paying for the software - the bill
would come out of the labour involved (setting up the machine
& time spent - extra just to get the hardware working
properly).

This business sounds like it's starting to sound expensive!
What do you lot think? Feel free to test the theory! ;-)

CP/M User.
 
That does sound pretty expensive. I almost did something like this, a few years back, but it wasn't gonna be a business, it was basically gona be an open to the public collection, free for use, and based on donations. I had a big plan, heh heh. It would have had a room for console games, one for computers, another for documentation and other paper publications and another for a big screen tv and different video players from across the times. When I mean public, I mean you come to me, I would have approved or disapporoved and led you through. I nver got to do it so it's moot, but it would have been a neat thing to do. And the turnouot would have been pretty low.

The licensing of freeware for businesses is another thing. Like, if someone wanted to use AVG antivirus or zonealarm to protect everything in a business, regardless of what it's protecting, it has to be paid for. Let alone operating systems and applications. Sounds *real* expensive.
 
I almost deleted this one a long time ago, but I guess it got popular. Stupid Spammers. Anyway I've gotten some nice stuff from Recycling Companies, I can't believe that some people just abandon some stuff thats still nice....

-V
 
Absolutely, I've recovered plenty of modern components (like 15k RPM SCSI drives, 1.25GHz eMac) and bought them for myself for ridiculously low prices. Corporations are so wasteful the stuff basically is money falling from the sky.
 
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