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PDP-8L on eBay

Reminds me of a beat up old F350 I saw on the side of the road twenty years ago. Very beat up and not street legal. But the $400 price on the windshield was very fair for what it was. Unfortunately someone else had wiped off the extra zero. The seller was trying to get $4000.

An opening bid of $99.99 for this computer would be pretty fair.
 
That is because it is a double-width Flip Chip.
According to the Computer History Wiki:
W series

The W stands for 'White'. These are components that plug into connector block slots that can hold a FLIP CHIP, but have no logic of their own; they are used for input/output to external circuitry.
Click to expand...
 
Stupidly optimistic price. With how rusted it is on what looks like the power supply side, I'm going to call it as not working.
 
The PDP-8/I at the RICM looked a little better than that 8/L, but not much. All of the flipchips were covered with corrosion, many of the IC leads were rusted, some transistors fell off when we touched them. We had to clean and scrub every flipchip to remove the corrosion, test and repair LOTS of the flipchips, and clean all of the backplane connectors. Once that was done, and the power supply repaired we could start the debugging. It was a lot of work, but we did get it running, and it is pretty reliable now.

If you could buy that 8/L for $500 it might be worth the effort to restore it.
 
I tried to up you with $161 and it told me to faff off because I'm in Canada.

You want that kind of money but won't even ship to Canada. What was in that crack rock buddy?
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NeXT said:
I tried to up you with $161 and it told me to faff off because I'm in Canada.

You want that kind of money but won't even ship to Canada. What was in that crack rock buddy?
okpos.001.gif
Click to expand...

You know, if you're serious then just call them. Their phone number is blatantly obvious. I know that the proprietor (Keyways) will be happy to talk to you. He's evidently set a threshold to avoid having to deal with folks who aren't serious, which so far no one here seems to be. The memory subsystem is worth more than anyone here is thus-far prepared to offer. Ask for a picture of that if it's the valuable bit to you, etc.

I agree that the ask is ridiculous. Your/the response(s) here are a bit ridiculous as well, IMO. Starting with Jacks.

Don't know what to say about shipment to Canada. Is there EX/IM paperwork involved to get a "whole computer" across the border? That's certainly a turn off ...

Anyway, just wanted to point out that you have options if you're truly interested. But I'm thinking that you are not.

(No, I'm not affiliated with this seller. Yes, I do know who they are and I've had fair dealings with them in the past. No, I don't condone the asking price but I'm a hobbyist, not a businessman trying to make a living, and I don't have to deal with eBay from the sellers perspective.)

YMMV ...
 
As others have already pointed out it's too scary a box to be asking even half that kind of money. I can make volatile offers like that because we all know his head is in the clouds.
 
I wasn't expecting to get it for $160. I was expecting a counteroffer. I try to play along, but I don't appreciate sellers who deal in this manner. I only make offers of any kind when the seller is being dishonest about the price. If he had an honest price, I'd simply either pay it or not.

I never understood how anyone can justify this practise. It's clear their intent is to deceive.

Maybe all retailers should do this, too. It would be so much easier to print price tags. There could be a retail chain named "Everything's A Million Dollars OBO."
 
IMO it's the "two can play that game" tit-for-tat that results in too much friction in the world today. Race-to-the-bottom tactics.

That said, I have a few vendors on my "ridiculously priced" list. And they have a "high floor" on immediate rejections. And they won't engage in substantial counter-offers. It's their business. I understand that. They obviously value the merchandise on their shelves more than I do. I accept that.

Their value-system is just different than mine. I've gotten over it :-}.
 
All of you commenting about the price, you'd be surprised at what some collectors are willing to pay. Especially those who stay clear of the public eye.

Source: first-hand experience, I just sold a broken thing for a very high price.
 
It doesn't surprise me. It irritates me. Someone who doesn't understand the real value of something, but has money to burn, either puts it under glass in a private museum, or "upcycles" it.

But it occurred to me just the other day: I have something that I bought on the cheap to use, whilst it wasn't worth anything. I always said, and was ridiculed for it, that it would be worth something someday. Apparently that day has come. But it's rotting away here. So until I can scrape up the time and money to fix it (I just don't see this happening anytime soon), I'm not much better than the hoarders.
 
I'm sure there's a lot of us like that.
I have a couple of non-working pdp8/e machines which I've had for at least 12 years always meaning to fix. I did fix one machine and I play with that one now while the others just lie in the workshop.
Ah well - some day!
 
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