Of course a well used computer but with cleaned case will look "uneven". I'm thinking from a perspective that somebody would cheat on buyers, pretending a de-yellowed computer actually is a NOS one. Pretty much the opposite of someone trying to add discolouring and dents to newly manufactured furniture to make it look 200 years old.
Hmm. Yes this whole subject of "collectability'' is an interesting one and what adds value and what does not seems to be really subjective.
For example, let's say I bought a de-yellowed case that looked as fresh as the original and had no damage at all from the de-yellowing process, but I didn't know it had been de-yellowed. It wouldn't worry me if I found out later that it had been de-yellowed. I certainly wouldn't feel I had been cheated by the seller.
But then..I would not be buying for the sake of collectability and investment. There is a different mindset I guess, and there are lots of esoteric arguments as to what count's towards "authenticity" regarding these items. I guess that is why there are "color charts and grading charts for every desireable system just like for cars and baseball cards." to cite Unknown_K?
If I was trying to sell one of my de-yellowed items (say the Vic-20) on e-bay or our local Trade-me I would probably just say "restored to near-original condition" and accompany it with plenty of pictures. Going into the details of peroxide pastes, rubber gloves and foaming mixtures might scare a few people off
. People could ask me, if they wanted more details.
But then, is this even going too far? That same Vic 20 was repaired by me, and
includes 6 chip replacements, with one of these chips being from a Terry Yager-supplied motherboard, which itself was an earlier Vic-20 version. I'm not even sure the motherboard presently in the Vic-20 came with the case in the first place.
Do I need to mention all of these things, to be totally honest to the buyer?
Can you see the point I'm making here? To the purist collectors out there, all these things might matter. But where do you draw the line? Most people don't even KNOW the history of their 2nd hand machines.
Actually, in the end, whether you mention those details above or not probably doesn't matter. As was mentioned before, The REAL purist to whom these things are important, will only ever buy a system in a sealed box that has never been opened or touched. It will be guaranteed free from exposure to rubber gloves and foam, Terry Yegar's used chips and Tezza's barely-adequate soldering attempts
.
It may not actually work (in fact they will never know), but for such collectors, that is not the point.
Tez