tezza wrote:I dropped a few things off this year. Mostly old monitors. Those large containers filled to the brim with computers were something to behold!
Your were a spotter Clinton? What does that role entail exactly and how do you become one?
Well, I don't think there's an official name for the role. I may have seen it used before in an article somewhere. On the eday.org.nz site there was a place for people to sign up and volunteer to help out at the event in various capacities. I just phoned the local organiser from the contact details off the site.
I think the organisation varies from centre to centre. Maybe there were more people spotting elsewhere. I just floated around the containers checking occasionally between helping with the unloading & stacking. I helped with coordinating the schools as well. An eday is not the best way to be finding old computers though as the keyboards etc tend to get separated from computers you dig out of the containers.
I pulled some stuff out but nothing of greatness. I don't actually have time to package items so unless some local volunteers will help with the auctionning they won't be up on trademe for a while. My priority is on cleaning up and auctioning things from the family house, and my own place too (before my partner comes back from overseas in January for a couple of weeks). I've told her my house will be tidy but it's completely junked up at the moment with a number of other collections/accumulations. And now I have eday stuff down the hallway too.
The best bits I pulled out were probably the IBM 5150 monitor and a BBC Master Compact. I dread putting up the couple of Atari STs and Amiga 500s for them to go for a dollar given the packing involved and market glut of them. I have monitors with them so maybe they'll list as local pick up.
I left behind half a dozen Mac SE's and Classics. I wanted them for my future pyramid/Q*Bert display but don't have room for much more. I thought there'd be plenty Macs anyway from other centres and they do feature quite commonly on trademe. I have some Amstrad PCs but they're parts and stripped and cords cut. They're not worth listing. A Commodore PC10-III with monitor won't fetch too much either. An Acorn 4000 with corroded battery and ruined board. An Apricot PC, but the last one of those I bought I paid just a dollar for on trademe. I think it might be a sign that the amount of computers in the wild that are desirable are dwindling, or people are more aware and know not to chuck them out.
The problem with Dunedin is I'm about the only active trademe buyer here so nothing of bulk (I have monitors for each) will likely attract reasonable bids due to postage costs and no local competition with bidders. Out of towners will bid at a dollar but it's hardly worth the few dollars of petrol and packing material a volunteer will have to give up to arrange that. That would be why my Dick Smith Business Computer a couple of years back arrived with no packing and bouncing around in an oversized misfitting box.
Other centres benefit from having a number of collectors who will probably buy the local items and pick them up. I wouldn't, but it crosses my mind to bid on the auctions because my time is so precious at the moment that the amount I might spend on them outweighs the effort in packaging and posting them.
I did put out some advice on freecycle for people to keep old computers & consoles and stick them on trademe. The last thing I would want to see is an old computer turn up at eday knowing that the software and manuals and magazines etc all would have been put in the rubbish because the event doesn't accept those items.
There might not be an eday event next year. Each centre is suppose to be setting up proper computer recycling operations.