Anyone from here eDay spotters?

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Anyone from here eDay spotters?

Postby YetiSeti on Sun Nov 07, 2010 11:17 pm

Just checking. Just me for Dunedin, but all the good stuff must have been last year or the year before. It seemed small businesses knew about the event but not so much the common households.
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Re: Anyone from here eDay spotters?

Postby tezza on Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:33 pm

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?
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Re: Anyone from here eDay spotters?

Postby YetiSeti on Thu Nov 11, 2010 10:52 pm

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.
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Re: Anyone from here eDay spotters?

Postby tezza on Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:33 am

Interesting comments Clinton,

I hear you on wanting to get rid of stuff but the posting and packaging being an issue. I have a few things here I'd like to pass onto anyone who will take them at no cost. They are working and in very good condition. I doubt if I'll get any takers beyond a short car-drive though, if I indeed get any at all. Packing and posting does take a bit both in time and money and when the market vaule is only a few dollars or zero, then the buyer doesn't want to pay for even the posting and the seller for their part doesn't want to spend the time and hassel of packing it carefully the way it needs to packed. Both points of view are prefectly reasonable and this is why so many working (but less collectable) vintage computers eventually end up in the trash!

BTW, I am after a working IBM 5150 green screen if that's what you have. If you want to part with it, let me know through the messaging system here or email.
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Re: Anyone from here eDay spotters?

Postby lizardb0y on Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:54 pm

YetiSeti wrote: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.


I know someone in Dunedin who could be interested in the Apricot. Let me know if you'd like me to put you in touch with him.
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