Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

geekwire.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 268 posts

Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

#151

Post by lobsterthief »

kragen wrote: post #99
lilyball wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, out of concern for the condition of any items that may still be inside, I snooped around the perimeter looking for a way in How does concern for the items inside lead you to looking for a way to break in?

if the building is unguarded and full of valuable items, someone will loot it. if you're the one that loots it, you get to decide what happens to them. if you don't, someone else will

I’m sorry but that’s a terrible take

> Someone else might loot it, and they could do who knows what with it, so I’ll loot it instead

Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

#152

Post by bruce511 »

BobAliceInATree wrote: post #119
bombcar wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not going to get 50 cents if I know anything about it. Maybe if you started selling today you could get that, an estate auction will get a few pennies.

A few of my pieces are quite desirable and valuable, most of them not. I looked at the numbers, and all together 40-50% of what I paid is the ballpark of today's value, not including any consignment fees.

I've said this before, and for you I'm assuming there's no rush, but the best person to sell the "valuable" part of the collection is you.

Now granted, most collections are not art - so I'm assuming you gave fewer distinct pieces than say stamps.

My dad had a serious stamp collection. Had he died with it complete, we would have sold it for a few $ to a dealer. The cost of (him or us) going through it to find "the good stuff would be too high.

Take your art. Unless you've cataloged it, had it appraised, and keep that updated every few years, your heirs will likely just sell it as a job-lot to a dealer. Given his costs, and risks, he'll pick a small number (like $50 per). Your Rembrant is his to find.

What my dad did was sell off the expensive stuff himself before he died (and told us). He knew what he had, and where to find it. (He discovered that selling is different to buying, but that's another thread). At least we knew that what was left was basically worthless and we could donate it with a clear conscience.

Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

#153

Post by lobsterthief »

qludes wrote: post #80
smsm42 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We still don't have proper digital preservation mechanisms. If you are an executor of an estate, and you have a website and a twitter account, what you do with them? You are surely not interested in running them by yourself. You can't just leave them alone - website support costs money, and also if left alone, it will inevitably be broken into and cause all kinds of trouble. You can't just sell it to somebody (at lea…

If it's something like a blog archive.org works. And if it's a website people care about it's as simple as giving the archiver/internet historian/data hoarder hobbyist niche to back it all up on ipfs. If they wrote things you can digitize them and turn them into an epub that might last a few hundred years. And you can absolutely donate a website, that's just a matter of picking the right license and hosting the actua…

And unfortunately archive.org is woefully underfunded. We take it for granted and it could be gone someday. Please support it if you have the means to do so.

Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

#154

Post by lobsterthief »

mapmeld wrote: post #62
esafak wrote: post #54

Why is it shutting down? I scanned the article but failed to find the reason.

I don't think anyone has a solid public answer about why they didn't reopen with other museums after 2020. It might be too costly, people leaving the organization, etc. to the point that the board didn't think it could reopen.

It required very specialized knowledge to keep those computers running so this is a very keen take

Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

#155

Post by intrasight »

devilbunny wrote: post #141
bombcar wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not going to get 50 cents if I know anything about it. Maybe if you started selling today you could get that, an estate auction will get a few pennies.

I have bought a lot of stuff at estate auctions. Yeah, a generic estate sale will not generate a lot of money, but if you have serious art (i.e., it would sell to more than a local audience), it can bring in quite a bit. I saw an Alan Bean (the astronaut) painting at one; ended up going for over $30k. And the estate gets all of that; the auction house charges a premium (in this case, 25%) paid by the buyer, but the o…

The liquidation value of the average middle-class house is $10k - according to my divorce attorney.

Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

#158

Post by kragen »

lobsterthief wrote: post #151
kragen wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if the building is unguarded and full of valuable items, someone will loot it. if you're the one that loots it, you get to decide what happens to them. if you don't, someone else will

I’m sorry but that’s a terrible take > Someone else might loot it, and they could do who knows what with it, so I’ll loot it instead

it's obviously self-serving and can be used to justify just about any act

Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

#159

Post by sparky_z »

lilyball wrote: post #87
algebra-pretext wrote: post #58

Around two months ago I stopped by the building and saw through a window that the interior seemed mostly untouched. So, out of concern for the condition of any items that may still be inside, I snooped around the perimeter looking for a way in until a very loud intercom told me to get off the property. Probably not the reason for this announcement but I can’t help but feel partially responsible. The RE-PC vintage com…

> So, out of concern for the condition of any items that may still be inside, I snooped around the perimeter looking for a way in How does concern for the items inside lead you to looking for a way to break in?

They didn't say they intended to break in, they said they looked to see if there was a way to break in. If they could see a way, then so could anyone else, which would suggest that they aren't being protected. No actual ingress needed to come to that conclusion.

That's my maximally charitable take, at any rate.

Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

#160

Post by [deleted] »

intrasight wrote: post #155
devilbunny wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have bought a lot of stuff at estate auctions. Yeah, a generic estate sale will not generate a lot of money, but if you have serious art (i.e., it would sell to more than a local audience), it can bring in quite a bit. I saw an Alan Bean (the astronaut) painting at one; ended up going for over $30k. And the estate gets all of that; the auction house charges a premium (in this case, 25%) paid by the buyer, but the o…

The liquidation value of the average middle-class house is $10k - according to my divorce attorney.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN