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Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

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

#191

Post by rjsw »

fl7305 wrote: post #186
ChuckMcM wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Dad collected antique cap guns. By the "collector's bible" its "worth" $40 - $50 grand. He got zero offers for it when it became clear he needed to liquidate some of his "stuff" to pay for health care. So yeah, I don't think my collection of "classic" computers will return anything to my heirs sadly.

Well, I see classic 1970s-80s computers that I'm interested in selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on eBay etc. Gen-Xers who grew up with them are getting nostalgic, and many of them have a lot of disposable income and plenty of space to house them. But it is a lot of work to get that kind of money for each individual machine. And I suspect it will be a passing fad. In some decades when the Gen-Xers sta…

I wonder if anyone is buying them at those prices though.

I collected a few machines when they were either being given away at work or nearly given away on eBay.

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

#192

Post by mulmen »

buildbot wrote: post #4

It’s so incredibly stupid to sell off each piece of the museum - 50K for a DEC-10? Does the Allen estate really need the cash? Jody Allen is simply bent on destroying her brother’s legacy. It was extremely cool and educational to visit the museum as an EE undergraduate, to visually see and use parts of the history of computing. It’s a massive loss to loose this collection. Some of the items we will never get back or…

> Jody Allen is simply bent on destroying her brother’s legacy.

Jody Allen is respecting her brother’s wishes. Paul Allen wanted his estate liquidated and the proceeds donated to charity. That’s exactly what’s happening.

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

#193

Post by hnlmorg »

fl7305 wrote: post #186
ChuckMcM wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Dad collected antique cap guns. By the "collector's bible" its "worth" $40 - $50 grand. He got zero offers for it when it became clear he needed to liquidate some of his "stuff" to pay for health care. So yeah, I don't think my collection of "classic" computers will return anything to my heirs sadly.

Well, I see classic 1970s-80s computers that I'm interested in selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on eBay etc. Gen-Xers who grew up with them are getting nostalgic, and many of them have a lot of disposable income and plenty of space to house them. But it is a lot of work to get that kind of money for each individual machine. And I suspect it will be a passing fad. In some decades when the Gen-Xers sta…

The problem is it’s only valuable to those who hold value to it because they grew up with it. Once those collectors get old and start dying off, the bottom falls out of the market because subsequent generations don’t have the same nostalgia. and thus those once valuable collectibles are then basically worthless.

I have first hand experience of this happening too. My dad collected a specific type of model railway. His collection used to be worth thousands but by the time I inherited it all the other collectors were also dead and neither myself nor my brother wanted to maintain the collection. So we sold it for practically nothing.

Dad would be turning in his grave if he knew but frankly, he was the only person who had sentimental value to that collection and we needed the space. It wasn’t even about the money for us, it was literally just multiple boxes of stuff we knew we wouldn’t ever use and didn’t want to keep indefinitely just to honour the memory of dad (we have far better ways to honour his memory).

This isn’t meant to sound insensitive because I loved my dad and still miss him a lot.

I have a large collection of retro gaming consoles and 8 and 16 bit computers. Plus hundreds of games on physical media. I love my collection just like my dad loved his trains. But I know my family will sell it for a pittance the moment I pass away. And I’m fine with that. I own it because it brings me pleasure. I didn’t buy it thinking my family should honour my legacy by hoarding it too.

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

#194

Post by formerly_proven »

rjsw wrote: post #191
fl7305 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I see classic 1970s-80s computers that I'm interested in selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on eBay etc. Gen-Xers who grew up with them are getting nostalgic, and many of them have a lot of disposable income and plenty of space to house them. But it is a lot of work to get that kind of money for each individual machine. And I suspect it will be a passing fad. In some decades when the Gen-Xers sta…

I wonder if anyone is buying them at those prices though. I collected a few machines when they were either being given away at work or nearly given away on eBay.

Computer prices are a bathtub curve for interesting computers. Very expensive at the start, then they're worthless garbage for 10-40 years, then prices start to rise. If it's not interesting, then they just stay worthless.

Examples:

- Supercomputer parts

- SGI, HP 9000, Sun SPARC machines and parts

- More esoteric UNIX workstations

- PDPs

- VAXen (how many complete cabinet-style VAXen still exist?)

- Apples

- Terminals (since almost all of these were tossed, these are surprisingly expensive even in bad condition)

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

#195

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

hnlmorg wrote: post #193
fl7305 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I see classic 1970s-80s computers that I'm interested in selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on eBay etc. Gen-Xers who grew up with them are getting nostalgic, and many of them have a lot of disposable income and plenty of space to house them. But it is a lot of work to get that kind of money for each individual machine. And I suspect it will be a passing fad. In some decades when the Gen-Xers sta…

The problem is it’s only valuable to those who hold value to it because they grew up with it. Once those collectors get old and start dying off, the bottom falls out of the market because subsequent generations don’t have the same nostalgia. and thus those once valuable collectibles are then basically worthless. I have first hand experience of this happening too. My dad collected a specific type of model railway. His…

This is sad because it's true. Thank you for writing this.

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

#196

Post by badgersnake »

jl6 wrote: post #185
BobAliceInATree wrote: post #86

The sad reality is that you can spend a lifetime collecting something, the but likelihood that any of your potential heirs is also interested in it, is pretty close to zero. That's true of multi-million dollar vintage computers, or your childhood stamp collection that's mostly worthless. Paul's mistake was not properly establishing a foundation & endowment to maintain this musuem, which almost certainly leaks lots of…

The issue with estate sales is that they are usually estate disposals . People inheriting their parents’ stuff are usually themselves grown adults with their own busy lives, and the average estate consists of immense amounts of clutter that the inheritor has approximately zero interest in. They’re grieving, they’re seeking closure. Not looking to spend years sifting through hundreds of thousands of items of household…

I’m sure if somebody came along with a serious offer for the collection with the goal of exhibiting it somewhere else it would be accepted.

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

#197

Post by ColinWright »

David Singmaster, author of the first book on how to solve the Rubik Cube, had a vast collection of mathematical books, papers, ephemera, and a huge collection of twisty puzzles, and other puzzles.

His wish was that it remain in the UK, and he really, really wanted it to stay as a collection. But it's effectively impossible.

Collections, even significant collections[0], are hard to keep together. I wish I had the money necessary to acquire and make accessible collections like this.

[0] I'm not saying David's collection is significant, but it is substantial, and contains many things potentially of interest.

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

#198

Post by ngcc_hk »

vundercind wrote: post #100
fragmede wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, if you have billg money, I guess you could have a couple ex-FAAMG software developers on payroll just so you could call them up at any hour of the day and have them give you uninformed hot-takes about an article you found online and just forwarded them, and need them to tell you something based on the headline without actually reading the article, but that seems a bit weird. I don't even have Snoop Dogg money…

“Hello, Phil? Yeah, doing fine, look, I need 200 takes on React, 50 of them actually having nothing to do with it, 100 that are just flames, 40 that are deeply stupid, and 10 that are at least informed and a bit insighthful, but not really that interesting or valuable. Please just jumble them up rather than sorting them by quality or usefulness, I want to have to waste a bunch of time and emotional energy finding the…

So far this is not my HN experience. But there are many things one can spend time with. Reading web site might not interest all I admit.

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

#199

Post by fl7305 »

rjsw wrote: post #191
fl7305 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I see classic 1970s-80s computers that I'm interested in selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on eBay etc. Gen-Xers who grew up with them are getting nostalgic, and many of them have a lot of disposable income and plenty of space to house them. But it is a lot of work to get that kind of money for each individual machine. And I suspect it will be a passing fad. In some decades when the Gen-Xers sta…

I wonder if anyone is buying them at those prices though. I collected a few machines when they were either being given away at work or nearly given away on eBay.

Like the other poster wrote, it is time dependent.

The stuff that went into dumpsters in the 1990s can sell for thousands today on eBay. But in 30 years, they might be dumpster bound again.

I just double checked to make sure, and an Atari Falcon early 1990s 68030 CPU computer sells for around $3000 today.

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

#200

Post by Suzuran »

kragen wrote: post #91

this is pretty unfortunate. iirc they had the only digital pdp-10 in the world that's currently in working order — the line of computers on which emacs, microsoft basic, simtel-20, and compuserve all originated. most of the arpanet was pdp-10s at one time. nasa's gsfc spacelink ftp site, where you could download space photos, was the only one i ever encountered running hopefully that machine will find a good home in…

Very far from the only working one. I have a working one, for now, but we don't know how much longer I will be here because I am currently dying from a government paperwork error that nobody in government has the authority to fix.
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