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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

#201

Post by ngcc_hk »

cpcallen wrote: post #67
slashdave wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you calling the exploratorium a "large theme park of a museum"? Haven't been to the new venue, but it is anything besides commercial. https://www.exploratorium.edu/

I would. The new building is huge and tickets are $30 for kids and $40 for adults (though I suspect that many of the visitors get discounted or free admission because their employers are corporate sponsors). It's still one of the most wonderful places in the world but it's a world away from the hundreds of small local museums in the UK which might charge as little as £2 to visit a handful of rooms displaying e.g. art…

Is there any good uk computer museum, other than the cambridge one I am planning to visit? Just hope the brits is better in maintaining its legacy. I saw at least 2 European museum mentioned here.

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

#202

Post by tomcam »

Suzuran wrote: post #200
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.

Holy cow. What happened?

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

#203

Post by ghaff »

badgersnake wrote: post #196
jl6 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, yes. But that assumes someone with the capital and interest in kicking off a probably money-losing museum. After all, another computer museum with some significant holdings also went out of business 20-30 years ago. Silicon Valley is not unique but computers and other industrial artifacts are just not what most people have in mind when they're looking for a museum to go to.

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

#204

Post by ghaff »

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…

I enjoyed stamp collecting as a kid. I inherited a stamp album from a distant relative who I think was a clipper ship captain or something along those lines. Was probably worth some money once upon a time. I should look at it one of these days. I'm sure it (and my own collection) are worth nothing today.

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

#205

Post by ghaff »

formerly_proven wrote: post #194
rjsw wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 - Termina…

And probably need to be in pretty mint condition and find the right buyers. Nothing I have is mint and I wouldn't even try to sell it. The minicomputer boards are from a once major minicomputer maker but very few people have probably even heard of them today.

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

#206

Post by Suzuran »

tomcam wrote: post #202
Suzuran wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Holy cow. What happened?

Long story short, my Medicare records got screwed up. Some database entry isn't in the correct state that allows their processes to proceed. None of the humans I can get in contact with has the authority (or knows anyone with the authority) to manually correct the record, because that would be outside of their processes. Since the record isn't in a valid state, my access to medications I need to stay alive is being cut off. The retail cost of the just one of the medications is more than 100% of my income.

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

#207

Post by ghaff »

imperfect_light wrote: post #179
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…

> but likelihood that any of your potential heirs is also interested in it That's not the issue, he set up the parts of his empire he cared about so they'd live on (Allen Institute for example) and instructed his sister to sell the rest. She could have gone against his instructions, but the point is he clearly he didn't care whether the Cinerama or the Living Computer Museum continued on. That's on him, not his heirs…

Or the fact that they don't see maintaining a home for a bunch of old computers for people to look at is a priority given other museums and world needs.

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

#208

Post by ilamont »

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…

We've seen this play out before. This couple in Wisconsin stocked up on antique phones when the demand was hot in the 1980s, now they are in their 80s and they can't get rid of them:

https://madison.com/news/local/phoneco-wisconsin-telephones-...

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

#209

Post by BobAliceInATree »

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…

Yeah, I'm really nostalgic for 90s era computer & gaming stuff — turns out, that stuff is pretty expensive right now cause all of us that grew up with it have the disposable income to re-buy it. 30-40 years from now when we're all dying & downsizing? I'm sure that market will crater.

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

#210

Post by alsetmusic »

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…

Reminds me of the guy (Ken Fritz) who built a $1M listening room that his kids sold for (essentially) parts after he died.

> The total take for the million-dollar stereo system, including the speakers, the turntable, the dozens of other components from detached cones to the reel-to-reel decks? $156,800.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/interactive/2024/ken-fr...

I don't blame them at all. It was his passion, not theirs.

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