Re: Two things I don't get... Message #11 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 2 Jan 2007, 7:10 a.m., in response to message #1 by Kilroy
Hi!
First of all, a happy and successful new year to all fellow calculator addicts :-)
Quote: I haven't seen ANY HP calcs go on ebay at a reasonable price.
Forget about winning something low enough to mark up and resell.
Ouside of eBay, I can't seem to find any at flea markets or garage sales.
You need a lot of patience if you want to find good stuff at eBay for reasonable prices. And luck of course! The best opportunities are "Buy it now!"-auctions or auctions comprising lots of several items among which are also calculators (often unspecified, so it is always a gamble and a big surprise, or disappointment, once the box arrives). Of course you can always ask the seller, but then he adds the answer to his auction description and the rest of the world knows your "secret" also.
There are still some calculators to be found at flea markets here in Germany, but they become rarer and rarer. Most of the (semi-)professional sellers are using eBay as well and are aware of the prices. So even if you find calculators, they are expensive.
Quote: Question2: Where do these buyers come from? Just how many people are out there that are willing to pay $400 for an HP 41? I would think not may, but week after week, they seem to go for $200, $300, $400. Where do they all come from?
Regarding people with seemingly unlimited supply of money, I stopped wondering long ago... Among other things, I fly executive aeroplanes and instruct flying, and compared to the hourly rates of these aircraft and the cost of flying lesssons (around 500 Euros per hour for a flying lesson in a small twine-engined training plane in Europe) even the most expensive vintage pocket calculator is a bargain. And one that lasts longer than 60 minutes :-)
But you are right, 400$/Euros for a Hp-41 is far too much. I payed far less for all my 41 stuff together (everything bought on eBay during 2006, I didn't care for any LCD calculators before (and still dont care much), but thought it would be a good idea to get some before the prices become prohibitive): 2 41Cs, 1 CV, 1CX, 3 printers, 1 card reader, 2 tape drives, 2 hp-il interfaces, chargers, battery boxes, manuals, severlay software modules, magnetic cards, thermal paper. But as I said before, it needed a lot of patience.
Greetings, Max
|