HP Forum Archive 20

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Ebay Message #1 Posted by Matthias Wehrli on 9 Apr 2011, 6:57 a.m. Hi I was "away" for a longer periode of time. From time to time I looked on the electronical bay if there is something interesting for my HP collection. during the last year I only found two items that were really interesting: one HP-41 module I didn't knew, a HP prototyp. Most of the items sold on ebay are new (selaed) calculators, that aren't worth looking for them each day. Do I fail or do you also observe that ebay becomes more and more a marketplace for new calculaotrs? I can not find that many old items I found 2-3 years ago. Also aside of ebay I only had one really interesting deal: one of the "holy grails" of all HPs has found a new home. Seems that all HP goodies are in collectors hands now. True? Did I miss really nice items? (Oh, good fu***ing geocaching. Takes a lot of time I should better have used for searching the Web for HPs?) Matthias

Re: Ebay Message #2 Posted by bill platt on 9 Apr 2011, 8:07 a.m., in response to message #1 by Matthias Wehrli I agree with your observation that ebay is becoming overrun with new stuff. It is annoying. If I wanted new, I'd go to a store! But the collection stuff not being there? You know more than I do about that.

Re: Ebay Message #3 Posted by Namir on 9 Apr 2011, 11:19 a.m., in response to message #2 by bill platt Hello Matthias, Yes, I see more new calculators too. At the same time I think your collection has reached saturation where you have your wide range (if I did not see it with my own eyes a few years ago, I would not believe it) of vintage machines as well as rare custom specimen and rare modules. Namir

Re: Ebay Message #4 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 9 Apr 2011, 12:24 p.m., in response to message #1 by Matthias Wehrli TAS has become much less friendly to amateur small time sellers who are more likely to have unique vintage calculators for sale. Nowadays, it's mostly junk dealers that are selling randomly. Having said that, on occasion I've seen unique items such as a prototype HP-45 with a green LED display, although it sold for a very high price. I've stopped selling on TAS and all my most recent sales have come via the classifieds on this forum, where I've had 100% success.

Re: Ebay Message #5 Posted by Matthias Wehrli on 9 Apr 2011, 1:51 p.m., in response to message #4 by Michael de Estrada The HP-45A with the green display is in my collection now ;) It was the only intersting part in this year.

Re: Ebay Message #6 Posted by Keith Midson on 10 Apr 2011, 9:34 p.m., in response to message #1 by Matthias Wehrli Hi Matthias, I have also noticed that ebay has become less 'interesting', but having said that, my collection is fairly mature - I have most items that I want in my collection. I think if I were just starting out collecting then i'd be excited about items like a boxed 65, or a mint 42S, etc. It gets harder to get excited about items that are listed that you already have. There are definitely more new items being listed now compared to a few years ago - there also seems to be a lot of 'refurbished' sellers out there now. Obviously there is a market for cheap new models. Cheers, Keith

Re: Ebay Message #7 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 10 Apr 2011, 10:07 p.m., in response to message #6 by Keith Midson I agree that mostly it really hasn't changed that much, it's just that many of us have pretty much completed our collections to the extent that we've met our core goals. So, we don't pay attention to items that previously would have been interesting. For example, for many years I kept looking for an HP-70 to complete my set of HP Classics. Then last year there was a veritable flood of them on TAS, I picked one up, and now I don't notice whether any more appear for auction. Really rare items like an HP-35 Red Dot only appear in geologic time anyways, so trying to judge TAS within a short time frame cannot produce enough data to reach a conclusion regarding its truly unique items.

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