(01-29-2024, 07:12 AM)weblacky Wrote: ... Having to sell all this in one lump creates an unreasonable shipping and storage problem to anyone who receives it.
FWIW, the seller is an IT recycler & disposal company, so it's remarkable that the boards have been made available for sale at all, as normally anything outside the more familiar chain of tech just gets scrapped for gold, etc. Such companies tend to operate by volume and raw materials judgements, they rarely have concern for whatever special nature a particular item might have to collectors, they don't have the time or staff with the required knowledge. I knew a guy who ran such a company, it can be brutal to hear how they must operate to be viable; the proverbial idea of it's a harsh job but someone's got to do it, gold being an obvious focus. Few realise they have to invest in expensive equipment to handle the processing, such as crushers, shredders and machines to melt things down, separate out desired substances. I figure it's the IT equivalent to preferring not to know how sausages are made... :|
Hence the row long ago when SGI itself trashed at least two entire warehouses full of stuff, including multiple never used, still boxed Tezros. Some recyclers dabble with ebay to test the waters, but it's often too much hassle, and in this case the company doesn't normally sell outside the US, so I had to enlist the help of another US company I know to handle the shipping.
Thus, the whole idea of hobbyists banding together to save them was in this instance simply never a possibility, the quantity involved was too large (and note I've also rescued all the RAM which was comparatively a lot more costly). Those who keep expressing this idea forget that we should deal with the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be, otherwise we just get frustrated at the reality clash. I could respond directly to such comments and highlight the blatant contradictions given, but I don't see the point, except to mention that my packaging is the best on the planet, as anyone who's bought something from me will confirm, and that there's no such thing as an insane price, merely the reality that an item is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay; here the desires of hobbyists collide with the continued commercial use of SGIs in certain fields (more I dare say than for any other category of vintage tech), especially aerospace and the PCB industry, also with a newer type of hobbyist, the retired professional who can compete with companies for what they want. However, I often do huge discounts for hobbyists anyway, or include stuff for free, or send a better spec system than expected, etc., but I can't include this nuance on my site.
I first encountered the IT recycling realm about 25 years ago when I was contacted by such a company in England which had a bunch of SGIs they wanted rid of (they had no idea what they were). The same MO, their focus was rapid proocessing because more stuff was always coming in, but on the off chance there might be useful additional value ('useful' being the relevant issue), they invited me to come have a look, which was a bit of a journey, from Lancashire to Lincolnshire by train. They had a fair few Indys and Indigo2s, and I think some IRIS Indigos. Explaining the nuance of what they had, they understood that their own staff coud never manage it, so I offered to sort the whole lot out for them, clean them up, put together working units, post adverts, be a go-between for enquiries, etc., in exchange for just being given a few of them as payment. They thought the latter was a bit odd but agreed (to them, my not asking to be paid in cash was weird). So for several weekends I travelled to their freezing warehouse and did all the work, posted ads on USENET, and thus they sold quite a few Indys, etc. to hobbysists for good prices. I remember carrying an Indigo2 back by train, oh the sore arms. I think eventually I bought the remaining units from them. One time they asked if I was interested in anything else they had in their warehouse, pointing out some stacks of other stuff they'd be happy to just give me because they wanted the space for further expected deliveries, but I couldn't see anything I recognised... and thus I missed the chance to bag maybe two dozen mint condition NeXT cubes with all accessories. Yeah, I know. :}
Years later I rescued an Origin300 short rack from another recycler, the contents of which went to hobbyists in multiple countries (several quad-600s and a router, the empty rack later given to a hobbyist for free), though in reality I expect 99% of SGI stuff, and indeed tech of any kind that hobbyists would care about (SUN, DEC, etc.), just gets junked. I remember much later saving half a dozen Indys from a disposal company, but their packaging was terrible and almost all the cases were wrecked, though the innards were mostly intact. Same thing happened with some O2s another time. It varies.
Hence, exactly how tech can get into the hands of hobbyists at all is often quite a tale in its own right. Some successes down the years, and I'm sure others can relate their own examples, I know some have literally rescued units from street dumpsters (including an Onyx deskside), but overall probably only a small fraction survives. Long ago I knew an SGI dealer guy in Germany who was unable to persuade a major car company there to not trash one hundred teal Indigo2s they had (all being replaced with Octanes), but the company persisted and they all went to the crusher (the usual paranoia about data security), even though the dealer guy had offered to remove all the disks from the machines and be monitored doing so. He almost quit dealing with used tech because he found the incident so depressing. A better outcome in the UK, where the RAF once sold off 87 Indigo2s after removing all the disks.
I think it can be hard for some hobbyists to understand that their zeal for SGIs is just their own worldview, something not shared by the companies which originally used them and certainly not by those tasked with dealing with them once they effectively become ewaste. I can understand that zeal, I was like that myself in the late 90s, but it's not a productive attitude to express when trying to persuade companies that end up with this tech to go the extra mile just so hobbyists can get hold of them. One has to make it worth their time, work with them and the limits of what they can manage. It's worth the effort though, because every success story means another IT recycler which may be more willing in the future to help out. Sometimes though the quantities involved make it a tad complicated.
Ian.
NEED -> 
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