[Info-vax] Prices of Microvax 3100's

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article
<ff46b4ee-225b-4ae5-90cc-40bf2a1212c7 at l3g2000vbv.googlegroups.com>, AEF
<spamsink2001 at yahoo.com> writes: 

> Went to ebay to check this out. Entered "Microvax 3100" and got some
> interesting results. A model 90 w/ 64MB for $3183. Is this for real?
> There's a 3100/98 system going for $3950. I see other variations
> ranging from $49 (1 bid) to $3175. Are these things really worth this
> much?

It is worth whatever one pays for it.  A hundred-year-old painting which 
I think is done well but doesn't require that much skill just sold for 
more than 100 million.

I bought one new VMS machine, a new 255/233 for about £4000.  (At the
time, ALPHA was so knew that there were few used machines and if so
would have cost too much; I loved the VAX but needed ALPHA for
Fortran90, so I had no choice.)  I have occasionally paid a more or less
token fee or traded in something (worth, to me, much less, but to the
other side the situation was reversed), but most of the stuff I have
been able to get for free. Roughly, a typical workstation which is 5
years old can be had for a few hundred dollars, say, while stuff which
is 8 years old or more can be had for free.  The system above is
probably one of the later models, mid-90s I'm guessing, costing new
maybe $20,000.  I would say for at least 10 years now it has been
possible to get stuff like this for free. 

Of course, particularly rare things might go for more because they are 
rare, especially if someone needs specific hardware.  Also, stuff with 
warranty is worth more, but I don't see the point if one can have enough 
spare parts, also for free, to last for decades.

These days, one can get a DS10, XP1000 etc with a couple of GB RAM for 
free.