For those of us who concern ourselves with the promulgation of the toy train hobby to successive generations of youth, I have something which you will undoubtedly find to be both interesting and, possibly, disheartening.
>From PC World.com, this article appears. (This is only a few lines long, my comments follow): "What's the Value of Old Software? Seller hopes to make big bucks on a single online auction of seriously outdated applications." "Beginning September 7, (Eli) Tomlinson is offering some 250,000 software titles--more than half of them released before 1990--in a single EBay auction. Tomlinson . . . acquired the software over the past 20 years in his roles as a computer programmer, software publisher-importer, owner of a close-out software business, and computer hobbyist. Nearly 80 percent of the 250,000-piece collection consists of gaming titles . . . Over 60 percent of the collection has never been used and is in its original packaging, or as they say on EBay, MIB (Mint In Box). (HOLY COW!!! -- c.z.) The personal computer revolution began in the mid-1970s--a time now distant enough for early programs to arouse interest today as baby-boomer nostalgia. In addition, first runs of popular game titles in the late 1970s and early 1980s typically consisted of only 2500 to 5000 copies, even from major publishers, according to Tomlinson. The result: Vintage gaming software, particularly titles still in their original box, is "remarkably rare" compared to other collectibles, such as baseball cards. "Interest in collectible software is growing," Tomlinson asserts. As evidence, he cites some of his own recent vintage software auctions on EBay: Leisure Suit Larry sold for $122.50; Zork 1 went for $71; and Welltris was snatched up for $62.50. Not surprisingly, interest in vintage computers appears to be rising as well. Last fall, for instance, an Altair 8800, one of the most sought-after collectible computers, sold on EBay for $1967 and change. The computer's original price in 1975: about $500." ______________________________________________________________________ It would seem that collecting is still a viable hobby, at least. If you would like to read the whole article, go to: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,104772,tk,cx091002a,00.asp . The sellers homepage, where even more details abound, can be found at: http://www.swrweb.com/ . It is significant to note that people who are 40 now were 13 in 1975, the year all of this stuff started. The appearance of computer games would have been incredibly fascinating to youngsters who were not being imprinted (as we were) by train catalogs. As the computer grown generation starts to age, they will start to dump their disposable income into the recreation of the greatest moments of their own youth. It may seem like a ridiculous dead end to us, but they will love it and cherish it, as we do trains. The person buying this monster software collection will spur this market and kick it into high gear. God save us all. Chris Zizzo S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the Flyer you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
