Re: [UUG/MLUG] logshot-SGI monitor

[William F Bishop <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

At 05:32 PM 11/29/99 -0600, Blake C Lewis wrote:
>I just go a few days ahead of time and take a 50' extension 
>cord with me and try things out. If I want to see inside 
>something I open it up.
  Dropped by the University of Missouri Surplus Property building (on Capen
Park road in south
Columbia) yesterday morning a half hour before the auction started at 10:00
am...  by 10 o'clock I was really impressed with the large number of people
attending the auction!...  prior to the beginning of the auction many folks
were looking thru the surplus equipment both outside in the parking lot
area and inside the warehouse building...  the auction started with the
sale of the equipment outside which took about 20 minutes to accomplish...
three somewhat windshield damaged unmarked Ford police cars sold for $1000,
$1700 and about $3500 (as well as my memory serves)...
then the auction moved inside the warehouse where a few camera related
items were sold...  next there were a few items on some bin shelves such as
fire extinguishers etc that sold...  the auctioneer team now started down a
long row of double tables with various kinds of computer equipment on it
such as monitors, system units, keyboards, notebooks, printers etc...  the
items were quickly sold in lots or stacks...  meaning perhaps all the
equipment on one or part of a table was auctioned off as a unit...  the
interesting thing was that the accepted bid prices were rather modest
perhaps ranging from 35 dollars up to maybe 120 dollars for a lot of
equipment (for the portion of the auction that I witnessed)...  the bidding
process would take perhaps two to three minutes then the auctioneer team
would move on to the next lot or stack of equipment... there was a nice
office desk at the end of the row of tables that was auctioned off for 5
dollars...  after the team had moved thru all the equipment on that long
row of tables I left... as I had accomplished what I had come to do which
was to learn about how the auction process would be conducted...  get a
sense of the selling value for the surplus equipment...  and in what way
the equipment would be delt with (ie sold in bundles)...   
  Btw there was a snack bar there with a few drink and food items...  for
example a cup of coffee was 25 cents and a bowl of chilli was one dollar
and 25 cents...  but since I only had 18 cents in my pocket I wasn't able
to buy a cup of coffee let along bid on any equipment...  there seemed to
be a lot of folks who had registered at the office inside the warehouse
earlier and had gotten a buyer's number...  so I suspect that the rest of
the equipment was sold very quickly and easily...  even saw five or six
Amish men and one Amish woman there...  but don't think they were after the
computer equipment...  :-)...  the next auction will be in January but
don't know if a specific day has been set...  
  All in all my short visit there was an educational venture...  and if any
readers of this "adventure report" have an interest in auctions and
possible purchase of surplus computer equipment at low price I would
suggest they might like to attend one of these events...  wonder if any
readers have "adventure reports" of their own (related to accepted themes
of this user's group) that they might like to relate that would be of
interest to list members?...  seems this might be a good way to share
experiences among the membership...  :-)...  Bill
William F Bishop       EMAIL:PROTECTED
Bishop Computing   http://mlug.missouri.edu/~wbishop/