Hello.

For several years, I have had a lot of joy reading this forum. Nowadays, unfortunately, the quality of this forum has degraded impressively because of a large number of "ebay-threads", which, in my opinion, simply don't fit into this place.

I would be glad if the discussion could focus again on HP calculators, repair, programmation, algorithms, history, etc...

Patrick R

Just to finish on the "beware of eBay sellers" subject, a French HP stuff collector (skwalebaba) has listed best practices on buying/selling HP calcs:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Most is in French but some of it is in English. I think (not sure) that skwalebaba is in the process of translating in English.

By the way, he's listed as one of 1000 best advice writers on eBay.

Hope this helps,
Olivier

You know there have been some such posts, but I do admit the focus recently has been on the vicissitudes of buying and selling and the merciless economics of it all.

I like the discussions about math, programming, calculator care, etc., somewhat more. I have posted some such questions myself recently (can someone PLEASE mull over my barcode question!), but the debate about ebay, capitalism, and Adam Smith economics as they apply to calculator selling has been far more interesting for many forum participants of late, and, yes, I have relished somewhat those discussions too. I am part of the problem too!

Les

http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/forum.cgi?read=104976#104976

I agree.

These ebay threads are really boring ... Of course, from time to time, it is OK to discuss something interesting you found on ebay. But to discuss (report, look at, ...) every move of coburlin and similar ebay creatures?!? Who cares? And to discuss the same thing (look I spotted HP-1772C for 584784 USD, look I spotted coburlin bought HP-4773GTI for 6885 USD and now sells it for 58474884 USD, look ...) over and over again? This is really boring and have kept me from this forum for weeks/months/... I hoped that there will be something different here during the hollydays ... but the same boring ebay threads again ...

Hrast,

I completely agree with you - and, yes, OK, one could always skip those

boring threads but, sheesh, it's much more difficult to find interesting discussions...

Hope the new year brings something different!

Best regards.

Giancarlo

This topic is only appearing because the prices seemed to have spiked recently. Must be christmas or something. When the prices calm down, so will the discussion.

Hi, Hrast:

Hrast wrote:

"[...] But to discuss (report, look at, ...) every move of coburlin and similar ebay creatures?!? Who cares? And to discuss the same thing (look I spotted
HP-1772C for 584784 USD, look I spotted coburlin bought HP-4773GTI for 6885 USD and now sells it for 58474884 USD, look ...) over and over again?"

I absolutely agree, this is boring to death and seems a lot of people suffer from a strong, deep, almost anal fixation over this person and his/her doings to the point of addiction and compulsive posting of his/her every move, so that we can all share (suffer more like ...) their wet dreams. Absolutely unacceptable.

"This is really boring and have kept me from this forum for weeks/months/... I hoped that there will be something different here
during the hollydays ... but the same boring ebay threads again ... "

Again, I concur. I've been visiting the forum sparingly to see if ebay threads had finally exited for good but no such luck, the same people keep pestering the rest of us with their ebay rants, their ebay fears, and their alleged ebay wisdom, to the point of nausea.

Perhaps Mr. Hicks could do something about this, as he did in the past when he segregated the Adds section creating a (mostly) eBay-free zone for those visitors already sick to death over the ever increasing number of eBay auctions constantly polluting the site.

Anyway, if this goes on like this, and the amazing "Museum of HP Calculators Forum" becomes the "Unofficial HP eBay Forum", as it seems bound to be, count me off. I'd rather stick to Datafile, where the focus remains on interesting HP calc topics, such as programming, algorithms, challenges, hardware projects, and news, and no one gives a damn whether such and such ebay seller lives or dies. Or I might create my own forum, which isn't particularly difficult to do these days. We would be far less people, but certainly more focused, learning about much more interesting things, and, in short, getting much better returns for our precious time involvement.

Best regards from V.

Hi Valentin,

Well said, I have nothing to add. But I hope no new forum will be needed in the future ...

Best regards.

What an excellent guide! (although the CCD for 80 USD is a bit optimistic...)

A tip for the non-french speaker: Click the link Olivier provided, copy the title (e.g. : "Guide d'achat 2007 des calculatrices anciennes HP (1/3)" for the first part) into google, search for it and then click 'Translate this page' next to the found search result (normally the first one). The resulting page translation is remarkably good. However, it clearly does not do any justice to the literary quality of the original...

Thanks for bringing this good information to our attention!

Cheers

Peter

Quote:

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What an excellent guide! (although the CCD for 80 USD is a bit optimistic...)

A tip for the non-french speaker: Click the link Olivier provided, copy the title (e.g. : "Guide d'achat 2007 des calculatrices anciennes HP (1/3)" for the first part) into google, search for it and then click 'Translate this page' next to the found search result (normally the first one). The resulting page translation is remarkably good. However, it clearly does not do any justice to the literary quality of the original...

Thanks for bringing this good information to our attention!

Cheers

Peter

---

DITTO!

-- Antonio

Thanks, Antonio !

And, by the way, I wish you a very Happy New Year and that you're already fully recovered from your illness.

Best regards from V.