The fish that got away . . .

[Arthegall]

I'm sure you've all had them. Let's hear about them. Big and small.

This is quite small, but it was disappointing all the same. I was going to snipe a G3 PowerBook floppy drive module at the last second this morning (bid was $2.24), but I went to help my son find his belt and got back about 20 seconds too late.

Sigh.

Hope the other guy enjoys his $2 drive.

[uniserver]

all you can do is bait your hook and keep fishin

[TheIanMan85]

I've put all the missed eBay deals in the past. I can't recall any now put I've had my share.

The only example I can think of was a pickup truck. My then boss had a 1983 (or 81?) Chevy 1/2 truck he kept to make runs to the dump and such. He also had multiple other vehicles both new and old, and had the means to take exceptional care of them all. He decided he wanted a newer Silverado the same generation as his daily driver Suburban, and in the same maroon color. So he got it. I always drooled over the sound of the 454 under the hood of the old truck. The day he rolled up in the new one, I asked about the old one. $500 he said. Not bad, it was a regular cab with an 8' bed and two wheel drive. Very nice shape with only minor dings, no rust. Rare in salty Maine. I already had a truck, a lifted 1977 4x4 F-150, plus a car. My Mom would have had something to say if I came home in vehicle number three... It was the beginning of the shift and I was literally about to go across the street to the bank to take the money form my account. A coworker showed up and heard what was going on and begged to be able to buy it instead. She had a horse and only one vehicle (an Explorer) that she had to fill the back of with hay. (Then spend time cleaning out all the loose bits left over.) She needed it more than I. And she wasn't getting a better deal anywhere.

I decided she could buy it. She was greatly happy and used it for quite a few years before selling it for $1000, twice what she paid. I wish she had given me the first right of refusal. Given the gas milage my F-150's 351 got, I hate to think about how that Chevy's 454 would have guzzled gas...

Still, I kinda wish I had that truck. I would have liked keeping that one for a long time. Oh well. That's the only tale I can think of.

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I had a whopper get away . . . actually it was a catch & release mistake on my part. This was way back in the day, shortly before my enlistment here in the 68kMLA. I was walking back to the subway from my elder younger brother's apartment up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It was a gray and dreary day and I passed a Mac sitting on the sidewalk. Looked it over, decided I didn't feel like schlepping it the rest of the way to the Subway and then from the Subway back to the shop.

Whoopsie! It was a friggin' IIfx!

As far as regularly missing out on sniping opportunities on eBay goes . . . that's about the only thing keeping a roof over my head, food on my plate and gas in my car.

[techknight]

When I was a kid in the 90s, I let 2 lisas get away. one was a twiggy, one was not. $60 a piece in the thrift store locally. No keyb or mouse though. dad didnt have the money, plus this was before ebay, and before I knew anything about the lisas. they were just computers with an apple logo. Now i know they were lisa.

That was right about the same time when all thier machines went from $8 a pop, to a much higher price.

[Anonymous Freak]

More than I should admit...

Most notable was a TAM for $25 on Craigslist, lost because I couldn't get there fast enough. (By half an hour.)

[classic]

I recently came across a keyboard with no picture on ebay Australia that said "For Macintosh SE, Classic, Classic II etc"
BIN for $30. I have a number of ADB keyboards.
Later came back to it and the picture was for a Mac plus keyboard (sold..)
which don't come often on ebay Australia and is something I need.
Oh well, I'll keep looking

[trag]

I collect the Outbound Laptop Model 125.

http://www.sinasohn.com/cgi-bin/clascomp/bldhtm.pl?computer=outlap

The thing I've always lacked is the daughter card which goes in the Mac Plus or Mac SE from which the ROM for the Model 125 was taken. That daughter card allows you to dock the 125 with the zombie Plus or SE and use the Plus's or SE's screen (dual screen in '89!) ports, keyboard, and RAM (don't know how that worked, it sounds slow).

I had an offer for three of the cards for $15 each from a fellow through Usenet (comp.sys.mac.wanted) back around 1996, only he wanted a money order. I didn't want to go to the Post Office, and wasn't in any hurry, so I suggested that I just send him a check and he could send me the items after the check cleared. I never heard from him again.

I've never had a lead on the daughter cards since. That guy might have been a fraud, but I have no reason to believe so...

That's my big one that got away. I've been looking for one of those cards ever since.

The horrible thing is that a Plus or SE with the daughter card installed won't do anything unless the Laptop is docked, because the ROMs are in the Laptop. So I bet the few machines out there that had the cards installed were trashed long ago as non-working.

[olePigeon]

Boxed IIfx with 4x Radius Rockets and 128MBs of RAM for $50 on Craigslist. I think my thread lamenting my near miss is still somewhere on here.

[theos911]

My QS '02 that I somehow blew up...

[Scott Baret]

A boxed copy of Carmen Europe for Mac a few years ago comes to mind immediately.

Even worse: an SE/30 in 1997. I almost had this one for free but it got chucked before I could get to it

[Byrd]

Once when I was riding my bicycle to (high) school, outside a nice old house I came across a skip which was full of vintage electronic items like oscilloscopes, old red and orange segmented LED calculators (HP, Ti, etc), and vintage consoles (Atari, C64 parts).

I was running bloody late and it was pouring with rain, so just did the old "oh well no-one knows what this crap is and it'll be here when I come home".

Of course not, it was picked up later that day. My rule now that is if you see something good thrown out, just go for it

JB

[Bunsen]

Three storey brick warehouse, 5km from the city center, on a tram line. (Lygon Street, Brunswick, for the locals)

$60,000 in 1994.

[sirwiggum]

Recently on ebay, a Commodore 64 Web.it, max bid of €15 (approx £11) on German ebay.
They're quite rare, there is one on UK ebay for £100, and something (along with a C64x) that I wouldn't mind in the collection.
Last minute sniper got it for €15.50.
Bit glad though, as the keyboard would be German, as would the OS (and documentation) and I don't think there are any localisation settings as the OS is in ROM.

In terms of cars, one of the last 1995 Peugeot 405 diesels, 80k on the clock, good condition. I said no on account of a slight shudder on the clutch which I later learned from 406 ownership is a cheap engine mount.

And lets not go into the ones that got away in terms of dating....

[Unknown_K]

The only major item I missed out on ebay was a DayStar Image 040 accelerator (040 PDS accelerator with a 40Mhz 68040, 128k L2 cache and two 66Mhz AT&T 3210 DSPs). This was many years ago, ended up selling for $20 something and never seen one again.

I have missed out of items on craigslist and freecycle (Tandy Model 4 portable a few years ago, and an old tower mac). You pretty much have to constantly check freecycle for anything computer related or it gets snagged by collectors, resellers or scrappers instantly and I only check it once a day or so.

There were also some crazy deals on LEMSwap once in a while for G4 accelerators that I missed because I don't compulsively check for new messages there. These days people want ebay prices or more for stuff there.

[jsarchibald]

I won the bid on a Macintosh TV at $128 (located in Australia, which is pretty hard to find) but the Australian seller had a US account so there was a reserve price on it. I was so annoyed, as I was quite excited when I won and then realised the reserve. I tried to make an offer but he changed his mind and decided to keep it.

I can't really complain, when I've found a boxed Cube with monitor for $50, a TAM for $200, and my mega conquest for the cost of getting there and back...

[Strimkind]

This was before I really started to collect older Macintosh computers.

Some time ago I had found someone with a rather substantial collection of older macs. Most were 68k or early PPC.

I did take a few things including 2 512k, 128k, and a Powerbook 5300c. However I missed on a Quadra 700 x 2, multiple other Quadra's, LC's, PPC towers, and who knows what else.

I have no idea what happened to the collection and I hope it went to a good home. Sad that I missed out on some good Macs though.

[kite210]

About 2 years ago, I was bidding on an overclocked QS for about $36 dollars, placed my bid at 10 seconds, and then got sniped right after.

Also about 8 years ago, there was this trailer about 10 blocks from my old house that had about 100 macs in it. All I grabbed was the LC III I have now, and I was going to go by there the next day and ask if I could look in it and see what I could find. Turns out the guy took them all to a recycling center before I could get to it. I saw Quadras, Centris, LCs, and some PPC systems.

[mcdermd]

I stopped by the recycling center this morning and saw two Kaypro IIs in the dumpster. I was on my motorcycle so I had to leave them there, certain to find their crushing doom soon.

[mcdermd]

I got a second chance. Apparently, my sister-in-law saw them and fished them out for me.

[Byrd]

$60,000 in 1994.

That would have been magnificent, but no doubt $60K was a fair chunk of coin back then. I used to work in Kensington (first job from uni, started in 2001 I think), where one of my colleagues picked up a double fronted Victorian terrace for $40K in late 90's ... when Kensington was "rough". Now a completely different suburb.

[macman142]

Flower Power iMac on ebay US. Won for $150 with a postage estimate for a further $150.

Turns out postage was going to be $350 alone so we both said "stuff that!!!"

Also, missed out on a 1975 Ford Fairmont XB wagon a few years ago. Was a very rare banana blush colour, two-way electric tailgate, 4.9L V8 with 4 speed floor shift manual (special order in the day). The asking price was $3000 but I only had $1500 and limited storage space. Went to test drive it anyway and the old guy selling it was the original owner and it was in such good condition for its age I wasn't going to offend him with the $1500 cash (it was easily worth the 3k he was asking).

Turns out, someone from the car club I'm in bought it two weeks after I went to see it and bought it (stole it) from the old guy for $900 as apparently "only one other person came to see it." I regret not whipping out that $1500!

[Bunsen]

no doubt $60K was a fair chunk of coin back then.

Not really. The citywide median price on a free-standing house & yard was around $120k, IIRC - as opposed to the half-mil and up it sits on these days. I had been discussing co-investing in real estate with my Dad at the time, and we'd gotten to a seeming impasse on differences of opinion on how to go about it. I didn't feel up to approaching him on the subject again at the time

Oh, speaking of which - I strongly suggested he invest in Apple shares in '94 as well. They were $14 ea...

[Bunsen]

two Kaypro IIs in the dumpster. / I had to leave them there / my sister-in-law saw them and fished them out for me.

That's excellent.

[BGoins12]

Two that got away (well one did, the other was a waste of time and gas money)...

First was a 1967 Impala....EXCELLENT condition. Had a 350 4bbl, TH400 and many go fast goodies. The price? The... price.... ....$2,000. I was SO PISSED because I gave the guy a $500 deposit and said I'd be back the next day. He shows up TWO hours after I gave him the deposit to bring me the deposit. Why? Three people showed up after I did and got into a price war. He ended up selling it to one of them for $8,000. Needless to say I yanked my money out of his hand, chewed him out and slammed the door.

The second was a 46" Samsung LCD TV that was on craigslist for $10. The problem with it was the lady upgraded to a bigger one and couldn't find the stand to the old one, so she figured it was worthless. Upon showing up to get it, her husband was carrying it out of the house and dropped it....busted the screen all to heck. Most worthless 60 mile round trip ever.