[H-GEN] 2Gb SCSI disks

[Frank Brand]

Craig Irvine wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I was wondering what sort of interest there would be in 2nd hand 2Gb SCSI
> disks for $200.
>
> My employer is about to dispose of (at auction) one of our HP9000 machines.
> It's a H70 with a nearly 20 disks most of which are 2Gb single ended SCSI.
>
> We have no idea how much the thing will go for at auction, but if I can pick
> it up for $3000 - $3500 ...
>

You can never be sure at auctions. Sometimes rubbish goes for a fortune and
good stuff goes cheap.

I would suspect you might pick this up a lot cheaper than $3500 because:-

1. The disks are SCSI and most people cannot handle SCSI.

2. Often people might want a SCSI drive....but do they want 20 of the buggers.

3. They will need to outlay $150 on a SCSI card if they do not have one...does
not make for very cheap disks.

3a. Late addition. Historically hard disks sold at auction have a poor track
record. Some people I know saw a batch of 30 2 gig IDE drives and brought in a
computer to test them. 2 out of 30 were OK. So, your opposition will not have
the comfort of knowing that the whole thing works. 7 2.1 GB NEC were at the
last State Treasury auction and sold for $77 each - none worked - one guy
bought 4 and lost over $300.

4. It is not always easy to check systems - especially disks, really especially
SCSI disks at an auction. If they are sold through the Government auction at
West End it is probably impossible. Even the professionals who might be most
likely to buy this number of drives do not like outlaying that sort of money on
the off chance that the disks may work.

5. In my experience these sorts of systems are seen as more trouble than enuff
and might go surprisingly cheaply. I have seen older IBM A400's go for less
than $50. Often most people at the auction do not even know what is inside.

6. My advice is do not bid too high. Let someone else make the first bid and
keep going over any other bids until you reach you limit. If the auctioneer
can't get a starting bid which, depending on the auction and auctioneer, is
possible, try and snaffle it for $10 or $20. You have the inside knowledge of
what it is and whether it works - your opponents don't.

Any further advice ...just call.


--
Frank Brand
E-mail: fbrand at uq.net.au
Home Page: http://www.uq.net.au/~zzfbrand


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