Hardware sales!

The time has come... Time to start getting these systems and components out of my garage and into the hands of the retro computing community. Of all the posts and videos I've made, this one easily has me the most nervous... I wish it weren't necessary to sell them, but right now it's the best way to help secure the channel's financial viability. I want to create a rolling fund for future hauls. The next haul I'm eyeing is $12,500 before the costs associated with hauling it. That's actually not too terrible considering I have spent about $15,000 on the first two hauls (all in, including moving costs and hotels), but it definitely puts the channel's break-even point way out. Also, there are other investments I want to make into the channel. Chief among them is moving out of the garage and building a large 'studio shed' in my backyard. Lack of climate control and sound-proofing are the two biggest issues I want to solve with that. The projected cost for that is... quite high. In addition, I want to create some tangible benefits for your support via patron-only perks related to hardware purchases.

I'm still not entirely sure how this is all going to work, but here is what I currently have in mind: Patrons will get first-dibs on anything I decide to sell for at least 30 days before I make them available to the general public (which I currently have no means of doing, probably will have to create an eBay store or something). For all intents and purposes, hardware sales are available exclusively to patrons as of right now. The sheer volume of sales that would come from the general public combined with my inexperience in doing something like this is a recipe for disaster, so it's going to be quite a while before I announce this publicly. I also want to give my long-term supporters the opportunity to buy item(s) they may have been wanting before any newcomers swoop in and buy them.

Also, I want to create a unique benefit for all of you who have supported me thus far. For all current patrons, I want to offer a discount off the asking price. This is something that will only apply to patrons who have joined before the time I make this all public (whenever that is), so you'll essentially be grandfathered in. The discount will continue to apply for you as long as you're a member. It will also apply to all future items listed, which includes whatever public-facing thing I decide to list through (an eBay store, probably). 

The aforementioned discounts are:

8086 Tier: 10%

386 Tier: 20%

486 Tier: 35%

Pentium Tier: Just send me a message. 🙂

I'm definitely not firm on any of these details yet, so please feel free to provide feedback. I've been pondering all of this for many months so I really want to know what you all think. I especially want to know if any aspect(s) make you unhappy or doesn't sit right. Please comment or message me. This should be considered a rough-draft, and I'll be making another post once the plan is finalized.

The asking prices are based on what I can find on eBay minus about 15%, but it can be difficult to find direct comparisons for certain things. I am not firm on ANY price, so feel free to make offers! All prices are in USD.

I also receive lots of donations to the channel. Some of the items I will only do a video on but will not keep for myself. It is not ethical for me to sell these items in my opinion, so there will absolutely be a 'free pile' in the spreadsheet for items which I'd like to send back into the retro community. It does not matter how valuable the item is. If I did not pay my own money to obtain it, it will go into the free pile. One example of this: A fellow sent me a NOS TRS-80 Model 4 that was never used or even powered on before. These sell for between $300 and $400 on eBay in used condition, and he sent it to me... He just wanted to make sure it would go someone who will appreciate it. I'll most definitely be keeping that particular item (because it's an unused TRS-80, how often do you find THAT?), I just want to use it as an example of the type of stuff people send me. Now, if someone were to send me another TRS-80, it would go into the free pile after the video was made. However, depending on the size/weight of the item I may still need to ask for help with shipping costs.

As for how the transactions themselves will work, currently I'm going to list the items in a Google spreadsheet (linked below). For purchases, just send me a Patreon message to reserve the item(s) (including at least your zip code or city/state/country for shipping estimate) and I'll immediately mark the availability as pending for the item(s). Eventually I'll work out a more streamlined way to do this. 

Note that none of the prices include shipping, since that can vary wildly. Also, I must apologize in advance for any shipping delays as I'm figuring out shipping supply stock. Never have done anything like this before, so it could be a bit bumpy at first... Boxes, bubble wrap, packing peanuts (the not-annoying kind) etc are eye-wateringly expensive even in bulk, so I've only ordered what I estimate might be enough for what I currently have listed. 

So without further ado, here is the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_KENUBMVOAoyt9fudC6o8gpn_nhCrkouA9FpFrlGsl8/edit?usp=sharing

Note that the spreadsheet is by no means complete yet. I'm still in the process of figuring out which items I want to list versus keep (which is even harder than I imagined LOL). There are different sheets at the bottom of the page: Complete Systems, Motherboards, Cases, Peripherals and Free Pile. I'll likely be adjusting/adding to these. Complete Systems are going to be mostly manufactured systems (your Dells, Compaqs, small/obscure manufacturers etc) as I'm against parting these out unless they're in serious disrepair. For the custom-built systems, I'm parting out probably 90% of them so as to allow people to configure stuff the way they like. To help me identify which item(s) you're wanting, just reference the row number (all the way to the left) and which sheet the item is on. For example: Number 7 on the 'Motherboards' sheet.

Again, please feel free to provide feedback on any and every aspect of this as I want to make things work as smoothly and fairly as possible for everyone. 

Thank you all so much!