This guy is nuts!

[that_punk_guy]

I tried Merlancia-bating, but I'm not very good at being an arse. :lol:

Hello,

I think your auction is a total bargain and I'm interested to know how much it would cost to send it to England?

Thank you,
Dave.



     Global Express Guaranteed Non-Document Service
      (See Service Guide Before Mailing) 2 - 3 Days  Max. length 46", width
35", height 46" and max. length plus girth 108"
      Calculate Price based on Dimensional Weight.
      Global Express Mail (EMS)  3 - 5 Days $68.75 Max. length 36", max.
length plus girth 79"
      Airmail Parcel Post  4 - 10 Days $62.00 Max.length 60", max. length
plus girth 108"
      Economy (Surface) Parcel Post  4 - 6 Weeks $41.25 Max.length 60", max.
length plus girth 108"


Hi!

The the actual shipping costs are as listed above.
If you want to insure it:
Itemized Service Summary Service Item Price
      Airmail Parcel Post  $62.00
      Insured for $600.00 $7.60
      Return Receipt  $1.75

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

      TOTAL CHARGES $71.35


I would certainly suggest putting insurance on this item. It's well worth
the $7.60 charge.

Sincerely,
Krystyna




I have a question. It seems quite strange to me that you only need a 260MB hard disk drive on an Amiga. If I wanted to deal with, for example, CD ISOs (which is standard practice these days), most wouldn't fit. Are there some kind of superior compression technologies involved?

Cheers,
Dave.




Hi!

I hope that these responses I got from experts in the field will help you to
answer your questions. If they don't, please let me know and I'll see if I
can get more information for you.

Sincerely,
Krystyna


At 12:27 PM 5/2/2004, HL wrote:
 My only experience adding a CD-ROM to a 1200 is via a Surf
 Squirrel,or Squirrel.

RA wrote:
I have an Expansion Systems SCSI controller which fits inside the case to
provide an external connector.  It is very slow however and too slow to
support writing to a CD-RW.  For comparison my mostly stock Amiga 3000 can
write to its 4x CD-RW just fine (at about 2.5x).  I would recommened the
Surf Squirrel product instead.

You can buy a laptop hard drive and replace the small 260MB one it you want.
The current OS supports up to at least 9GB (depends on the controller).
You'll need the OS installation diskettes to do this.

The OS takes about 10MB I believe before you add your own bells and
whistles.

LL says: The obvious answer to his 260 Meg Hard Drive question is that the
Amiga OS is very compact, Amiga programs are much smaller than Winblows or
Mac programs that do the equivalent thing, so you don't need a gigglebytes
huge hard drive on a 1200.  However, there is no way to internally mount a
CD-ROM drive on a 1200 due to its form factor.  The drive has to be
externally cased and powered, and then cabled to the Amiga 1200 either to a
connector on some kind of belly board, or to a device that shoves into the
PCMCIA port/slot such as a Squirrel or Surf Squirrel..

The Squirrel units have a two foot long cable that terminates in a big
 fat 50 pin Centronics style connector. One would have to also buy a
converter to convert that down to the smaller mini-SCSI style jack on the
back of an external drive, unless it was an older external drive that could
accept the big Centronics style connector, and then no converter would be
needed or required..

Also obvious is that a CD, which can have a capacity of 700 Megabytes,
cannot be copied to a 260 meg hard drive, but individual files from it,
such as .jpeg images or text files or whatever, can.

To hear music from an audio CD you have to attach speakers or a headphone to
the headphone jack on the front of the CD since there is no place to attach
the audio pass-thru on the back of the CD drive.

The computer could play Audio CDs just fine, with appropriate software. I am
also not sure if a stock 1200 with an 020 and OS V3.0 or V3.1 as in the
Magic Pack has the horsepower to drive a CD-Burner.. I know it can handle a
regular CD drive, as I used to have one connected to my 1200 via a Surf
Squirrel, which Paul T. now owns..

You would probably need at least an 030 and a Surf Squirrel SCSI
 controller.  Some A1200 accelerators have a built-in SCSI controller which
is MUCH faster than either the Expansion systems or the Surf Squirrel.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3543&item=8103099023&rd=1

JD wrote:
It would probably require an accelerator in the belly slot with a connector
to an external drive case and a lot more RAM in order to burn CDs with
something like Asimware's Master-ISO Software. But hooking up a CD-ROM drive
to just read CDs will work with a stock 1200, meaning what, 2 meg chip RAM,
and no Fast RAM, which is what the Magic Pack machines have.. I think..



Okay. So it seems to me very much like something you are selling as a major advantage of the computer is actually a disadvantage (the small HDD size)?

The upgrades that your expert friends mention will all cost money on top of the original deal, so it starts to look not quite as sweet. (When I can pick up a PC that will do all this for $200 from a fair... )

Regards,
Dave



Dave:

I sent you an honest reply. I don't know if you have ever used an Amiga
before, but it is a very different operating system from Win and Mac. This
system was far ahead of it's time, is still used to run enormous operations
such as subway systems, video productions as well as being used by NASA. It
doesn't use memory the same way as PC/Mac, so you don't need as much memory
or HD. This runs on the Amiga OS and is not compatible with the other two,
although, Amiga makes emulators so that you can make it compatible, thereby
increasing its versatility.

Buying a PC from a "fair" will net you an old system which will undoubtably
need upgrades as well. Not to mention that you won't get a warranty, so if
that system quits in two days, you've purchased a beautiful papeweight.

If you are still interested in getting a price on the entire setu-up, I can
do that for you. And, if not, I appreciate your asking the questions.

Good luck in your search.

Sincerely,
Krystyna

...


Forwarded from an expert in the field, who used to write for the Amiga
magazines: (No offense meant!)

I don't even know how to explain it to him if the explanation he got doesn't click in his mind.. it sounds obvious that he's never used an Amiga, and simply doesn't grasp the concept that it doesn't need a Gigglebyte of RAM and 100 Gigglebytes of hard drive to be useful.. sure it can be upgraded. Any computer can. But the machine is far from useless. It is what it is, and either he gets it or he doesn't. He's used to the PeeCee market and can't understand why that 1200 doesn't have a mongo hard drive and an acre of RAM..

Look at the machines that Dell are heavily advertising on TeeVee. I see this same ad every day. They tell you the machine is $499.00 and how wonderful a value it is. So you go to Dell.com and start to order it and find out they are selling you an XP machine with 128 Meg of RAM, a small hard drive, NO CD drive of any kind, no floppy drive, no this, no that, no nothing. Once you've added options to it, up it to half a Gig of RAM, so XP will even run decently without falling all over itself, bigger hard drive, CD-RW combo drive, DVD drive, floppy drive, all the stuff to make it actually usable, to make it actually useful,  the price is up to $1500.00 for this $499.00 machine.

It's as if you went to a car dealer and they said look at this fantastic luxury car for only $10,000.00. You start drooling all over the one in the showroom. You flip through the brochures. You test drive one. You want one?

Okay let's talk about options. You'll want to add tires, seats, window glass, a steering wheel, an engine, a stereo, an a/c system, a trunk lid, and suddenly their $10,000 car is a $30,000.00 car..

Dell assumes their customers are idiots and teases them with a $499.00 confuser which is basically useless.

eMachines sells a $499.00 confuser that is basically identical in specs to the Dell machine after the Dell machine has been optioned up to $1500.00. You don't have to option up an eMachines to $1500.00. For $499.00 you get _everything_ already in it.

Besides, the guy is in the UK. They're on the PAL video system. Their wall voltage is different. You're selling an NTSC machine. It runs on North American 110v AC electricity.  He's probably not even aware of that, and if he bought it, he'd get it, unpack it, try to plug it in and find the power plug won't even fit in his wall socket,  and find out it's the wrong voltage and the wrong video output to use in his country anyway, and then you'd really see a firestorm of complaints as he demands his money back for a machine that "doesn't work." Then having gone from Arizona to England once, he packs it up, ships it back, it gets beat up, and its value is cut by 2/3rds because now it's used.

What you need to find is someone who understands what an Amiga 1200 is, understands that it doesn't run Winblows, so it doesn't need huge amounts of money to upgrade it, and appreciates the fact that despite its age, it is brand new, is very rare, is basically impossible to find in this condition, and has value way above and beyond what someone who is unfamiliar with an Amiga 1200 thinks it is worth. Brand new, in the box examples like this have added value as a collectible, not just for their functionality. It's like those old 50s toys that are discovered in a storage locker from an old closed hobby shop or toy store that have been sitting there for decades.

Never opened, never used, perfect condition. A $5.00 toy from 1961 that sells for $800.00 now because they have an extremely low population and kids back then didn't save boxes, used the crap out of their toys, no one bought ten of everything and put nine of them away to sell on eBay 40 years later, basically a "time machine" find.  Or a 50 cent Matchbox car from 1959, Mint In Box, that now sells for $250.00. Or a Beatles album from 1967 that was $3.99 then, but is discovered somewhere,  still in shrink wrap. No wear on the cover. Never opened. Never played. Try finding one of those at your local bargain bin. Forget it. You'll see guys like Perry D. Cox in Scottsdale getting $700.00 to $1000.00 for such an album. They are simply condition rarities.  If I had bought a case full of MONO copies of Sgt. Pepper's in 1967, 100 albums, at $3.00 each, so $300.00 for a full case, and put them away until 2004, I could pull out one a month and get $1000.00 for it and pay my rent for the next 100 months. Seriously. NO ONE bought albums by the case back then. You bought ONE copy, took it home, played the Hell out of it, wore it out, and then maybe went back and bought another one and did the same thing to it. People didn't buy Amigas 10-15-20 years ago to keep sealed up and never use.

They bought them and used them. That's why the "new old stock" you have is worth so much more than a used machine. What you have there is basically a "time machine" version of an Amiga.. and the fact that it has never been used and is virgin, adds much value to it, because of its condition rarity.. It's not as old as a 1959 Matchbox Car, or a 1967 Beatles Album, but for what it is, it is extremely rare. No, it can't do what a beefed up 2004 XP machine can do. No, it can't do what a 2004 iMac can do. But it is a totally capable machine that with a few add-ons can do most anything one needs to do and again, I can't repeat it often enough, it is a condition rarity. That is a term used in coin collecting.

If Amiga people think machines like the one(s) you have are easy to find, and that your price is too high, let them go try to find them somewhere. They won't. It's impossible.  A used machine is a different story. A virgin like this is in a totally different class, and that's what they just don't get.

...yeah, then I got bored. By the way, who was this expert? Anyone from here? A fabrication (quite possible)?

;-)

[Cyberus]

that_punk_guy wrote:

What you need to find is someone who understands what an Amiga 1200 is...

...but if they do, they'll also understand that they can get a second hand one for little more than 30 USD....

[that_punk_guy]

Quite. :-)

[TjLaZer]

They sure don't give up huh! ? They also keep listing a NOS A4000 for $850, that is probably suffering from NiCad Battery leakage! LOL

[WarPiper]

Hehe, here is email to this person and her responces to the NOS A1200 she is selling, I will mark all my questions with a laughing smily.

From: warpiper@xxx.xx.com
To: krystynas_creations@cox.net
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 3:53 PM
Subject: Question from eBay Member: AMIGA 1200 MAGIC PACK NOS AMIGA COMPUTER MIB

Question from eBay Member: AMIGA 1200 MAGIC PACK NOS AMIGA COMPUTER MIB    

Dear krystynascreations-half,

can you please let me know how many of these 1200's you have sold in the past 2 months at this price? :lol:
 
I've sold several. There are people who appreciate this at the price I'm offering it, since it is not available from the other companies that still advertise it.
 
 
I am interested in getting a 1200, but your price is a bit much, given the age of the unit and I have noticed that it happend to be the same price they were sold at in 95. :lol:
 
You should be surprised that I haven't raised the price, considering the rarity and the fact that I have the majority left in the U.S.  Of course, you could order a PAL system from Europe and pay for shipping and have it altered to work with our systems.
 
You might also be surprised to know that I've sold several systems to people in foreign countries. Go figure! :lol:
 
Sincerely,
Krystyna    


To view the item, go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4127793595

 :lol:

[that_punk_guy]

Some guy called James Kirk just passed this on to me, straight out of his inbox:

To: "James Kirk"
CC:
Subject: Re: Amiga 1200s
Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 17:21:11 -0700
Return-Path:

Send me your phone number and we can discuss the possibilities.
Krystyna

----- Original Message -----

From: "James Kirk"

To:

Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 12:31 PM
Subject: Amiga 1200s


> hello,
>
> i see you are a dealer in amiga computers. i have a large stock
of the
same specification amiga 1200 computers that i can sell to you for
$400
apiece. are you interested? i think $400
> is a good price, since you can sell these at your usual $600 and
make a
large profit. i just dont want to get into the business of ebay
dealings,
and i want rid of the lot. there's nine a1200s and also a boxed a4000
you
can have for $500. i'm from washington d.c.
>
> are you interested?
>

Anyone who's actually from DC wanna call this lady up? :-o

We could make some serious cash!! :-D

[Cyberus]

tut tut, tpg, William Shatner will not be happy that you published his email addres...

[that_punk_guy]

;-)

And more!

If anyone's up for spam, send Merlancia an email! :-D

Here's a nice little message I got in my inbox (I set up a free e-mail account to do my previous bidding and only gave the Merlancia people the address).

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It just gets better and better! :lol:

(The nonsense at the top and bottom appears in the background colour in the original HTML email.)

[vic20owner]

...but if they do, they'll also understand that they can get a second hand one for little more than 30 USD....

Sure you say this, but I haven't seen an Amiga 1200 go for $30 for a long long time.  In fact, if you or anyone else on this board can sell me a working undamaged NTSC A1200HD for $30+shipping, I will paypal you immediately.

$130 is actually the going price here in the USA.

-tom

[weirdami]

I wonder why she keeps changing her user name.

http://contact.ebay.com/ws1/eBayISAPI.dll?ReturnUserIdHistory&requested=krystynas_creations_atoz

[Ilwrath]

Sure you say this, but I haven't seen an Amiga 1200 go for $30 for a long long time. In fact, if you or anyone else on this board can sell me a working undamaged NTSC A1200HD for $30+shipping, I will paypal you immediately.

Agreed.  The pricing varies quite a bit by region.  North American prices for A600 and A1200 are quite inflated, because neither were great sellers.  The A600 fell flat on it's face and never sold.  The A1200 WOULD have been a great seller, but Commodore went bankrupt before they could produce enough machines to meet the US demand.  

On the other hand, A2000s and A3000s are usually fairly cheap here, and seem to bring much higher prices elsewhere.  The last time I (half-heartedly) tried to sell an A3000/030 @25 and kick 3.1, the best offer I got was $100.  :-P

[vic20owner]

 enough machines to meet the US demand.  

On the other hand, A2000s and A3000s are usually fairly cheap here, and seem to bring much higher prices elsewhere.  The last time I (half-heartedly) tried to sell an A3000/030 @25 and kick 3.1, the best offer I got was $100.  :-P

I just paid $170 for an A3000 in stock config.  Thats really too much, but the reason was that it was clean, not yellowed, and came with disks, etc.  I know I could have gotten a machine loaded with ram for around $200, but I just couldn't find one in the condition I wanted.

Last year, I sold my clean A3000 (like an idiot) for $150 with 1084s monitor, DCTV, etc.  I *knew* when I left the post office that I had just made a mistake, but I was broke at the time.

I did the same think with an SX64 (which I replaced just last month).

Tom

[Daedalus]

(The nonsense at the top and bottom appears in the background colour in the original HTML email.)

Yeah those random gibberish bits seem to be a nice way to get through spam filters... I get a good few of them into my work account unmarked for spam and "normal" spam without these bits gets a [spam] tag put on it. But yeah, sounds like a dodgy operation indeed!