Subject: Some serious punched-card equipment on Ebay

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu Apr 24 20:41:00 2003

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2724747600&category=1247

Someone in Minneapolis/St. Paul has quite a lot of IBM punched card 
equipment up for sale.  They mention 029, 077, 129, 514, and 526 -- it 
looks like a large number of punches with perhaps one each of the 077, 
514, and 526.

The auction ends in 8 days and is for "the right to contact me on the
above machines" -- so it looks like, if you want some or all of the
equipment, you'll have a chance to make a deal rather than take it en
bloc.

Norm

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From: Marvin Johnston <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 21:20:01 2003

With all this talk about the ebay DNF board, just thought some of you
would like to know what is going on there. Basically, a number of people
(10 or so that I know of), myself included, were suspended today from
posting on any of the boards. Seems that a *MAJOR* SNAFU on their part
last night left open a database that documented the complaints that were
being generated by (I think) the Report Button; that URL got posted on
the DNF Board. That database included *who* generated the complaint, and
several DNFers started browsing the database to find out who the
snitches are. Several of us scrolled the board so that URL was no longer
available for public viewing ... and ended up getting suspended for it.

From my standpoing, this further verifies comments I've made about the
inept ebay management! Some people from the media have been contacted,
so you may be hearing more about this :).

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From: "Jay West" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 22:04:00 2003

oh MAN! I'm drooling over the 029 keypunches!

My first computer class in college freshman year, we were the last class to
use the 29 card punches. After our semester, they were retired and
everything went to VM/CMS on 3270 terminals. I'd love to find one of those
029 punches someday in working order! Of course, I'd also love to find the
4341 they were attached to :) I think I'd make room in the basement for that
;)

Jay West

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From: Mail List <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 22:56:01 2003

Hello Marvin,

What's the url to the archive?

 > Several of us scrolled the board so that URL was no longer

Seems like you were doing eBay a favor by doing that.

 > and ended up getting suspended for it.

Sure wasn't the first time eBay suspended someone on the DNF board.
It's only temporary, I hope?

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From: "Stuart Johnson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 23:34:01 2003

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marvin Johnston" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 9:18 PM
Subject: Ebay SNAFU

> so you may be hearing more about this :).

I realize this shows my total ignorance - but what is the "DNF" board on
eBay? Curiosity overwhelms me...

Stuart Johnson

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From: Ron Hudson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Apr 24 23:35:01 2003

On Thursday, April 24, 2003, at 06:39  PM, [email-masked]  
wrote:

> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/ 
> eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2724747600&category=1247

Anyone notice that the description says "you are bidding on the right  
to contact me" not
"you are bidding on several machines"??

What did they mean by that?

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From: Mail List <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 25 00:31:00 2003

> "you are bidding on the right to contact me"

 > What did they mean by that?

Looks to me you won't be receiving any tangible goods for your bid.

The description says "Please email with any ?'s and for pricing." so
it looks like the seller has a price for the items that is going to be
independent of what the bidding ends up at.

At 09:33 PM 4/24/03 -0700, you wrote:
>>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/ eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2724747600&category=1247
>

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From: Vintage Computer Festival <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 25 02:50:01 2003

> independent of what the bidding ends up at.

I think the words that are relevant here are "free advertising" ;)

(Well, cheap advertising at least.)

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger                http://www.vintage.org

 * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

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From: Tom Uban <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 25 08:31:00 2003

I wonder if that equipment isn't related to the museum woes that
Al Kossow mentioned earlier.

--tom

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From: Marvin Johnston <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 25 10:41:00 2003

> What's the url to the archive?

The DNF archives are posted at http://www.manuals2go.com/dnf/.
 
> It's only temporary, I hope?

It is an indefinite suspension from posting to the ebay boards. There
are a lot of *PISSED* off people over the situation, myself included!

---

From: Marvin Johnston <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Apr 25 10:55:01 2003

> eBay? Curiosity overwhelms me...

The DNF Board is the "Discuss Newest Features" board on Ebay. Before
everyone got suspended, it was one of the best places to get answers to
almost any question about ebay. It also had the reputation among the
pinks (ebay staff who occassionaly visit the boards, pinks because that
is the color of their header when they post) of being the DMZ. It also
had the reputation of being the first place that any problems with ebay
were found and posted. Most of the regulars expected the worst from ebay
"management", and were rarely disappointed. Most of the regulars who
were suspended are over at the SYI lounge at
http://www.sellyouritem.com/Lounge.html. At least there, you can ask
questions and not worry about the ever changing rules and
interpretations present on ebay.

Least I be too misunderstood, the concept of online auctions is a great
one. However Ebay has chosen to rape the concept with little
consideration given to the community that helped build it. A few of the
problems include a search engine that doesn't always work properly, site
reliabiity problems, the HH (hoops and hurdles) factor when it comes to
needing support, an ever increasing amount of fraud, and the list goes
on.

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From: Jeffrey Sharp <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Apr 27 16:55:01 2003

On Friday, April 25, 2003, Marvin Johnston wrote:
> It is an indefinite suspension from posting to the ebay boards. There are
> a lot of *PISSED* off people over the situation, myself included!

Sounds like it's time to register a few false accounts and have a little
fun... :-)  ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

-- 
Jeffrey Sharp

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From: Marvin Johnston <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Apr 27 17:02:01 2003

> fun... :-)  ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

Besides the MSNBC article, The Auction Guild has a more in depth look at
the SNAFU. It also states *HOW* the posted URL was obtained ...
stupidity on the part of the Liveworld staff. That article is located
at:

http://www.auctionguild.com/generic110.html