What's the deal with Texas?

[toddvernon]

Almost everything "old computer parts" seems to come from Texas. Texas, whats you secret? Just curious.

[Brutman]

If it is PCjr related it is possibly due to the Computer Reset warehouse fiasco.

Richard Byron had a warehouse full of old IBM inventory cast-offs ... PCjrs, IBM Convertibles, etc. He ran into health problems and things went badly; you can read the details elsewhere but it resulted in a flood of systems and parts on the market.

[toddvernon]

I have been getting a lot of things from there.
An absolutely MINT Jr monitor, literally in the box new, never opened. New longboard power supply, extended power supply, floppy card, a floppy disk upgrade new never opened (also comes with a card and the fan and the plastic bracket).

Except for the side panel you would swear my system is completely new (which it mostly is) !

Side panels, the bane of our existence

[MattCarp]

(Hi Mike!)

Just curious, why do you call it a fiasco?

As a long time jr person, I was aware of Computer Reset, having received a couple catalogs in the 1990s. I seem to recall having bought at least one item from them.

My vintage computing interests have taken a back seat for....uh, years....but, I recently stumbled on the LGR YouTube video (I think I exhausted abandoned mine videos. Or, is CR actually just another form of abandoned mine?).

Anyway, seeing the state of the store is fascinating to me. It's hard to imagine the late 1980s "bet" on PCjr components sales worked out.

[Brutman]

"Fiasco" applies to the way the warehouse suddenly shut down and the liquidation of it.

I wasn't there in person but I saw some video and heard quite a few first hand stories. The shut down was sudden due to health reasons, and the family was not prepared for what came next. Apparently things had deteriorated quite a bit and it was more of a hoard than a warehouse. And then came the waves of people trying to make the best of a bad situation by pawing through and sorting things out.

Let's just say it could have been better with just slightly more notice. (Richard had let things deteriorate quite a bit and was not prepared.)

[MattCarp]

I'm sorry to put you on the spot with that.

But, I agree. That is, I think everyone would recognize that the items he amassed has some value. If he would have kept them organized a bit better, and then had the foresight to wind it down before he couldn't, then he could have optimized the process.

I think he probably went a little too far and it got beyond his control (unless you define "control" as the state it was in in 2019. I would not define that as "control"). Then again, we never know how or when it really ends....

Considering the fondness with how a lot of us feel about the technology of that era, what a magical place it became!

[Trixter]

Hoarding is a mental illness that can be loosely described as defense mechanism against a combination of OCD and depression. Hope that puts some amount of perspective on the situation.

[alanh]

I only consider it a fiasco because if you envision a scale where at one end - the family that owned the warehouse was forced to liquidate for $0 or even negative expense, and at the other end they got top dollar for every individual item in the place - they family received 10%? maybe 20% of the full value potential? It's better than 0% or even negative! But there were things I know of personally that were pulled out of the warehouse early for just a few dollars in compensation that would have gone for thousands on eBay. Most of those did not - they stayed in personal collections. But the family did not benefit from that in monetary help. Those people did donate their time to help clean the place up. But the family still got fleeced overall. Just my $.02.

[MattCarp]

It does appear that some "miners" discovered at least some gold...