[Coco] "NEW NORMAL"

[Mark McDougall]

On 16/07/2015 5:12 AM, Bill Loguidice wrote:

> I think you're overreacting a bit. As an insane collector of everything in
> the computer and videogame space (and I've been that way since the 80s, so
> I've seen prices go from free to insane), I too lament the rise in prices
> across nearly every brand, but it's purely for selfish reasons. The reality
> is higher prices mean there's more competition for this stuff and more
> interest overall in using vintage equipment. While that's bad for our
> wallets, it's better overall for all vintage communities, getting more
> people involved and having a larger pool of individuals to both develop and
> purchase new items for our old hardware. While the cost of entry these days
> is indeed higher, the potential experience across all brands is better than
> any other time (save for when these were active on the mainstream market)
> and will clearly continue to improve for the forseeable future. So yeah,
> it's not all that bad.

Whilst there's definitely an element of truth to this, I don't think it's 
the whole story.

I too have been in the game for decades and again, I started with freebies 
and 'junk' from road-side clean-ups and now can't even afford to round out 
my collection. And I agree with Bill, it's for selfish reasons...

But I do question the up-side to Bill's argument. Higher prices attracts the 
profiteers and from there it's an upward spiral. I would argue it raises the 
barrier to entry for newcomers to the hobby as we see more hardware 
purchased for 'investment' and flipping rather than actually used by 
enthusiasts. Any increase in the enthusiast base is due to other factors 
entirely, such as the socio-economic standing of the 80's users, increased 
awareness of the hobby as a whole due to social media, commericalisation of 
the hobby, and podcasts etc and easier access to software.

The improved experience comes from product development such as CocoSDC and 
RGB2VGA etc etc and I don't believe that's linked to higher prices at all, 
but rather more affordable and accessible technologies enabling the 
development. Most developers aren't in it to make big $$$.

So no, IMHO I think higher prices _is_ all bad. I don't see an up side at 
all. And it will only continue to deteriorate.

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"