This will make you laugh, and cry! Today while I was out and about, I happened to come across a really cool computer store, dealing mostly with computer "junk" and antiques. 'Lo and behold, they had a PET! It was a PET 8032, complete with a 4040 dual drive unit, an 8250 dual drive unit, and a Commodore dot matrix printer...in PET style. Everything was immaculate and there wasn't any yellowing. So, naturally, I asked, "How much do you want for this PET?" "Oh, I don't know. We've had that thing for years now." <supressing the emotions welling up from my "inner being"> "Well, would you take $15? $10? $5? $20?" "hmmm. Well, we've just used it basically as a conversation piece. It's not really worth a whole lot." <me lying through my teeth> "That's basically what I want it for, a conversation piece." "I doubt we could get more than $50 for it. Tell, you what, I'll let you have the whole lot for $25." <me, cool as a cucumber> "That sounds good." So, I shelled out $25.00 for the machine, the drives, the printer (oh yeah, there was a CMD dual drive for the C-64 as well). My friend and I continued to look around the shop and after about 5 mins proceeded out the door with the PET. Disaster struck. As I was in the store's airlock (that's what I call the place between the inner doors and the outer doors of the store), and my friend was carting off the 8256 and printer, the owner of the store popped up and said, "What's going on???" The sales clerk said, "Well, there wasn't a price on the PET, so I let him have it for $25." "You can't do that! I was holding that for Bill, that's why there wasn't a price on it!" "I'm sorry, I guess I'll have to give you your money back." <me, heartbroken> "That's allright, I understand. I used to work in a place like this and I hated it when we got difficult customers." So, I reluctantly put all the goodies back on the shelf. The owner said that if "bill" didn't come and pick it up by next friday, that I could have it for the $25.00. One thing happened on the way out the door. One of the screws that holds the base of the computer to the rest of the case fell out, so out of habit I picked it up and stuck it in my pocket. I've since jammed the screw into a slot on the dashboard of my car to remind me of two things: A. When you get a good deal like this, don't screw around for another 5 mins. Leave Immediately and count your blessings. B. Perhaps I will be able to get it afterall next friday. <sigh> Isn't that a sad story? I've been repeating over and over all day, "25 bucks!!!" *Geoff!* <sniff> - This message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list. To unsubscribe: echo unsubscribe | mail cbm-hackers-request@dot.tcm.hut.fi.
Archive generated by hypermail 2.1.1.