Hi there,
I'm from Poland, and I won't lie to Ya - I'm in this business for money. I started off 10 years ago as a hardcore '80-'90 vintage equipement hoarder - but no, no, not the usual 8-bit "pop" era "1337" home computers like C64 or Atari. When I say hardcore, I mean HARDCORE: Compaq Proliants, HP LaserJet 4-s, giant CRT monitors, 386/486/early pentium PCs, external modems, you know - stuff others usually get rid off (to this day). So I bought all this stuff at bargain prices and started to hoard. I lost two promising relationships 'cause of my obsession.
I'm really good @ physical (visual) restoration of old computers and their accessories to almost crisp condition. It took me 7+ f****ng years to learn everything I know. I have a nerdy workshop with dozen of airbrushes, structural lacquers, hydrogen peroxide solutions, magic chemicals and other various tools - you name it.
I love what I do and I'm sure I want to do this stuff in my life. Unfortunately, here in Poland people are a little to "orthodox" about vintage computing. Sure, we have many enthusiasts and even maniacs, but let me put it in another way: I cannot make a living out of it. What's the point of restoring an old laptop to "as new" condition, when: a) your friends give you a "so what" look, so you are unable to catch some work steam from their reaction; b) you cannot even sell it to the other enthusiast at reasonable price. To this day I don't have my own apartment, I keep my stuff @ my old folks basement. I'm getting sick of it, because I think it doesn't receive respect it deserves.
Well, maybe it's stupid. I have master degree @ computer science but I DON'T F****NG CARE about going corporate. I just do not fit there. I catch some part jobs, wire and troubleshoot networks, but it's just not the stuff I wanna do. In the long term I'm thinking about buying my own place and creating - even in a micro scale - some sort of a free computer museum, where I can put all the stuff I have. We don't have many places like this in Poland, and I have to be honest - people running those places don't treat this equipement as they should.
Yep, that's my dream. As I said, it's a money problem. 6 months ago I have noticed there's an increased demand for mechanical keyboards on local markets. Gamers and heavy typists use them, and are willing to give a reasonable amount of money for them. Now that was a good news to me, as I also hoarded a couple hundreds of old boards back in the day. SO - I did some research, restored a few, and sold them with profit. I left my old computer science teacher job and - what can I say, I love my basement. I trade all the stuff I have on the Internet - to other geeks. And that's fine with me.
Now I'm looking to expand internationally, so... here I am bytchez! Don't know where it would led me, but I'm definitely willing to give it a try.
I'm not really "into" this mecha-keyboard thing, as I don't play games (ok, Quake2 from time to time) and don't type that much... I'm writing this on Cherry G83 MY 1800, next to me there's another vintage cherry on blacks... But it's just like those keyboards found me ('cause of their high market price) - not vice versa. Well, ok, I can tell you... There is a one kinky type of keyboards that give me a roof-blowing boner... And it's a reed-switch, with spherical double-shots. When I see stuf like this on the Internet, my heart starts to beat like a drum drum drum! Oh, where was I...
Anyway, that's my pathetic story. Hello Geekhack community! May I ask you gents where should a lad like me redirect his steps for the first time to sell stuff he wants to sell?
niubio / Peter
PS. There's an online "museum" I created about a year ago:
http://utensilia.tk/urzadzenia.html (PL only), and even a youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/utensilia/videos. As I said before: I couldn't make a living from this, so... It's dead now.
PS II. I lost two fantastic women, but have a new one - she's hot, she accepts my hobby and she is the best thing in my life.
PS III. Sorry 'bout my "trying so hard to sound good" english folks! ME - A POLISH BOY. KIELBASA nie ENGLISH. VODKA!
