|Second-hand Amiga



                              By BullyBeef

It may be a year since the liquidation, but the demand for Amiga's is 
still as great as ever,as I discovered when I decided that my home had
been Amiga-less for too long,in the old days it was easy, you went into
a shop, handed over a wad,and walked out with your purchase,altern-
atively, you could telephone your credit card details to any number of
mail order merchants, and receive a big brown box within a couple of 
days.

Sadly, neither option is available now,the only way of getting ya hands
on one is through the small ads, luckily,there was dozens listed in the
publication I bought, I knew what I wanted - a bog-standard A1200, yes
i would have loved a A4000, of course, but lets be serious, most of the
A1200's I had circled had extras - accelerator cards, printers, hard-
drives, scanners and so on, none of which I wanted - nor did my budget 
allow it, unfortunately, none of the advertisers were prepared to split
their systems.

The remaining A1200's were, I thought, outrageously expensive, (nothing
under two hundred and fifty quid) when you consider that a brand-new,
complete with on-site warranty, machine could be picked up for less 
than three hundred a few months ago, the solitary two hundred and fifty
quid machine led me to phone up, then a recorded message told me to 
phone another number which was engaged-permanently, sod that I thuoght.

An A600,complete with colour monitor and serious software,caught my eye
at two hundred and seventy, so off I went to inspect it, what a disap-
pointment? the ultra low-res monitor (sans sound) had been liberated 
from a amstrad CPC, and the `serious software' amounted to a disk box
full of copies, by this time I had used five hours of my time, boosted
BT's profits quite considerably, and had travelled a fair distance, so
i explained to the elderly person that I just wanted the machine, power
supply unit, and the mouse; how much? the twat wouldn't let it go for a
penny less than one hundred and fifty quid - only forty nine quid less
than it's last selling price, as a pack - and he was convinced he'd get
it, if not of me then someone else.

Returning to the telephone, I redialled some of the A1200 ads - several
had been sold - aah? panic? then I suddenly remembered the two hundred
and fifty quid one, I redialled, and joy of joys, got through, I made
arrangements to be waiting on their doorstep, when they returned from 
their day's labours, with the cash, which is what I did, and no I did
not even try to haggle, as I lugged out my purchase, they received two
more telephone calls from hopeful buyers, boy, did I feel smug and very
pleased with myself, the Amiga dead? hah? try buying one, pal.