[sdiy] what have I been taking?

[metasonix]

>> Ha hahahaha!  You smart boy!
>Hmm, Eric, what have you been taking?

It's a subtle joke, son. See, there are Asian dealers in
vintage synths watching this list. They are not interested
in supporting your DIY community, they are only interested in
buying vintage gear cheap from stupid white persons!! 

(That means you and me! We are stupid white smelly pigs! Hahaha!)

So they can resell it for big money in Tokyo or Hong Kong.

"Hahahaha! We screw Caucasian!! Hahahaha!"

I've dealt with some of those hi-fi dealers. The ones in Hong Kong
are the worst. Most have offices in the notorious Prosperity Building in
Mong Kok district. Others are in Sham Shui Po, the electronics flea
market area. (Bill Gates once stood in front of that place
and complained to reporters that it was the worst software piracy
haven in the world. A friend bought a CDROM copy of Microsoft 
Visual C++ in there---for $4. He wrote about it in VTV, too.)

Those audio dealers are famous for not paying bills and lying incessantly.
One of them screwed Svetlana out of $2000 worth of audio tubes.
I warned them not to deal with Mr. Liu, but they shipped to him anyway.
No payment was ever received.

You folks will be shocked to find out how much of that happens
in the background. It started with vintage guitars and amps,
went on to old tube hi-fi and Altec speakers, and is now
drilling into old Moogs, ARPs and Buchlas. The dealers burn out 
one category of obsessive collectors, and go on to the next group.

I hear that a 30-module vintage Moog, WITHOUT KEYBOARD, 
can sell for 4 million yen in Tokyo. That's about $40,000.
And Buchlas are so scarce, the sky's the limit on pricing.

"Must be vintage!! We hate Doepfer, not vintage! Quality inferior!"

If Paul took his 200 series Buchla to Japan, he could
maybe trade it for a new Lexus. But of course,
this would not happen--the dealers would try to cheat him.
He might get at best $5k for it, if he negotiates well.
"Hahahahaha! You are not stupid!!! We hate you!!" 

Does that help?

I swear I'm not making any of this up. VTV ran an article about
some Hong Kong hifi dealers 7 years ago. They regard Americans 
generally as a bunch of stupid hicks. And they seem to be right,
especially when it comes to old hifi or music equipment.

And this is nothing, you should see the trade in Western Electric
tube amps and theatre speakers...."we get 2.5 million yen for old
junk tube amp! Hahahaha!"