When you or I have a tag sale, we put out tons of crap stuff — the accumulated furniture, games and sports equipment of our lives — and hope it sells.
When David Pogue has a tag sale — well, the stuff is a lot more interesting.
The New York Times/Scientific American/PBS “Nova”/CBS-TV/ multimillion-copy book author held a tag sale today in his Westport home. It looked like anyone else’s — overflowing garage, cut-rate prices, free lemonade — but walking between the tables was taking a trip down technology’s Memory Lane.
David Pogue, and a small part of his stuff.
There were old-school answering machines. Installation disks for operating systems long obsolete. Half a dozen Palm Pilots David literally could not give away — they were free — until a group of teenagers snagged them, probably to take them apart for fun.
There were power strips, cables, and a karaoke machine.
And books. Stacks of books. Books on hardware and software that are the technological equivalent of a Ford Pinto.
Everything in the garage was owned by David. He does not keep any gadgets he reviews; it all gets shipped back to the manufacturer.
I got to the tag sale late. Most of the good stuff was long gone.
Someone probably snapped up a Kaypro that was my 1st computer.
But in mid-afternoon, there was still a garbage bag full of floppy disks. They were yours for the taking. No questions asked.
I wish I had known about this, I love old tech! Knowing me, though, I probably would’ve bought way too much stuff to fit into my car….
Wish I’d known too. But then looking for the Pogues on Memory Lane might have been difficult. 🙂
I could have used those floppy disks for my court reporting business. It is getting harder and harder to find them anywhere.
Man, what a wonderful writeup! Almost makes me think the blood, sweat, and tears were worth it!
And a note to Barbara and your other commenters: There’s plenty of stuff leftover, including: an above-ground pool, 30 flood-style indoor bulbs, 15 educational kids’ CD-ROMs, 20 unopened software programs from the late 90’s, 100 CD-ROMs (science, games, clip art, sound effects), a huge window with dental molding (left over from the construction of the house), a sliding glass patio door (ditto), a gorgeous wooden crib, an infinity of my own Missing Manuals for outdated software versions (Windows XP, iMovie 09, etc)–and, yes, about 400 floppy disks.
I’m david@pogueman.com if you want to arrange pickup! 🙂
Why a tag sale? Hope Mr. Pogue isn’t leaving Westport!
Nope. Just a chance to de-clutter.
Great Pogue’s tag sale killed mine! Thx David!
Hopefully there were cameras there and I’ll see this on an a future edition of CBS Sunday Morning.
Bill Moyers wrote a book years ago called Listen to America. He had a line in the book which I will paraphrase, brings us your junk, we sell antiques! History continues to repeat its self.