Confessions of a
Garage Sale Hunter II


I'm not an early adopter. DVD (the format) was introduced in 1997, I bought my first DVD (the disc) in 2000 for play on my home computer and my family purchased a DVD (the player) in 2001. That's four years after the introduction.

Partially, I am an early adopter. I have bought the Nintendo Gamecube on its launchday, for example.

But, as I said before, I love retro items. A vintage adopter.

I have to be careful not to become a freak. I'm interested in a DCC-tape on eBay for the moment. But I don't have a DCC-player. It's just yet another fascinating flopped piece of kit. Paying $15 or more for something so trivial would be ridiculous.

Before shelling out, I reconsider. "Do I need it?", "will it make my life complete?" and "is it worth it?". In 99% of the cases, all evidence leads to a triple "no!". I always keep the hungry African kids in mind. I am completely happy and satisfied as it is.

I have a wishlist of favoured items, but I never intend to pay more than what it's worth. After all, it's only more of the same (but, as The Stones would sing, I like it).

- a 3DO, a game console from 1993. Cost $700 at launch!
- a DAT-tape recorder. It offers digital audio on tape and it's extremely useful for interviews.
- a DCC-player. A failed attempt to create portable audio, this Digital Compact Cassette quickly disappeared.
- a Game Gear, a Sega handheld. Impressive compared to the original Game Boy, with its colourscreen and TV-tuner. Shame the batterylife was below par.
- a Dreamcast, without a doubt Sega's finest console.
- a Sega Saturn, a Sega console that fought against Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Nintendo64. Sega finished third.
- a 8-Track-player. Common in the USA, rare in Belgium. It tried to replace the MC (the normal cassette), but never gained enough momentum to really impress.


Long live retro junk!



Julian De Backer, 5 December 2006