Re: 111 cpw on ebay for $2000

[Douglas Handy <dhandy1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve,

>By the seller you mean the owner of the hardware right ?

In the case of the 170's, it was IBM.  Most of the other systems were not.

>In this case of the 510 the seller is not IBM, but a reseller out of
>Atlanta. Either way, there are plenty of systems listed on ebay, and if the
>LPP was transferable that would be a value worth listing.

Yes, assuming the seller is aware of the value (as any dealer should be).  I've
seen system on eBay over the years where the seller had no idea what he was
selling, or at least claimed to know very little.  But any listing which doesn't
explicitly state which LPP's are included (with Poe's !!) should be considered
to not have any.

>But maybe I am wrong.  By my thinking, there would be value added in a
>system sold as is with the disclaimer "system has v4r4 rpg, pdm, etc left by
>the prior owner that must be removed by the buyer <wink> <wink>".  But I
>dont see that mentioned in any listings either.

It isn't that simple.  Even if the LPP's were installed, they may not continue
to run without new license keys.  While a new owner will be able to get a new
license key for the OS from IBM, they *can't* get new LPP license keys without
the paper PoE's.

OS/400 has algorithms which attempt to detect what may indicate a transfer of
ownership.  This then triggers all license keys to be invalidated and a 70-day
grace period to start.  If you have the PoE's, you have about 2 months to
contact IBM, let them verify your eligibilty, and issue new license keys.

If you don't have PoE's, the LPP's will cease to function.

IBM doesn't disclose all the rules used to attempt to detect transfer of
ownership.  One known method is having the system powered off for too many
consecutive days, with the theory a powered off system may have been sitting in
storage (or at a dealer) and then resold.

There could be other methods used too.  If purchased for personal use, you might
consider the risk acceptable.  If the machine was purchased for production use,
you'd be crazy to do it.

Seasonal businesses which only operate part of the year will routinely need to
get a new system password and license keys each season.  But since they have
proof of entitlement, it is just an inconvienence, not a show stopper.

Doug