NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/consumer/21173

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-24 | 1.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!gatech!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!gateway
From: [e-mail] (Will Martin)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers
Subject: Re: Junk mailers dirty tricks
Date: 24 Dec 1992 10:23:47 -0600
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>From: [e-mail]
>True, however they are generally allowed to charge for "reproduction costs."
>This means it is free to sit in the license collector's office and write
>down all the names by hand.  But if you want reproductions (either on a Xerox
>machine, or maganetic media, etc) they will charge you for that service.
>Also you are generally not allowed to remove anything from the premises,
>so you are stuck using their equipement.  The "reproduction costs" rarely
>resemble "fair market value."

This seems to me to be a prime market for those hand-held copy machines
which seemed to be widely available only a few years ago, but then
completely disappeared and are no longer advertised anywhere! What
happened to them? People like these credit-reporting-company data-
gatherers and anyone else who is scanning manual, paper records for data
should be finding these hand-held copiers a godsend! Why did such a
useful (even though specialized) product disappear after such widespread
advertising and availability?

For example, my wife does a lot of genealogical research. One of these
things would be a nice surprise present for her, and the per-page costs of
library copying machines avoided because she had this thing would
eventually repay its price and the cost of the consumeables it uses. So
why can't I just go buy one any more? Even DAK peddled them...

Will