What’s the closing price for a Mac SE?, Hold the Zenith 181s. Such are the cries to be heard emanating from the 10 brokers on the Boston Computer Exchange, a stock exchange that trades in used micros. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Stock Exchange (more affectionately known as the BoCoEx to those in the know) has a US-wide network of 123 licensed affiliates in the US. It handles about $8m in sales a year which works out roughly as 10% of what public relations companies term the organised second-user market. The Exchange sells trading licences for $5,000 each and charges a 10% commission per transaction. However, in order to retain its reputation, BoCoEx places the money from every buyer into an escrow account and the buyer is then given 48 hours with the used computer to make sure it is the machine he or she believed they were buying. Only after the second user has articulated his satisfaction with the purchase is the cheque (minus commission) sent to the seller. The exchange started trading seven years ago and is the brainchild of Alex Randall and his wife Cameron Hall. Its reputation has grown to the extent that the computer press in the US regularly carries its index of highs, lows and closing prices. If all goes according to plan and Randall finds a joint venture partner, the Exchange should soon be totally automated, cutting out the need for buyers and sellers to speak on the phone. At the same time, BoCoEx is looking to become an agent for used machines received under trade-in programmes from a large computer company. Following this success story, systems like that at Boston would seem to be here to stay and may well be positioned to change the face of the retail market across the world.
