"Ken Srail was credited with 'inventing' this method of computer perf comparisons a long time ago, I believe on the old Virtual Stamp Club. Before he explained it clearly there, I do not recall anyone else explaining it before him."
Bill, it was actually on the
ebay stamp chat board, not VSC. It goes back to the mid- to late-1990's, and many of the old time
ebay sellers will remember the discussions that went on for many years, as I frequently explained how and why it worked to new visitors.
..and you're right, nothing had been done before then, largely because the required flat bed scanners were expensive and no seller had one. Remember, back in 1996 you could browse every lot in the entire US stamp category (all subcategories) in a few hours. If an
ebay lot had an image at all, it was usually from one of those $300+ digital cameras that recorded directly to 3.5" floppy disk, LOL! Any scanner with more than 300 dpi optical resolution was expensive (I think I paid $1,000+ for mine in 1996 or 1997.)
While I shared my early work on the
ebay chat boards, I don't think there was any real practical use for the test in evaluating listed items until scanned images became more prevalent, probably around 2000-2001 or so. It was at that time that decent color flatbed scanners in the $250-$500 range were readily available and serious sellers abandoned the cameras and started buying scanners. Predictably, that's when the test found more widespread use and generated a higher level of discussion on the boards.
Posted 04/24/2015 9:17 pm
