USED-COMPUTER FIRM SELLS TO MOSCOW, CIA AND DISNEY WORLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404030063-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: March 17, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404030063-3
1 ARTICLE APPEJ J ED
ON PAGE I
Used-Computer-Firm
Sells to Moscow; .CIA,
And Disney World
But Dealer Sonny Monosson
Is Gloomy About Future;
How Sledgehammers Help
By ERIK LARBON ?. _
S aff Reporter of Tz W Smzrr Jov1wwi
BOSTON --- In the upstairs offices of-
American Used Computer Co., just about ev
erything is secondhand- : .,,
Old computer pedestals and cabinets that
once housed the ultimate in American tech.
nology now serve as bookshelves. Gears
from old computer. disk drives now are-pa-
perweights. A metal bar once. used to con-
duct ? electricity? through a computer now
props up a scraggly philodendron. -
One of the few brand-new things is a
small printer made by Wang Laboratories
Inc. "It broke my heart to buy it," says
Sonny Monosson, the boss around here,
wearing his maroon suspenders and- an :or-
ange paisley bow tie, one of the more than.
150 bow ties he owns. "But we couldn't find
a used one." -
Sonny Monosson, actually Adolf F. Mon-
osson, 56 years old, is a used-computer
dealer. He was hawking secondhand com-
puters as early as 1969, when most people
were just getting accustomed to the new
machines and few knew you could buy. the
things used. To peddle his cut-rate wares, he
wore sandwich boards . at - new-computer
shows until the shows'. ,organizers -.sent
armed - lawmen to stop him. ?:: -
Bikini and Tie
He "gave up that pmctice'in:'1979 but still
attracts attention. Once at a staid, finance .
conventioit he! appeared htnong the lounging
bankers at poolside in a men's bikini bath-
ing suit and a bow tie. "You've seen my
stomach," he says of his roundish physique.
"I figured with a bright-red bow tie they
wouldn't notice it."
Mr. Monosson is also known for his
gloomy outlook on the used-computer busi-
ness. Although business is good now, ad-
vancing technology soon will drive prices of
new computers so low that nobody will buy -
a used one, be says. Already a circuit board
that cost $2,000 new in 1976 is just about
worthless. "Would you go out and buy a
used car if a new car were selling for half
the cost?" he asks.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
17 March 1983
American Used Computer typically does'
most of its business over the telephone, sell-
likes of Harvard Uni-
versity, the Central
Intelligence Agency,
the * Russians, Walt
Disney World,, and
even an eight-year-old
boy who happened to
have $1,200 to plunk
The boy aside, cus-
tomers usually have
an old system that
works and need parts
They know that if- 'Sonny Monosson
they buy the newest machines, they could
wind up spending millions to convert their
existing programs.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404030063-3