AVICC FAQ
AVICC was started in 2009, so after 5 years, its probably a good time to write the FAQ.
- Payments and Accounting
- Ship Assist
- Bid/Purchase Assist
- Chip Pay
- Selling Services
- Distribution Services
- Shipping
If you have any questions not covered here, please send us an e-mail.
General Questions
What is AVICC?
AVICC (Association of Vintage IC Collectors) is a program/association designed to make collecting IC’s easier, especially for members based outside of the USA. It is a service provided, and ran by, The CPU Shack Museum.
What does AVICC Provide?
Currently AVICC provides the following services:
- Re-shipping: Members may purchase items from eBay, or other sellers and have them shipped to AVICC. They then may request shipment of these items whenever it is convenient or economical to do so. This may be immediately after they arrive, or after many shipments have arrived. There is no fixed limit as long as good communication is maintained.
- Bid Assist: Some times items are not available for purchase to non-US buyers (either eBay or other sellers). Bid Assist allows you to request AVICC to bid, buy or make an offer on an item for you. It is then shipped to AVICC and added to your box and account
- Chip Pay: This portion of AVICC works similar to Paypal. You may keep a credit balance and use these funds to pay for purchases, or, using Chip Pay, to transfer funds to other AVICC members accounts.
- Purchase Management: All purchases from The CPU Shack are tracked in your AVICC account. This allows you to see what is at AVICC awaiting shipment, and how much you owe as well as make payments on your account when you do owe money. Purchases from other members that are sent to AVICC are also added to your AVICC account.
- Selling Services: AVICC also handles consignment sales. You may have extra chips that are currently at AVICC sold by AVICC for a commission (typically 25%)
- Distribution: This is a service for other sellers. Items may be sold to many other members, then a single package sent to AVICC with all members purchases. AVICC will then sort these into the buyers AVICC boxes. This can make selling ans hipping much easier, and shipping more affordable.
Do I need an AVICC account?
If you are an international (or US) collector that plans to purchase IC’s regularly, then AVICC can help you. If you are only a seller then you probably do not need an account (though AVICC can still handle distribution for you)
How much does it cost?
Currently there is no set fee for AVICC services. Contributions are entirely donation based. DOnations may include CPU’s or financial assistance. This helps pay for the time it takes o run AVICC (currently about 30 hours/week) as well as all the supplies, storage containers, etc. There are fees for chip pay, and consignment sales.
How do I sign up?
You may request an account via e-mail, the Contact form, or via PM, on the CPU-World Forums. You will need to provide a valid e-mail, name, and shipping address. Some countries may require more information, for example AVICC will need a phone number and Middle name for Russian sales.
Sponsorship
What is Sponsorship?
AVICC is a free service for members but a full time job for me. Sponsorship is a way for members to donate to help with AVICC and The CPU Shack Museum. Sponsorships are a yearly donation to AVICC/The CPU Shack Museum paid out of your AVICC balance.
Why is it needed?
Running AVICC is a time consuming task. Currently, in 2019, we have over 200 members. Maintaining the AVICC system (both the online site (bandwidth/maintenance/programming) and the physical portion (storage, supplies etc) is a costly endeavor. This has went from a small amount of time on the side of a regular job, to a full time (40+ hours/week) endeavor.
Is Sponsorship Mandatory?
No, Sponsorship is not mandatory, and AVICC will always continue to offer the basic functionality at no cost to the collector community.
What do I get for my Sponsorship?
Some AVICC services will slowly be tied to sponsorship levels. For example, ‘Want Lists’ will be a coming feature that is tied to sponsorship levels, the basic free level will allow 5 items on your want list, and higher levels will allow you to add more. In addition, Chip Pay rates will be lower (or free) for higher sponsorship levels.
What levels are available?
You can see the sponsorship levels/details under the ‘My AVICC’ tab when you log in.
| Level | Cost (Yearly) | Want List Entries | Chip Pay Rates | |
 |
Bit Slicer | FREE-$24 | 5 | 2% |
 |
4-Bit Supporter | $25-49 | 10 | TBD |
 |
8-bit Supporter | $50-99 | 15 | TBD |
 |
16-bit Supporter | $100-199 | 20 | TBD |
 |
32-bit Supporter | $200+ | 50 | TBD |
Service Specific Questions
Payments and Accounting:
My account shows a negative number for balance, why?
AVICC accounting is based on what you owe AVICC. If your balance is negative, it means you do not owe, rather you have a credit balance which you can spend.
How do I pay my balance or put money into my account?
Clicking the Paypal button in your account will allow you to pay the amount you owe. You may add an additional amount (useful for covering Paypal fees) by entering an Additional amount in the text box. This will send the amount you owe + the additional amount you entered.
What if I don’t want to pay the full amount, or just wish to add more credit?
You may select the ‘Partial Payment’ option, and then enter an amount into the text box. This will pay what ever you enter, regardless of what you do or do not owe.
I sent $xxx but less was credited to my account. Why?
AVICC will only credit what is received from Paypal, so fees are always deduced from the amount you send.
What if I choose the ‘Friend Payment’ in Paypal?
This makes no difference as Paypal removed the ability for AVICC to receive fee-less payments, literally, they told us we had to many friends.
When should I pay?
Whenever you can. If your account is under $10 or so do not worry about it, but if it is higher think about payment. AVICC may send you an invoice, this does not mean we want to ship your item, only that our accounts are low and we would like you to pay as soon as possible. If your account is over $100 you should try to pay ASAP or make other arrangements. Currently at any given time AVICC has over $3000 owed.
What if I cannot pay or cannot pay all at once?
You may make payments, or other arrangements. Please contact us, we are here to support the chip collecting hobby, not as a loan shark, however AVICC does have bills to pay and occasionally we like to eat, and/or have a beer.
How can I withdraw money?
Just send AVICC an email, and we can send you money via Paypal, or Western Union (if its a large amount it may take some time)
Ship Assist:
How do I use Ship Assist?
To use Ship Assist you just buy items like you normally would do, but use AVICCs shipping address:
5040 Miller AVE
Klamath Falls, OR 97603-5046
Then enter the purchase details under the Ship Assist tab in AVICC. Please be sure to enter ALL the info possible (you may add tracking later) . This greatly helps track who packages are for. At the very least, you MUST enter a link to the item and what the item is.
What if the seller requires a phone number?
Send me an e-mail and you can use AVICC’s (Fedex/UPS sometimes needs this)
What if the seller says they will only ship to a confirmed address?
The AVICC address will show as confirmed in eBay, no matter what account it is attached to.
How do I know when items arrive at AVICC?
When items arrive you will receive an email saying the item has arrived, and it will be added to your purchase list in AVICC.
How do I know if the item is what I ordered?
AVICC will compare the item received to the link/description you provided. and if their is a significant difference you will be notified. Due to time constraints, we cannot check every detail of every shipment, but if it is significant we will catch it.
Can I ship non-IC related items to AVICC?
Yes, that is no problem, AVICC is for IC Collectors, but if you have some other stuff you wish to have AVICC handle, that is fine. We have shipped everything from car bumpers to clothes, to bathroom tile.
Can AVICC handle returns?
Yes, though we try to avoid it where possible, again, with over 150 members, its a lot of work, try to be nice to AVICC.
Bid/Purchase Assist:
How do I use Bid Assist?
Enter the URL for the item you wish to bid on or purchase, enter the max amount of your bid and submit it. AVICC will make every effort to purchase the item for you. These requests are received via e-mail, and we do occasionally sleep, vacation etc at AVICC so there is a chance it will get missed if there is little time left to buy.
You should have the money to pay for the item in your AVICC account, pre-pay, or have a solid payment history with AVICC when using Bid Assist. Failure to pay for an item will result in immediate account termination and forfeiture of items at AVICC.
I want to Make an Offer on an item using Bid Assist, How can I?
Just enter the amount of your offer, and I will use either Best Offer on eBay or email the seller for you.
I want more then one of an item, how do I let AVICC know?
Just enter the total cost, for example if the item is $10 and you want 3 of them, enter $30. When in doubt you may always e-mail AVICC.
What if the auction or item is prices in Euros? or other non US currency?
Enter the amount you wish to pay converted to USD.
Can I use Bid Assist for items outside of eBay?
Yes no problem.
Chip Pay:
How do I use Chip Pay?
Simply enter the amount to pay and which member it is going to with a short description of what it is for. Avoid characters like quotation marks and slashes, as these sometimes break things. You may also select whether the fee is deducted from your account, or if the member receiving the money pays the fee.
What are the fees for Chip Pay?
Payments under $5 are free. 2% after that.
Selling Services:
How do consignment sales work?
Just let us know what chips you want sold, and we’ll clean them, straighten pins as needed, document them, and post them for sale either on the CPU-World Forums, or on eBay. Commissions typically are 25% but some negotiation is available for special items, or trades for chips.
Can I set my own prices for consignment items?
If you wish.
Will AVICC sell scrap chips for me?
AVICC will only handle higher value scrap chips for consignment, such as Pentium Pros and 486s. Consider offering lesser scrap as a donation to AVICC if the need arises.
Distribution Services:
How does AVICC Distribution work?
If you hold a sale of IC’s and sell them to AVICC members you may send a single package to AVICC with all those members chips in them to AVICC for sorting. Please package each members chips separately within the main package and label each packet. If all items are the same or similar, just send a list of how many each member is to get.
Is there a fee for AVICC Distribution services?
There is no fee, though if you wish to offer a few free chips or a donation for the service it would be much appreciated.
Shipping:
How long may I store items at AVICC?
As long was you want. Some members wait week, months or even years to chip. Please stay in contact though so AVICC knows you have not passed away or some other tragedy has befallen you.
How does AVICC ship items?
AVICC uses USPS for 90% of shipments. This may be First Class, Priority or Priority Express. Tracking is available for most packages to most countries, but no always. Registered is an option (currently an additional $16) for parcels weighing less then 4lbs. We try to make shipping as cheap, and safe as possible. Some countries have restriction on size (China) or other postal problems that make Express or Registered mail more preferential. WE also may use courier services (via ParcelMonkey) to save money on shipping for some packages.
What is the fee for shipping?
AVICC charges a few dollars above cost, to help cover shipping supplies and pay for travel to the post office.
Can I ask for special shipping services?
Yes, sometimes members wish a shipment to be broke up into smaller packages, and shipped a week apart. We will gladly do this for you but please be aware of the extra work involved. Consider making a donation if your shipping is complicated.
Are FedEx or UPS or DHL available?
Yes, and as of 2022 they can be cheaper for some countries (like Canada and Australia) and can be much faster..
