As a collector of fine VAXen :-) I often watched Ebay for people selling "Condist" (Consolidated Distribution) sets. These were packets of CDs that contained th

As a collector of fine VAXen :-) I often watched Ebay for people selling "Condist" (Consolidated Distribution) sets. These were packets of CDs that contained the then current version of VMS and all of the layered products that DEC sold at the time. Often when buying a surplus VAX from the original owner they included the various authorization codes that they got with the system. Those generally would never expire and follow the system around.