Rule #1 of negotiation - once you accept, you don't have regrets. For all he knew at the time, either company could have disappeared at any time. You make your decisions based on your willingness to accept something in exchange for your product, and you don't scream "Unfair" later. At most, you analyze how you could have analyzed the situation, at the time, better, so your next negotiation works out better for you.
Go try bargaining for carpets in Morocco... it's great fun. They'll start at like $2000. You'll walk away with a carpet for $200. Some other guy will walk away with the same (well, they're all unique, but let's same the same in terms of craftsmanship and materials) for $2000. Both are happy, because they feel they paid a fair price for what they wanted.
The salesman gave me some advice - I don't recall the exact words, but it was basically "Friends, please, there is no reason now to be nervous - negotiation is negotiation, and if we agree on a price, we agree fully and with no regrets. If we do not agree, then we do not agree, with no regrets."
I need not feel guilty for paying such a small fee (from my point of view) for such a beautiful carpet - he would not have agreed to the sale if it was not to his benefit in some fashion. I also do not need to mock those who paid 10x what I did for the same carpet - as both us feel we paid a fair price for something we enjoy (and for all I know, the actual cost of buying those things from the source is $20, I have no idea, nor does it matter, unless I feel like flying into the mountains of morocco to go to the source - which I don't)
The home computer market was still very young and unproven.
