Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:09:
I don't own any vintage cases at all and I'm very envious of those who do. They are very attractive, especially the Baby AT cases. I don't think I'll ever own one, however. Since I don't collect or own any AT motherboards to fit into one anyways.
I suspect the shortage is due to collectors everywhere hoarding them in their basements.
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No, the shortage is a multiple of factors.
- Age is one as back then not many people were purposefully keeping their old hardware. Older computers were really seen as junk, paperweights, trash, obsolete (as in why-would-you-use-smoke-signals-if-you-can-just-use-ur-modern-phone? obsolete).
- They are incompatible with ATX, so people tended to get rid of them as they are useless without an AT motherboard (unless you made a flower pot out of one or something)
- They are big! They are called minitowers but they sure as heck won't fit into any cupboard that easily! 😜
- To a lesser extend: They are mostly just metal, and thus could be send to the old iron guy where PCBs were considered more to be chemical waste.
- Recyclemania started to happen
- They are just clone junk, nobody wants that old junk it's Acorns and Amigas, ZX Spectrums, old Macs and Ataris that are interesting, this is booooring clone hardware! There's already millions of those, why keep it? You can always just get another one on eeebay, these will never get rare!
- Because of their physical dimensions, these are not easy or cheap to package and send to someone by post. Most (non-new) cases I got later I had to pick up myself as it would often be people who would want cheapz for it, but pick up yourself or tomorrow it's going to the dump.
Be thankful for the collectors for not tossing these out, or you'd need to smelt metal and then forge one yourself as your only option to get one today 😜
I can even give myself as an example. I don't have this many AT cases but I can assure you every single AT minitower I got would have gone to the eternal hunting fields if I hadn't dumpsterdived them and cycled 15km home with one tied to the back of my bike 😜