The 3dfx thing is part of my point. It's one of the most popular things for people to collect and store, which means that it's hard to find any card cheaply, as saturn says. I've done it, as my Voodoo 2 was a bargain - but the prices of things like Voodoo 5s go through the roof when the limited supply gets hoarded by a small pool of people. They would never be cheap, but this artificially inflates the prices, and there seem to be a huge lack of Voodoo cards in general that are available in this country right now.

Lukeno94 wrote:

The 3dfx thing is part of my point. It's one of the most popular things for people to collect and store, which means that it's hard to find any card cheaply, as saturn says. I've done it, as my Voodoo 2 was a bargain - but the prices of things like Voodoo 5s go through the roof when the limited supply gets hoarded by a small pool of people. They would never be cheap, but this artificially inflates the prices, and there seem to be a huge lack of Voodoo cards in general that are available in this country right now.

Not only that but the voodoo 5's are a now popular card that had a short/low production. Voodoo 2's and 3's are not to hard to find and not to costly.
I have bought many voodoo3's for around 15$, also most 3dfx sites have for sale/trade boards worth looking at

Might surpise you to know I have picked up 4 Voodoo3 3000 & 2 Voodoo 3 2000 cards this year from car boot sales, if you need one lukeno94 then let me know 😀

I collect both retro video game consoles and software as well as retro PCs and peripherals. I started doing the former and have transitioned to PCs only in the last couple of years. I like to collect new, preferably sealed, items and have a pretty big collection of sealed games for the Bally Astrocade and Mattel Intellivision. I've sold off most of my sealed Atari and Colecovision items. However, I don't really want more than one of any sealed item.

With retro PC peripherals, I'm more likely to unseal something and use it. One reason is that the items aren't worth too much on the open market. For instance I just unsealed a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Platinum kit and a Turtle Beach Montego II. What was worth $30 sealed is now worth $15. Not a big deal. Also, I like having the exact installation CD that goes along with a peripheral, especially Live! cards. It's also nice to be able to share drivers and CDs with others who need them, knowing exactly which piece of hardware they accompany.

BSA Starfire wrote:

Might surpise you to know I have picked up 4 Voodoo3 3000 & 2 Voodoo 3 2000 cards this year from car boot sales, if you need one lukeno94 then let me know 😀

Joking apart, if I could afford to get the bits I'd need to run a PCI graphics card with my ThinkPad 600 (which is something I'd love to do), I'd probably bite your hand off at that offer (stick a Voodoo 3 in my HP Vectra and take the V2 out of that and into the SelectaDock). Sadly, I'm a month away from having any spare cash at all, and SelectaBase 600s are generally quite rare and would cost a fortune to ship (there's one listing that is a sensible price, but would cost well over a hundred dollars to ship!) SelectaDocks aren't quite as overpriced for me, but I still can't afford one for a month at least.

There just aren't many decent car boot sales around Reading for someone who only has a bike as transport, otherwise I'd probably find things like that as well.

This "I want X but selfish collectors have pushed it out of my price range" thing really sizzles my sausage. Basic social safety nets - healthcare, housing - yes! But affordable Voodoo5's for all? Man up already!

To be fair, it does inflate the price for no good reason in the same way destroying it would. And from a practical standpoint, the hardware may as well be destroyed as it isn't doing anything, probably never will or will probably have ceased functioning due to neglect by the time it does. I won't tell anyone what to do with their collection, but from my point of view it is illogical, selfish and outright pointless most of the time.

3DFX people are always weird, so they get a free pass I guess because nothing 3DFX did made any logical sense so their fans will want to replicate that for the authentic 3DFX experience. No, the people who are the problem are the CPU collectors. There are people out there who would literally murder me because I took an ES PPro and stuck it in a NOS board so I could actually use it. The irony is that it used to belong to a collector who didn't use his hardware and several pins had broken off in those years. These CPU collectors are also the types who are selfish to the point they won't answer questions or help you out in any way at all for that matter - Answers ranging from "Fuck you! It's mine! I'm not telling you anything poorfag!" to "No idea, don't use it." - Not saying they are all like that, just that I have seen a good number of them out there.

I'll have the last laugh anyway, my hardware sees regular use so it will probably last longer than theirs. By the time they come to sell it and somebody actually wants to use it, they won't be able to guarantee it is working and will either have to sell it for the price of parts or else risk having to issue a refund.

Well... When I bought my V3-3500 compaq edition, it arrived in non-working condition.
Tried everything to get it to work, and as it was factory sealed, I guess it had just been sitting too long.
I know another Vogons user from australia had the same issue as I did.
So... At least 2 out of perhaps 100 cards being doa. Not bad. Still... They were factory sealed.

Anyway.
I recieved a replacement card and it worked. Never payd anything for the second one.
Now I have this dead V3, and I just do not know what to do with it. Wall ornament perhaps?

HighTreason wrote:

No, the people who are the problem are the CPU collectors.

NOT opening this, so THERE! That must boil your blood eh!? 😀

I just watched your Pentium 60 video the other day, so I thought this would get a chuckle.

Prices are just supply and demand. I have a few 3dfx cards but I don't collect one from every company and don't bother with the rare V1 SLI cards. I do have a few V1, V2 (sli also), V3 (3500's are nice) cards around plus a boxed V5500 AGP (purchased new) and a V4 4500 PCI. I started collecting them back in 2000 or so when they were pretty much freeish on ebay along with the rest of my gear. Whatever I didn't snag then would most likely have been recycled by now and some day I will get bored with them an pass them on to other users/collectors.

I can see fellow collectors who started late in the hobby having a problem with inflated prices, but that just keeps them from being hoarders anyway because of budget reasons. Sooner or later the bubble will pop and all this gear will end up being cheap and or free again. Much more of the collectable stuff has been recycled over the last few years when gold was high ($100+/lb for 486 processors for example) then hoarded and that makes the supply drop quite a bit. Its only now that ewaste prices are in the dump that scrappers are trying to sort their items out for collectable stuff to ebay instead of just sending it all to the smelter.

Artex wrote:

HighTreason wrote:

No, the people who are the problem are the CPU collectors.

NOT opening this, so THERE! That must boil your blood eh!? 😀

Artex...you're not helping here. It's very nice that you're able to just throw out tons of cash (I almost wrote "cache" 🤣 ) and stack up rare sealed cards that everyone is looking for and you like getting compliments on the effort you put into collecting all of this 😀

But theres also other collectors and in the mix are always people who try to get something going without the ability to spend a lot of time and/or cash (or because they live in remote areas and there's probably some more reasons one could think of) and the way your posts look like you mostly like to e-peen your impressively sized collection around...it's really not that enjoyable as you'd like to believe such posts are.

I've literally cycled thousands of kilometers (I know it's over 10000 actually and that was only the first year I started collecting) because I never had a lot of funds and later on I started buying when all this stuff was still relatively cheap (I got Voodoo 2's for hardly anything, nobody wanted them) but not everyone is so lucky and maybe they don't have what it takes to do it your way.

But you're not helping them Artex. Judge them by their value, not by how puny their collection is compared to yours. Please 😀

late edit:
I've reread this post and I think I still came off too harsh indeed. My apologies. But I hope you see what point I'm trying to make.

Awww come on now. That's a little harsh don't you think? If people are really getting offended/pissed/whatever by my pictures, then that's on them. I do it for the pure enjoyment of it all - just like everyone else that posts pictures of their stuff - not to mention it's what this thread was created for in the first place. I'm not out to ruin anyone's day - that's ridiculous. Not once have I presented a 'holier than thou' attitude or pass any judgement with anyone on here, regardless of their collection. I really am getting tired of saying the same thing over and over and I'm getting to a point where I may just stop posting in this particular thread anyway just to avoid this kind of backlash to it.

Artex...I can see how that could get annoying but I for one, hope you don't stop posting your finds.

I think your photos and information you post is invaluable information for retro collectors and retro gear heads and I am genuinely happy to see when people find and buy original boxed retro gear like you do.

Don't get discouraged. I personally would like to thank you for sharing and wish you luck on any future retro gear hunt.

Artex wrote:

Awww come on now. That's a little harsh don't you think? If people are really getting offended/pissed/whatever by my pictures, then that's on them. I do it for the pure enjoyment of it all - just like everyone else that posts pictures of their stuff - not to mention it's what this thread was created for in the first place. I'm not out to ruin anyone's day - that's ridiculous. Not once have I presented a 'holier than thou' attitude or pass any judgement with anyone on here, regardless of their collection. I really am getting tired of saying the same thing over and over and I'm getting to a point where I may just stop posting in this particular thread anyway just to avoid this kind of backlash to it.

I'm not trying to piss off anyone (just to be clear about it 😀 ). It's not the pics you post, but more the accompanying text you match them with.
And if you've said something time and time again and it's not working, then it's time to try something else 😁

I don't want to imply that all you do is making everyone else feel sick or something, but these must be a better way to put it. Sorry, I'm not really very good with English and I should go to bed 🤣
I'm just trying to be friendly here. You help around a lot too, right? Posting information and good quality pictures of stuff? Everyone knows you're not some evil demon just waiting for tears to drop so you can drink your victorybeverage 😜

And besides, you do actually use part of your collection to build solid and interesting rigs for all of us to admire 😉

edit:

retrofanatic wrote:

Artex...I can see how that could get annoying but I for one, hope you don't stop posting your finds.

I think your photos and information you post is invaluable information for retro collectors and retro gear heads and I am genuinely happy to see when people find and buy original boxed retro gear like you do.

Don't get discouraged. I personally would like to thank you for sharing and wish you luck on any future retro gear hunt.

Actually, I'd much rather see Artex over here then someplace else 😁

This thread...

Unknown_K wrote:

Prices are just supply and demand. I have a few 3dfx cards but I don't collect one from every company and don't bother with the rare V1 SLI cards. I do have a few V1, V2 (sli also), V3 (3500's are nice) cards around plus a boxed V5500 AGP (purchased new) and a V4 4500 PCI. I started collecting them back in 2000 or so when they were pretty much freeish on ebay along with the rest of my gear. Whatever I didn't snag then would most likely have been recycled by now and some day I will get bored with them an pass them on to other users/collectors.

I can see fellow collectors who started late in the hobby having a problem with inflated prices, but that just keeps them from being hoarders anyway because of budget reasons. Sooner or later the bubble will pop and all this gear will end up being cheap and or free again. Much more of the collectable stuff has been recycled over the last few years when gold was high ($100+/lb for 486 processors for example) then hoarded and that makes the supply drop quite a bit. Its only now that ewaste prices are in the dump that scrappers are trying to sort their items out for collectable stuff to ebay instead of just sending it all to the smelter.

Guys, come on, I'm kidding for f#*ks sake! I'm extremely jealous of you guys skilled enough to find these, and able to afford rare hardware like this, but I'm not really upset or angry or anything. I'm actually happy for you guys and glad you're picking up hardware that might otherwise be scrapped if not for the collector community. Sure, I'd love a Voodoo 5, I've lusted after one since I was 15, but my inability to purchase one is my faulting alone.

Artex wrote:

Awww come on now. That's a little harsh don't you think? If people are really getting offended/pissed/whatever by my pictures, then that's on them. I do it for the pure enjoyment of it all - just like everyone else that posts pictures of their stuff - not to mention it's what this thread was created for in the first place. I'm not out to ruin anyone's day - that's ridiculous. Not once have I presented a 'holier than thou' attitude or pass any judgement with anyone on here, regardless of their collection. I really am getting tired of saying the same thing over and over and I'm getting to a point where I may just stop posting in this particular thread anyway just to avoid this kind of backlash to it.

I actually enjoy seeing the stuff you put up. I'll probably never be able to afford to buy a sealed original Pentium processor (consider I make about 400$ / month and I'm a medical intern) but at least I can enjoy looking at pictures of what other people own. Sure, there's a bit (or maybe lot 😜 ) of envy but I'd rather you posted pictures of your stuff so I can enjoy them with you.

The sad part is by the time I'll be able to make any real money the stuff I'm looking for will be even more expensive and chances of me getting my hands on the hardware I'd like to own will probably be just as slim 🙁. There's no way I could have afforded a Voodoo 5 when I was 15 (even tough I had a part-time job at the time - well two actually) and they were so rare I could not find them second-hand after they were obsolete - and I won't be able to afford them later either. Look - http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?67129-3d … odoo-5-5500-AGP - just a year ago you could have gotten one for ~50 euro shipped - now the price doubled. By the time I finish my residency a Voodoo 5 5500 will cost as much as a second hand car 🙁

saturn wrote:

This thread... http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/3126596/train-derail-o.gif […]
Show full quote

This thread...

- that was NOT my intention...🙁

Just saying. Everyone should be able to afford at least V1 to V3 cards. So yeah... Few on the market = Prices UP.

For the bubble to burst, we need the next breed of retro heads to get on the track.
Those who look at hardware from the late 00's to 10, as being what they used back then.
Perhaps then, stuff like V2's and V3's will be cheap as dirt. The overall focus on what to get, need to shift first.

Just think about it. When XP era are all the new retro, then nobody really wants that Voodoo anyway.
If this is not the case... Well... Then prices on V's will just keep on rising.
The rate of climb, will only be determined by how much people are hoarding.

It's like with C64's. It sickens me, that prices are that high. Even here in Denmark.
I see like 10 to 20 64's for sale, all at this really high price. The same machines has been on sale for the last +6 months.
Nobody want them. Nobody sell them at a low price. Yeah. The bubble MUST burst at some point in the next 10 years.
It's like they all want to sell. And they all feel it is worth like 214 to 360 US dollars for a machine with nothing other
than the PSU. Why don't they get it? It's NOT worth THAT much. This bubble just sickens me, as the hardware
will sit unused. I even saw a non working C64, with extreme yellowing and with paint on it at the online auction.
Guess what... A non-working-cosmetic-bad-taken-apart-C64, asking price 58 USD. 😳 (no psu by the way, not a give away)

A C64 is worth 143 USD.... IF it is in cosmetic good condition and is 100% working. Yes.
If it is broken and not working. Well.... Then it's not really worth anything other than sold in seperate working parts.

The worst part of it all. Is that I have seen a lot of seller's just saying, that if they can not get what they ask for it.
Then they WILL drive their old hardware away for recycling. Even if they can get 1/4'th of the asking price.
Oh no... No sir.. Better to scrap it, they say. Fucker's I say! (sorry my language, just angry at stupid Danes right now)

Artex should show off all he wants. I like it. Better than secretive collectors I know who have even more stuff but keep it extremely private. I could hold on to all I have bought over the years but I prefer to keep $ in investments / retirement & college funds.

Plus a lot of this stuff will devaluate or break down sooner than later so it is irrational to tie too much $ in it for me. But who cares? Some people go on crazy expensive vacations, regularly visit strip clubs and so on. YOLO.

Don't stop posting your stuffs Artex! I love seeing your hardware!

OK that sounded weird 😊

brostenen is right the market will shift XP era stuff is already becoming valuable, example a year ago non OEM 7900GTXs were abundant $20.00 and under I bought a new unopened BFG 7900GTX OC for $25.00 shipped now there is very few non OEM versions available cheapest one is $25 shipped for a used card and when the supply dries up on anything high prices follow. There does seem to be a point when people lose interest in certain hardware about two years ago I watched over the course of several months multiple M919 motherboards with cache module go for between $200-$300, 100mhz CX5x86s for $80-$100, SBpro 2 cards CT1600 $60-$80 if you could even find one, I see a lot of 486 era hardware selling for less now than 2 or 3 years ago. It's too bad about the high prices of Voodoo 4 and 5 cards 🤣 maybe if the military didn't use so many VSA-100 chips there would have been more Voodoo 5500s