But if you would know that the real price of your dream Lambo is around 1/10 of it's "normal" price on ebay, wouldn't you buy it on ebay, would you?

i would. definitely resell it immediately. ive bought hardware in the past for the specific reason of resell. but they were always bid auctions, and they always were to pay for other retro parts.

luckybob wrote:

i would. definitely resell it immediately. ive bought hardware in the past for the specific reason of resell. but they were always bid auctions, and they always were to pay for other retro parts.

I've done the same.. the hardware prices are all about supply and demand.

Where I am at, it is pretty much impossible to get hardware older than Core 2 era. The recyclers very rarely every get anything older in and nobody else tends to sell older stuff locally.

It has been at least 6-7 years since I have found any older hardware that people were throwing out. The thrift stores generally only have Pentium 4 or newer stuff for silly prices. It has been about 3-4 years since I was able to get anything older than that for a decent price from a thrift store.

Batyra wrote:

Just received beautiful Roland bundle SCM-10AT with MPU-401 and SCB-7... brand new, cables are still sealed.
I also got a funny motherboards GA-586SGM super socket7 on SIS chipset...

Wow on the Roland card. It's basically factory new. The box even. Great find!

luckybob wrote:

i would. definitely resell it immediately. ive bought hardware in the past for the specific reason of resell. but they were always bid auctions, and they always were to pay for other retro parts.

I've meant it the other way, but nevermind i get it. Pity that overseas shipping is so high, having friends near recycling center nearby could earn some extra money 😁

nforce4max wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

That Electromyne shit worries the hell out of me. I'm afraid that's site is the beginning of commercialized overpriced retro computing. They want nearly £100 for $40 dollar cards like V3 3000s. The idea for a site like that (I thought) should be to have the lowest prices on the net for that stuff. There are a couple of vintage PC YouTubers advertising for there shitty overpriced European only service too.

Companies like Electromyne are cancer as they drive up the prices to where people are priced out of the market and everyone else is left with fewer options much like the housing bubble has done to Gen X and millennials.

My advice to people who have smaller collections or just getting started you better get at it quick before the prices sky rocket and you are priced out.

I totally agree with that. The same thing happened to console retrogaming ~10 years ago. Do you people think things were worse 10 years ago on this domain ? I don't think so. Back then I though that with time I could have everything I want. Ten years later, I know that it's not possible anymore. Back then I was very young (at the moment I'm 19 years old so 19-10 ... You get it ...) so I didn't have a lot of money but as time passed I thought I'll have enough money to buy what I wanted later. Now it's been 2-3 years that I didn't buy any retro console game. Now I can buy many more retro things at the same time as for me things are cheaper than retro console games were even 10 years and that I didn't want to repeat the same mistakes. My collection grew very quickly and now I've got very sweet things to enjoy

appiah4 wrote:

Good call. I'm in the market for a Voodoo 1 these days and I can't believe the prices they go for lately.

I sold a Voodoo 2 for 45 GBP this week and it made me feel dirty - but I can hardly replace it at that cost myself even if I tried to, so I don't know what to do either.

Do you undercut eBay/electromyne prices when selling?

To avoid this, I intend to exchange things I 'm not using against things I really want. For example, I've got a black IBM PS/1 with a 386SX25 that I do not use, but I'm pretty sure somebody can give me something that is more interesting to me than this PS/1. This won't make the prices to rize and yet I'll be able to obtain what I wanted. All I really need there is time. Even if that computer would be worth 10000€ even though I must have paid ~5€ for it, since the prices are getting up approximatively at the same speed, what I would desire would be worth the same price so that's not a problem

Bought complete and boxed copies of a V4 4500 and a V5 5500. Price was a steal. Super stoked about it.
Seller wanted to get rid of both together, while I just needed the V4. I guess, I own two boxed V5's now... 😁

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Throwing PCs away is illegal in my worthless state (Thanks the State of Illinois) so I never find them. Instead there all sent to a regional recycler thats county controlled and the county forbids items from local reuse. I know a couple of private scrappers but they rarely have anything good. I'm also rural which compounds the issue because tech moves a bit slow around here.

Throwing away PC's damn well should be illegal. Lots of toxic items made from older PC's.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Every free PC I've gotten has been some bottom of the barrel configured OEM machine with IGP.

Well no sh1t. Most PC's sold are low end OEM crap. So it's sure as hell not surprising that most PC's you find from recyclers are OEM PC's. From venturing to my local recycler, it's greater than 100:1 OEM:Custom PC's. And of those custom PC's, probably 1 in 5 are decent. Of those OEM PC's, probably 1 in 100 are configured to near max/max specifications. So out of 1000 PC's, we're looking at maybe 15 PC's that you could harvest the 'collectibles' from (e.g. Best in-era video card, CPU (Extreme/Old FX), sound card, enthusiast motherboard).

blurks wrote:

Bought complete and boxed copies of a V4 4500 and a V5 5500. Price was a steal. Super stoked about it.
Seller wanted to get rid of both together, while I just needed the V4. I guess, I own two boxed V5's now... 😁

WOW! Nice find! Grats!

Any CIB 3dfx card is worth it. Even my boxed V5 5500 still lacks a driver CD and possibly a slip or two of documentation.

Meanwhile, I revisited this one local shop where I got a lot of my old parts before - a Turtle Beach Montego II, 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP (not the boxed one, that came much later), GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and GeForce 6800 Ultra AGP, as well as a couple of Dell AT101Ws.

Sadly, the AGP card supply seems to have largely dried up there, as I didn't see the usual old video card bin in its usual place... but I found another box with a pretty intact-looking XFX GeForce 6600 AGP. Not the best of AGP cards by any stretch, but the goal here is to reflash it for my MDD Power Mac G4 so I have a Core Image card.

And speaking of MDDs, here's something that makes me hate Goodwill corporate policy right now:

I tried talking an employee into letting me buy it. He consulted a manager. No dice.

I just bought myself a Yamaha TG300 MIDI module. 😁

Why that one, and not a later MU unit? Well, besides the GM modes it also has AWM2 synthesis where you can make your own sounds from up to 2 each of 195 included waves, which the MU units lack (unless you get a MU128, MU1000, or MU2000 + one of the very expensive expansion cards, which would cost me much more). On top of that it has various effects that can be entirely customized, its MIDI implementation is very extensive, and it has a nice big screen. Essentially it seems to be a somewhat simplified TG500 without the card slots.

Wow nice cases, a shame.. I wish I could find beige cases in such good condition around here, the ones I find are either terribly filthy (one had rat shit in it) or incredibly yellowed 🙁

Anyway, I got these today, not sure if they qualify as hardware?

75 ATX backplates (69 after discarding 6 that were damaged or rusted, half a dozen of which are new) because one can never have too many backplates.. right?

appiah4 wrote:

Wow nice cases, a shame.. I wish I could find beige cases in such good condition around here, the ones I find are either terribl […]
Show full quote

Wow nice cases, a shame.. I wish I could find beige cases in such good condition around here, the ones I find are either terribly filthy (one had rat shit in it) or incredibly yellowed 🙁

Anyway, I got these today, not sure if they qualify as hardware?

75 ATX backplates (69 after discarding 6 that were damaged or rusted, half a dozen of which are new) because one can never have too many backplates.. right?

I'd say so! Unless people are buying new boards, they are an absolute pain to come across - at least here. Took me ages to find one for my current project that didn't cost an arm and a leg to get posted from overseas.

Good buy in my opinion.

NamelessPlayer wrote:

Any CIB 3dfx card is worth it. Even my boxed V5 5500 still lacks a driver CD and possibly a slip or two of documentation. […]
Show full quote

Any CIB 3dfx card is worth it. Even my boxed V5 5500 still lacks a driver CD and possibly a slip or two of documentation.

Meanwhile, I revisited this one local shop where I got a lot of my old parts before - a Turtle Beach Montego II, 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP (not the boxed one, that came much later), GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and GeForce 6800 Ultra AGP, as well as a couple of Dell AT101Ws.

Sadly, the AGP card supply seems to have largely dried up there, as I didn't see the usual old video card bin in its usual place... but I found another box with a pretty intact-looking XFX GeForce 6600 AGP. Not the best of AGP cards by any stretch, but the goal here is to reflash it for my MDD Power Mac G4 so I have a Core Image card.

And speaking of MDDs, here's something that makes me hate Goodwill corporate policy right now:

I tried talking an employee into letting me buy it. He consulted a manager. No dice.

The recycling center near our St. Catharines site has 2 G4 MDDs available - a Dual 1Ghz and a Dual 867Mhz on the shelf cleaned up for sale. I really don't need them, but this is one of those cases where I really wish I know people in Southern Ontario who wanted this stuff. I hate seeing it end up in the bins to be recycled.

LHN91 wrote:

NamelessPlayer wrote:

Any CIB 3dfx card is worth it. Even my boxed V5 5500 still lacks a driver CD and possibly a slip or two of documentation. […]
Show full quote

Any CIB 3dfx card is worth it. Even my boxed V5 5500 still lacks a driver CD and possibly a slip or two of documentation.

Meanwhile, I revisited this one local shop where I got a lot of my old parts before - a Turtle Beach Montego II, 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP (not the boxed one, that came much later), GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and GeForce 6800 Ultra AGP, as well as a couple of Dell AT101Ws.

Sadly, the AGP card supply seems to have largely dried up there, as I didn't see the usual old video card bin in its usual place... but I found another box with a pretty intact-looking XFX GeForce 6600 AGP. Not the best of AGP cards by any stretch, but the goal here is to reflash it for my MDD Power Mac G4 so I have a Core Image card.

And speaking of MDDs, here's something that makes me hate Goodwill corporate policy right now:

I tried talking an employee into letting me buy it. He consulted a manager. No dice.

The recycling center near our St. Catharines site has 2 G4 MDDs available - a Dual 1Ghz and a Dual 867Mhz on the shelf cleaned up for sale. I really don't need them, but this is one of those cases where I really wish I know people in Southern Ontario who wanted this stuff. I hate seeing it end up in the bins to be recycled.

Goodwill is really scummy about that stuff. They send all there valuable electronics/games/computers to regional centers in the big city for resale or to be auctioned off online. Goodwill shouldn't do this, there suppose to be a way for people to get things affordably.

Just bought this today for 95 US cents.
It's a Franklin Computer Spelling Ace SA-98, released circa 198x.

Found an HP Pavilion 7270 system with a hard drive and boots up to Windows 95 on ebay. 166MHz Pentium, 2.5GB drive, CD + floppy. $19 + 19.95 shipping so it cost just under $40. Added a cheap ISA ethernet card, 64MB EDO RAM, and a Number Nine Imagine 128 Series 2 4MB PCI card for $10 shipped.

Well the seller couldn't find my Radeon 32M so I got a refund but the eBay gods have shined upon me:

No clue what the NVIDIA card is. Probably a 2MX of some sort. The left card however I believe is a 3DFX Voodoo3 3000.

The things that get listed as Rage XL PCI cards never cease to amaze me.

$15 shipped.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Goodwill is really scummy about that stuff. They send all there valuable electronics/games/computers to regional centers in the big city for resale or to be auctioned off online. Goodwill shouldn't do this, there suppose to be a way for people to get things affordably.

I work at goodwill, that's not how we work at all.
Everything computer wise that's not new (some district don't apply) have to send them ether to a IT department or to recycling.
We can't sell anything that could hold personal data for liability risk. Everything ether gets used by our staf or recycled. I been useing a old netbook with 3 missing keys for the last two year when out of the office that was donated.
A few districts have setup departments for selling these kinds of things, one in oregon state sells PC and parts all the time. Other districts may brake the systems down and sell off the parts. Although sometimes stuff slips through the craks and your find a tablet or laptop for sale in store.

In most districts stores do have a percentage of donations that has to go to goodwill2go, this could be anything. But typically it's stuff that doesn't sell well in stores and does well online.

As for moving things to regional centers or inter city stores. We don't have that or do that at all. We are broken up into districts working independent of etch other. Most districts are only a few county's in size but some are large.
But like any retail company we do move inventory around of it fail to sell at one store.

Jade Falcon wrote:

I work at goodwill, that's not how we work at all. Everything computer wise that's not new (some district don't apply) have to s […]
Show full quote

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Goodwill is really scummy about that stuff. They send all there valuable electronics/games/computers to regional centers in the big city for resale or to be auctioned off online. Goodwill shouldn't do this, there suppose to be a way for people to get things affordably.

I work at goodwill, that's not how we work at all.
Everything computer wise that's not new (some district don't apply) have to send them ether to a IT department or to recycling.
We can't sell anything that could hold personal data for liability risk. Everything ether gets used by our staf or recycled. I been useing a old netbook with 3 missing keys for the last two year when out of the office that was donated.
A few districts have setup departments for selling these kinds of things, one in oregon state sells PC and parts all the time. Other districts may brake the systems down and sell off the parts. Although sometimes stuff slips through the craks and your find a tablet or laptop for sale in store.

In most districts stores do have a percentage of donations that has to go to goodwill2go, this could be anything. But typically it's stuff that doesn't sell well in stores and does well online.

As for moving things to regional centers or inter city stores. We don't have that or do that at all. We are broken up into districts working independent of etch other. Most districts are only a few county's in size but some are large.
But like any retail company we do move inventory around of it fail to sell at one store.

So wait Goodwill employees can take the computers that are donated which they can't sell? Lol I could probably pay someone off to grab stuff for me at my local good will if that's the case.

Also, why don't they just teach one guy to pull hard drives? It's not like it's a complex or time consuming task.