Patience.

Yeah it ain't easy finding stuff for cheap (as this stuff should be). I spent a year or so looking for stuff with little to show for it, and then I found the recycle center down the road. They do put some of the newer stuff up for sale but the old stuff is always scrapped, so I always keep some old computer junk handy so that I can go out the back to the drop off area (free for PC's, etc) and dump the rubbish, while sneakily loading up the good stuff.

This is how I've gotten my best stuff, which tells me that people still have 286+ era stuff hanging around but consider it rubbish and simply throw it away. Very rarely have I seen the equivalent sort of gear on eBay here in Oz - sometimes they appear on Gumtree but that's few and far b/w too.

So my suggestion is to go back to the recycle centers and try to get around to the drop off area - it's a goldmine!

I hit up the recycle centers from Brisbane - Hervey Bay and had no luck.

A lot of them will not allow you to search the drop off area out of fear of a lawsuit.

Logan Recycle Center is massive but they throw away all the old stuff and it doesn't even make it to the tip shop.

5 years ago I picked up some serious supplies from the Hervey Bay Recycle Center but since then they decided to scrap everything. I scrapped some of what I picked up over the years - Shame on me! I'm looking at an old photo of what I picked up and slapping myself.

I guess Ill keep trying to get to those drop off zones.

Oh yeah you gotta be sneaky! Fortunately for me the guys that work out the back of mine are all a few beers short of a six-pack.

I've also had some success having a look around during our annual hard rubbish pickup. I feel like a bit of a scumbag scrabbling through my neighbor's junk but it's been worth it!