canthearu wrote:Geeze, negative much. I disagree, it isn't so hard to do retro computing relatively cheaply, but it does take time, it takes networking with other people, and in the end, it takes compromise. If you expect every rare item to be listed on ebay cheaply all in a line for you to buy and have delivered to you on a silver platter, then your expectations are greatly misaligned with reality.
Not at all what I was talking about. I'm saying that it is nearly impossible to get specific items for a good price unless practically nobody is aware of what they are. Or you just happen to live near where people don't care about the item, and they're common. Like how it's much easier to get Sony PVMs in California, than it is to do so say, in Illinois. The first time someone pays idiot money for an item, everyone else adjusts their asking prices immediately, and reject offers of the old typical selling price. Worse still is the constant destruction of legacy hardware, making it harder still to get items without paying 70%+ of the price in shipping costs. God help you if you live in Europe and want to import something. The auction price of the item may only be 20% of what you end up paying.
You speak about needing luck, and I kind of agree. But you also need to take as many opportunities as possible to make that luck expose itself. Cheap untested or non-working PC on gumtree (or other local classifieds), maybe grab it. It probably has some working parts at least, and maybe you could repair parts that are not working properly.
In the past eight years, I have found no classic computers or parts usable in them at any of the nearly sixty thrift stores (Goodwill, Salvation Army, and standalone thrifts) I've been to multiple times, often on semi-regular sojourns across the state in a planned loop. The last classic computer on Craigslist in my area was a Commodore 64 that seemed to have been fried by its stupidly-engineered power supply, for $200+. I acquired two classic towers, a stripped 486 33, and a semi-functional Pentium 60 system, for $20 each through pure luck. I randomly decided to stop at a yard sale in the intestines of an upscale housing development on a pure whim, and was offered the two computers, internals unknown, for $20 each. If I wanted to get them online, the price varies, but for something similar to what I already have, they start at $200, with nearly as much for shipping, being steel monoliths. People selling "computers" on CL or in classifieds tend to be selling useless Dell computers from 2007 and up.
konc wrote:Also there's a big difference in collecting vs enjoying a hobby: collecting needs money, rare items cost and that's why they're called collectibles. Enjoying the retro-computing hobby though can be cheap enough for everyone.
1 MB ISA video cards aren't rare, so to speak, but they still cost 5-6 times what a 512kB card costs, and seem to be located primarily in Israel and Poland for some reason. The price spike happened after the 2007 paradigm shift, at least comparing the relative prices of what I bought twenty years ago, and what they costs now, compared to less niche artifacts. There's a value curve in legacy items that starts high, then descends gradually before declining sharply. This pit is where you can find stuff like processors and RAM for the price of lunch at a sub shop. Then comes the "retro" (a term that has been wrongly conflated with classic) e-celebs, who drive up the nerd-cred of having a particular item. Want a Nintendo Entertainment System or a Packard Bell Legend 300, because you had those things as a kid, and you want to wrap yourself up in nostalgia? By all means, do so. Being happy is important. Just get them before the price spikes. Super Retro Gametech Bro isn't going to wait forever to release his Top 10 Retro Computers That Will Blow Your Minds video. His eight thousand regular viewers will be scouring ebay and craigslist nationwide to find everything he talked about, and alternates mentioned in the video's comments. Then the price spikes to "forget this" levels. Yeah, you want an IBM Model M, but you don't ninety dollars want one, especially after you managed to get a few for like $10 without thinking they were special. The price almost never sees a second decline after the spike.
If you're going to get into classic computers, know what you want, and be prepared to spend more than you're comfortable with spending. If you're getting into classic games, and you must have the original hardware, do it as soon as possible, and remember that flash carts and optical drive emulators are a thing.
- Where it's always 1995.
Icons, wallpapers, and typical Oldternet nonsense.