Reply 20 of 43, by Davis
I would also like to add another point: having lived in Central Europe and Southeast Asia lately, I realized that for us, collectors' of vintage computer parts the supply of stuff in a given country is closely related to the level of economic development of that country at the time when these computer parts were new/mainstream. Not just the income levels, but the sheer availability of items. It is relatively harder to get early 80s computer parts (Western anyway) in Hungary, as that country was still behind the iron curtain at the time. In most of Southeast Asia, things might have been more readily available, especially because of Singapore (Creative Labs...), but there weren't many people with deep enough pockets at that time. So I am not finding many items over here. For stuff to have survived over the last 20-25 years, they either needed to be unique items or really mass market pieces (like an SB16). I know it might be obvious to some, but what the heck.
Also, there could be cultural differences at play too: in my experience, some cultures have a tendency to absolutely go for the new and discard the old as thrash, while other are more preservation oriented. In most developing countries - but do correct me if I am wrong - the old is thrown away without a second thought. A deep wish for faster modernization I suppose.
I bought items from all over the world, but the UK, US, Germany and Australia stand out as frequent places of origin. In my experience, everything from the UK ships fastest.