As I stated before, in the previous thread, I don't have "much" of a problem with sellers that over price items. More on that below 😀 I have more of a problem with those that pay outrageous prices for them because of laziness or conspiracy. The later, believe it or not, is more common than some might think. A few fake sales at an increased price can artificially inflate the price of something more than enough to make the cost of shilling worth it. The former, to me, is the mark of an amateur collector. I'm not talking about the desperate purchase, or that once in a lifetime overpaying for one reason or another. I'm talking about those that, because they have money, don't want to bother with the work in being cost effective. If they don't want to work at finding good prices, can they really be expected to work at their hobby? I haven't made many hobby purchases lately (lack of funds,) but when I did, the extra work in finding good prices amounted to a few minutes at most. In that time, I either found something cheaper, or found whether the current price is indicative of what it is actually "selling" for. If the price is accurate to current trends, then I can decide to buy or not based on my funds, and how much the item is worth to me. If it's inaccurate, but nothing else is currently available, it's the task of less than a minute to create a saved search that I can check on regularly until the price either comes down, or another, more reasonably priced, item appears. So, 10 minutes the first day, then 2 minutes a day keeping track. Is that really too much work for a serious hobbyist to perform? All that being said, I'm not angry at the lazy ones, just a little irked.

As for sellers asking outrageous prices for items. Most of the time, I end up laughing at them. I call them a lucky if it happens to sell, with a bit of envy if I'm being completely honest. The exception to that is if I see a regular pattern of such luck. Then I call them cheating @!#@!!.

There are other categories of price gougers I've come across as well. A history of items that have been selling for more reasonable prices suddenly stop appearing, only to have a large number appear a ridiculous prices. Tracking some of the past sales, it obvious that someone (or a group of someones,) started buying any that appeared at a reasonable price, and then put them back up for sale with huge markups. Seriously, one of the searches I performed showed something that was selling for $15-$30 (and there were about 20 sales all within the span of a single day.) Only, about a week after they all disappeared, around 10 appeared with an asking price of $300 each. They sat there for about a year (with any that appeared markedly cheaper being sold almost instantly,) then they started selling slowly. I imagine that, now, that is considered the going price.

A related con, scam, whatever you want to call it, I see quite often. Something comes out with a limited run. A game, a book, whatever. Only so many are going to be made. Shortly after they have all been sold, they start appearing on eBay with huge price markups. The same seller will have 10, 50, 100, or even more sell. They obviously bought as many as they could. Waited for the run to end, then put them up to make a huge profit. Now, I'm not really against people doing that with a reasonable number, with a reasonable markup, or the passage of time. But seriously, selling something with an original price of $100 for $500+ is a but much. Sure, buy 5, then sell 4 at $120 so you get your collectable for free. Or maybe even $125, to make a bit of profit. But really, buying 100 for $100 each ($10,000) then selling them for $500 ($50,000) is a bit much. That's just my opinion on that tactic.

Really, I find it interesting that so many people think that adding the word "rare" or "vintage" to an item, accurate or not, justifies ridiculous prices. What is also surprising is how many actually think those 2 little words means they should actually pay those prices. Maybe I should start some eBay sales for "RARE and hard to find VINTAGE 1960's light bulbs (non-working,) for the low price of $80 each!" Wonder how many would actually sell 😀 What often makes me laugh is when I see such an item, and yet in the same search I find dozens of the exact same thing for much more reasonable prices. Most of those end up siting there, going nowhere, until the seller gives up, or lowers the price. Except in the cases mentioned in my first paragraph, that is.

The next item that irks me, are sellers that insist on selling ridiculously large lots. Selling 100 game systems & 2500 games for the low price of $500,000. OK, that's an extreme case, but unless someone is trying to open a business, not very realistic. On the more normal end, I am constantly finding large lots, that are reasonably priced for what you are getting, but only have 1 or 2 items I'm interested in. When it's a few items, or the price (per item,) is extremely good, it doesn't bother me. I still may not be able to get it, but I can accept that the seller is just trying to get rid of it all quickly. But when the size or price/item shows they aren't in a hurry, but are trying to get as much as they can no matter how long it takes, it starts bothering me. There are exceptions to this, of course. I've seen auctions where someone is selling a collection, whose contents they don't know, as a bulk. Usually, if you can afford the asking price (which is, again usually, relatively low,) it makes a good investment. These will usually show pictures of the the collection with no real attempt to organize.

The final scam that actually makes me exceptionally angry, are the bid hikers. That's what I call them. I only got burned once, but it was enough to make me change my bidding tactics (yes, I am now a sniper, sort-of.) The sale that burned me, was for a game... Don't remember now, but I came across it, and put in my max bid, then watched it. I ended up winning it for my max bid. The problem is, there was only 2 bidders, me and one other person. The other person had 0 feedback, and placed 61 bids in 2 seconds. This was followed by the last (winning) bid, being canceled in the next 2 seconds. At the time, the method of cancelling a bid was to request a cancellation, at which point the seller was notified and either accepted or denied the request. That only took 2 seconds?? Really?? All of this took place during the last 5 seconds of the auction. Notified eBay, and have yet (several years,) to have received any response. This was before eBay had auto refresh of the bid during the countdown. 5 seconds was the last refresh I had done. Showing that I was winning with my starting bid of $15. The next refresh showed me winning the auction at $75 (the most I was willing to pay.) Now, if there had only been 2 bids registered at the win, I would have just shrugged it off (someone else bid $74 or $75 in the last 5 seconds.) But it also showed 62 bids. Pulling up the bidding history showed the same person making a series of bids in $1 increments starting at $16 until they actually won. This was done extremely quickly (telling me it was a bot of some sort.) Then there was the suspiciously fast cancellation of the final bid. So now, I still will bid the most I'm willing to pay for an item, but only at the last second. Don't give bots a chance to hike my bid. If the bidding goes over that amount, then I don't bid at all. That's why I say "sort-of." I'm not raising the amount I'm willing to pay, just because the bidding got too high. If someone is willing to pay more (or the same,) for something than I am, they will win it. This really only hurts those that low-ball their bids. If you put in the most you are willing to pay, then I am either offering more than you, or you are getting the item (remember, ties go to the one who bid first.)

As for, again a comment made in the previous thread, under paying for an item. Yes, it can feel good to get an awesome deal. But, I guess it was how I was raised, the few times I've managed it, I've ended up feeling guilty and offering the seller a bonus. I will, semi-anonymously, also apologize to certain hobbyists for, on occasion, pointing out easy fixes to people selling "broken" items. This has, on a couple of occasions, had them raise their price as well. One example (and this didn't result in an increased price, as far as I know,) was someone selling a non-working Commodore 128. Yet in the photos I noticed that the "failed" screen was the 40 Column mode screen, and the 40/80 column button was down. Sent him a message, and he changed the auction to working Commodore 128 with pictures of the working screen. The price stayed the same though. Hope he sold it 😀

FeedingDragon wrote:

As I stated before, in the previous thread, I don't have "much" of a problem with sellers that over price items. More on that b […]
Show full quote

As I stated before, in the previous thread, I don't have "much" of a problem with sellers that over price items. More on that below 😀 I have more of a problem with those that pay outrageous prices for them because of laziness or conspiracy. The later, believe it or not, is more common than some might think. A few fake sales at an increased price can artificially inflate the price of something more than enough to make the cost of shilling worth it. The former, to me, is the mark of an amateur collector. I'm not talking about the desperate purchase, or that once in a lifetime overpaying for one reason or another. I'm talking about those that, because they have money, don't want to bother with the work in being cost effective. If they don't want to work at finding good prices, can they really be expected to work at their hobby? I haven't made many hobby purchases lately (lack of funds,) but when I did, the extra work in finding good prices amounted to a few minutes at most. In that time, I either found something cheaper, or found whether the current price is indicative of what it is actually "selling" for. If the price is accurate to current trends, then I can decide to buy or not based on my funds, and how much the item is worth to me. If it's inaccurate, but nothing else is currently available, it's the task of less than a minute to create a saved search that I can check on regularly until the price either comes down, or another, more reasonably priced, item appears. So, 10 minutes the first day, then 2 minutes a day keeping track. Is that really too much work for a serious hobbyist to perform? All that being said, I'm not angry at the lazy ones, just a little irked.

As for sellers asking outrageous prices for items. Most of the time, I end up laughing at them. I call them a lucky if it happens to sell, with a bit of envy if I'm being completely honest. The exception to that is if I see a regular pattern of such luck. Then I call them cheating @!#@!!.

There are other categories of price gougers I've come across as well. A history of items that have been selling for more reasonable prices suddenly stop appearing, only to have a large number appear a ridiculous prices. Tracking some of the past sales, it obvious that someone (or a group of someones,) started buying any that appeared at a reasonable price, and then put them back up for sale with huge markups. Seriously, one of the searches I performed showed something that was selling for $15-$30 (and there were about 20 sales all within the span of a single day.) Only, about a week after they all disappeared, around 10 appeared with an asking price of $300 each. They sat there for about a year (with any that appeared markedly cheaper being sold almost instantly,) then they started selling slowly. I imagine that, now, that is considered the going price.

A related con, scam, whatever you want to call it, I see quite often. Something comes out with a limited run. A game, a book, whatever. Only so many are going to be made. Shortly after they have all been sold, they start appearing on eBay with huge price markups. The same seller will have 10, 50, 100, or even more sell. They obviously bought as many as they could. Waited for the run to end, then put them up to make a huge profit. Now, I'm not really against people doing that with a reasonable number, with a reasonable markup, or the passage of time. But seriously, selling something with an original price of $100 for $500+ is a but much. Sure, buy 5, then sell 4 at $120 so you get your collectable for free. Or maybe even $125, to make a bit of profit. But really, buying 100 for $100 each ($10,000) then selling them for $500 ($50,000) is a bit much. That's just my opinion on that tactic.

Really, I find it interesting that so many people think that adding the word "rare" or "vintage" to an item, accurate or not, justifies ridiculous prices. What is also surprising is how many actually think those 2 little words means they should actually pay those prices. Maybe I should start some eBay sales for "RARE and hard to find VINTAGE 1960's light bulbs (non-working,) for the low price of $80 each!" Wonder how many would actually sell 😀 What often makes me laugh is when I see such an item, and yet in the same search I find dozens of the exact same thing for much more reasonable prices. Most of those end up siting there, going nowhere, until the seller gives up, or lowers the price. Except in the cases mentioned in my first paragraph, that is.

The next item that irks me, are sellers that insist on selling ridiculously large lots. Selling 100 game systems & 2500 games for the low price of $500,000. OK, that's an extreme case, but unless someone is trying to open a business, not very realistic. On the more normal end, I am constantly finding large lots, that are reasonably priced for what you are getting, but only have 1 or 2 items I'm interested in. When it's a few items, or the price (per item,) is extremely good, it doesn't bother me. I still may not be able to get it, but I can accept that the seller is just trying to get rid of it all quickly. But when the size or price/item shows they aren't in a hurry, but are trying to get as much as they can no matter how long it takes, it starts bothering me. There are exceptions to this, of course. I've seen auctions where someone is selling a collection, whose contents they don't know, as a bulk. Usually, if you can afford the asking price (which is, again usually, relatively low,) it makes a good investment. These will usually show pictures of the the collection with no real attempt to organize.

The final scam that actually makes me exceptionally angry, are the bid hikers. That's what I call them. I only got burned once, but it was enough to make me change my bidding tactics (yes, I am now a sniper, sort-of.) The sale that burned me, was for a game... Don't remember now, but I came across it, and put in my max bid, then watched it. I ended up winning it for my max bid. The problem is, there was only 2 bidders, me and one other person. The other person had 0 feedback, and placed 61 bids in 2 seconds. This was followed by the last (winning) bid, being canceled in the next 2 seconds. At the time, the method of cancelling a bid was to request a cancellation, at which point the seller was notified and either accepted or denied the request. That only took 2 seconds?? Really?? All of this took place during the last 5 seconds of the auction. Notified eBay, and have yet (several years,) to have received any response. This was before eBay had auto refresh of the bid during the countdown. 5 seconds was the last refresh I had done. Showing that I was winning with my starting bid of $15. The next refresh showed me winning the auction at $75 (the most I was willing to pay.) Now, if there had only been 2 bids registered at the win, I would have just shrugged it off (someone else bid $74 or $75 in the last 5 seconds.) But it also showed 62 bids. Pulling up the bidding history showed the same person making a series of bids in $1 increments starting at $16 until they actually won. This was done extremely quickly (telling me it was a bot of some sort.) Then there was the suspiciously fast cancellation of the final bid. So now, I still will bid the most I'm willing to pay for an item, but only at the last second. Don't give bots a chance to hike my bid. If the bidding goes over that amount, then I don't bid at all. That's why I say "sort-of." I'm not raising the amount I'm willing to pay, just because the bidding got too high. If someone is willing to pay more (or the same,) for something than I am, they will win it. This really only hurts those that low-ball their bids. If you put in the most you are willing to pay, then I am either offering more than you, or you are getting the item (remember, ties go to the one who bid first.)

As for, again a comment made in the previous thread, under paying for an item. Yes, it can feel good to get an awesome deal. But, I guess it was how I was raised, the few times I've managed it, I've ended up feeling guilty and offering the seller a bonus. I will, semi-anonymously, also apologize to certain hobbyists for, on occasion, pointing out easy fixes to people selling "broken" items. This has, on a couple of occasions, had them raise their price as well. One example (and this didn't result in an increased price, as far as I know,) was someone selling a non-working Commodore 128. Yet in the photos I noticed that the "failed" screen was the 40 Column mode screen, and the 40/80 column button was down. Sent him a message, and he changed the auction to working Commodore 128 with pictures of the working screen. The price stayed the same though. Hope he sold it 😀

Can I ask what the item that experienced that massive 25 to 300 dollar price increase in one year was? I'd like to study that case a bit.

Also, I would think eBay would have heavy bot protection these days. If someone raised it that much I would have refused to pay that simple. What he did was basically small scale price setting (and I'm sure the manor he did it in most likely violates some laws and the rules of eBay)

I've had fake bidders raise the price on stuff I was bidding as well.

Another scam is for another "bidder" to outbid you right at the end and then the seller to come back with some crazy excuse why they are giving you a "second chance offer", which is of course at your max bid.

Shill bidding is much too common on eBay anymore and you have to be careful that you don't fall victim to it.

A bunch of small bids by the same bidder is a huge red flag. Either you have an idiot bidding or you have shill bidding going on.

At the end of the day I don't care what people ask for something, its what buyers pay and do with the parts that matter.
If someone wants to ask 300% over market price for something that's one thing, its those that pay it that are the problem. Over paying for something on a free market will only up the fair market price of an item over time if its done enough.
Look at the voodoo5500, it was not ling ago that a nice one would sell no higher then 50$, now even dead ones are upwards to 100$. voodoo3's were less then 20$ all day long too. but we started to pay more and the market blew up.

If we stood up and all said no to high prices and refused to pay we would not have this problem.
We do it to our selves.

cyclone3d wrote:

I've had fake bidders raise the price on stuff I was bidding as well. […]
Show full quote

I've had fake bidders raise the price on stuff I was bidding as well.

Another scam is for another "bidder" to outbid you right at the end and then the seller to come back with some crazy excuse why they are giving you a "second chance offer", which is of course at your max bid.

Shill bidding is much too common on eBay anymore and you have to be careful that you don't fall victim to it.

A bunch of small bids by the same bidder is a huge red flag. Either you have an idiot bidding or you have shill bidding going on.

If the seller contacts you about something like that don't agree to your maximum, had this a few times and offered him the amount before I got overbid by the winner. He has a choice then to either relist or accept, if you are the only bidder they are likely to accept, report him to ebay anyhow for trying to make a deal circumventing the system and for shill bidding.

Well I don't care if I get outbid by a penny. I set a limit and stick to it. I don't get drawn into bidding wars.

What often happens in these cases anyway is that the seller will message me after the auction saying that the winning bidder failed to pay (yeah sure) and offer me the item for my max bid.

xplus93 wrote:

Is anybody worried that the hobby is focusing too much on prestige and exclusivity?

Seems to me that point was passed quite some time ago. Are there not many people out there building 386 or 486 systems because they neeeed to have this vital piece of PC History for the sake of preservation because even though there are alternatives which look and sound the same for all practical purposes, they just don't feel right? And do these systems that are constructed after much time, effort, and expense not tend to sit around collecting dust afterwards? Prestige and exclusivity would appear to be where it's at.

Errius wrote:

Well I don't care if I get outbid by a penny. I set a limit and stick to it. I don't get drawn into bidding wars.

What often happens in these cases anyway is that the seller will message me after the auction saying that the winning bidder failed to pay (yeah sure) and offer me the item for my max bid.

As a seller I had that happen a few times. Buyers do back out or fail to pay, more so after a bidding war.
Tipiacly I pm the next few bidders and ask if they still want the item for their max bid then send them the second chance offer if they're still willing to buy the item. If not I relist it and file a not payed for case.

Jorpho wrote:

xplus93 wrote:

Is anybody worried that the hobby is focusing too much on prestige and exclusivity?

Seems to me that point was passed quite some time ago. Are there not many people out there building 386 or 486 systems because they neeeed to have this vital piece of PC History for the sake of preservation because even though there are alternatives which look and sound the same for all practical purposes, they just don't feel right? And do these systems that are constructed after much time, effort, and expense not tend to sit around collecting dust afterwards? Prestige and exclusivity would appear to be where it's at.

I sway extremely towards either bottom end parts or high end parts. Like for example I own 2 GeForce 256s... But I also bought a SiS 6326 which is the slowest AGP video card on the planet. I have to admit I do (especially on the software side of things) have a tendency to hoard trophy pieces like the floppy library of a former high rank IBM engineer with lots of rare source code and stuff (which Is all going to the internet archive as soon as I find a box for it). Around here I feel a need to compete in terms of collection size and value with members like hard1k and artex or I feel like my status in the community is lesser.

Hopefully, in about 20 years or after upcoming quantum leap we will be able to 3D print all the vintage PC parts we desire. At least until someone ***** it up with DRM and brands that "physical piracy" or some shit.

Jorpho wrote:

Seems to me that point was passed quite some time ago. Are there not many people out there building 386 or 486 systems because they neeeed to have this vital piece of PC History for the sake of preservation because even though there are alternatives which look and sound the same for all practical purposes, they just don't feel right? And do these systems that are constructed after much time, effort, and expense not tend to sit around collecting dust afterwards? Prestige and exclusivity would appear to be where it's at.

Some of us do enjoy the time spent on tinkering with older hardware, trying out different configurations and stuff like that in addition of using it for more "practical" purposes (i.e. retro gaming). In many cases it's because of nostalgia, but may also be curiosity for how things work, getting old stuff to run at its limits and so on. So even if it may not be used frequently it already has provided some level of enjoyment, much like someone who spends a lot of time working on a car but only takes it out for a ride once or twice a month.

In the case of old PC hardware, I wouldn't call that prestige or exclusivity. Most of it is stuff that is long past its prime, and unlike consoles or unique home computers this was/is mostly generic mass produced electronics. That's why personally I can understand a relatively rare item such as a Voodoo5 to be expensive, but now it's reaching the point where garbage-level stuff like Trident VGAs or PCChips boards are listed for ridiculous prices because they are "RARE!! VINTAGE!1!!" I don't think there's enough people willing to pay that much for this kind of things, so sadly most of it will end up being recycled.

Jade Falcon wrote:

Look at the voodoo5500, it was not ling ago that a nice one would sell no higher then 50$, now even dead ones are upwards to 100$..

Funny you say that. I'm about to sell a dead V5500. Don't think i'm going to ask anywhere near that amount though. I'm just hoping somebody can fix it or use the VSA-100 chips to fix their card. If it bring a V6000 back to life it would make me very happy even though I don't own one.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

xplus93 wrote:

Is anybody worried that the hobby is focusing too much on prestige and exclusivity?

Seems to me that point was passed quite some time ago. Are there not many people out there building 386 or 486 systems because they neeeed to have this vital piece of PC History for the sake of preservation because even though there are alternatives which look and sound the same for all practical purposes, they just don't feel right? And do these systems that are constructed after much time, effort, and expense not tend to sit around collecting dust afterwards? Prestige and exclusivity would appear to be where it's at.

I sway extremely towards either bottom end parts or high end parts. Like for example I own 2 GeForce 256s... But I also bought a SiS 6326 which is the slowest AGP video card on the planet. I have to admit I do (especially on the software side of things) have a tendency to hoard trophy pieces like the floppy library of a former high rank IBM engineer with lots of rare source code and stuff (which Is all going to the internet archive as soon as I find a box for it). Around here I feel a need to compete in terms of collection size and value with members like hard1k and artex or I feel like my status in the community is lesser.

Hopefully, in about 20 years or after upcoming quantum leap we will be able to 3D print all the vintage PC parts we desire. At least until someone ***** it up with DRM and brands that "physical piracy" or some shit.

There's a really fine line. If you have something in your collection because you think it's cool an special that's one thing. If it's because everybody else thinks it's special and wants it then that's just being a jerk.

I had a talk with some of the people developing the Voltera printer. It doesn't seem like they care about doing that yet, but they said eventually they might look into it.

Jorpho wrote:

xplus93 wrote:

Is anybody worried that the hobby is focusing too much on prestige and exclusivity?

Seems to me that point was passed quite some time ago. Are there not many people out there building 386 or 486 systems because they neeeed to have this vital piece of PC History for the sake of preservation because even though there are alternatives which look and sound the same for all practical purposes, they just don't feel right? And do these systems that are constructed after much time, effort, and expense not tend to sit around collecting dust afterwards? Prestige and exclusivity would appear to be where it's at.

I think the main factor that contributes to the recent rise in demand for retro hardware is the increased visibility it is given thanks to youtube and forums like this one. On forums and online communities there are often fashion trends: one item starts becoming in demand because one or several high-profile posters deemed it great and talk about it at length singing its praises. So a relatively unknown soundcard or videocard will see its price increase three-fold on the used market because there is only a finite supply of it, and suddenly everyone wants it.

Besides, some youtubers make really well-produced videos to showcase retro hardware, sometimes employing techniques that are usually used by corporations to sell us their products. For example look at LGR and his 600K+ followers - if he makes a video about one particular rare game or system, he will create new demand for said item. Because we're dealing with stuff that's no longer manufactured, there is only a fixed quantity of it being available - this will irremediably translate to an increase in price on the market.

To illustrate - the picture makes me feel he's actually trying to sell me the system:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

I sway extremely towards either bottom end parts or high end parts. Like for example I own 2 GeForce 256s... But I also bought a SiS 6326 which is the slowest AGP video card on the planet. I have to admit I do (especially on the software side of things) have a tendency to hoard trophy pieces like the floppy library of a former high rank IBM engineer with lots of rare source code and stuff (which Is all going to the internet archive as soon as I find a box for it). Around here I feel a need to compete in terms of collection size and value with members like hard1k and artex or I feel like my status in the community is lesser.

Hopefully, in about 20 years or after upcoming quantum leap we will be able to 3D print all the vintage PC parts we desire. At least until someone ***** it up with DRM and brands that "physical piracy" or some shit.

Betaarchive.. send it there.

I think nasty prices actually encourage people to learn electronics and hobby engineering as well as teach others to love what they have. Both skills can be applied elsewhere when retro machines start to crumble.

If all you want is to hoard top of the line 486 motherboards, well, sucks for you.

alexsydneynsw wrote:

I think nasty prices actually encourage people to learn electronics and hobby engineering as well as teach others to love what they have. Both skills can be applied elsewhere when retro machines start to crumble.

If all you want is to hoard top of the line 486 motherboards, well, sucks for you.

You have a bit of a point there. The somewhat higher prices make it worthwhile for recyclers to sell the stuff instead of scrapping it. Other than that it doesn't really help. Especially because the people that have the need to learn those skills don't have the money to put into retro parts. A good hakko is 100 bucks by itself, doesn't leave too much room in the average high school students budget.

Just trying to stay positive in a situation I have no control of.

xplus93 wrote:

A good hakko is 100 bucks by itself, doesn't leave too much room in the average high school students budget.

I use a cheap solder iron with a 40/60w switch, it's fine.

Price inflation frustrates me too. I used to see listings on E-bay for Amiga 2000 and 3000 desktops for $200-$300 all the time, now they're going for $600 or more.
I have no doubt overpaid for some of my items (286, 386 and 486 specifically) although nothing like $200 for a single motherboard or $500 for a system. Compared to the days of being able to get a curbside 486 or pick up in a thrift shop for peanuts, $50 for a system board is pretty pricey. Am I also guilty of using my systems not nearly as much as I should? Yes, most of the time they are sitting in the closet. I think I'm going to try and narrow my collection down to 2 or 3 "must have" systems and put the others up for sale for something reasonable, so someone else can enjoy them.

Regarding my own personal Amiga quest, I realize I'm probably just going to have to settle for Amiga Forever running on a raspberry pi, along with the Amiga 500 I managed to get my hands on. And sure enough, no sooner did I manage to get one did I start to see listings for $400 and $500 for Amiga 500 as well. Some of that could be being driven by the coming Vampire add-on, which is suddenly making these older systems attractive once again.

MMaximus wrote:

I think the main factor that contributes to the recent rise in demand for retro hardware is the increased visibility it is given […]
Show full quote

Jorpho wrote:

xplus93 wrote:

Is anybody worried that the hobby is focusing too much on prestige and exclusivity?

Seems to me that point was passed quite some time ago. Are there not many people out there building 386 or 486 systems because they neeeed to have this vital piece of PC History for the sake of preservation because even though there are alternatives which look and sound the same for all practical purposes, they just don't feel right? And do these systems that are constructed after much time, effort, and expense not tend to sit around collecting dust afterwards? Prestige and exclusivity would appear to be where it's at.

I think the main factor that contributes to the recent rise in demand for retro hardware is the increased visibility it is given thanks to youtube and forums like this one. On forums and online communities there are often fashion trends: one item starts becoming in demand because one or several high-profile posters deemed it great and talk about it at length singing its praises. So a relatively unknown soundcard or videocard will see its price increase three-fold on the used market because there is only a finite supply of it, and suddenly everyone wants it.

Besides, some youtubers make really well-produced videos to showcase retro hardware, sometimes employing techniques that are usually used by corporations to sell us their products. For example look at LGR and his 600K+ followers - if he makes a video about one particular rare game or system, he will create new demand for said item. Because we're dealing with stuff that's no longer manufactured, there is only a fixed quantity of it being available - this will irremediably translate to an increase in price on the market.

To illustrate - the picture makes me feel he's actually trying to sell me the system:

I am pretty sure LGR is sincerely into retro stuff out of fun, and having been able to turn it into a living is a positive side-effect.

HOWEVER, having said that, he does seem to have a natural eye/talent for marketing/salesmanship/presentation (whatever you want to call it).