I'm genuinely astounded by how quickly I'll be able to sell a 386 or a 486 on eBay vs. how long a "newer" system will stay up there that can do the job for half the price, even with an open haggling invitation. People will pay for nostalgia it seems - either that or they need an exact machine configured in some way for an industrial application. I've seen those off to places as far as Greece.
In any case, personally, I run real hardware. I've used DOSBox for work related things, I never bothered to try any games with it. To me, I need the tactile input of flipping a switch, hearing the monitor energize and flicker to life, and the hard disk sound spinning up. The floppy test and RAM counting is part of the boot experience. Having said that, the hardware is old, and will need at least an intermediate understading of the technology, a source of spares, and as the technology gets older, parts-swapping becomes component level repair and a certain amount of hoarding (or at least not throwing out damaged components) becomes necessary, and so do the skills involved in fixing those. In my case, it's forcing me to learn stuff I hadn't considered as a tech in the 90s.
So, if that $42 card is worth it is entirely up to you. For me, $42 CAD shipped to my door is an entirely welcome proposition 😉
Youtube channel- The Kombinator
What's for sale? my eBay!