Just ran across what appears to be a very nice deal on eBay, its a lot buy out auction for 6 sound cards for 60 USD

3x Sound Blaster Live! (CT4780)
2x Sound Blaster Live! (CT4870)
1x Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (SB0400)

Not sure I have a use for that many sound cards but it might be nice to have some spares around for gift builds I do occasionally for friends and family.

For people wondering in eBay still has reasonable seller .. yes it does but you have to dig through all the scalpers.

A while back I picked up a massive lot of Creative PCI sound cards on eBay for around $40. I still have to test most of them.

There were something like 60 cards total.

Lots of Live and Audigy cards and even an Audigy 4 card.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:07:

A while back I picked up a massive lot of Creative PCI sound cards on eBay for around $40. I still have to test most of them.

There were something like 60 cards total.

Lots of Live and Audigy cards and even an Audigy 4 card.

Not sure we will find huge lots like that any more, most of them have either been sold or have shuffled off to the great electron.

$400 for an AWE32? You crazy, man.

I have one AWE32, a CT3980 so a PnP model with OPL3. Not the best, not the worst. I found it on sale for next to nothing in a second hand PC parts shop; it was in miserable shape, missing its bracket, a voltage regulator, a few caps and had broken SIMM slots. I replaced all the missing parts and it works 100% fine now. I guess I should consider myself lucky, it didn't cost more than $20 in total..

I would never ever pay $100 or more for an ISA card except maybe for something like a Terratec EWS64/Maestro or Turtle Beach Pinnacle/Fiji/Malibu

appiah4 wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:36:

$400 for an AWE32? You crazy, man.

I have one AWE32, a CT3980 so a PnP model with OPL3. Not the best, not the worst. I found it on sale for next to nothing in a second hand PC parts shop; it was in miserable shape, missing its bracket, a voltage regulator, a few caps and had broken SIMM slots. I replaced all the missing parts and it works 100% fine now. I guess I should consider myself lucky, it didn't cost more than $20 in total..

I would never ever pay $100 or more for an ISA card except maybe for something like a Terratec EWS64/Maestro or Turtle Beach Pinnacle/Fiji/Malibu

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards:

They go something like this:

"oh, you're crazy buying so-and-so hardware which was practically brand new, which you spent all of 2 minutes looking for; I searched 3 years and found a broken down piece of crap which I fixed up, and it's not even the same model, for only $20."

I'm glad for everyone here, including myself, who keeps a list of which items they would pay dumb money for, and which items they would not consider at all.

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:55:

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards: […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:36:

$400 for an AWE32? You crazy, man.

I have one AWE32, a CT3980 so a PnP model with OPL3. Not the best, not the worst. I found it on sale for next to nothing in a second hand PC parts shop; it was in miserable shape, missing its bracket, a voltage regulator, a few caps and had broken SIMM slots. I replaced all the missing parts and it works 100% fine now. I guess I should consider myself lucky, it didn't cost more than $20 in total..

I would never ever pay $100 or more for an ISA card except maybe for something like a Terratec EWS64/Maestro or Turtle Beach Pinnacle/Fiji/Malibu

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards:

They go something like this:

"oh, you're crazy buying so-and-so hardware which was practically brand new, which you spent all of 2 minutes looking for; I searched 3 years and found a broken down piece of crap which I fixed up, and it's not even the same model, for only $20."

I'm glad for everyone here, including myself, who keeps a list of which items they would pay dumb money for, and which items they would not consider at all.

Only thing left on my list is a Voodoo5 5500 and perhaps filling out the Voodoo cards im still missing.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-25, 23:13:

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:55:

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards: […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:36:

$400 for an AWE32? You crazy, man.

I have one AWE32, a CT3980 so a PnP model with OPL3. Not the best, not the worst. I found it on sale for next to nothing in a second hand PC parts shop; it was in miserable shape, missing its bracket, a voltage regulator, a few caps and had broken SIMM slots. I replaced all the missing parts and it works 100% fine now. I guess I should consider myself lucky, it didn't cost more than $20 in total..

I would never ever pay $100 or more for an ISA card except maybe for something like a Terratec EWS64/Maestro or Turtle Beach Pinnacle/Fiji/Malibu

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards:

They go something like this:

"oh, you're crazy buying so-and-so hardware which was practically brand new, which you spent all of 2 minutes looking for; I searched 3 years and found a broken down piece of crap which I fixed up, and it's not even the same model, for only $20."

I'm glad for everyone here, including myself, who keeps a list of which items they would pay dumb money for, and which items they would not consider at all.

Only thing left on my list is a Voodoo5 5500 and perhaps filling out the Voodoo cards im still missing.

I still have my voodoo 3 2000 which i bought new back in the day. I remember selling my voodoo banshee for some cash towards it. Which i kept that now though but as a teen i needed cash. I also have 2 voodoo 2 12 MB cards now... the point is I hear a lot about voodoo 2, 3 and 5, rarely hear about voodoo 1 but i do hear about it, but NEVER hear or have heard of voodoo 4 nor seen one

Law212 wrote on 2022-01-26, 04:14:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-25, 23:13:

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:55:

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards: […]
Show full quote

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards:

They go something like this:

"oh, you're crazy buying so-and-so hardware which was practically brand new, which you spent all of 2 minutes looking for; I searched 3 years and found a broken down piece of crap which I fixed up, and it's not even the same model, for only $20."

I'm glad for everyone here, including myself, who keeps a list of which items they would pay dumb money for, and which items they would not consider at all.

Only thing left on my list is a Voodoo5 5500 and perhaps filling out the Voodoo cards im still missing.

I still have my voodoo 3 2000 which i bought new back in the day. I remember selling my voodoo banshee for some cash towards it. Which i kept that now though but as a teen i needed cash. I also have 2 voodoo 2 12 MB cards now... the point is I hear a lot about voodoo 2, 3 and 5, rarely hear about voodoo 1 but i do hear about it, but NEVER hear or have heard of voodoo 4 nor seen one

Voodoo4 4500 are kind of rare, they didn't exactly sell many at release and now there isn't many free ones to sell. I got mine a couple of months back off eBay for well under what they normally sell for, I own a pair of voodoo2's and a Voodoo3 so there isnt many left for me to get but all the expensive ones 🤣.

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:55:

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards: […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:36:

$400 for an AWE32? You crazy, man.

I have one AWE32, a CT3980 so a PnP model with OPL3. Not the best, not the worst. I found it on sale for next to nothing in a second hand PC parts shop; it was in miserable shape, missing its bracket, a voltage regulator, a few caps and had broken SIMM slots. I replaced all the missing parts and it works 100% fine now. I guess I should consider myself lucky, it didn't cost more than $20 in total..

I would never ever pay $100 or more for an ISA card except maybe for something like a Terratec EWS64/Maestro or Turtle Beach Pinnacle/Fiji/Malibu

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards:

They go something like this:

"oh, you're crazy buying so-and-so hardware which was practically brand new, which you spent all of 2 minutes looking for; I searched 3 years and found a broken down piece of crap which I fixed up, and it's not even the same model, for only $20."

I'm glad for everyone here, including myself, who keeps a list of which items they would pay dumb money for, and which items they would not consider at all.

The point is that they can be had for much cheaper if you are patient and don't rely on overpriced marketplaces, so take that into consideration. Or if you want to you can make it look like someone is telling you how to spend your money.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-01-26, 06:59:

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:55:

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards: […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:36:

$400 for an AWE32? You crazy, man.

I have one AWE32, a CT3980 so a PnP model with OPL3. Not the best, not the worst. I found it on sale for next to nothing in a second hand PC parts shop; it was in miserable shape, missing its bracket, a voltage regulator, a few caps and had broken SIMM slots. I replaced all the missing parts and it works 100% fine now. I guess I should consider myself lucky, it didn't cost more than $20 in total..

I would never ever pay $100 or more for an ISA card except maybe for something like a Terratec EWS64/Maestro or Turtle Beach Pinnacle/Fiji/Malibu

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards:

They go something like this:

"oh, you're crazy buying so-and-so hardware which was practically brand new, which you spent all of 2 minutes looking for; I searched 3 years and found a broken down piece of crap which I fixed up, and it's not even the same model, for only $20."

I'm glad for everyone here, including myself, who keeps a list of which items they would pay dumb money for, and which items they would not consider at all.

The point is that they can be had for much cheaper if you are patient and don't rely on overpriced marketplaces, so take that into consideration. Or if you want to you can make it look like someone is telling you how to spend your money.

This applies to retro PC games as well. If you just buy from ebay and other collectors you can expect to pay top dollar for some games , and many will shell out hundreds of dollars for a game because they think they might not get another chance at that game. As a PC game collector I have found that if you wait you can find people getting rid of PC games. TO many people these are just junk to be thrown out. I have had game lots of almost 100 games given to me free just to get it out of their house. Itall depends where you look. I look at thrift stores for hardware and have found some amazing computers and one even had a nice voodoo 2 12 MB card in it. Again there are also people just throwing it out because to them its junk.

but buying from ebay you will be paying hundreds of dollars. I like to hit up relatives, co workers and so on asking if they have old junk computers and many times they do.

Law212 wrote on 2022-01-26, 15:05:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-01-26, 06:59:

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-25, 22:55:

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards: […]
Show full quote

I love these comparisions; and I see them all over the boards:

They go something like this:

"oh, you're crazy buying so-and-so hardware which was practically brand new, which you spent all of 2 minutes looking for; I searched 3 years and found a broken down piece of crap which I fixed up, and it's not even the same model, for only $20."

I'm glad for everyone here, including myself, who keeps a list of which items they would pay dumb money for, and which items they would not consider at all.

The point is that they can be had for much cheaper if you are patient and don't rely on overpriced marketplaces, so take that into consideration. Or if you want to you can make it look like someone is telling you how to spend your money.

This applies to retro PC games as well. If you just buy from ebay and other collectors you can expect to pay top dollar for some games , and many will shell out hundreds of dollars for a game because they think they might not get another chance at that game. As a PC game collector I have found that if you wait you can find people getting rid of PC games. TO many people these are just junk to be thrown out. I have had game lots of almost 100 games given to me free just to get it out of their house. Itall depends where you look. I look at thrift stores for hardware and have found some amazing computers and one even had a nice voodoo 2 12 MB card in it. Again there are also people just throwing it out because to them its junk.

but buying from ebay you will be paying hundreds of dollars. I like to hit up relatives, co workers and so on asking if they have old junk computers and many times they do.

I understand all of that, and I am aware of the alternatives. The time spent bugging people, looking through trash, flea markets, excessive waiting, etc. is not interesting, nor worth it to me. If I want something, I buy it. If what I want isn't available, and there isn't a sufficient substitution, and if it's not available on eBay (or Yahoo Japan to a lesser extent), this means I wait.

I just buy from eBay usually, and I don't care about the rest. I am willing to pay the convenience fee. If someone spends their time looking for stuff to sell to me on Ebay, I'll pay them for their time and the convenience of me not lifting a finger other than to answer the doorbell when the package arrives with the utmost gratitude. Same as when I pay my utilities bills. There's an extra 3% charge to pay using a credit card. I pay it. It saves me the time of stamps, checks, and so on.

Some people might also just enjoy "the hunt." I get that, also. I'll take a package of 73% ground beef or a superb filet mignon to hunting down a cow (and spending all of that time processing it) any day of the week. I know how to take down my meat, if need be, however. Fortunately, it is not necessary in this day and age. Same goes with buying items. I desire, I see, I buy, no further effort expended.

If you guys thought I was crazy spending $500 on a boxed AWE32 (This is the true price with tax, shipping, and a few missing manuals, but I had to buy a complete set of discs with those manuals), this next one will have you phoning the men in white coats to take me away:

I recently bought a boxed Japanese version of Drakan for $225.00 (with tax, shipping, and currency conversion fees) and it was missing the manual. And I have no interest in playing the Japanese version. I probably spent another $75.00 buying the manual on Yahoo Japan through an auction service, which happened to show up around the same time as the Japanese copy. I was looking for the American release, but I didn't want to pay the prices being offered (which were half of this price). But there was something about the Japanese version artwork - I just had to have this version. I waited a week to see if the price would change, but it didn't. Who knows if it will ever show up again (and what if the next one is missing the inner liner? I am sure someone here will know where to find it. I didn't bother asking anyone, and I'm OK with it.

I'm sure there are others like me (or nothing would sell on eBay), but most people seem to only want to announce their purchases if won't evoke the wrath of the "hahaha! I got the exact same card for $0.75 (insert story here)" crowd.

I have nothing against those deal finders, either. I tip my hat to you all!

THeres no right or wrong way to do it. There is just personal preference. I wont say the way I do things is how everyone should do it. My way is what works for me at the moment . I have and do buy things on ebay as well on occasion. I just bought a 129 MB HDD for a computer im trying to restore. I couldnt find one on any local marketplaces or in any thrifts. What else could I do, go to ebay. the drive was a nice 22 dollars, and the others on ebay were 80 dollars plus shipping... sheesh. Though with shipping , I paid about 40 dollars. Still not bad .

I bet the same people who would buy a 500 dollar golf club would still come here and say "OMG , you paid 250 for a so and so?!?"

So if you paid 400 dollars for a sounblaster awe 64 , I for one welcome your post with pictures and story . If you mention you paid 400 i personally wouldnt judge that one way or another. Or if you dont want to say what you paid, thats fine too.
even if i happened to find the same card for 20 bucks from a thrift, i wouldnt rub it in, because most likely I spent a long time going to thrifts just to find anything so the time and money it cost me is higher than the 20 bucks i would eventually spend on it.

As for Drakan, that is one of my favourite games. I still have my original copy from when it was released. The japanese art does look good. I do like the north american box the most though.
As for spending on games, I spend quite a bit in 2021 because so many hard to find games popped up . I found a guy selling a very mint Doom mail in box version 1.1 with an upgrade disk and he was asking 500. I managed to negotiate to 300 and not only that I had to drive an hour and a half to pick it up and an hour and a half home.

I was also able to find a local Day of the Tentacle triangle box for 100 dollars. on ebay the only two copies I saw sold for around 1000. I got a few more but those two stand out.

I got this motherboard quite a while ago from some guy who sold me some PC games and he had this on him and just gave it to me. I have not been able to find any information on this board, but I did find that the CPU is 60 MHz.
Does anyone have any info or manual for this thing?

Here is the CPU that was in it:

I have trouble resisting the cheap... current locally listed examples giving me an itch in that department.. NIB retail packed PATA HDD $15... P54 CPU/RAM/Mobo combo $15... 2, a beige and a black ATX cases $5 for both... total regular listing eBay value ~$150... total high BIN eBay value ~$500. But space is getting too limited, unless I wanna go full hoarder and start stacking it in the living areas.

Law212 wrote on 2022-01-26, 16:31:

I got this motherboard quite a while ago from some guy who sold me some PC games and he had this on him and just gave it to me. I have not been able to find any information on this board, but I did find that the CPU is 60 MHz.
Does anyone have any info or manual for this thing?

The CPU is 66Mhz, the board might be set to 60, I think mpe had that or a very similar board.

Aha, looks a lot like this one...
https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/125

Now I think about it again mpe had two Opti boards with P5 and P54, not one board with 486 and P5

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-01-26, 17:11:

Aha, looks a lot like this one...
https://www.ultimateretro.net/en/motherboards/125

Now I think about it again mpe had two Opti boards with P5 and P54, not one board with 486 and P5

Awesome. I dont know why i couldnt find something like that. And you're right its 66MHZ, thats what i saw when I looked it up as well. Not sure why i said it was 60.

Law212 wrote on 2022-01-26, 16:31:

I got this motherboard quite a while ago from some guy who sold me some PC games and he had this on him and just gave it to me. I have not been able to find any information on this board, but I did find that the CPU is 60 MHz.

Very interesting, I don't remember ever seeing a 486+Pentium board "in the flesh", especially VLB-only without PCI. Socket 4+Socket5 was a more common combination in that transitional era I think.

The OPTi chip is probably slower than the other competing Socket 4 solutions of the time, but the rarity of that combo board more than makes up for it.

I would never buy this. It's just an auction I saw today, a 386 motherboard populated with a CPU, RAM, and ensmeared with a variety of lovely acid-based compounds, predictably centred around the general batterial regions.

It seems we have reached the stage of highly corroded 386 boards asking >$100 - this particular example is asking $120. "I have no way to test it", they note. We don't need a crystal ball to tell how that test would turn out, friend.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-01-26, 22:45:

I would never buy this. It's just an auction I saw today, a 386 motherboard populated with a CPU, RAM, and ensmeared with a variety of lovely acid-based compounds, predictably centred around the general batterial regions.

corrosion.png

It seems we have reached the stage of highly corroded 386 boards asking >$100 - this particular example is asking $120. "I have no way to test it", they note. We don't need a crystal ball to tell how that test would turn out, friend.

Most 386 and 486 boards tend to have the leaky battery next to the keyboard connector so they tend to be easily fixabe if you like soldering new keyboard plugs and fixing a couple traces (not much else in that area).

Once in a while I would get a board with green funk in the ISA slots but they tended to be easily cleaned with a good hot water bath and scrubbing. The thing is I have not looked for 386 boards in years and the easy to fix leaks left for another 5-10 years can wreck a board.