I have a few IIci machines in my collection, every one of them needed capacitors replaced on the motherboard else they rot and destroy the machine. My machines were purchased or given to me for free ages ago before they completely rotted or had CMOS batteries explode. Plenty of collectors who purchase old 68K machines today end up with basket case machines.

The cheapest hobbies are the ones nobody else wants to collect so stuff is free.

gerry wrote on 2022-08-23, 15:06:

not sure taking the original price then is useful but in strict value terms it's true. Comparing a vintage PC price to a new one might be though, as its the nearest equivalent in time terms

I would compare original prices to other platforms of the era when doing value comparisons. Macs of the 68K era sold for more than PCs (outside of some specialty servers).

A 1983 Timex watch can be compared to a 1983 Rolex for example. Which one you want to collect depends on if you owned the Timex back in the day and want another or want a Rolex because it is still a hot item and old ones are expensive.

Unknown_K wrote on 2022-08-23, 17:21:

The cheapest hobbies are the ones nobody else wants to collect so stuff is free.

^This

Though one other hobby of mine that is also cheap (which is one of the reasons I do it), is modding games (and I mean making mods for either private use or for distribution, as in new content, not like people who mod games by mashing together existing mods). Of course this is somewhat different, if only because of the lack of needing to collect tangible stuff, the cost is mostly indirect (need a PC, some extra storage and internet and power and time).

Unknown_K wrote on 2022-08-23, 17:21:

I have a few IIci machines in my collection, every one of them needed capacitors replaced on the motherboard else they rot and destroy the machine. My machines were purchased or given to me for free ages ago before they completely rotted or had CMOS batteries explode. Plenty of collectors who purchase old 68K machines today end up with basket case machines.

The cheapest hobbies are the ones nobody else wants to collect so stuff is free.

Yea there are definitely specific machine lines which have recurring problems. As you are probably aware, SE/30s have a nasty habit with the SMCs leaking, which is truly a shame . Meanwhile I have two SEs with original caps, work fine, and look beautiful. (And of course, the battery bombs which plague many, many systems...)

3dfx cards are getting close to the original asking price.
Some rare ones even already excede it.

Super Socket 7 mainboards have also become expensive. They used to be pretty cheap, while the high end CPUs were expensive.
It all changed when the pile of NOS K6-2+ 570MHz surfaced and the K6-2+ to K6-3+ mod was discovered. Now the CPUs are dirt cheap and the demand for SS7 boards has risen.
Then there are highend sound cards like Adlib and Gravis Ultrasound, who also have exceded the original asking price.

Even hardware from this century can be more expensive than it used to be when it was new.
A fine example for this: Late 2000s mainboard with AGP slot from ASRock. These bizarre pieces make it possible to combine AGP cards with 4GHz quadcores (Phenom X4 or Core 2 Extreme), highend DDR2 and SATA SSDs. No SATA to IDE adapter required. Some even have SATA2. Or a PCIe slot in addition to AGP, so you can use the PCIe slot for a SATA 6GB/s controller card.
These boards were low budget and came with shitty caps. So they were thrown away en masse during the 2010s. Now the supply is rather slim. I've seen them sell for three times (!) the original asking price.

If you want the best of the best, you'll either spend a shitton of money or spend a lot of time hunting for bargains.

If you want decent stuff cheap you need to learn how to fix things or just collect at the bottom of the value curve.

The last 2 motherboards I snagged for shipping costs or a little over were Asrock Z97 and X99X motherboards that had bent pins which I fixed in a few minutes. I have also been fixing PCIE gaming cards that are dead, funny how easy it is to knock off a SMD part rendering a card useless but easy to fix.

Even back when things were somewhat cheap, I took chances on non-working rarities that I found actually worked or were easy fixes.

Tetrium wrote on 2022-08-23, 19:52:

Unknown_K wrote on 2022-08-23, 17:21:

The cheapest hobbies are the ones nobody else wants to collect so stuff is free.

^This

Though one other hobby of mine that is also cheap (which is one of the reasons I do it), is modding games (and I mean making mods for either private use or for distribution, as in new content, not like people who mod games by mashing together existing mods). Of course this is somewhat different, if only because of the lack of needing to collect tangible stuff, the cost is mostly indirect (need a PC, some extra storage and internet and power and time).

I started collecting computers around 2000-2001 when they were worthless, and NOBODY collected them. It took a few years before people started forums for specific machines and some of them were just populated by kids who just wanted to fix up a free machine to have something to use. People used to trade machines around in the groups till they got bored with them and swapped them for something else (shipping was cheap back then). Thankfully I never got bored with my gear and kept 99.99% of it. Most of what I have I cannot replace with current pricing.

Unknown_K wrote on 2022-08-24, 16:32:

I started collecting computers around 2000-2001 when they were worthless, and NOBODY collected them. It took a few years before people started forums for specific machines and some of them were just populated by kids who just wanted to fix up a free machine to have something to use. People used to trade machines around in the groups till they got bored with them and swapped them for something else (shipping was cheap back then). Thankfully I never got bored with my gear and kept 99.99% of it. Most of what I have I cannot replace with current pricing.

I started collecting around 2021 when I was bored and in the beginning of 2000's I wouldn't even think about collecting what was then an old boring junk. Today it continues to be a boring junk, but today it is already a vintage boring junk and a part of the fun are difficulties in acquiring this vintage junk and the same time a vast amount of information available today on the Internet on tinkering. Regarding prices, yes they are high today, but they are still affordable if you are not in hurry.

I think we all collect in different ways. I used to like going to a recycler, for example, and seeing some random machine that I never heard of or was interesting in some way, pay the $5-10 for it and then go strip it and rebuild it. Thats how I ended up with a MicroVAX 3100 and DEC VT525 terminals and keyboards.

68K Mac and Amigas were new to me in the early 2000's and luckily they were being dumped because of the internet and FPS gaming. I still have a shelf full of boxed Amiga games I snagged back then. I didn't get into Thinkpads until a 68kmla member was ditching one of his 760 models and from there I went nuts with them.

I mean if you want a specific model or something and have time you can just save an Ebay search and wait it out. It's more fun for me finding something that is cool I would never have been looking for until I seen it.

Since everyone wants everything that was cool, the prices can only go up.

Every once in a while I get this thought to get rid of everything I've collected over the years and how long would it take me to do it 🤣 Most of the items in my collection were probably only used once when I bought and tested it. That would be like up to 10 years on the shelf untouched. Of course that wasn't my intention, but it is what it is... 🙁 I still hope times will change 😁

Unknown_K wrote on 2022-08-24, 20:27:

I think we all collect in different ways. I used to like going to a recycler, for example, and seeing some random machine that I never heard of or was interesting in some way, pay the $5-10 for it and then go strip it and rebuild it. Thats how I ended up with a MicroVAX 3100 and DEC VT525 terminals and keyboards.

68K Mac and Amigas were new to me in the early 2000's and luckily they were being dumped because of the internet and FPS gaming. I still have a shelf full of boxed Amiga games I snagged back then. I didn't get into Thinkpads until a 68kmla member was ditching one of his 760 models and from there I went nuts with them.

I mean if you want a specific model or something and have time you can just save an Ebay search and wait it out. It's more fun for me finding something that is cool I would never have been looking for until I seen it.

That's true. I personally have an idea behind my collection - I collect portable computers that I can easily deal with and as much different peripheral devices as possible in order to tinker with those computers. So I ended with Windows/MS-DOS, CP/M and Basic based computers (No Macs at all) and plenty of different peripheral devices that supposed to work with them. There are of course some exceptions like Palm Pilot PDAs, but I added them to my collection only because it started around IBM Thinkpads and some models of Palm Pilot were produced under IBM label and I thought those would be a nice addition to the laptops. Even though I'm still looking for some parts and devices, I manage not letting my collection to spread over my home.

kixs wrote on 2022-08-24, 20:36:

Since everyone wants everything that was cool, the prices can only go up.

Every once in a while I get this thought to get rid of everything I've collected over the years and how long would it take me to do it 🤣 Most of the items in my collection were probably only used once when I bought and tested it. That would be like up to 10 years on the shelf untouched. Of course that wasn't my intention, but it is what it is... 🙁 I still hope times will change 😁

I have a feeling that a constant usage of vintage hardware may only ruin an aura of mystery that surrounds them. You'll quickly realize that it's not some magical ancient device, but nothing more than a dull old piece of junk. So for me personally it is mostly tinkering and trying to get it working again as it supposed to, even if it tries all its best to no to.

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2022-08-24, 22:13:

I have a feeling that a constant usage of vintage hardware may only ruin an aura of mystery that surrounds them. You'll quickly realize that it's not some magical ancient device, but nothing more than a dull old piece of junk. So for me personally it is mostly tinkering and trying to get it working again as it supposed to, even if it tries all its best to no to.

I feel like you're contradicting yourself x3
constant usage includes trying to get it working, and keep it working.

Unknown_K wrote on 2022-08-24, 16:32:

Tetrium wrote on 2022-08-23, 19:52:

Unknown_K wrote on 2022-08-23, 17:21:

The cheapest hobbies are the ones nobody else wants to collect so stuff is free.

^This

Though one other hobby of mine that is also cheap (which is one of the reasons I do it), is modding games (and I mean making mods for either private use or for distribution, as in new content, not like people who mod games by mashing together existing mods). Of course this is somewhat different, if only because of the lack of needing to collect tangible stuff, the cost is mostly indirect (need a PC, some extra storage and internet and power and time).

I started collecting computers around 2000-2001 when they were worthless, and NOBODY collected them. It took a few years before people started forums for specific machines and some of them were just populated by kids who just wanted to fix up a free machine to have something to use. People used to trade machines around in the groups till they got bored with them and swapped them for something else (shipping was cheap back then). Thankfully I never got bored with my gear and kept 99.99% of it. Most of what I have I cannot replace with current pricing.

I started collecting only a few years later (roughly 2004-ish or so?). Still back then hardly anyone wanted to collect and the few people that did, did it because they couldn't afford anything faster.
It was considered trash back then and I scooped up full systems from the streets regularly and loads of cheap stuff from the net here and there. I taught myself how to build computers by disassembling and assembling old PCs.

I'm in a similar boat, I wouldn't be able to get a tenth of the stuff today with current prices and I also still got virtually all the stuff I collected back then.
I only started searching forums about this subject years later, though I did probably lurk for a substantial time before registering and participating.

I was only interested in Atari and Amiga from 2003-2008. Then I wanted a 3dfx PC for Need For Speed series (1-5) and this PC is still the only one that I built and it's complete&ready to use 🤣 But the whole PC collecting begun around 2012. Slowly at start and then just all-in... everything you can get for good value. I slowed down in recent years tho. My collection is probably complete - would be great to get more boxed stuff. But for playing around with the hardware I have more then I ever wanted - missing only alluring NexGen Nx586PF from my wanted list

imi wrote on 2022-08-24, 23:02:

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2022-08-24, 22:13:

I have a feeling that a constant usage of vintage hardware may only ruin an aura of mystery that surrounds them. You'll quickly realize that it's not some magical ancient device, but nothing more than a dull old piece of junk. So for me personally it is mostly tinkering and trying to get it working again as it supposed to, even if it tries all its best to no to.

I feel like you're contradicting yourself x3
constant usage includes trying to get it working, and keep it working.

Constant usage does not include trying to get it working or keep it working. It's tinkering. And usage is usage the way it was intended, i.e. word processing, speadsheeting, calculating, image processing, programming, gaming etc.

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2022-08-24, 22:13:

kixs wrote on 2022-08-24, 20:36:

Since everyone wants everything that was cool, the prices can only go up.

Every once in a while I get this thought to get rid of everything I've collected over the years and how long would it take me to do it 🤣 Most of the items in my collection were probably only used once when I bought and tested it. That would be like up to 10 years on the shelf untouched. Of course that wasn't my intention, but it is what it is... 🙁 I still hope times will change 😁

I have a feeling that a constant usage of vintage hardware may only ruin an aura of mystery that surrounds them. You'll quickly realize that it's not some magical ancient device, but nothing more than a dull old piece of junk. So for me personally it is mostly tinkering and trying to get it working again as it supposed to, even if it tries all its best to no to.

an interesting observation - like with a car. say you get the nostalgic car of your youth again and drive it constantly, how long until the 'nostalgia' is replaced with the current experience (and maybe the car not being so good after all!). Where as keep it in the garage and drive it every few months and you can feel that aura/nostalgia again - although in time you will slowly become nostalgic about the nostalgia you felt i suspect

"do you feel nostalgic for the time you were nostalgic about nostalgia?" 😀

gerry wrote on 2022-08-25, 16:01:

an interesting observation - like with a car. say you get the nostalgic car of your youth again and drive it constantly, how long until the 'nostalgia' is replaced with the current experience (and maybe the car not being so good after all!). Where as keep it in the garage and drive it every few months and you can feel that aura/nostalgia again - although in time you will slowly become nostalgic about the nostalgia you felt i suspect

"do you feel nostalgic for the time you were nostalgic about nostalgia?" 😀

It may sound weird for you but I never had a nostalgia. I always enjoyed the now, and still enjoy it today. Vintage computers collection for me is a sort of museum-on-the-shelf of cool vintage tech things. The more ancient they are, the better. That's why I have a paper tape puncher/reader. I'd love to acquire even more vintage pieces of hardware like a core memory unit, but I have no idea how to use it with more modern hardware like a working under MS-DOS or CP/M laptop. The only limitation I have, is a space. So my collection is limited to mostly mobile or small size devices.