sliderider wrote:
Don't you just hate when that happens? There you are quietly buying up as many of a particular vintage PC part as you can then one day some idiot starts listing them for 10X what you've been paying for years then overnight you can't buy that part at the old price any more because everyone who has it suddenly wants more money all because of one jerk who ruins it for everybody.
Basically the Gravis Ultrasound scenario 🤣. Yeah I didn't like how much people were listing those for, like 100 bucks and up. I sold mine for 70 and 40 or so.
Tiremaster400 wrote:I'm balking at the ebay prices too. The dos computers are soooo rare, ebay even has a vintage compter catagory, which is a big joke. I see the same pc's listed and relisted over months. No one is going to pay those bullshit prices. One person starts scalping on Ebay and others that have surplus machines see the price and they jack up their prices too. The shit never sells.
As far as old computers go, if the computer has actually been worked on well, and refurbished in some fashion, then $80-200 is not unreasonable, depending on specs, rarity, and time spent by the seller to restore the system. Past that price point and it starts to get a tad unreasonable depending on what is being sold. Some stuff that really is extremely rare and hard to get working does warrant a high value.
I mean, if you found one yourself for dirt cheap locally, but it was a filthy mess, you would have to spend man hours, and possibly some cash to restore it anyway. If you were doing one from scratch, you would have to buy all the parts, and again, put man hours in. Nothing is just gonna be free, or just going to be handed to you all shiny and totally set up.
If you have no idea how to do so or where to find the stuff locally, then buying a prebuit classic machine is the only way to go, and people do deserve to be paid for their time and effort, along with the computer itself, if the work is solid. If the thing is listed on ebay and is a filthy mess and needs work, and maybe repair too, then I'd not pay more then 80 bucks maybe after shipping.
Also to note, people still need reliable older machines running Me, 98-95 and prior for programmable signs, cad work, vinyl cutting machines, children's programs, etc and many of these people have no idea how to build or restore a computer on their own. A lot of the legit sellers on ebay selling restored classic computers at fare rates are life savers for these people and their businesses, and as a by product are helping the environment, so you need to keep all of this in consideration when discussing said auctions and sellers.
When you can do it all yourself, and have easy access to the parts, etc, its easy to sit back and scrutinize others prices, work, etc. But to be honest, it is a bit unwarranted, and unfair to both the buyer who you are misleading on the current value of the classic/vintage computer along with the work put in to it, and the seller offering said item, who performed said hrs of work.