Yes. www.amibay.com

the best? probably not.

but ebay is the easiest way to get old hardware where I'm from at least, local classifieds are pretty scarce, and dumpster diving is impossible.

Ebay has the widest variety and tons of new stuff daily.. however they have extremely high prices. If you want to use Ebay, you have to be very particular and set search alerts -- then hope when your alert triggers it isn't highway robbery. The best way to purchase off Ebay is to scavenge and look through e-recycling seller pages. Search by part number instead of the product name. You still can get deals, but usually only if you're fast or find something incorrectly titled/described.

As mentioned, Amibay is good, so is VCfed. Sometimes on reddit there are some retro PC parts for sale for decent prices as well.

Otherwise, going to local auctions, local estate sales, schools/campuses, local electronics/computer recycling places -- they have some surprising things sometimes.

Amibay is a great place to get really rare things. I posted a wanted thread there and got offers after looking for months on ebay.

I buy lots of stuff from European sellers and the prices on Ebay and Amibay are pretty close.

Ebay is definitely the premier market place for retro stuff... or anything really.

I prefer EBay because I find better deals. People on amibay, vcfed, or Facebook retro market tend to know the value of their items.

Some stuff is affordable on eBay (hard drives, RAM, network cards) but other stuff is just plain stupid (motherboards, video cards). Sorry but I'm not paying 50 bucks for a loose Radeon 9800 and I'm certainly not paying over double that for a Voodoo3 AGP. Not to mention trying to get a decent Socket A motherboard can seriously set you back.

It depends where you live. I am from Germany and I can often find very cheap items on eBay. Even the usual 3Dfx stuff is still expensive, but not as expensive as in the USA.
There are no real alternatives here. We have Electromyne but they seem to have already sold most of their valuable retro items and rarely restock.

Dumpster diving is useless, too. There are scavengers roaming around the city - whenever someone dumps electronics, a white van shows up 10 minutes later and takes it! 😀

If you lucky... yes!

I bought at least 4 Dos laptops that was sold as "not working, as is", but actually full working laptops after cmos battery/hdd was changed. Very cheap.

Just avoid resellers.

eBay can be good or bad. Some parts are super common and you can get for next to nothing from China. Others are held by people who KNOW the parts have market value to collectors and prices can be high. Sometimes someone is just selling what they think is eWaste when it's actually valuable. Just watch typical prices and always beware.

On the plus side, eBay has HUGELY consumer sided rules. As a buyer it's hard to get screwed over on eBay without a full refund or a replacement unit.

Fujoshi-hime wrote on 2020-01-16, 23:42:

On the plus side, eBay has HUGELY consumer sided rules. As a buyer it's hard to get screwed over on eBay without a full refund or a replacement unit.

yeah about that... at least in europe I have noticed that less and less people are offering paypal lately, apparently there has been some change that made this possible.

imi wrote on 2020-01-17, 00:24:

yeah about that... at least in europe I have noticed that less and less people are offering paypal lately, apparently there has been some change that made this possible.

Interesting, I wish to know more. I've actually never encountered an eBay purchase I couldn't complete without PayPal. 😮

http://www.cpu-world.com/forum/ is among the best places for CPUs. Amibay is good for a lot of stuff, but do check prices, as some items are very much over priced, while others are very competitively priced.

Ebay is about the best lately. Yes CPU-world has some decent cpu prices. Have also have gotten some good deals at Goodwill's online store but not for true vintage stuff.

I usually find the best stuff in local ads here in Italy, usually from a closed computer shop that wants to get rid of "old" hardware. They never sell just one piece, so you need to bargain a bit to get a deal of all what they're selling. Sometimes paying 100+ euros for untested components.
It can be tricky because most of the time people say that they're selling for spares, as not working, and it's a bit of a lottery.
However if I see a card that I want I might get the lot and try my luck.
Sometimes I'm lucky and I get other nice working cards that I usually sell on eBay or Amibay. So in the end the cost of the card I wanted in the first place is lowered by earning something back. It keeps my passion being not very expensive.

It really depends on what you are looking for , how much time you want to spend looking, how much money you want to spend, do you need it today or sometime in the future, are you willing to get out of the house and meet people, and where you live.

Ebay is great for commodity items and for rarities if money is no object.
Specific forums are good for deals if you keep your eyes on them (good deals go fast).
Do you know any local collectors or guys who refurb computers or recycle them?
Do you like to buy hoards and lots and part them out?
Trading can be cheaper and easier then buying.

imi wrote:

I have noticed that less and less people are offering paypal lately, apparently there has been some change that made this possible.

That's probably due to that reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPXhzgC2ODs

ebay auctions are not the best, but still the easiest but sometimes expensive way to find specific parts.
You sometimes find old hardware on car boot sales, classifieds or second hand shops, but this will need much more time and often luck.
These sources are often much cheaper than ebay, but there are still bargain deals amoung the auctions.
There are other forums like amibay offering trade threads, often limited to registered users.
Forum or personal swap trades are usually the best, because both parties benefit and usually you expand your collectors network.
Depending on your needs and resources on time and money one or the other is the preferred way of finding retro-PC stuff.
eisapc

BinaryDemon wrote on 2020-01-16, 22:10:

I prefer EBay because I find better deals. People on amibay, vcfed, or Facebook retro market tend to know the value of their items.

It depends what you're looking for. If you want very rare stuff, you are unlikely to get it cheap on more community-oriented sites because people know what they're selling, but it's still a lot cheaper than the same stuff on eBay from sellers who know their stuff. EBay only wins on price if you manage to spot that rare thing no-one else does...

On the other hand, if you're after simple, common stuff, the community sites win hands-down. Common unloved but usable components go for peanuts. So if you're just getting into this hobby and just want a working system from 20-30 years ago, somewere like Amibay is a great place. But yeah, if you specifically want to kit it out with a Voodoo5, a Gravis Ultrasound and a Roland SC-88, it's going to cost you...

One factor that strongly influences options is where you are located. It's not just shipping costs (or feasibility of picking stuff up in person), a lot of sellers in large countries refuse to ship outside that country, particularly in US and DE. Also, even on the same medium, there are different things being sold per country. Big lots of old PCBs are common in US and DE on eBay, for example, but almost never crop up there in NL (where I'm located). As those big lots are also typically not shipped internationally ( 🙁 ), I need to look elsewhere to find them. In NL there's a Craigslist-type site called Marktplaats.nl. It's probably the best option for finding really good deals locally, but useless outside of NL (if only because of the language issue). In DE there's eBay Kleinanzeigen fulfilling a similar role. I haven't yet found a similarly useful one in BE though...

Even for the community sites this is an issue. Vcfed is strongly US-oriented, Amibay is more (but less exclusively) European etc.

So it's essential to state where you're located when asking a question like this, as the answer can be very different depending on the local situation and options.