chinny22 wrote on 2025-04-29, 01:03:

I think it's always been around. Remember the flame wars that used to go on in hardware forums in the day? I think it's basicall […]
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I think it's always been around. Remember the flame wars that used to go on in hardware forums in the day? I think it's basically the same thing just on another platform.
I could be very wrong as never really got into social media, but I consider Facebook, Reddit and the like more aimed at the casual enthusiast of any interest and not just computers.
Dedicated forum groups seem to have less hostility.

Prices were always creeping up as hardware was getting older/harder to replace. When I got into you couldn't give away S478 systems. It's now over 10 years later and that same system is about as common as a Slot 1 system was back in 2011.
I'm not sure why EVERYTHING jumped up in value post covid though.

Postage costs are a big factor in this, shipping got stupidly expensive, international shipping even more so.

Got worse when that ship blocked the Suez and then the Panama had issues and then the Chinese ports got grid locked, each one jacked prices and they never came back to pre Covid costs.

King_Corduroy wrote on 2025-04-26, 19:35:

I swear lately I've gone into groups on Reddit (obviously reddit this is somewhat expected) and Facebook and asked questions about vintage computers / game consoles etc and have gotten insulted, downvoted or the most idiotic replies / suggestions. I swear it didn't used to be like this, am I just remembering wrong or have all the actually helpful people just faded into the background.

If you really want to poke the proverbial hornets' nest, ask people what they think counts as retro/vintage. 😉

There's a large pool of passionate people, with strong opinions, and one or both of:
- Large enough egoes that they can't be wrong
- Various developmental disorders that make it both hard to accept dissenting opinions, and hard to effectively discuss it.

The latter unsurpriginly having a high rate of incidence in technical hobbies like this.

As for the ever increasing prices, it's a combination of factors.
- Speculators and investors
- Surges of interest due to popular Youtubers/etc
- Inflation
- Just the fact that these items are genuinely and legitimately either failing/breaking, or landing at their forever homes and 'leaving' the market.

I do agree with you though, as the hobby has gained popularity, it's increasingly picked up participants with problematic attitudes and demeanours. But that's not unique to our hobby. C'est la vie, I guess!

SquallStrife wrote on 2025-04-29, 01:46:

If you really want to poke the proverbial hornets' nest, ask people what they think counts as retro/vintage. ;) […]
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If you really want to poke the proverbial hornets' nest, ask people what they think counts as retro/vintage. 😉

There's a large pool of passionate people, with strong opinions, and one or both of:
- Large enough egoes that they can't be wrong
- Various developmental disorders that make it both hard to accept dissenting opinions, and hard to effectively discuss it.

The latter unsurpriginly having a high rate of incidence in technical hobbies like this.

As for the ever increasing prices, it's a combination of factors.
- Speculators and investors
- Surges of interest due to popular Youtubers/etc
- Inflation
- Just the fact that these items are genuinely and legitimately either failing/breaking, or landing at their forever homes and 'leaving' the market.

I do agree with you though, as the hobby has gained popularity, it's increasingly picked up participants with problematic attitudes and demeanours. But that's not unique to our hobby. C'est la vie, I guess!

that's a good summary of the factors and the dynamics

the influence of past sales and youtube etc is pretty big, once something has sold for a certain price future sellers will make that the minimum.