Hmm I guess my favourite might be the old MicroVAX 2000 unit I had given to me because no one wanted to try and maintain the poor thing, oddly enough it didn't require much at all to get it back up and running, turns out it was a PSU issue and a quick 20 cent component fix later it roared back into life. And roar it did ..its certainly far noisier than modern systems, it runs a DEC Unix variant and while I don't have any real use for it I do keep it maintained and in running condition.

Deplorable, I dont really have one I guess but I did pay far too much for a 21" Sony Trinitron that had a stupid number of inputs and outputs, I guess it was originally built for CAD based applications, I stupidly left that CRT at an old residence planning to go pick it up before I handed the keys back, I never got the chance to as the Landlord decided to take it upon themselves to clean the house up before I handed the keys back and they tossed it out thinking it had been abandoned.

I only left it there temporarily as the damn thing weighed a ton and I needed a bit of help moving it safely.

I had a dec alphastation once. I almost got it to boot.

My biggest impulse buy fail was a socket 8 machine I wanted to test my Pentium Pro collection with.
It cost $80 and I was so excited to finally find a test machine that I didn't even check the pictures properly.
What I got was a board with ALL caps, diodes, chokes and FETs removed, along with the BIOS chip and the PAL chip that was impossible to find anyway.
That was my last "AS-IS" purchase and it was all my fault so it was an expensive lesson. It still stings.

1) an IBM 5150, that I proudly rescued found on a sidewalk bound for the trash - still works perfectly 😀
2) a random 486 but with a very very oldschool nice case - smashed cose I fell stupidly on the sidewalk, a few meters outside after recovering it 🙁

We can start to think that the sidewalks have something to do with 🤣