It's a good idea to "trawl" eBay etc. with search alerts that include all kinds of permutations of search terms.

Then one can go "muck diving" by using search terms that someone not familiar with the subject matter might use (i.e. "old computer parts" etc.). With this approach it's not a bad idea, for instance, to narrow down the search by limiting it to your local area, so you don't have pages and pages of junk to sift through.

Then there's flea markets (car boot sales?) and junk/thrift shops, recyclers, classifieds... basically diversify your search "base" and then just wait and see? 😀

You can always just use an ATX case and use a AT style I/O plate.

You can also get ATX to AT power supply adapters.

As for finding AT cases.. they are getting pretty hard to come by at decent prices.

Yeh i've been trawling ebay and trying all the usual search terms but theres not much about. Components arent tooo bad to get hold of, but the cases seem impossible, i guess in part due to their size and awkwardness etc.

I've tried a few local car boot sales and found nothing, charity shops are also a total no. Its rare to see any electronics in charity shops around here, certainly nothing like you see in the US at goodwill type places. Get really quite jealous looking at some of the "thrifting" videos that various retro guys on youtube post up.

And yeh, i know you can use ATX chassis, but i quite like the fact that the baby AT towers are the size of a MicroATX chassis while still having all the expansion slots of full ATX. Just means it all takes up a bit less space and improves the WAF!

Yeah you won't find much in charity shops these days (electrically speaking) unless they have a PAT tester on hand. It's illegal for them to sell an item unless it has been PAT tested since it was donated to them. Easier for them to sell bulk to a recycler.

Car bootys aren't as good as they used to be since sellers all have mobiles and constantly check prices on 'sold items' on ebay these days. Bloody interwebs!

You best bet is to keep an eye on ebay, recyclers mostly (I have a few saved sellers which are recyclers) and occasionally they get some strange items in (not going to give a name, but one of my favs is based in Runcorn, Chershire.. they get some proper wacky stuff in, mainly medical equipment, but sometimes older stuff which I presume they just found in the back of their mahoosive warehouse). Unfortunately AT stuff is just that bit too old these days... 15 years ago (even 10 years ago) that stuff was everywhere for peanuts.

Sometimes you get lucky and someone who just wants rid of what they have finds something tucked away in the attic... but mainly local pickup as they usually can't be arsed to send something that big and bulky if they think it would sell for next to nothing.... other problem is (going by the popularity of this forum alone) you are not alone!

Aragorn wrote:

I've been trying to find a half decent Baby AT tower case for a while and i'm really drawing a blank with the usual goto places […]
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I've been trying to find a half decent Baby AT tower case for a while and i'm really drawing a blank with the usual goto places for used stuff (eBay, Gumtree, facebook marketplace).

One eventually came up on eBay after weeks of looking, finished last night, and sold for about £80 which seems somewhat excessive, given what i've paid for complete systems. I did stick in a silly high offer, but was beaten.

Can anyone suggest anywhere to look for parts? Maybe a trading group on facebook or a website or similar?

I've tried Amibay, but theres no cases on there either.

Thanks!

Sign up with a local freegle/freecycle group and post a "Wanted".
If you get no joy, repeat with other groups whose areas are close by.

spiroyster wrote:

Yeah you won't find much in charity shops these days (electrically speaking) unless they have a PAT tester on hand. It's illegal […]
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Yeah you won't find much in charity shops these days (electrically speaking) unless they have a PAT tester on hand. It's illegal for them to sell an item unless it has been PAT tested since it was donated to them. Easier for them to sell bulk to a recycler.

Car bootys aren't as good as they used to be since sellers all have mobiles and constantly check prices on 'sold items' on ebay these days. Bloody interwebs!

You best bet is to keep an eye on ebay, recyclers mostly (I have a few saved sellers which are recyclers) and occasionally they get some strange items in (not going to give a name, but one of my favs is based in Runcorn, Chershire.. they get some proper wacky stuff in, mainly medical equipment, but sometimes older stuff which I presume they just found in the back of their mahoosive warehouse). Unfortunately AT stuff is just that bit too old these days... 15 years ago (even 10 years ago) that stuff was everywhere for peanuts.

Sometimes you get lucky and someone who just wants rid of what they have finds something tucked away in the attic... but mainly local pickup as they usually can't be arsed to send something that big and bulky if they think it would sell for next to nothing.... other problem is (going by the popularity of this forum alone) you are not alone!

I was at a few car boots a few months ago looking for some older console stuff, megadrive and even PS1 games were non-existent. I almost bought an N64, but it was a bit too close to the ebay price given it was untested. I'm not neccesarily wanting it for pennies, but when its £5 less than you can find them on ebay for, with no comeback, its just not worth it. Didnt find any retro PC stuff at all, not even an old keyboard. I guess i should try again though.

And yeh, i noticed cancer research has an eBay page with all the electricals on it, so i imagine they ship all the electricals to a central location where its tested then put on ebay for maximum profit. I would guess they all do similar things.

I picked up a 486 machine recently for 50 which meets your last point, no shipping, obviously had been plucked out of an attic. Luckily my mate lived nearby and went and collected it and i got it couriered from his place. It also transpired to be faulty, but had some nice bits inside so it was worth the money.

mdog69 wrote:

Sign up with a local freegle/freecycle group and post a "Wanted".
If you get no joy, repeat with other groups whose areas are close by.

Thats a good idea, thanks.

It's even getting harder to find them in Poland.

I used to get these cases for 30-40PLN, now look what they're selling for, with missing pieces and definitely in need of a retrobrighting, at least:

https://allegro.pl/oferta/at-fs-z-zasilaczem- … -wiy-7594240951

This one looks like something caught fire in it:

https://allegro.pl/oferta/obuowa-at-midi-star … -typ-7152053624

and this, while nice, is way overpriced. I got a mostly working 286 system in a similar ESCOM case (needed some work though) for less than this:

https://allegro.pl/oferta/obudowa-komputerowa … tium-7920517877

Maybe go further east - Romania? I was just there and I would not be surprised if more old stuff was kept for longer.

Learn your locale.

See if there's a computer user's group (it's pretty bare around here, even though a major metro). Consider that Ham Radio and electronics buffs often have lots of computers (and tend to be older). Talk to people. Ask.

Talk to people at thrift stores even if the stores are bare. I've had people say "we don't deal in that but we have a few things in the back that were donated."

Talk to recyclers. They almost always say no, but I've made connections through them. I was talking to one up in the hills a couple weeks ago and he said "hey this guy I just talked to has a couple of storage sheds full of stuff" and I ended up with 10 vintage laptops and a few motherboards a week later.

The problem is that stuff is a little too expensive for casuals (like me) and way too expensive to ship, so it either sits in a shed or attic until it rusts or gets shredded. But there's a *LOT* of stuff still in shed and attics, you just have to be really active to find any of it.

I was thinking of trying to start a club just hoping to find some stuff, but I'm terrible at crowds and meeting new people and so on. Kind of like (surprise) a computer geek. If I had a little more money there's a large urban area a few hours away that is flooded with old hardware, it's just a little beyond my budget to spend a few days digging around there.

If shipping was a *lot* cheaper, it would be easier for all of us. And if we were all rich, handsome (or beautiful, your choice), healthy, etc.

Merovign wrote:

If shipping was a *lot* cheaper, it would be easier for all of us. And if we were all rich, handsome (or beautiful, your choice), healthy, etc.

The biggest problem with shipping that I see is that people that are selling stuff generally don't know what carrier to use for their stuff or just use those dumb "flat rate" boxes that are really only cost effective
if you go over a certain weight.

For example:
USPS: By far the cheapest if you are shipping stuff that is less than 1 pound - USPS first class is great.

If you have heavy stuff that is too big for a flat rate box, Fedex Ground is cheapest.

Even if not selling on eBay, you can ship through Paypal to get the same discount you would get if selling through eBay. Discounts are from about 18% up to almost 30%.
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

You can get a decent discount from USPS by using their online system instead of having to pay full retail price - but the Paypal route is usually still better. I think that international first class may still be cheaper if going over 8 ounces if going through the USPS online system.

Why people ship stuff through USPS and pay full retail price is beyond me. Maybe they have no way to weigh packages or they don't have a computer and printer.

Certainly here in the UK we have websites that act like brokers for the shipping companies.

So you'll go on an input the dimensions and weight, and destination etc, and they will search all the big couriers and some of the smaller ones, and give you a range of prices to choose from. eBay does the same thing when buying shipping from them.

But yeah, i guess unless your doing it a lot and are a bit savvy, you end up just going to the local post office with your massive box and get shafted. Personally i find packaging worse than shipping, which is why i always find it a bit weird when folk are happy to package something up but want you to arrange your own courier. I tend to keep ALL the packaging materials and boxes of stuff i've bought, so i've usually got a decent supply, but a lot of folk dont.

I've actually bought a few large, cheap items from ebay over the years, where the person has sold it for a loss, because the shipping has ended up costing them more than they sold it for. I guess for a lot of those folk, they simply wont try selling anything big again.

cyclone3d wrote:

Why people ship stuff through USPS and pay full retail price is beyond me. Maybe they have no way to weigh packages or they don't have a computer and printer.

Given that eBay also charge fees on top of P&P/shipping and handling, perhaps the reality is that shipping is quoted/charged at full rate, but actually purchased by the shipper at a discount.

Aragorn wrote:

I've tried Amibay, but theres no cases on there either.

Start a thread in the "wanted" categories

Aragorn wrote:

One eventually came up on eBay after weeks of looking, finished last night, and sold for about £80 which seems somewhat excessive, given what i've paid for complete systems. I did stick in a silly high offer, but was beaten.

Can anyone suggest anywhere to look for parts?

Thanks!

Concerning prices you have to see it from sellers perspective. Why would they take all the effort to sell you a cheap pc enclosure (and even ship it)? I have sold nice AT cases (not discolorated) for > € 100, so depending on where you look and what you look at, £ 80 might not be the worst deal in the world.

You can ask family, friends and colleagues if they have anything old pc related. As an alternative you can advertise with wanted ads.

Jed118 wrote:

It's even getting harder to find them in Poland.

Maybe go further east - Romania? I was just there and I would not be surprised if more old stuff was kept for longer.

That’s an interesting development. I look on ebay every now and then to find that prices from central/eastern European sellers are (almost) at western European sellers level. Their stuff is often no longer interesting to import. Almost everybody looks their stuff up on ebay. Even local sellers outside of ebay now even ask high end ebay prices.

I would be careful with buying from sellers located in countries like Romania and Bulgaria. Although you can be scammed everywhere, those countries are still poorly developed and so are the sellers usually.

I bought a soviet era I/O card from a seller in Bulgaria, CPUs from Ukraine, and a sound card from Russia (all through eBay) with good success. Even a hard drive for $1 from Hungary; the drive died after 2 months though - Quantum 120 Mb unit, owing to the head sticking to the side of the case - opening it up I was able to get it working, but I can't resell it in that condition so it became an art 😉

mdog69 wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

Why people ship stuff through USPS and pay full retail price is beyond me. Maybe they have no way to weigh packages or they don't have a computer and printer.

Given that eBay also charge fees on top of P&P/shipping and handling, perhaps the reality is that shipping is quoted/charged at full rate, but actually purchased by the shipper at a discount.

Heh.. that's not it. If you buy your label online.. either directly through USPS or through eBay/Paypal the label indicates it.

And as a seller I also know what stuff actually costs to ship.

A lot of sellers I have bought stuff from go to the post office to pay for shipping even though they could have saved a nice chunk of change by buying it online and printing the label at home. This is even if they do the listing as "free" (baked into the price) shipping.

It just seems to me that saving a bunch on shipping would make it worth it to just pay for the shipping through eBay/Paypal.

Now, I am not complaining about them charging the full standard shipping rate... but a lot of these sellers also tack on extra on top of what the normal shipping cost would be.

I'm going to try that out. Domestically, I ship for free, to the US I charge a nominal fee. I have a small business account with my country's postal service, I find their rates to be good, and so far they have not destroyed any of my boxes, unlike UPS.

I got a Dell P3 1Ghz off Freecycle last month.
Although you cant be in a rush, I thibk last year I saw less then 10 possibly interesting machines and I've signed up to a few different London groups.
Gumtree can be good also.

You just have to keep an open mind, It's the guys just trying to get a few quid for their "old PC" that are the good deals, catch is they have no idea what it actually is