Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-02-27, 02:11:The difference between collecting and stockpiling is pretty subjective, but I think we could come up with a few differences. For example, you could argue that a collector should use what they've collected regularly or at least display it. A hoarder or stockpiler would just keep a bunch of unused items in their garage or storage. A collection would ideally consist of rare or unique items. The collector should be able to tell you what's interesting about each item in their collection. A stockpiler might not know what they have in pile of hardware or would just tell you that it might come in handy some day. I think the number of items would also matter. If you have 50 copies of the same device, that's closer to stockpiling imo.
That's an excellent way to put it, along with what gerry mentioned.
I'm definitely more of a hoarder/stockpiler than I am a collector. But in my case, most of the time I try to save only stuff that no one else wants or that would otherwise have gone to waste/trash, and only if I don't have to go too far out of my way (though the outlines of that last definition are a bit of gray area.) For example, I've bought A TON of GPUs from eBay that had bad caps / listed as non-working and that kept getting re-listed with no one trying to bid on. Don't know why, buy I find it very satisfying to restore broken stuff - sometimes even hardware that is considered "worthless junk". But then some of these "worthless junk"stuff has been a nice addition to my AGP video card collection over the years. 😉
Majority of stuff I've hoarded, however, has come from dumpsters / trash cans or Craigslist "curb alert" posts after the post has been stale for a few days (to give other people/hoarders a chance to take what they want/need before I show up. 😁 )
Because I dabble into many different areas of electronics repair, home improvement, and DIY, I tend to save A LOT of stuff that I don't have an immediate use for. If it's useless junk, like a TV with a smashed screen, I'll harvest all of the boards/PCBs out of it and save for repairing other TVs or electronic devices. When space allows, I even save the metal parts and other less worthwhile bits. Recently, I was actually planning on making a PC case out of a microwave chamber from a dead microwave. Sadly however, this idea only came to me a little too late. I had to move to a new place this year (been in the plans/works for a few years now), so I had to leave behind or recycle a lot of the scrap wood and metal I a had saved over the years. But not much of it went to waste. The contractors that came to work on the house after me picked up a lot of the scrap/leftover building materials that I had accumulated. And they also made a few bucks from bringing some of the metal to the metal recyclers. On the other hand, I did take all of the numerous scrap circuit boards I've harvested out of various broken electronics. Like kingcake, I don't like to have something sit open on my bench to wait on a part to ship from the other side of the world. By keeping numerous and various scrap parts around, I have a much higher chance of fixing something right away. It's not always the case, of course, but I'd say it has helped in at least 1/3 of the cases. Also a lot of my scrap circuits boards tend to have higher quality parts than what I can get on Ebay or AliExpress.
Missing screws are another pet-peeve of mine. But I run across devices with missing screws quite often, especially used desktop PCs. So hoarding/scraping broken junk has allowed me to stockpile on various types of screws.
When it comes to computers, I've come to my own conclusion now that it's best to take absolutely everything I run across (at least if it comes from a dumpster or trash can or would otherwise end up there), even if my space becomes limited (and on a side note, that has allowed me to become very creative with storage solutions and organizing.) If it's something fairly new and "un-exciting" but otherwise can be useful, I can usually re-purpose it either for family/friends, for myself (if I need it or can think of an immediate use for it), or donate after fixing. My parents, for example, haven't had to buy a computer since 2005 - I just keep finding "junk" / thrown out or old PCs that are better than what they have and replace theirs when the old one is no longer able to perform the functions it is needed for. As a bonus, this also provides somewhat decent data backup for them, since I take their old PC and keep it.
On the other hand, if I find something that will probably be considered too old by most "regular" folks for everyday use, I just keep it for myself. These are the PCs I either scavenge for parts to fix other computers or just plain keep in storage (hoard). What's funny is that now more than a decade later of doing this, this is how I ended up with some of the more "interesting" PCs in my retro collection.
Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-02-27, 02:24:I also hope that whenever I pass over a deal on some old hardware, that it allows other people to enjoy the hobby.
Same here, and I've been doing that a lot more ever since the retro PC community picked up steam / popularity in the last few years.
Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-26, 11:45:But no regrets. Friends think I'm losing it though 😅
I'm in the same boat.
Then again, maybe I am?
I'd rather not say how many desktop PCs and CRT monitors I have.
Like you though, I have no regrets! 😀
liqmat wrote on 2024-02-27, 00:50:
Haha, I see what you did there. 😁
My response: Only if it's Swingline brand. 😉