I got my recent acquisitions from Craigslist and eBay. Check your area for local auction companies too. They'll have an email or even snail mail list you can sign up for. Keep an eye out for business liquidations. A few years back I got boxes and boxes of stuff from a local university clearing out old hardware from their IT department at auction. I hear recycling centers are good places, but I've never tried it myself.

nekurahoka wrote:

I got my recent acquisitions from Craigslist and eBay. Check your area for local auction companies too. They'll have an email or even snail mail list you can sign up for. Keep an eye out for business liquidations. A few years back I got boxes and boxes of stuff from a local university clearing out old hardware from their IT department at auction. I hear recycling centers are good places, but I've never tried it myself.

Craigslist nothing is really cheap on there <75$ for a P3
eBay is the same thing.
I'm not really old enough to drive yet and I'm pretty sure I can't get anyone to drive me to a recycling center.

if your patient you can find insanely good deals. not so much for big things on ebay because shipping always costs a huge amount but I've found so much retro PC stuff on Craigslist for $1-$25. baring that try asking friends/family if they have old unused PC's in the closet. try yard sales, mom and pop thrifts and flea markets as well.

Craigslist is your best bet for a cheap old PC, but you'll need to be patient. Set up some search bookmarks and check every day. Also, don't limit your searches to just the computer section. Sometimes, people don't know what they're selling or how to list things on CL. Search the entire for-sale section.

Just two weeks ago I bought a Dell Dimension 4100 for $10 from a guy on CL. I found it by searching for the word "computer" and a price range of 0 to $50. Be creative and patient.

For cheap computer equipments. I would say Craigslist too.
Just been sniffing around there too. Mostly in the states there is some deals.
I guess it's just too late to expand into Denmark, as we have had two big sites
for the last 20+ years.

Anyway...
Good hunting. Wish you luck.

eBay
Craigslist
eBay Classifieds
American Listed
Freecycle
Bonanza
Vintage Computer Forum
AmiBay
CPU World

Place physical ads @ churches', community centers' and so on bulletin boards as well. A lot of people are not connected but may have stuff to help you out with. Phone metal / recycling places and ask them. A lot of those guys are also not good with email / internet but fine to speak with in person.

You can still find good deals on eBay when you search based on distance to your ZIP code. I have bought many (and occasionally still do) PCs for <= $75 each.

If you ever find yourself near a thrift store, check in there, you might get lucky. Also any local PC repair shops. There's no certainty but you just have to keep looking when you get the opportunities. Apartment dumpsters also.

The dirty PC you found might have still worked. Bad hard drives aren't surprising on an old machine that's maybe been banged around a lot. You might have to find a good hard drive separately, I wouldn't let that stop you if the rest of the machine is good and the price is cheap enough.

Thrift stores, local classifieds, eBay, Craigslist, even the local dump/transfer station can be really good places to find vintage PCs. Though, with eBay and any other online sites like eBay, you will have to be very patient in order to find a good deal. And with the local dump, you should ask around to see if you are allowed to take electronics of any kind from the dump.

If the goal is to just find a system that can run Windows 9X then you could also consider a socket 478 system.
Although overkill speedwise they are easier to find and the only drawbacks are the lack of ISA and 3.3V AGP support.

But perhaps a Pentium 4 dosnt give the same retro feeling? 😀

If you don't have anything against the big brands try adding searching for their products. EG searching ebay for a Deskpro 2000 brings up a 166 MMX Pc that isn't in the results for Pentium MMX.
Plus OEM are usually cheaper

Attics, basements, storage sheds, just ask people you know if they have any old computers that they arent using anymore. I have found a Pentium machine in a basement and a Pentium in an attic. Got two Pentium 3's from a neighbor who didn't want them anymore (standardizing to 64bit, traded him a 754 Athlon 64 machine) and you just never know what you will end up with when it gets around that you work on computers. Got a text from a friend asking me if I was interested in an athlon DR2 dualcore system minus ram and HDD for free today.