It's not a sad sight ... it's vintage.

On a serious note ... looks like it's rust on some of the pins, even if the PCB might still be good, I doubt the card could be saved without major efforts (some pins on the QFP chips seem to be broken ... gotta be fun dremeling up those packages and attaching solderwire to the bonding).

It doesn't look like rust to me, as it's even covering the IC's... not to mention the metal parts of the PCB are usually made mostly of Tin and Lead which don't "rust", per se. Brackets and connectors/jacks usually can rust because they usually use some ferrous (i.e. iron-based) alloys used.

Nah... to me that looks like someone spilled something sticky on the card and gummed it all up, like a Coke or something. I've also seen some cards like that come out of chain-smoking households where tar was literally caked on the cards. From the webs near the bracket, it could even be insect/spider droppings.

All the same, it looks nasty, and if that funk has any chance of being even mildly conductive, I wouldn't even attempt powering it up as it. That seller has an uphill battle.

By color of dust looks to me like standart smoker card. Seen many similar (new, not obsidian) cards badly smelling. Maybe still workin, but price isnt nice - bidding is gamble.

(Deleted. No longer relevant anyway)

Looks like it came from a smokers computer. A lot of hot water, dish soap with oxy, and a fine brush will remove it all. Dry it for a few days and its good as new.