What other sources do you use when looking for specific hardware. Prices on eBay are crazy and craigslist is not viable in my area. I know selling is not allowed here, but is there another forum where you can go to make requests?
What exactly is your location? Depending on where you are, there are different local marketplaces.
The problem with looking for specific hardware is that people who know what items they have will often look on ebay to estimate value, find offers at crazy price points and believe that's actually the selling price of their item.
On forums people generally know the current selling prices of their items and price them accordingly so it's rare to get better prices than what you'd get in auctions. Still you can often swap hardware with people on forums if you already have some interesting stuff you no linger need.
Personally my best finds are from regularly browsing local classifieds for more general terms like "hardware" or "video card" and looking through the pictures. You get an eye for the good stuff pretty quickly. 😀
That is the problem I have found in many hobbies. If you know exactly what you are looking for, chances are others know its value too. But honestly I am not looking for a steal or a handout. I am looking for someone who is an enthusiast and does know what they have, but also willing to do a fair deal. In other hobbies I have managed to find a forum or even sub Reddit where you can find such people.
I have always came here in the past when looking for something DOS related, recently decided to break out some old hardware and looking to expand my collection. Was surprised there was no dedicated market place here for others to exchange hardware will like minded people. So hoping such a place exists... 😀
cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-12, 14:15:What exactly is your location? Depending on where you are, there are different local marketplaces.
I am in rural Virginia.
http://www.amibay.com/ , http://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum.php - just to name two.
And local ads, of course, like https://www.shpock.com , https://www.ebayclassifiedsgroup.com/ etc.
Amazon does have some sellers peddling retro stuff . Prices vary from reasonable to insane . I ordered a Dell 2007FPB and a Promise FastTrack S150 TX2 for prices I consider reasonable .
SuperSirLink wrote on 2020-05-12, 13:51:What other sources do you use when looking for specific hardware. Prices on eBay are crazy and craigslist is not viable in my area. I know selling is not allowed here, but is there another forum where you can go to make requests?
from my experience ebay tends to be the cheapest option actually, don't judge ebay prices by what sellers list for buy it now prices, nobody pays those anyways.
I routinely see things on ebay go for cheap and pop up later on aforementioned forums for inflated prices.
of course you get the occasional good deal on local classifieds when people sell old stuff and have nothing to do with computers and you happen to be in that area, but the chance of finding something specific like that are slim.
With eBay, you do have to keep an eye out for decent prices.
Sometimes stuff just pops up and if you don't grab it immediately, it will be gone within a few minutes. I've had that happen multiple times. Still kicking myself for not buying a lot with a Cyrix 5x86 133 in it.
Sometimes stuff pops up for a really good BIN price and I have been able to jump on multiple things like that.... when those same things are normally being listed for many times more than what I was able to grab it for.
Prices for a lot of retro and vintage hardware have skyrocketed on eBay over the past 2-3 years so it is getting harder to find good deals, but they are still there if you are patient.
If you are looking for exact brands / models then you basically have to pay what people are asking if it really means that much to you. If you don't care so much about the brand, then it gets to be much easier to find what you want for cheaper.
most of the good deals I get on ebay are auctions, but yes... it is very time consuming to constantly be on the lookout for stuff ^^
I'm usually not fast enough for those really good insta-buy deals anyways.
Other options are local car boot or garage sales. even if there is often nothing to find, prices are often very cheap.
Especially if the seller doesn´t know what they sell, and you make an offer for the whole box.
I remember finding some real nice pieces and leaving even more behind on some flea markets.
eisapc wrote on 2020-05-15, 05:33:Other options are local car boot or garage sales. even if there is often nothing to find, prices are often very cheap.
But that's more for when you are *not* looking for specific hardware, but old hardware in general.
Doornkaat wrote on 2020-05-12, 14:24:Personally my best finds are from regularly browsing local classifieds for more general terms like "hardware" or "video card" and looking through the pictures. You get an eye for the good stuff pretty quickly. 😀
I use this approach on ebay too. I have a whole heap of saved searches with broad terms like "sound card", "computer card", "isa", and even just "computer". The first time you run these searches you obviously have to trawl through a lot of rubbish. After that, you only need to monitor the few new items that appear each day. Gems tend to appear sooner or later.
I have other searches that are more specific. There's one rare thing I'm after that goes under several names. I have a search that covers any name or model number that a seller might put in the title. Using ebay's advanced search operators, it will match any term in the brackets, and exclude anything with a -
(name1, name2, name3, model1, model2, model3) -notthis -orthis
Just run your searches every day. It's a game of patience.
Sometimes I just use Google to search for specific models within my country too. It's amazing the weird, off-the-map computer stores I have found with cool things in stock. eg:
poundblaster et1420 site:.au
Pierre32 wrote on 2020-05-15, 07:14:I use this approach on ebay too. I have a whole heap of saved searches with broad terms like "sound card", "computer card", "isa […]
Doornkaat wrote on 2020-05-12, 14:24:Personally my best finds are from regularly browsing local classifieds for more general terms like "hardware" or "video card" and looking through the pictures. You get an eye for the good stuff pretty quickly. 😀
I use this approach on ebay too. I have a whole heap of saved searches with broad terms like "sound card", "computer card", "isa", and even just "computer". The first time you run these searches you obviously have to trawl through a lot of rubbish. After that, you only need to monitor the few new items that appear each day. Gems tend to appear sooner or later.
I have other searches that are more specific. There's one rare thing I'm after that goes under several names. I have a search that covers any name or model number that a seller might put in the title. Using ebay's advanced search operators, it will match any term in the brackets, and exclude anything with a -
(name1, name2, name3, model1, model2, model3) -notthis -orthis
Just run your searches every day. It's a game of patience.
Sometimes I just use Google to search for specific models within my country too. It's amazing the weird, off-the-map computer stores I have found with cool things in stock. eg:
poundblaster et1420 site:.au
STOP SHARING THE GOOD SECRETS TO FINDING STUFF WE WANT!
cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-15, 07:19:Pierre32 wrote on 2020-05-15, 07:14:I use this approach on ebay too. I have a whole heap of saved searches with broad terms like "sound card", "computer card", "isa […]
Doornkaat wrote on 2020-05-12, 14:24:Personally my best finds are from regularly browsing local classifieds for more general terms like "hardware" or "video card" and looking through the pictures. You get an eye for the good stuff pretty quickly. 😀
I use this approach on ebay too. I have a whole heap of saved searches with broad terms like "sound card", "computer card", "isa", and even just "computer". The first time you run these searches you obviously have to trawl through a lot of rubbish. After that, you only need to monitor the few new items that appear each day. Gems tend to appear sooner or later.
I have other searches that are more specific. There's one rare thing I'm after that goes under several names. I have a search that covers any name or model number that a seller might put in the title. Using ebay's advanced search operators, it will match any term in the brackets, and exclude anything with a -
(name1, name2, name3, model1, model2, model3) -notthis -orthis
Just run your searches every day. It's a game of patience.
Sometimes I just use Google to search for specific models within my country too. It's amazing the weird, off-the-map computer stores I have found with cool things in stock. eg:
poundblaster et1420 site:.au
STOP SHARING THE GOOD SECRETS TO FINDING STUFF WE WANT!
heh, too late for that anyways, as ebay tracks your searches and suggests them to everyone searching similar stuff anyways ^^
"ISA" is a funny one... as there are some people that think everything with ISA is prime vintage material and has to be worth a lot... so there is this flood of cards listed for really hight prices that never sell anyways ^^
