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Philosophical question - Better damaged NOS or opened and repaired.

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First post, by Frunzl

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Hi,

I would like to get an opinion, since I am unsure myself.

In your opinion, what is more desirable:

- a NOS item, untouched, completely innocent, sealed, never opened, very rare, very collectible.

But: you know that it is about to fail due to time. E.g. a leaky Ni-Cd battery, or leaky caps slowly eating away the traces which in the end will render it completely useless.
Or: You repair it! You get:

- a part that has been worked on with minimal but inevitable signs of having been manipulated. It includes new, non period-correct components, e.g. new caps or possibly ICs with unmatching date codes (omg).

What would you prefer?

Last edited by Frunzl on 2023-03-17, 00:51. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 5, by debs3759

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I prefer known working, including recapped, over NOS but likely dead.

Got to get my head around recapping, but at 60 years old and no soldering experience in the last 30 years, I lack confidence more than skill 😀

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Reply 2 of 5, by TrashPanda

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debs3759 wrote on 2023-03-17, 00:40:

I prefer known working, including recapped, over NOS but likely dead.

Got to get my head around recapping, but at 60 years old and no soldering experience in the last 30 years, I lack confidence more than skill 😀

Same here I want a board that has been used and is confirmed to be working, recapped is a bonus but not a breaking point, NOS is nice but only for certain items that normally don't deteriorate in storage, like CPUs for instance.

-I do buy untested stuff if its rare enough or a GPU I'm looking for and its priced accordingly.

Reply 3 of 5, by Shponglefan

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I never understood the point of keeping things sealed in a box.

Anything I've bought NOS, I've opened because I buy it with the intent of using it. And as you say, it's possible for hardware to degrade even if sitting in a box unused.

Heck, it's even possible for the boxes themselves to get damaged from shrink-wrap over time.

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Reply 4 of 5, by dionb

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Hardware in unopened boxes is like virgins in bed: a hugely romantic idea, but a disappointing reality. Functionally you're far better off with stuff known to work well, with any repairs or modifications already performed. Also, plain economics - you pay a huge premium for the box, but the card inside does the exact same as one without the box. I can afford more of what I want if ignore functionally irrelevant matters.

Reply 5 of 5, by Horun

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Shponglefan wrote on 2023-03-17, 00:51:

I never understood the point of keeping things sealed in a box.

With computer parts I totally agree. There are other collectables better to be kept unopened if you find one....

dionb wrote on 2023-03-17, 00:56:

Hardware in unopened boxes is like virgins in bed: a hugely romantic idea, but a disappointing reality.

🤣 !! Could be a good fun thing to play with or something just not working proper or worse lays there dead when unwrapped 😁

I agree ! Specailly on older computer parts. Better to buy tested working (or tested partial working As-Is if seller mentions a quirk like bad ram socket or kb error, etc) at least you have an idea what you are getting and if it worth it to you.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

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