Yay, this again.

P4 stuff, which used to be worthless, is now appreciating noticeably. I advise anyone thinking about a P4 build to get buying now.

Yeah, the question is should one buy now before the prices double again, or wait till they drop,, if ever.
Original hardware is not something that lasts forever nor has limitless supply, is this retro console stuff going to be like vintage cars and never stop?

It is possible that the next generation will have super immersive virtual reality and realistic surround sound as the 'default' gaming experience, and maybe 2D will look to them as "grandpa's games", maybe then this whole retro price bubble will stop.
Vintage cars that are machinery masterpieces never viewed as "grandpa's car", the ones that do are in the junk yard for many decades.
Looks like the same applies to retro gaming.

Hey badmojo don't be a party pooper in the first response. 😊

The price of Voodoo 5500s have gone completely mental in the past couple of years, I always felt $100-150 was a good price but those days are long gone, could be the popularity of youtubers like Phil's computer lab that are helping to drive up the cost of these parts.

James-F wrote:

Yeah, the question is should one buy now before the prices double again, or wait till they drop,, if ever.
Original hardware is not something that lasts forever nor has limitless supply, is this retro console stuff going to be like vintage cars and never stop?

Probably. I'm lucky to have started a few years back when everything wasn't so expensive. Still, like you said, it's a supply/demand thing and it's already really difficult to find certain obscure 80's parts and technical specs as even the manufacturers don't keep them anymore. It's actually surprising it has taken this long for the prices to skyrocket as most of the old stuff hasn't been available since the late 90's.

James-F wrote:

How do you play/collect your games?

Generic hardware + emulation

Prices have been increasing for over a decade on the PC front. Luckily I got most of my stuff before then. In the late 90s/early 2000s people were giving it away. It wasn't "retro" then, just old junk. A computer store in my town used to sell used ISA cards and motherboards for $1 each. 15 years ago you could easily get a GUS for $20-30 on ebay. I blame youtube and kids. Get off my lawn! 😜

Don't buy the stuff everyone is into, buy the stuff they aren't into. You'll have to generate its value internally of course, in other peoples' eyes you'll have bought worthless junk.

Yeah, it's definitely nuts. I feel very lucky that I kept all my old consoles and games from when I was a kid, so I already had a lot of the (currently) more expensive cartridge games when I started to fill out my retro game console collection a few years back. Also helps too that I've never been into getting a "complete" collection... I just buy games that I actually want to play.

Retro PC hardware was a different story however as younger-me never hesitated to toss old PC stuff when I got something newer. Only started to get into collecting old PC stuff in the last couple years and had almost nothing in my collection already, so I've been unfortunately paying a fair bit more than I'd like. 😐

I think this is a natural consequence of two things:

1. The limited available supply, which will usually decrease as things consolidate over time into the hands of people who will never sell them

2. An increasing interest in retro PC hardware.

#1 is something that can be and is being remedied with the budding market for newly made retro PC hardware projects. Fast forward 10 or 20 years and you might be able to buy yourself a brand new SB Pro II or a brand new Voodoo 5, albeit not at nobody-wants-these-anymore used-market prices, but still.

#2 is something we should be happy about! Unless, of course, we're talking about the Play-Doh guy.

James-F wrote:

I've tried to eBay "Sound Blaster Pro CT1600".... nothing... really? A year ago there were plenty of SBPro2 on ebay for less th […]
Show full quote

I've tried to eBay "Sound Blaster Pro CT1600".... nothing... really?
A year ago there were plenty of SBPro2 on ebay for less than 40$.
Clicked the "Completed Listings".... 100$ on average for the CT1600, a rip off to say the least.

What the heck is wrong with the prices in this day and age for retro gaming? Ten years back most of it was garbage.
Yes I know, supply and demand, but 200$ for a NES cart?..... nope, not me, I'm all Everdrive.

How do you play/collect your games?

Ebay is usually the most expensive place to buy classic hardware and games. If you want really good deals, then you need to have patience and look at other places, such as local ads, local webshops, recycling center, ask family, friends, collectors etc.

The people who grew up with things like the Super Nintendo and x86 pc's are now in or close to their 30's, so these people have some income to spend and look back to their youth. That means demand for such stuff increases.. yes you are a little late at the party! 😊

I have recently bought some cheap late 90's Toshiba laptops because I predict that once other people start to value the quality of those laptops (which are much better build than comparable IBM Thinkpads), the prices will too rise through the roof. Those laptops (or at least some specific models) are great for DOS and less demanding Windows 9x games. Just don't tell others 😊

Heh.. you just gotta be patient to be able to get stuff for good prices.

I got another Sound Blaster Pro 2 off of eBay last week for $9.99 + shipping. 😈

Once I go through everything I have, I am going to be selling a lot of stuff I have multiples of and make a nice tidy sum.

With P4 systems increasing in price, does anyone have any thoughts on the next approach to cheap retro computing?

dirkmirk wrote:

The price of Voodoo 5500s have gone completely mental in the past couple of years, I always felt $100-150 was a good price but those days are long gone, could be the popularity of youtubers like Phil's computer lab that are helping to drive up the cost of these parts.

I was lucky enough to pick up a few Voodoo5 5500 on eBay a few years ago about 2013-2015 for about the $50 to $80 range. And they were working and did not look abused. Voodoo3 3000 agp were about 15 to 20 bucks each back then too.

TOBOR wrote:

dirkmirk wrote:

The price of Voodoo 5500s have gone completely mental in the past couple of years, I always felt $100-150 was a good price but those days are long gone, could be the popularity of youtubers like Phil's computer lab that are helping to drive up the cost of these parts.

I was lucky enough to pick up a few Voodoo5 5500 on eBay a few years ago about 2013-2015 for about the $50 to $80 range. And they were working and did not look abused. Voodoo3 3000 agp were about 15 to 20 bucks each back then too.

And to think I thought they were pretty shit and not worth using as a primary card (as in lackluster performance, poor feature support). That is until both my PCI MAC and AGP cards died and I was left with no more vsa-100 cards to play with. Doesn't feel good.

Strange how sometimes we just don't give a damn about enjoying what we got until it's too late and others are craving it? Weird thing!

Now I live with a Geforce3 ti500 + PCX2 + Obsidian 200sbi.

An interesting combination of hoarding, recycling, and new people coming to the hobby has driven prices up a bit.

I do find it funny that my Voodoo 5 5500 in its original box (purchased new at BestBuy) is probably worth more now then when I purchased it. That card wasn't really the best 3d card when it was new but it was last of the line. I use the V1/2/3 cards I have and the V4 PCI and V5 are on the shelf.

If you think old PC card prices are bad go look at what anything Amiga is going for these days.

Yes! That's why I don't buy my hardware online, they're so expensive for what they're worth.
If you look on local online sites, or thirft stores (especially the rural ones) you can find gems way cheaper than on ebay.

I remember I saw a Voodoo 2 only for 5$ in a rural thirft store around my parts.

Forgot to mention that some of the recycling centers have also got into this by raising their prices. Just 2 years ago I bought IBM PS/1 and PS/2 systems for 10€ each and now they ask 25-40€ for just a clone and they're sold within a day. Obviously as demand went up they realized they could ask for more and people would still buy them.

I agree, when i started this hobby in 2014, there were decent deals to be had, not just with PC stuff but with commodore and other makes. I used to be able to pick up a ton of stuff locally, Amiga 2000's, 4000's, 1000's, lots of parts. All for next to nothing. I picked up a lot of 3 A2000's, a A4000's loaded for 90 bucks. Now someone will post a beat up commodroe 64 for 200-300 bucks.

I picked up a Apple IIGS for 50 bucks, complete with scsi card, now the latest IIGS I see on CL is asking 500.. Ridiculous!

I blame the NES classic for kicking off this retro craze. Just glad I got in when I did.