I have a feeling though that while some people, the overextended in the area of hobbies perhaps, are gonna want to cash out ASAP to do whatever they think they need to do to prepare for the worst, that a lot of others will continue ramping demand. Why? In a word, escapism, the worse the world gets, the more you wanna indulge in something far removed from present day concerns. With games and nostalgia, you get a double whammy, the virtual idealized computer world.... of some decades ago when life was better, yay.

Escapism is surely one reason, an other reason is just the fact that people like to collect. Us nerds, the ones that were most likely to get picked on in school, maybe turned to computers instead of girls.. So we like to collect them (computers!!). It just so happens that we also are relatively wealthy as our skills are in demand at work places and we compete against each others.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-16, 18:21:

I have a feeling though that while some people, the overextended in the area of hobbies perhaps, are gonna want to cash out ASAP to do whatever they think they need to do to prepare for the worst, that a lot of others will continue ramping demand.

It's inevitable that quantities (and conditions) of original stock will only decline long term. That's something nobody can argue.

However I think it's a pretty complex area, overall. It's certainly not a simple "infinite, linear trend upwards". There are a lot of co-factors.

Even socially, there are entire dynamics whirling around. For example it's interesting to observe the differences here on Vogons between the clique who routinely show off their acquisitions, the more exclusive and unicorn-ish the better; and those who prefer to be part of the pack, and whose interactions are based around commonality, "we all have Common Device X, now let's enjoy delving into it together...".

There's nothing wrong with either way. But the market is similarly disparate. Any given person has the chance of spending $200 for a year of a given quantity of incredible gaming and nerding fun, or $20,000 for the same. There's a LOT of wiggle room there.

Another one of these new inbox Improve Technologies, Make-It 486 modules, for 286 upgrades. Except this unit had the FPU installed. Sold for $280 USD + $10.25 shipping.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/384779343414

This was kind of surprising because the last one of these sold for $405, and it had no box and no FPU. I guess the high rollers weren't bidding because they already bought the previous two of these.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-15, 21:35:

Some price trends may have peaked. I am not sure, but have been seeing several small signs in recent weeks. Mirroring sentiments […]
Show full quote

Some price trends may have peaked. I am not sure, but have been seeing several small signs in recent weeks. Mirroring sentiments which, after some consideration, also apply to myself and my current relationship with retro.

It's getting more common to hear people talk about retro saturation, e.g. "I have almost everything I need, now". Or even "I need to consolidate down to the good systems I really like".

Asking prices of long term items on my local auction site (prominent things which have high asking prices, and rarely sell - so, their long term price trends are obvious) are dropping, as sellers are deciding they'd rather have Some Money now, rather than sit on unwanted gear long term and achieve a theoretical maximum. Particularly in this unstable global climate.

And for myself, and the few items I'm trying to currently unload for a few weeks, I'm getting a distinct lack of buyer interest. Nice P4 base system (CPU/mobo/RAM) for under $20, and no-one cares. Core2Quad base system for under $40, and no-one cares. [These are not offers! I will not trade via this site, or give links, and very few of you live in my country anyway.]

there's been levelling off for commodity systems like P4s and core2s because those are still pouring out into the ewaste streams. systems like those are somewhat pegged more to seasonal trends and currency valuations than simple supply and demand. the ongoing war and pandemic situations are also factors, pandemic restrictions lifting in a lot of western countries will suppress demand with more people going outdoors and catching up on other hobbies. if/when the next covid variant hits, demand may go up again if restrictions come back or the virus becomes more deadly or vaccine evasive. obviously I think we'd all prefer this not happen, but those are just inevitable effects if it does.

fuel prices ballooning will reduce interest in shipping for heavier items like full systems, monitors etc.

feipoa wrote on 2022-03-20, 18:47:

Another one of these new inbox Improve Technologies, Make-It 486 modules, for 286 upgrades. Except this unit had the FPU installed. Sold for $280 USD + $10.25 shipping.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/384779343414

This was kind of surprising because the last one of these sold for $405, and it had no box and no FPU. I guess the high rollers weren't bidding because they already bought the previous two of these.

Might have been bought by a company requiring the specific component for a specific machine. 400$ +-50÷ doesn't really matter that much.

I picked up a Matrox M3D for $27.50 which about what I think they should sell for anyway if they weren't so hard to come by.

Putting together a Slot-1 rig to test out some PCI sound cards.. with and without PC/PCI.

Decided on a Gigabyte GA-6BXC v2.0.

Was going through my stash and found I have a bunch of these motherboards. Not sure of the revision of them all as I wasn't really paying attention to anything except whether or not a board had PC/PCI and ISA slots.

Saw a thread about this board on here that mentioned the v2.0 boards were going for stupid prices on eBay. Decided to look it up and even the AS-IS ones are $100. The others are higher to way higher. A bunch of then have horrid pics in the listings and don't even mention the board revision.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-03-27, 04:54:

Decided to look it up and even the AS-IS ones are $100. The others are higher to way higher. A bunch of then have horrid pics in the listings and don't even mention the board revision.

That does not make much sense.
Maybe there are just too many rich nerds in the US (and too many of those hoarding them...).
And old boards are still in a price range, size and weight where an international market just does not establish itself?

For, you get these BIN for 45 in Germany:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/324796333257
Or auctions as low as 10
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Gigabyte-GA-6BXC-Rev- … 9-/403382661323
or the rev 2.0 for 31
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Retro-Hardware-Gigaby … M-/234369928170

Is there anything special about that board other than a vanilla 440BX?
There's a dual version, that's kinda neat:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/203848500639

Maybe there is something equivalent to a youtube video "going viral" for hardware in certain fora, sweeping the market.
Or Americans are simply nuts, which would not surprise anyone in Europe 😉

It took me a while before I even considered anything past baby-AT and Socket 7 "retro" as opposed to "obsolete".
Am used to getting those for 15 to 20 Euro in the last years.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/175204781074
364,40€ for two Voodoo2's? What the fuck?

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:15:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/175204781074
364,40€ for two Voodoo2's? What the fuck?

So?
It's the ever magical Sunday evening Spendierhosen effect.

Also, way too many juicebags hoarding those things. Yes, looking at you, Hedonismbot! 😜

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:49:

So? It's the ever magical Sunday evening Spendierhosen effect. […]
Show full quote

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:15:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/175204781074
364,40€ for two Voodoo2's? What the fuck?

So?
It's the ever magical Sunday evening Spendierhosen effect.

Also, way too many juicebags hoarding those things. Yes, looking at you, Hedonismbot! 😜

Being an Aussie .. is the comma a replacement for a decimal point ?

so that would be 364.40 Euro and not 36k ? That said $532 AUD for two Voodoo2s is a wee bit steep . .Jesus.
I picked both of my 12mb Monster IIs for 250 AUD for both or 171 Euro which is a little expensive but nothing absurd. (~85 Euro each)

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 12:36:

Is there anything special about that board other than a vanilla 440BX?

no idea, the only reason I got them is because that's the board I had in my Slot 1 computer back when I bought it in 1998, so purely nostalgic reasons, can't really see anything special about it compared to others.

the dual one is the "BXD" btw ^^

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:56:

Being an Aussie .. is the comma a replacement for a decimal point ? […]
Show full quote

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:49:

So? It's the ever magical Sunday evening Spendierhosen effect. […]
Show full quote

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:15:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/175204781074
364,40€ for two Voodoo2's? What the fuck?

So?
It's the ever magical Sunday evening Spendierhosen effect.

Also, way too many juicebags hoarding those things. Yes, looking at you, Hedonismbot! 😜

Being an Aussie .. is the comma a replacement for a decimal point ?

so that would be 364.40 Euro and not 36k ? That said $532 AUD for two Voodoo2s is a wee bit steep . .Jesus.
I picked both of my 12mb Monster IIs for 250 AUD for both or 171 Euro which is a little expensive but nothing absurd. (~85 Euro each)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DecimalSeparator.svg
😉

Also, 36k in the british system would be 36,000 or 36000 but 360,00 wouldn't make all too much sense.

But yes, a month of roughly world-average workers wage for two paperweights - la gente esta muy loco.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:56:

Being an Aussie .. is the comma a replacement for a decimal point ?

so that would be 364.40 Euro and not 36k ?

Yes.
42.420,69€ = 42420 Euros + 69 Cents

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:56:

That said $532 AUD for two Voodoo2s is a wee bit steep . .Jesus.
I picked both of my 12mb Monster IIs for 250 AUD for both or 171 Euro which is a little expensive but nothing absurd. (~85 Euro each)

Yeah, won a 12MB Monster II for 82€ (including shipping) a few weeks ago.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:05:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DecimalSeparator.svg ;) […]
Show full quote

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:56:

Being an Aussie .. is the comma a replacement for a decimal point ? […]
Show full quote

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:49:

So?
It's the ever magical Sunday evening Spendierhosen effect.

Also, way too many juicebags hoarding those things. Yes, looking at you, Hedonismbot! 😜

Being an Aussie .. is the comma a replacement for a decimal point ?

so that would be 364.40 Euro and not 36k ? That said $532 AUD for two Voodoo2s is a wee bit steep . .Jesus.
I picked both of my 12mb Monster IIs for 250 AUD for both or 171 Euro which is a little expensive but nothing absurd. (~85 Euro each)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DecimalSeparator.svg
😉

Also, 36k in the british system would be 36,000 or 36000 but 360,00 wouldn't make all too much sense.

But yes, a month of roughly world-average workers wage for two paperweights - la gente esta muy loco.

The comma is a confusing thing to use for a decimal point so for me seeing it used as one my brain reads it on auto pilot and fills in the missing zero and stupidly reads it wrong.

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-03-27, 20:05:

Yes. 42.420,69€ = 42420 Euros + 69 Cents […]
Show full quote

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:56:

Being an Aussie .. is the comma a replacement for a decimal point ?

so that would be 364.40 Euro and not 36k ?

Yes.
42.420,69€ = 42420 Euros + 69 Cents

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-27, 19:56:

That said $532 AUD for two Voodoo2s is a wee bit steep . .Jesus.
I picked both of my 12mb Monster IIs for 250 AUD for both or 171 Euro which is a little expensive but nothing absurd. (~85 Euro each)

Yeah, won a 12MB Monster II for 82€ (including shipping) a few weeks ago.

42,420.69 is how its written here thus my initial confusion, its odd how the EU uses the comma differently to the UK, for me my brain automatically reads it as a thousands separator.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-27, 21:18:

its odd how the EU uses the comma differently to the UK, for me my brain automatically reads it as a thousands separator.

Not just the EU but also ex USSR as well as most of South America and Africa.

Is it just me or is the price of TVGA ISA cards getting towards silly? There's no apparent lack of supply either. I mean you can ignore the ones listed at over $100 as excessively hopeful, but looking at sold listings they're regularly selling around $50. Still some listed a lot lower, oddly though they don't seem to be moving much volume at that price. My swiss cheesed brain seems to recall that mid 90s it was a $20 card, but I flipped through a few PC Mags on google books and couldn't find one, though listings like "Basic 16bit ISA SVGA" seemed likely that that was the card being sold. Anyway, I can understand "brand name" cards like Hercules, Matrox, ATI, Diamond etc selling at $50 plus when they were ~$150 cards, even if they had widely available chips on, but seems pretty weird that the generic bargain basement SVGA card is trending so high... even if they do have good compatibility.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-29, 16:43:

Is it just me or is the price of TVGA ISA cards getting towards silly? There's no apparent lack of supply either. I mean you can ignore the ones listed at over $100 as excessively hopeful, but looking at sold listings they're regularly selling around $50. Still some listed a lot lower, oddly though they don't seem to be moving much volume at that price. My swiss cheesed brain seems to recall that mid 90s it was a $20 card, but I flipped through a few PC Mags on google books and couldn't find one, though listings like "Basic 16bit ISA SVGA" seemed likely that that was the card being sold. Anyway, I can understand "brand name" cards like Hercules, Matrox, ATI, Diamond etc selling at $50 plus when they were ~$150 cards, even if they had widely available chips on, but seems pretty weird that the generic bargain basement SVGA card is trending so high... even if they do have good compatibility.

Yeah it is silly, but so are the prices of the Amiga systems, they are reaching the retail price back in the day.. Not considering inflation though.. I want one.. please talk me out of it! 😁