yourepicfailure wrote on 2023-03-13, 07:08:

Kind of in the software realm, but a set of floppies recently went for nearly 1.5K USD.
http://web.archive.org/web/20230313070726/htt … tm/134477128866

Would like to hope they don't wind up locked away to rot.

Wow, I thought you meant 5.25" floppy drives, but no, just a large pile of 5.25" floppy disks.

feipoa wrote on 2023-03-13, 07:16:

yourepicfailure wrote on 2023-03-13, 07:08:

Kind of in the software realm, but a set of floppies recently went for nearly 1.5K USD.
http://web.archive.org/web/20230313070726/htt … tm/134477128866

Would like to hope they don't wind up locked away to rot.

Wow, I thought you meant 5.25" floppy drives, but no, just a large pile of 5.25" floppy disks.
floppies_5_inch.png

Possibly Microsoft Beta disks from the 80's, pretty interesting to the right people.

Yeah I agree. This is stuff worth archiving and valued by communities like this, and whoever bought it most certainly knows.

yourepicfailure wrote on 2023-03-13, 07:23:

Yeah I agree. This is stuff worth archiving and valued by communities like this, and whoever bought it most certainly knows.

The big worry for archivists is that in the future we are going to hit the point where we will begin losing a ton of history and records, the early internet era for instance and likely early 80's thru early 90's will have huge gaps simply because no one thought to archive that information in a way it can be retrieved later.

Check out the earliest version that archive.org has of IBM's support page sometime, from 1997, there's no support info there, they direct you to their presences on Compuserve, AOL, Prodigy, dial in PCBBS (Which later ftp file section versions of have been archived) or faxback service... that was "online" stuff early through the mid 90s, all locked up in little boxes, which were lost when services shut down.

If what you want is to preserve the software or hardware for future generations, it should be donations to museums and another organizations dedicated to that, not expensive prices that then end up in the hands of someone with enough money to pay those stupid prices, and it will not contribute anything to future generations because it will be locked in the shelves of an individual.
This would only be valid for unique software or hardware of which there are only 10 pieces or fewer. But the fact is that 99.9% of the software or hardware created has thousands or millions of copies sold, that is, millions of Voodoo cards and millions of copies of Windows and millions of other things that are considered rare until Hundreds or thousands of those things turn up stored in some forgotten warehouse, or you just happen to talk to your cousin's uncle's uncle, and it turns out they have an old computer in the attic, and it has a Voodoo 5 installed.
In the end I think it's just business, nobody has an interest in preserving history except those who create museums and the worst thing is that to make a common good for humanity they have to spend a lot of money from their own pockets and work.
A curious detail is that in my country the national library is carrying out important work to safeguard cassette music tapes that were very common during a time when they were used because they were sold at very affordable prices to liven up trips, but With the disappearance of the cassette tape players, all the tapes began to go to the trash with which their content would disappear in history and an event that marked an era would be forgotten, but thanks to this initiative it is possible that little of this is lost.
What they do is transfer all the content to digital format so that it is not lost.

feipoa wrote on 2023-03-06, 00:48:

You guys better sit down for this one. […]
Show full quote

You guys better sit down for this one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394476762767

I gasped when I first saw this. Then reasoning quickly took over and I decided it cannot be real.

Cyrix 5x86-120
$685 USD in auction. Not even S1R3.

christ WHY. WHY

these have been sitting on my desk for months hahaha. should test them and see how they spec sometime

feipoa wrote on 2023-03-06, 00:48:

You guys better sit down for this one. […]
Show full quote

You guys better sit down for this one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394476762767

I gasped when I first saw this. Then reasoning quickly took over and I decided it cannot be real.

Cyrix 5x86-120
$685 USD in auction. Not even S1R3.

I just found one of these exact chips in excellent shape including a motherboard for $69.99 +tax shipped.

Looking at other recent sales, this was, by far, a better deal and in better shape.

Probably will not use this one as I am guessing that the specific writing is why this one commands such a high price, even for a mangled one.

Best way to find out is start listing more Cyrix 5x86-120 chips. I think a Cyrix 5x86-120 QFP would make for a rarer find. I've read that QFP chips tend to overclock better than their ceramic counterparts, likely due to better heat dissipation. I have a NOS Cyrix 5x86-120 QFP that I was going to solder onto a PGA interposer board, which currently has a -100 QFP.

2 or 3 years back there seemed to be a ton of QFP Cyrix 5x86 around.. then they all dissappeared, so I thought someone was sticking them on interposers somewhere, but the counter-flood of mounted QFP hasn't come back yet. Same with Intel DX4, the QFP isn't showing up so much now, when there were dozens of listings with hundreds of pieces. ... ... I didn't get fully engaged to think about interposers, but checked a couple of boards with footprints on, shame they would only take 486SX

Another AMD K5-PR200 has sold this month, about $300 less than the last. Condition not as good.
$517 USD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195647622301

What's so special about it?

kolderman wrote on 2023-03-17, 07:14:

What's so special about it?

https://wccftech.com/microprocessor-history-amd-k5/
The K5 PR200 was not widely available due to its late announcement, and was only shipped out to reviewers and sold for a brief period of time to avoid cannibalizing sales of AMD's upcoming K6.

kolderman wrote on 2023-03-17, 07:14:

What's so special about it?

Rarity really, nothing more its not significantly more powerful than the PR166.

feipoa wrote on 2023-03-06, 00:48:

You guys better sit down for this one. […]
Show full quote

You guys better sit down for this one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394476762767

I gasped when I first saw this. Then reasoning quickly took over and I decided it cannot be real.

Cyrix 5x86-120
$685 USD in auction. Not even S1R3.

After seeing a Cyrix 5x86-120 sell for nearly $700, I decided to put a QFP 120 MHz variant onto a PGA adaptor. This CPU is from the 8-week period where Cyrix was pushing for 133 MHz chips. Unfortunately, this guy doesn't have 4x support, but it does work well at 2x66, or 133 MHz. I have had the best luck getting the QFP-208 variants running at 2x66 compared to their ceramic counterparts.

I added the caps.

Decided to go through my watch list to see which items sold at stated price (not hidden best offers). Not many listings remain after filtering out the Best Offers.

Compaq Presario 9232
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334335593986
This is one very good lucking system, which sold for $360 USD.

Everex EV159
3 MB ISA memory expansion card for a 286. I have one of these and they work well.
Bought mine about 2 yrs back for $45, so price on this is probably trending up. Surprisingly, this card was more stable at 16 MHz FSB on my SLC2-66 system compared to the much smaller RAMpAT.

Anyone else witness any interesting eBay sales recently? I've seen several, but the Best Offers obscured the price.

feipoa wrote on 2023-04-13, 07:24:

Decided to go through my watch list to see which items sold at stated price (not hidden best offers). Not many listings remain […]
Show full quote

Decided to go through my watch list to see which items sold at stated price (not hidden best offers). Not many listings remain after filtering out the Best Offers.

Compaq Presario 9232
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334335593986
This is one very good lucking system, which sold for $360 USD.
Compaq_Presario_9232.png

with this one the price is high but not crazy, it does look in good shape

still, someone would have to be very keen on the hobby to spend $360 on it

you seem to have a good eye for following these ebay auctions!

Heh, jesus. didn't expect that

What is that used for?

Well, this is the same as always, everyone spends their money on what they want, useful or not.
I would not pay more than €20 for a sound card with such a specific use, having other alternatives. The fact that it is IBM does not tell me anything because it contributes little from my point of view. That is to say, I don't see a real useful value apart from putting it framed, and it would be totally useless, just an expensive decoration.
Edit:
Expensive decoration like the ‘Trinity’, the T-Rex skeleton sold for $6m to private collector, just expensive decoration, only because she or he, has the money. (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/ … r-sells-sale-6m)
"It’s hoped that the skeleton, made up of the bones of three different Tyrannosaurus Rex, will remain on public display", well, just keep hoping.