Unknown_K wrote on 2025-10-15, 19:06:

Because people get very angry if a forum member rips them off.

Or what's more frequent, "perceived fraud".

Once you leave Fleabay prices suddenly normalize. I recently bought a monochrome monitor for $33 on a local site. The seller also sells on Fleabay and he set the price to $150 for the very same monitor. I didn't ask him about it but those prices are tailored to people who live in countries where the average annual wages are $60K or more.
My best sources before the war were Russian and Ukrainian sellers but I've had great success in other Central European countries as well. Marketplace is also a great source for hardware if you are willing to spend a lot of time looking for good deals.

as a general rule sold prices are actual prices and if they are too high then that's that. blaming various people is pointless really, question if whatever it was, was really going to improve your life and if you could achieve the same thing with something cheaper - just a rule of life i guess.

Hoping wrote on 2025-10-15, 18:14:

Well, it's the same old story: hardware from years ago is objectively rubbish. It can only be considered objectively useful in specific cases, for example, to repair a 30-year-old industrial machine that is still in service and difficult to replace.

yes, but as an aside and not really on topic - old stuff could do good work. think about some bridge that was built in 1960 that still stands today, if some government wants a bridge that lasts at least 65 years but suddenly it'll cost a billion $ i sometimes think 'i'd be fine with another one like the 1960 bridge with inflation adjusted cost a fraction of that'. I know its pointless; pay disparities, the time taken, materials something, regulations something, none of the old equipment and skills remain and so on

for that reason i hate to see equipment that could work got to waste, whether its a digger or a computer, and that's why it seems odd* that some computers get such market value while the poor old digger is left to rust

*well not really, i get the collector, enthusiast thing....

MikeSG wrote on 2025-10-15, 16:04:

Rare ISA video cards are sky high as well. […]
Show full quote

Rare ISA video cards are sky high as well.

ATI Mach 64 - $1000
ET 4000 W32i - $1000
CL GD5434 - $500

Some VLB video cards are up to $500 too.

What? A mach64 costs 1000$? No way

At least S3 Virge and GeForce4 MX prices are still reasonable 😛 and interestingly pretty decent late XP / Vista era parts are still dirt cheap. I now have a surplus of various Radeon HDs 😅

MikeSG wrote on 2025-10-15, 16:04:

Rare ISA video cards are sky high as well. […]
Show full quote

Rare ISA video cards are sky high as well.

ATI Mach 64 - $1000
ET 4000 W32i - $1000
CL GD5434 - $500

Some VLB video cards are up to $500 too.

Only one of these is remotely accurate, and that's off by a few hundred dollars. If you're paying $1000 for a ET4000/W32i, you are quite frankly a fucking idiot. Ignore the "I know what I have" clowns.

I only paid $110AU (inc. shipping from the US) for a working VLB ET4000AX in the past few months when there were three of them listed around the same time period, and that is a rare chipset on VLB.

sunkindly wrote on 2025-10-16, 19:21:

At least S3 Virge and GeForce4 MX prices are still reasonable 😛

Decent quality ViRGEs are more pricy.

vvbee wrote on 2025-10-16, 22:06:

sunkindly wrote on 2025-10-16, 19:21:

At least S3 Virge and GeForce4 MX prices are still reasonable 😛

Decent quality ViRGEs are more pricy.

True!

vvbee wrote on 2025-10-16, 22:06:

sunkindly wrote on 2025-10-16, 19:21:

At least S3 Virge and GeForce4 MX prices are still reasonable 😛

Decent quality ViRGEs are more pricy.

Same goes for GeForce4 MX with 128bit ram. Although .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywnIQXl-Mvs

Out of hand relative to what? I remember when most stuff that's considered rare these days went for like $10, so I'm not really sure what prices people are expecting, other than dirt cheap. Gravis Ultrasound cards are expensive, but there are just not that many of those things that exist anymore. Ebay prices might be a little high, but the advantage is that if you have the money you can get pretty much anything you want.

I pay medium level ebay prices sometimes (between 100-200, with average maybe 125-150, very rarely above 200 that if I really want something that is rare and expensive). I make a normal amount, and this is my only expensive hobby, so I don't mind paying to get something without having to worry about finding one randomly. Plus I don't buy all the time. A lot of stuff that I buy is just not that rare or desirable, so I tend to get a lot of stuff I really want for around $100. I have occasionally nabbed rare things for less than $100, mainly just when the description was inaccurate.

I don't think most prices are that crazy. If I was going to sell, I'd probably charge medium level ebay prices just to make sure that the person who gets it really wants it and is going to value it and take care of it. But if I can find a collector who wants it, I'm just as happy giving it away. I recently gave away probably a bit over $1000 of rare stuff (some of it very rare) just because I found a collector who I knew would make sure it got into the hands of other collectors who wanted it. I don't even mind if he sold some of the stuff himself, as long as it ended up in the hands of people who will take care of it.

There are some items that I do wish were less expensive, like the GUS or the voodoo 5. I could list a number of items that are north of 500 that I wish were less expensive, but how many voodoo 5s even exist anymore? Some of these things are genuinely rare. They're not making any new ones, so prices are bound to go up.

Living wrote on 2025-10-15, 15:36:

i probably going to upload all this in marketplace but here in Argentina nobody has this things, wich make things even harder for a fair price

I think not living in one of the "major" markets hides alot of items as well

Previously I was living in the UK and searching for something would give lots of results mostly Europe.
Now I'm living in Australia I get far less results at fair prices, almost none from Australia and then USA where shipping costs take away and saving on the item itself.
If I had to guess, I wouldn't be surprised if majority of sellers are happy to in their local international region, but don't want the extra hassle of further abroad.

But yes, prices have been creeping up for a long time now as it got older. Remember all of that hardware in the original post is over 25 years old now and well past it's lifetime for mainstream use.
Add to that basic living items have gotten out of hand, I guess its only natural that everything else went up a crazy amount as well, even 5-10 year old stuff is harder to find for dirt cheap prices

Unless I must have something now, I just add a saved search on ebay and wait. Typically, at some point, someone will offer what I want at a price I am happy to pay. Admitedly I have sometimes had to wait a couple of years. Lol.

That said I know I have overpaid for some things because they are rare. Likely to never be seen again.

If you want an exact specific model of something the only place you might find it is Ebay. If you are happy with finding something close you might find it locally, but people are still using Ebay for reference prices unless it is broken.

Rare to me means it doesn't show up on eBay at all.

Was the ET4000AX used on VLB? All the ones I have are 16 bit ISA, ET4000W32 models were VLB.

Unknown_K wrote on 2025-10-17, 06:51:

Was the ET4000AX used on VLB? All the ones I have are 16 bit ISA, ET4000W32 models were VLB.

I didn't pay anything remotely close to $1000 for any of my three ISA ET4000/W32i cards.

Unknown_K wrote on 2025-10-17, 06:51:

...
Was the ET4000AX used on VLB? All the ones I have are 16 bit ISA, ET4000W32 models were VLB.

ET4000AX, ET4000/w32 and ET4000/w32i were available on ISA and VLB (some only with 1MB of memory).

ET4000/w32p was available only on VLB and PCI.

The only Mach64 ISA cards on eBay are listed under "1021935710" or "109-19301-10" and are $1000-1400 AUD. One is an auction right now.

One Matrox Impression Plus 220 (ISA) in the box selling for $4500 AUD in Poland (international shipping turned off).

One Cirrus Logic GD5434 (ISA) for sale for $650AUD. All the others sold instantly and were usually priced around $350AUD.

There's a few Tseng ET4000 W32i (ISA) for sale, listed under "et4w32". One is $3500. Others are more reasonable <$350AUD.

WD Paradise Accelerator Pro and other S3 928's (ISA) are $250-500AUD. A few VIDEOLOGIC 928's are $1000AUD.

Hercules Graphite Pro's with the IIT AGX-015/16 (VLB) are $400-500AUD.

Hercules Dynamite Pro's with the W32i (VLB) are $400-500AUD.

- These are many of the top brand rare ISA/VLB video cards. They all seem crazy but they also sell instantly if they're priced around the 50% mark of these prices... Have been watching for about 6 months.

I was already planning to thin out my collection. Now you guys are making me want to do it even more. I think I have an ISA Mach64 somewhere.

MikeSG wrote on 2025-10-17, 11:51:

There's a few Tseng ET4000 W32i (ISA) for sale, listed under "et4w32". One is $3500. Others are more reasonable <$350AUD.

How does that equate to your earlier claim of them being $1000? A bad application of law of averages? The $3500 is a clear case of someone pulling a "I know what I have" to ridiculous extremes.

All I'm seeing now from this claim you're making is that they're generally $250USD with one extreme outlier.

EDIT:

These are many of the top brand rare ISA/VLB video cards. They all seem crazy but they also sell instantly if they're priced around the 50% mark of these prices... Have been watching for about 6 months.

Thanks for compelling me to do a spot check on eBay for WD90c33 cards - a boxed and tested (with photos) ISA card was listed for $80US+shipping which must have appeared in the past week or so, and I immediately grabbed it. My four year search is over, it will be great to know if the card is 286-compatible since that knowledge simply does not exist.

That one WD90C33 is/was an outlier. I actually bookmarked it because I was interested as well... One of the fastest 32bit cards.

$250-350 is probably the normal average for many of them. The Mach64s all seem to be $1k though.

MikeSG wrote on 2025-10-15, 16:04:

Rare ISA video cards are sky high as well. […]
Show full quote

Rare ISA video cards are sky high as well.

ATI Mach 64 - $1000
ET 4000 W32i - $1000
CL GD5434 - $500

Some VLB video cards are up to $500 too.

That is crazy. Few years ago I got Mach64 ISA with bunch of other stuff for something like 20€. So in essence that card probably cost like couple of euros. I knew I got quite a deal, I think asking prices for ISA Mach64 in those days was something like 150-200 beans, but thousand bucks feels just insane.

So far I haven't found any use for it. It is more or less unnecessary for slower systems and I prefer more or less period correct builds anyways and Mach64 ISA just doesn't pair that well with something like 1990 386 build. On the other hand, for faster systems you can most likely use something like local bus or PCI cards and sticking ISA card in something like that will just kill your graphics performance.