First post, by Ozzuneoj
- Rank
- l33t
Since we have threads about old hardware purchases and old hardware finds, how about a thread for old we saw and wanted but decided not to get for some reason. Maybe it weighs 500 pounds, its caked in filth or it was guarded by vicious dogs. Or maybe you're still considering buying it or picking it up and need some advice.
I'll start!
I went into our local Goodwill today after work. It is usually a JOKE... one of the worst selections of stuff you'll find at a thrift store. Very very rarely do I find anything even remotely useful, let alone "nice" or "really cool". Its basically one of the collections stations they use to harvest potentially valuable things from small poor towns to be sold online at a higher prices for the good of the company. Nothing decent is left there, and the truck comes often and leaves full (probably filled to the brim with retail boxed vintage computer hardware, to be sure... 😁 )
So, when I saw a box for a "Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro" from 1999, I was surprised. The box was in decent shape. It mentioned that the keyboard had a built in USB hub, which must have been unusual for the time. So I opened the box, hoping to find an unused keyboard that someone had just stashed away for years. What I saw, was... definitely not. Not new. No way. It was about 10 different colors from various stains (very uneven UV staining and some other things I didn't want to think about), the cords were gooey looking, the keys had funk all over them, seemed like smoke stains... just nasty. I closed it back up, thought for a second whether these were sought after enough to bother buying it and cleaning it up, hoping it wasn't totally beat... and decided to leave it behind. I'll clean layers of dirt and dust off a keyboard, even pet hair or other garbage that may collect on them in storage, but tons of caked on gunk\slime is a sign that a keyboard was used and abused heavily. If it came clean it'd probably have some kind of physical problem that would render it useless.
So, how about you guys? What are some things you've passed up? Funny stories about things you almost bought or grabbed but then had to run in the other direction for some reason? Or even post here if you're on the fence about a possible purchase\pickup. No sense clogging up the "just bought" thread if we haven't bought anything. 😀
Now for some blitting from the back buffer.