Gered wrote:

"Fear" might be a strong word perhaps. "Annoyance" is probably more accurate (for me anyway). I do enjoy watching some Youtubers who upload retro computing videos, but it is hard to ignore the very real effect they have on increasing the rate at which prices rise.

One such example off the top of my head was about 18-20 months ago when I bought a Unisys CWD4001 off eBay for $75 USD. The seller had probably at least a hundred for sale IIRC. I remember checking the sold history on that auction and noticed that they had only been selling in dribs and drabs over the past 6 months. Anyway, coincidentally about a month or so later, LGR put out a video on these machines. The day after watching this video myself, I checked the eBay auction I had bought mine from again and saw that many had sold on the same day that LGR had put out that video. The seller had doubled the price in reaction to this (If I'm being honest, I cannot say that I blame him). That auction still eventually sold out completely with that doubled price... I think he had even increased it a little bit more a couple weeks later.

This is just how it goes of course. Prices are going to rise inevitably anyway as these things break down, get thrown out, etc. and the available stock dwindles. But, I think it's fairly safe to say that Youtubers do have a direct impact on price.

The same happened with the yamaha audician that anyone could get NoS for something like 20$ or so, until someone uploaded a video about how that card was quite good while being a lot cheaper than most of the Sb with real opl 2-3 support.

Yeah I wish I had gotten about 3-5 of those when I had the chance.

oeuvre wrote:

I used to be able to find complete Pentium and earlier systems for under $60 shipped on eBay all day long just in 2016-2017. Now, forget it.

I’ve been able to snag quite a few systems for $60 and under shipped as of late. A few weeks ago I got a mystery AT system that ended up having a Cyril 6x86 166. I have what was sold as a 286-12 system waiting for me once I get back home. Seller said it doesn’t turn on, but even if the board or psu is dead i have parts to fix it.

It just takes patience and obsessive like watching for stuff to pop up.

snorg wrote:

Yeah I wish I had gotten about 3-5 of those when I had the chance.

Isn’t the audician32 just a bog standard ymf-718 based card? People looking for specific brand/model of certain things makes me laugh sometimes.

cyclone3d wrote:

snorg wrote:

Yeah I wish I had gotten about 3-5 of those when I had the chance.

Isn’t the audician32 just a bog standard ymf-718 based card? People looking for specific brand/model of certain things makes me laugh sometimes.

Its pretty much either a clone of the labway a151 or a rebranded labway.

Its a nice card to have, as you get real OPL3 (Not CQM), a wavetable header, and a CD/IDE port (sometimes it has it and sometines its missing). All of that for around 20$-22$ with shipping before phil aired his video, 35$-45$ easily after.

No one is blaming PhilsComputerLab for that, is just that people tend to buy what is displayed in front of their eyes without thinking twice about what they are doing and WHY they are doing it. Those cards will get to the market again sooner than later at the same price as before the vids in some years from now, as there where hundreds sitting on the sellers and is not really an exceptional card (even if is quite good for what it is) and there is no reason to get it over other cards in the 45-50 range price.

I get the same feeling looking over some cool vintage computer magazines where you find something interesting and then look it up on the web/ebay.

I'm not particularly concerned about it.

3dfx cards and general midi devices have been hard to find and very expensive already. Good luck finding an MT-32 these days for anything less than several hundred dollars. In my neck of the woods, I have never seen one in the flesh, or any other external MIDI box for that matter. Unfortunately, exotic hardware isn't that common, and was going to get rare sooner or later. If ebay is the market price, then that is the price you have to try and beat.

One way you can try to beat it by taking in busted ass hardware and fixing it, as there are relatively few people who actually know how to properly fix stuff. Especially the dusty old crap that only has minor faults can be a steal if you are able to fix it.

As for people complaining about the audician32, you can still get yamaha ymf-718 cards off ebay for a relatively low price. The cards are still pretty common, you just have to keep an eye on what is being sold if you want one.

Yea, I remember selling my mt32 several years ago for $100, now the prices are getting close to the original msrp!

Never mind Linus or LGR, just mentioning certain items on this forum is enough to set their prices rising...

I sometimes check up on prices of cheap things I've talked up/been into in the years past, and they're pretty steady. Lucky in having interests with low potential for demand I guess.

Errius wrote:

Never mind Linus or LGR, just mentioning certain items on this forum is enough to set their prices rising...

Oh well, it saves stuff ending up in the land fill,
Retro PC/Gaming is getting popular in the last 5 years, I kind of hope it will pass and I can pick up people selling off all the "old crap" again 😉

BeginnerGuy wrote:

yep.. That's a wrap for anything 3dfx or midi, especially the mt-32 and sc-55.

Too bad I already can't afford those things, but I'm sure a lot of the collectors among us will make some money.

Story of my life. Sold off most of my 3dfx collection because i had far too many "junk" laying around. Besides i can just pick them up later right? Right? 😵

Fast forward 2-3 years and 3dfx cards are gone from everywhere locally, if they turn up they fetch eBay+ prices which are insane for the tail end of Yurop.

leileilol wrote:

It's odd that word of a special Resident Evil release drove up PCX2 prices.

Good thing im resistant to that because eBay PCX2 cards were made of unobtainium anyway. Last 10 years saw 4 cards locally, snatched an Aristo and a Videologic card while i could.(m3D, and some unnamed other card got away) If those break its bye bye poor seal SGL demo. 😒

I wonder the contribution on prices of existing retro enthusiasts hoarding up hardware in fear of others getting to it. Retro hardware X is featured outside of the retro circles -> people who were already into retro react strongly and panic-buy multiple copies -> others don't care, because they weren't into retro to begin with.

Interest rates are very low. This is abnormal and won't last forever. When they go up, expect a lot of this hardware to be back on sale at more reasonable prices.

.... are people really taking loans to buy old PC hardware?

oeuvre wrote:

.... are people really taking loans to buy old PC hardware?

I did a personal loan from a family member to get the model 90 & 95 that I recently made a video about.

It was only for 5 days, but still. 😜

tojavu wrote:

it will get to the point that more people will have to take out loans just to by one or two parts. scrappers and hoarders are killing the hobby for all of us.

I disagree that retro hardware prices will be seriously affected by a LTT video.

You kinda need a fairly high degree of technical knowledge of the hardware and software of the times to put together and use DOS retro machine.

Secondly, of course eventually old hardware will get rare and expensive, like all old vintage stuff eventually does. As hardware gets older, enthusiasts that want to use it will need to become more technically proficient with repairing and preserving this old stuff.

Except Geforce 4 MX cards. They will always be cheap and plentiful 😀

tojavu wrote:

Not if I buy them all up and start asking stupid prices for them. I always wanted to try that with something.

Good luck, hopefully you can afford to buy and store hundreds of thousands of them ... they are so crazy common.

he does not have to have the money, he can just flood sites like eBay with fake listings that are over priced, other sellers will fallow after some time.