VOGONS


Retro Hardware Collecting rants

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Reply 360 of 934, by imi

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Unknown_K wrote on 2020-07-02, 06:20:

Why would you have to be a scalper to buy up multiples of machines you like?

because then you wouldn't be selling all of them 😉

also I remember just a year ago there were a lot of single machines listed, now all you can find are from a handful of sellers that sell multiple each.

Reply 361 of 934, by appiah4

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I don't know how it is in US, but in Europe there has been some massive Commodore hoarding in the last decade, and ownership as well as control of prices seems to have shifted from a wide range of middle-aged people clearing their attics to a certain few who have gained ownership of a stockpile of them. Whether this was for the purpose of scalping, I do not know. It may have been overenthusiastic collectors overbuying stuff. Regardless, my experience ise that these people ted to charge fair market prices for their stuff. It's the people who are still clearing their attics today who think their crap is gold and list them for three/four figure buy it now auctions that is the problem.

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Reply 362 of 934, by TechieDude

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imi wrote on 2020-07-02, 01:53:

speaking of scalpers and people buying up stock, when I look for Amiga machines on the local classifieds I find like 3 sellers that each sell multiple machines, some 10 or more... sure feels like they bought up every Amiga they could find and are now reselling them at a high markup, because why would a collector get 10+ Amiga 500s and then sell them all? ^^

This. I've never even seen an Amiga, or anything non-x86, other than once a ZX Spectrum Plus (not certain, it had a decent keyboard and a built-in tape drive), and a crapload of PowerMacs the very first time I went to the flea market. Sadly I didn't pick up either, but I did get my first Socket 7 PC that day. Good times.
EDIT: BTW that was 4 years ago, and the ZX was 3 years ago.

Reply 363 of 934, by imi

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I've seen a bunch of amigas for sale last year on the local classifieds from random people, but I only recently decided to finally actually get one... and now I can still find about the same amount of machines for sale... but only from a handful of sellers each of which are selling multiple... idk just seems fishy to me ^^

Reply 364 of 934, by Tetrium

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TechieDude wrote on 2020-07-01, 11:42:
I'm not claiming that's the reason for the prices. Just pointing out that it's not always hobbyists who want this hardware. […]
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Tetrium wrote on 2020-06-30, 20:33:

But this has basically always been the case so that in itself is no reason why the prices have gone up the last couple years.

I'm not claiming that's the reason for the prices. Just pointing out that it's not always hobbyists who want this hardware.

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-06-30, 20:52:

Some otherwise worthless and obsolete hardware (Alpha processor based workstations and servers come to mind) are sold at artificially inflated prices to businesses who can't afford to upgrade a 20-something year old piece of hardware that absolutely has to have a computer running either a discontinued OS or an old version of an OS that can't run on more modern CPUs.

Yeah, that's a thing too.

As for Voodoo cards, I thought I would need a V5 to fully enjoy games from that time. Turns out, a V3 does the trick just fine, along with a 1.2GHz Tualeron (originally 400MHz P2, then 500MHz P3, then 800MHz P3 with a different M/B). Going strictly period-correct seems like a foolish concept to me.

It was never my thing to try to go as period correct as possible, but I have always wanted to at least build systems that would pass as contemporary. Many people would upgrade their systems along the way so to me adding parts together which are like 2 years apart is perfectly fine. I just never bothered too much with it. But I also wouldn't for instance use a case like the ZALMAN Z3 Plus White with a Cyrix 233+ s7, I'd use a beige case instead. If building a Coppermine 800 I would use something like a GF2MX or a TNT2 or Voodoo 3 or something. I wouldn't use these parts with a HD3850 inside a HAF case 😜

I do have one v5, but I ended up never even using it. I ended up building rigs with a v2 and a couple v3 and they did what I wanted them to do 😀

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Reply 365 of 934, by TechieDude

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Tetrium wrote on 2020-07-02, 11:31:

It was never my thing to try to go as period correct as possible, but I have always wanted to at least build systems that would pass as contemporary. Many people would upgrade their systems along the way so to me adding parts together which are like 2 years apart is perfectly fine. I just never bothered too much with it. But I also wouldn't for instance use a case like the ZALMAN Z3 Plus White with a Cyrix 233+ s7, I'd use a beige case instead. If building a Coppermine 800 I would use something like a GF2MX or a TNT2 or Voodoo 3 or something. I wouldn't use these parts with a HD3850 inside a HAF case 😜

I do have one v5, but I ended up never even using it. I ended up building rigs with a v2 and a couple v3 and they did what I wanted them to do 😀

Personally, if I had a V5, I would happily use it. However, finding one that works (or at least is fixable) and doesn't cost an arm and a leg seems very unlikely.
Now, I realise I was a bit too harsh. What I wanted to say is, if for whatever reason you want to go period-correct with your hardware, that's just fine and dendy. Having a build from parts that are in a similar timeframe, or a bit further apart is also great. What grinds my gears however is purist zealots screaming "U hAvE tO uSe pEerEod KoRekT hArDwEaR oR iT wONt wErK!!!!!!" I get it for speed-sensitive or very picky games or other kind of software, but that doesn't happen very often, or it's somewhat fixable.

Reply 366 of 934, by dr_st

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Maybe I should spend a couple grand to get the full set of these boxed 3dfx Voodoos, while supplies last? Or should I put the money towards closing the mortgage earlier, what do y'all think? 😉

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Reply 369 of 934, by Mister Xiado

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SodaSuccubus wrote on 2020-07-02, 16:35:

I have no idea where people get good deals on Amigas these days. Every single A1200 iv seen on the Bay has been horribly expensive.

And people think 486 parts are getting bad!

No better on Craigslist or similar sites. Who would sell something at a fair price just to have some reseller scumbag just re-sell it for twice as much? As others have said, and as I do, I will give stuff to friends and family, and would only sell any of it in case of an emergency. I didn't buy it all to flip it in the first place, I bought it to preserve it, or because I was curious about it.

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Reply 371 of 934, by Tetrium

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TechieDude wrote on 2020-07-02, 16:05:
Tetrium wrote on 2020-07-02, 11:31:

It was never my thing to try to go as period correct as possible, but I have always wanted to at least build systems that would pass as contemporary. Many people would upgrade their systems along the way so to me adding parts together which are like 2 years apart is perfectly fine. I just never bothered too much with it. But I also wouldn't for instance use a case like the ZALMAN Z3 Plus White with a Cyrix 233+ s7, I'd use a beige case instead. If building a Coppermine 800 I would use something like a GF2MX or a TNT2 or Voodoo 3 or something. I wouldn't use these parts with a HD3850 inside a HAF case 😜

I do have one v5, but I ended up never even using it. I ended up building rigs with a v2 and a couple v3 and they did what I wanted them to do 😀

Personally, if I had a V5, I would happily use it. However, finding one that works (or at least is fixable) and doesn't cost an arm and a leg seems very unlikely.
Now, I realise I was a bit too harsh. What I wanted to say is, if for whatever reason you want to go period-correct with your hardware, that's just fine and dendy. Having a build from parts that are in a similar timeframe, or a bit further apart is also great. What grinds my gears however is purist zealots screaming "U hAvE tO uSe pEerEod KoRekT hArDwEaR oR iT wONt wErK!!!!!!" I get it for speed-sensitive or very picky games or other kind of software, but that doesn't happen very often, or it's somewhat fixable.

Thankfully I have never noticed anyone who wanted to go period correct (in excess of how I would personally do it) get screamy or purist about it in the way you are describing it here. Or at least not here on vogons anyway. In the end it's just one way of excersizing ones hobby and one person may seem like a period-correctness-purish and the next may be an audiophile-purist with the next being an ultimatebuild-purish (only Ultras and top-of-the-line A++ components) with another person preferring only brand new cases, in the end what does it matter what your personal preference is? If someone just gets mad all the time, how is this person then supposed to have any fun?

Yes I did want to use the v5 but it basically ended on the shelf with other projects getting prioritized all the time 😜

Whats missing in your collections?
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Reply 372 of 934, by Tetrium

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imi wrote on 2020-07-02, 18:43:

I wish I had friends or family with retro hardware x3

I at least have one friend who shares a somewhat compatible interest in gaming and hardware, so we basically ended up rubbing off some of each other's interest onto each other so he also knows some of the basics of retro computing 😜

But at least this kind of hobby is fairly easy to do the social stuff online.

Btw, one of the things that I never much liked about collecting retro computer parts is people asking me for freebies -_-
And I mean asking me if I just happened to have some old graphics card unused just collecting dust on a shelf that they can have for free. But of course it has to be PCI-E 5.0 with at the very least 4GB of LMNOPRAM and a silent aftermarket cooler. Oh and of course if I can also install it into their rig for free of course -_-
Or people asking me if I can come and repair their worminfested pr0nmachines or if they are having printerproblems again or if I can *cough* give them a ????? licence for free or if I have h4x etc etc.

Of course the flipside is that if you happen to be somewhat known as someone who likes to tinker with this old stuff, you have good chance to get old computers tossed your way, often even bringing it to my house. Course this is cool 😎

Another annoying thing is if some person I never even heard of sends me a DM about some rare part I have and they want to buy it from me. And that they will give me a fair price but I can already smell their dollar signs just glancing in their eyes as if they just want to resell it for a profit. I mean why would I even want to sell to such a person? I'd rather stick the full 'profit' into my own pocket, obviously. That's just annoying as well.

Whats missing in your collections?
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Reply 373 of 934, by imi

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heh, I have the opposite problem sometimes, I offered a friend to build them a retro computer for old games, and they kindly declined because "it would take up too much space" and "can use dosbox anyways" ^^

funnily enough people asking me to repair their computers has been a thing of the past ever since the smartphone era pretty much.

Reply 374 of 934, by Tetrium

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imi wrote on 2020-07-02, 19:11:

heh, I have the opposite problem sometimes, I offered a friend to build them a retro computer for old games, and they kindly declined because "it would take up too much space" and "can use dosbox anyways" ^^

funnily enough people asking me to repair their computers has been a thing of the past ever since the smartphone era pretty much.

There's actually still a couple people asking me even till this year, but only a couple I will help out these days.
Many people that I helped in the past were really poor and some of them also had certain issues (and thus also had little money to spend) and at some point I basically shut the door and never let the majority of them get a foot in the door 🤣
But even till just a few years ago people would still occasionally try and ask me for freebies if they found out I have all this stuff laying around, even if I wasn't even active in the hobby anymore.

But I guess that smartphones having become the new standards will indeed make this a thing of the past, with most people who do still use a PC will probably do it for more heavy stuff like gaming and to work on it.
I'd say this is a mixed blessing 🤣

Whats missing in your collections?
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Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
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Reply 375 of 934, by imi

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true, which reminds me that some people do indeed ask me about smartphone problems now, even though I only bought my first smartphone some 6 years ago... but I always have a good excuse... "oh apple? sorry I don't do those x3"

Reply 376 of 934, by Horun

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Tetrium wrote on 2020-07-02, 19:02:

Another annoying thing is if some person I never even heard of sends me a DM about some rare part I have and they want to buy it from me. And that they will give me a fair price but I can already smell their dollar signs just glancing in their eyes as if they just want to resell it for a profit. I mean why would I even want to sell to such a person? I'd rather stick the full 'profit' into my own pocket, obviously. That's just annoying as well.

I do understand that issue with some asking for some part at some "fair" or discount price just because maybe you belong to same forum, chat group, etc, It is unfair to the seller and disrepectful too. My rule on that is I pay whatever the seller is asking when I have asked IF they may have a spare to sell, with no comments on price, I just agree with what they want. I have had great luck here and two other forums getting some items I wanted that the seller was willing to sell. The last one even refunded a few $ because shipping was a bit cheaper than they expected. Treat people with respect and things seem to always work out well !
added: I think a big issue as a seller is not knowing if the buyer is a true collector and really wants the parts for their special machine/collection or is one that just wants to resell and make profits. Maybe that is a small part of the reason for such high prices on most vintage parts on places like ebay (most likely a very small part)

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Reply 377 of 934, by Unknown_K

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imi wrote on 2020-07-02, 19:11:

funnily enough people asking me to repair their computers has been a thing of the past ever since the smartphone era pretty much.

I think computers have dropped in price so much people just junk anything that isn't working correctly instead of trying to fix it.

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Reply 378 of 934, by Horun

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Unknown_K wrote on 2020-07-03, 01:25:
imi wrote on 2020-07-02, 19:11:

funnily enough people asking me to repair their computers has been a thing of the past ever since the smartphone era pretty much.

I think computers have dropped in price so much people just junk anything that isn't working correctly instead of trying to fix it.

Yes newer basic computers are very inexpensive. I get requests for helping on laptops all the time (and hate working on them) but almost never for a desktop computer anymore.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 379 of 934, by Unknown_K

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EvieSigma wrote on 2020-07-02, 17:18:

I got my A1200 4 years ago and even back then I had to import it from the UK and pay something like $250 all told for it.

Things have changed. Back when I purchased an A1200 I think it was under $100 shipped. To give you some idea on prices I was looking at some old ebay receipts from 2005 and found one for an Amiga 1080 monitor with cables I won for $1 and $26 shipping (still have it and it works). A2000's used to be $50 a pop and I probably paid $35 for my A500. My A4000 desktop was something like $100 shipped and my A3000 desktop was just shipping because of deal making (came with a video card and ethernet). Back when international shipping on small items was cheap and the Canadian dollar was worthless I snagged a Blizzard IV 68030/50 + SCSI module for my A1200 from a Canadian shop dumping Amiga for $50 US I think. I also managed to snag 75+ boxed Amiga games for a few bucks each back then. People were finally getting rid of their Amigas back then and I was happy to snag them. Of course I wasn't smart enough to snag all that was available, just what I wanted.

As far as Voodoo 5's go I purchased a 5500 AGP new back in the day and used it for a few years until games forced me to upgrade (to a Kyro 2 then ATI 9000 I think). After cleaning the fans I stuck it back in its original box and it is still there on the shelf. When I started collecting I was more interested in the early Geforce DDR and GF2/3's to bother getting that v5 back out but I did snag some more voodoos I never had like the 3500, 4500, etc. If you like glide you can probably get by with the more common Voodoo1 and Voodoo 3 2/3000's and skip the SLI V2's.

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