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First post, by Joakim

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I found this very sad ad on eBay when browsing for an upgrade.

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Can you match it with something more sad?

Reply 1 of 24, by Unknown_K

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I remember seeing 30 pin SIMM keyrings at Software Etc (I think it was) in the 90's before collecting computers was a thing.

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Reply 2 of 24, by shamino

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I don't have a picture but I broke all the pins off a 486 because I wanted to get the die out and put it on a keychain.
I couldn't get the metal plate off so all I accomplished was to make a surface mounted 486.

Reply 3 of 24, by creepingnet

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Unknown_K wrote on 2021-04-07, 17:41:

I remember seeing 30 pin SIMM keyrings at Software Etc (I think it was) in the 90's before collecting computers was a thing.

I had a room mate who did that. I copied her but only used my bad SIMMS for that. Would not do that now but then that's why I have a potato chip sized anti-static bag of 30-pin and 72 pin SIMMS.

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Reply 4 of 24, by cyclone3d

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Ehhh... The K6-2 keychain doesn't bother me too much. It would be sad of it was K6-2+ or K6-3+ CPUs.

I've actually though about doing the same thing with scrap CPUs but not sure it is worth my time at all to do so and try to sell them.

What makes me sad is seeing valuable cards with the chips or edge connectors torn off.

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Reply 5 of 24, by ThisOldTech

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A friend saw some of my motherboards that are in my "to restore" pile and asked if he could have one.
So I asked possibly, what do you want it for?

Thought he might be interested in making a DOS gaming box...
He wanted to put it on display to show people what computers used to be like?! Maybe make a clock?

I said absolutely not. If you're not going to fire it up and use it, you can't have one! Haha

I'm ok with people turning rare comp parts into art if they're dead... like overclocked CPUs being melted down... but anything from the 486 ~ P3 era should be saved as they're getting much harder to find.

I will spend hours fixing corrosion on old boards just to see them used again.

I rescue old PCs and keep them from being recycled... and preserve Dos/Win 3.11 Software on https://www.ThisOldTech.ca.
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Reply 6 of 24, by gerry

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ThisOldTech wrote on 2021-04-07, 23:44:
A friend saw some of my motherboards that are in my "to restore" pile and asked if he could have one. So I asked possibly, what […]
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A friend saw some of my motherboards that are in my "to restore" pile and asked if he could have one.
So I asked possibly, what do you want it for?

Thought he might be interested in making a DOS gaming box...
He wanted to put it on display to show people what computers used to be like?! Maybe make a clock?

I said absolutely not. If you're not going to fire it up and use it, you can't have one! Haha

I'm ok with people turning rare comp parts into art if they're dead... like overclocked CPUs being melted down... but anything from the 486 ~ P3 era should be saved as they're getting much harder to find.

I will spend hours fixing corrosion on old boards just to see them used again.

totally agree! there is a trend now (actually its been around for while) to use old technology as mere decoration - computers, type writers, appliances, sewing machines, machinery in the garden, coffee tables with a glass top sitting over a desecrated piece of industrial history and so on

I can understand such things may not be useful and if left well alone may even be restorable in the future but for some reason it feels insulting

a lot of old appliances can in fact be used readily now, old sewing machines were often so well made that they can still do the job just as well (sometimes better) than a new machine and computers can still entertain in the role they were made for, even if they can't quite run a modern office anymore

a lot of it will have to go eventually, in fact you can see the sheer scale of waste every time a factory closes, otherwise we'd still be using tools from the middle ages - but its a shame not to rescue what we can and return it to usefulness

as for people who buy or collect old electronics 'for teh gold', i can only imagine they spend more on heating it up than they'll get back, add in their 'labor' and other invisible costs and its a dead loss. better for society at large to take electronics to a professional recycling centre if nothing else

Last edited by gerry on 2021-04-08, 15:06. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 7 of 24, by shamino

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Joakim wrote on 2021-04-07, 16:08:

I found this very sad ad on eBay when browsing for an upgrade.

Screenshot_20210407-165833.jpg

Can you match it with something more sad?

I just noticed that it looks like those CPUs don't even include the CPU - they're literally just the heatspreader with the spec markings stamped into it.

Reply 8 of 24, by Big Pink

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gerry wrote on 2021-04-08, 15:00:

there is a trend now (actually its been around for while) to use old technology as mere decoration

The average person isn't going to get much use out of a K6-2, alas; but viewing it as a decoration rather than a tool is really how modern devices are marketed. Once the rate of development plateaus, the only way to drive sales is to create fashion statements. I am of the belief that a certain fruit-themed company actually makes jewellery.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to sowing these Willamette cores into a sequined jacked.

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Reply 10 of 24, by VileR

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Sad pictures? I just posted a bunch of shipping-related atrocities experienced by some poor monitors.

At least there's a happy ending. (No, not that kind, you pervs)

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Reply 11 of 24, by kolderman

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I wish I had a photo of it...but once I ordered a P4 RDRAM mobo....and when it arrived it appears to have been wrapped so tightly in some material that the board had bent upwards at the bottom and permanently set that way. It looked horrible and no need to say it didn't work 😒

Reply 12 of 24, by Errius

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Completely OT, but that reminds me of a vinyl 7" record I bought once. In order to fit it through the mailbox, the postman folded it in half.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 13 of 24, by gca

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Sadly no pictures but when I was working for SUN two Storedge (no, not a typo its the brand name) racks got dropped while being loaded onto a plane for shipping. That was one hell of a week pushing the replacements through test to refill the order.

Reply 14 of 24, by wiretap

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I saw an Etsy link a few years ago for someone selling 'gold fingers' necklaces of some kind, and I saw the ISA fingers of a Gravis Ultrasound. I mean, even a broken card sells for 10-20x more than they were selling the necklace for.

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Reply 15 of 24, by Unknown_K

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wiretap wrote on 2021-04-10, 16:58:

I saw an Etsy link a few years ago for someone selling 'gold fingers' necklaces of some kind, and I saw the ISA fingers of a Gravis Ultrasound. I mean, even a broken card sells for 10-20x more than they were selling the necklace for.

Many years ago I got a forum member (different forum) connected to a scrapper ditching a bunch of hardware worth some money in his general location. The guy sent me some pictures of what he snagged and there was a trashcan full of old ISA/VLB cards with their board connectors clipped off. There must have been a market for them pre gold rush.

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Reply 16 of 24, by shamino

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Unknown_K wrote on 2021-04-10, 17:05:
wiretap wrote on 2021-04-10, 16:58:

I saw an Etsy link a few years ago for someone selling 'gold fingers' necklaces of some kind, and I saw the ISA fingers of a Gravis Ultrasound. I mean, even a broken card sells for 10-20x more than they were selling the necklace for.

Many years ago I got a forum member (different forum) connected to a scrapper ditching a bunch of hardware worth some money in his general location. The guy sent me some pictures of what he snagged and there was a trashcan full of old ISA/VLB cards with their board connectors clipped off. There must have been a market for them pre gold rush.

Reminds me of a warehouse many years ago that was known for having bought out Atari's inventory of unsold, retail packaged game cartridges at some point in the 90s. They had some huge amount (said to be millions) of sealed NOS games. For 10-15 years they were slowly selling them. They resented resellers so when the eBay market came along they raised their prices to discourage it instead of seeing it as a way to liquidate more inventory faster. Then they became unsatisfied with the sell rate so they sent them all to scrap for whatever bits of gold were on the edge connectors.

One game in particular that everybody worried about was 7800 Ballblazer. Every copy of that game contains an Atari POKEY sound/IO chip. Those chips used to be $5 loose back then (from a different source, who since ran out of stock). Just now I checked eBay and didn't see any originals for sale, but one sold for $39+ship recently. Modern reproductions are listed for $40. Ballblazer cartridges sell for $30+, and that chip is the only conceivable reason.
The fact that they've become valuable implies that the chips in all those sealed Ballblazer cartridges were destroyed, not salvaged.

Reply 17 of 24, by Miphee

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To be honest if people kept everything because it's retro or could be valuable some day then the world would fill up with e-waste in a decade.
It's okay to reuse old stuff and get rid of old junk because that's what it is to the majority: old junk. There aren't that many collectors in the world so the supply is more than enough to suit their needs. People can do whatever they like with their stuff. Prices are high because recycling centers wanted a piece of this business and started milking buyers like crazy who were happy to pay any price for their childhood computers and old memories.

Reply 19 of 24, by gerry

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sf78 wrote on 2021-04-12, 09:30:

I bought a fridge magnet from a recycling a few years back. It was a 166MMX and once unglued from the magnet it worked fine clocked at 180 Mhz. 😁

that's a sad start - happy end story! CPUs and indeed lots of electronics can be surprisingly robust