• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

What 21st century computers do you think will be collectible?

falter

falter

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
6,748
Location
Vancouver, BC
Sitting here waiting on a huge PST file to upload to Exchange 365 and was checking some recent auctions for stuff like that Super II motherboard that just sold, and was thinking to myself, I wonder what will be the hot collectibles from the 21st century? Anyone have any machines they think make the list?

Here's a few random guesses from me to start:

Apple G4 Cube
Powerbook G4 Titanium
Toshiba Libretto U100/105
EEE PC 700 Netbook
Toshiba Libretto W100
Lampshade iMac

That's off the top of my head..
 
I am not sure if any traditional 21st century computers will ever be very collectible. The computers from the 60s/70s/80s are collectible because we have so much nostalgia and love for them. They were either items we really wanted - or items we spent a lot of time on either programming or gaming. The 'kids today' don't really seem to care about the computer itself - the computer has become just a generic box to a browser or app or a game. So, I don't think they will have nostalgia for a specific computer. Rather, they will probably have nostalgia for the experience - the early web games, early social media, memes, and tiktok. If anything, the collectible items are likely to be phones, like the first gen iPhone, or maybe the Sony PSP, or Nintendo Switch.
 
IMHO every computer from the 60s and 70s is collectible. So ask this question in 2075 again.
 
I don't think specific current OEM machines will have much value, but working and complete ones will be worth something just because 99% will be recycled.

I built my own machines back in the 386 days, but I always loved the Gateway 2000 machines of the time because of styling.

What will have value are retail high end motherboards with corresponding CPUs and working high end GPUs. Maybe some premium cases of the day will also have value as tastes change over time, I mean you have to mount the gear into something.

I do wonder about new game consoles being collectable just because most games are just downloads and you need servers to play them. The older systems where complete games were on the media will service just fine.

Phones will be collectable but by the time they are they won't have a functional network to work on (just like analog cell phones are useless now).


To be honest if globalization does shit the bed, we might see the whole computer/cell phone marketplace contract to basic systems using much simpler to produce chips.
 
I think not many of them will have any real value other than those that distinguish themselves. While I am not a consumer of the brand, I think Apple will be the most cotized.
There's the video game console side. Those will also cost their worth in the future.
About everything else, I think as @Unknown_K
 
First products of later successful ventures (valid for all collecting, not just computers).
Try pricing a first run Barbie doll.

Following the 'nostalgia cycle'. My dad was a big collector (guns, fishing lures, coins, etc. before collecting computers was a 'thing').
He told me a good strategy was to buy what teens/young adults adore but could marginally afford and seal it in a box for 40 years.
By then, they have the money/time to fulfill/relive their earlier dreams and will want to buy it.

But for 21st century computers, there are way too many of them, no particular ones are wildly popular over others (except maybe that 63K phone), and most are reasonably priced.

High end machines will command high prices, but that's not a collecting thing - or if it is, only marginally.

Foundational products are the truly collectible ones. The fewer available the higher the price.
IBM 5150 --> Altair 8800 --> Apple I In order of decreasing production runs and increasing price.
This basic rule also applies to all of collecting - rarity counts.
 
Maybe certain specific models that were interesting, like certain Think Pads and Powerbooks. More so for the ones that were great to use but had critical flaws, like the 15" and 17" Powerbooks of 2010-2012. (the 13" are tough as roaches) Also stuff like the unique case models that Apple came out with in the '00s, and novelty stuff like the Hot Wheels, Barbie, and KFC PCs.

The least collectible will probably be all the Pentium 4 trash tower PCs from the turn of the turn of the century. Core 2 Duo instantly wiped out years of Intel trying to push that crap, as well as getting Apple to switch over.

Unknown_K said:
What will have value are retail high end motherboards with corresponding CPUs and working high end GPUs. Maybe some premium cases of the day will also have value as tastes change over time, I mean you have to mount the gear into something.
Click to expand...
Yes, individual parts would have a lot of interest. Top-of-the-line 1080GTX graphic cards, for instance. You could always use a 1050, but if you're trying to build a "best" of a certain era of computer, why would you settle for half the capability?
 
"Y2K" computers (which Gen Z kids are calling the entire '00s decade, not just the year 2000) are already collectible; they just aren't particularly valuable yet. Same thing with used music CDs -- demand is increasing, but there is still plenty of supply, so prices have generally remained low.
 
Tensorbooks. Hopefully :-)

I wish I could remember what I did with my Zune. I wonder if old gaming consoles might be more collectible than 21st century computers.
 
Could the "lasts" of an era be sought after?

Like the last Intel Macbook. Or the last PPC macs.

Or the last Thinkpad with a 7-row keyboard (I feel like these are a little bit desirable now anyway, since they are still mostly usable). You already see the T60/T61 being popular and thus a bit more spendy.

I like that advice from john's father above. These are just a couple trends I see now, but how long does it take for collectibles to become junk? My mother in law bought several "collector" things for my wife when she was a baby, but now not much of it is worth anything and sits in the barn.
 
cj7hawk said:
Apple Vision Pro... An even bigger failure than the Lisa.
Click to expand...
The Vision Pro has definitely complicated my earlier habit of characterising Google Glass as an Apple Lisa that you wear on your face.

Relatedly, I think Google Glass might fit the bill as a C21 collectable computer, again depending on your definitions.

SGI Tezros (2003-2006) are apparently going for silly money these days too. The most performant of the last MIPS SGIs, with a funky case to boot: seems like something collectors would go for.
 
I suppose looking back on it, the comment about kids remembering experiences more than physical objects may be valid. Although interestingly, with everything virtual these days, a lot of kids, including my own, are interested in things like cassette decks and vinyl records, because it gives them access to something tangible - something physical and real.

I gotta think there's some 21st century gear that they go, wow, I remember that! And pick up. Already in some vintage computing forums I'm seeing late 90s/early 2000s gear younger people are working on, same as we were doing with 286-486.
 
I suspect a lot of the machines that have fully depreciated and are now going up in value are going to continue to be the ones that are collectible in the future. My short list would be:

1) Anything SGI, especially Tezro
2) Sun Ultra 45
3) Powermac G5 Quad

If you want to pick something up at the nadir of it's value in 2025 and watch it appreciate, my pick would probably be the Mac Pro Trashcan. In a few years I'm expecting it to be the Apple Vision Pro, 2019 Mac Pro, and Nvidia DGX Spark.
 
As far as big end gamers go, I build what I need to keep up and the old stuff get sold off as fast as I can. I don't see any thing on the market today that'd going to bring a premium tomorrow. That being said, you could go back 30 or 40 years and make that same statement. 20 or 30 more years down the line, if someone wanted to play CyberPunK77, then yeah, maybe todays stuff might have some value.
 
atakioki said:
3) Powermac G5 Quad
Click to expand...
Is that the one that has liquid cooling that can spew its guts all over, worse than a Varta battery on jihad? I just skipped right over that whole generation.

Anyhow, I love my almost* fully upgraded Dual Intel 4,1 cheese grater Mac Pro, though so far I mostly use it for watching YouTube videos. I bought that thing from Goodwill for $129, and now it has 5,1 firmware, 96GB RAM, dual 3.33 GHz 6-core Xeon X5680, the WiFi card that supports Bluetooth and Airdrop and all that stuff I don't use (and it's in a far corner of the house anyhow), an RX580 card, and I think a USB 3.0 PCI card too.

*it's only missing the final 140 MHz or so step of the maximum X5690 3.47 GHz because that doubled the price of the CPU chips back when they cost real money, and I had to take the risk to de-lid them too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top