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Why the bleep is eBay so expensive??

I think most of us here are guilty of that.. We just didnt know in the 90's.

I wonder about this regarding technology in our time. It's really hard to imagine that anyone will want <something on your desk that is not vintage> in 20-40 years, but since we do for things that were produced 20-40 years ago, will they? Maybe an interesting discussion for another thread?
 
We are seeing it now. People are talking about pentium 3 and I cant believe it but Pentium 4's on here. I still consider them junk.
But yes, its a possibility. I dont however see hobbyists repairing P4 multi layer SMD boards though.. I really dont.
 
Buy It Now prices are more likely to be inflated now that many sellers are offering private discounts to anyone who puts the item in their watch list and lets it sit there for a while.

Also remember that eBay always reports an item as being sold for its full Buy It Now price even if the seller accepted a best offer or offered a discount to the buyer. So if you list an item with a price of $500 and then accept a best offer of $100 on it, the eBay listing will falsely report it as being sold for $500. This inflated the perceived value of many items when sellers look up the values of previous sales and then use that as a basis for their new listings.
 
We are seeing it now. People are talking about pentium 3 and I cant believe it but Pentium 4's on here. I still consider them junk.
But yes, its a possibility. I dont however see hobbyists repairing P4 multi layer SMD boards though.. I really dont.
Sometimes it's frightening to consider how much time is going by and how old some of this 'not yet old enough to be vintage' stuff actually is. There are legal adults who were not born when the first Pentium 4's were first introduced. My first brand new laptop which I got in 2003 (a Toshiba A30-something) was a Pentium 4. It is now 18 years old. I still have it and it still works but I haven't used it as my daily laptop in over 10 years. I was holding onto it for sentimental value (not like it had any monetary value) but then I'm wondering if that is starting to turn. I've got a shelf full of boring Dell/HP Core 2 Duo desktops (and one Core 2 Quad which was my daily driver until about 5 years ago). Hardly vintage - a load of that sort of hardware is still in front line use - but they are actually getting quite old now, and I am holding on to them with a view that they might be tomorrow's retro machines. They might be 10 a penny now, but if people keep shipping them off to recyclers when replacing hardware then eventually they will become rare.

I don't know whether there will truly be the same level of interest in this sort of hardware as PCs have largely become generic commodities rather than specific models being sought after, but anything that can be collected, will be. There will be someone who prides themselves on collecting a working example of every 00's Dell Optiplex SFF machine ever made and if you just happen to have the one on the shelf which they are looking for in a world where they have become rare then it will be worth something to that person.

Although that said, there is always room for sentimentality. Even in the mid 90s PCs were similarly commoditised but I'd still pay a premium to own an AST Advantage 7301 (or similar such as 7302/3) for no other reason than I used to own one which I got brand new and would like to again as I always loved that machine (still to this day have the AST-branded mousemat that came with it). Even though it's just a fairly dull and generic mid-90's Pentium I machine of which I already have several other examples at similar spec.
 
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I dont care how good you are and how well stocked your electronics bench is. I really think its unlikely hobbyists will be repairing VLSI IC's on Pentium 3 or 4 boards in 2038.... They were meant to be thrown out. For that matter if there is a serious system board problem on a 120Mhz Toshiba Libretto how far can you take it to fix the issue?
 
There is a ton of inventory available for cheap if you spend time trawling and using many different key words in your search. Plus doing this daily for weeks on end will yield a lot of results. Simply a matter of return in investment. IMO. There is also a huge world outside of eBay (OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, forums and on and on the list goes). Good luck and have fun.

There is also a significant amount of R&D and production of obscure technology and/or emulation out there compared to 10 years ago. So IMO there is not really an issue.
 
offerup and letme go have been HORRIBLE. Why? its geared towards young people who only use their phone and are non committal. I replied to DOZENS of ads and many times I said "yes Ill take it, where can we meetup?" And they just make excuses and excuses and never want to actually do anything about selling it. Its like they never really wanted to , in the first place. Forget asking them to ship!
 
BIOSTAR MB-1212V VLSI AT MOTHERBOARD W/ 286-12MHZ CPU + 1MB RAM
$400+$24 shipping
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BIOSTAR-MB-1212V-VLSI-AT-MOTHERBOARD-W-286-12MHZ-CPU-1MB-RAM-/123543534170

rofloffer.png
Oh, wow! What a great offer, $319.99, a whole $80 off!

...of a random clone 286 motherboard with no ram, and no good close-up to see if there is corrosion around the battery. Well, at least they do make a big deal about a warranty.

I dunno, I kind of need to pay my health insurance bill.
 
I just wait for a good price. There isn't much you can do sadly. That's what I do and I can find some gems, though nothing that is too big, shipping to Canada is sooooo expensive. The shipping is usually the same price as the part I want, so I cannot buy that and I do need that money to live, so yeah, ebay is a no for me when it comes to anything too big.
 
eBay always reports an item as being sold for its full Buy It Now price even if the seller accepted a best offer or offered a discount to the buyer. So if you list an item with a price of $500 and then accept a best offer of $100 on it, the eBay listing will falsely report it as being sold for $500. This inflated the perceived value of many items when sellers look up the values of previous sales and then use that as a basis for their new listings.

How is reporting $500 when it sold for $100 not illegal?
 
I find it hillarious when I get these. I watch some items just because I am curious, if they will sell and for how much. When I get these emails I always get the impression "nope! Its not gonna sell!"
 
How is legally tying up other all competitors in court not illegal? Regardless, its what they do and have been doing.
 
There is a ton of inventory available for cheap if you spend time trawling and using many different key words in your search. Plus doing this daily for weeks on end will yield a lot of results. Simply a matter of return in investment. IMO. There is also a huge world outside of eBay (OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, forums and on and on the list goes). Good luck and have fun.

Facebook Marketplace is where I have had my most significant successes in searching. My theory is that (1.) I am in competition only with others in my local geography, (2.) many people post things there for free because they just want to see someone appreciate it and make use of it instead of scrap it, (3.) if it is someone picking it up, the seller doesn't have to bother with packing or shipping at all.

There is also a significant amount of R&D and production of obscure technology and/or emulation out there compared to 10 years ago. So IMO there is not really an issue.

Yes, thank goodness for the programmers and entrepreneurs behind GOG.com! Otherwise, we'd be stuck using only vintage hardware to play Sierra games and tran.exe.
 
Wow, 29 replies and 415 thread views in less than 24 hours! I must have struck a relatable nerve with everyone!
 
Wow, 29 replies and 415 thread views in less than 24 hours! I must have struck a relatable nerve with everyone!

No, just really bored. :sleepy:

In all seriousness, this is a topic that touches all of us, especially those of us that are hobbyists who use and play with our old computers and do not collect for the sake of collecting. It was not long ago that I bought my pdp11 hardware. Today it would cost me many times what I previously payed.
 
You would have to thank LGR and 8-Bit (1-Byte) Guy for getting the prices driving up a long stretch.

I was lucky to get the Compaq Portable 1 for $133 + S&H and taxes and there's one going for $2,500 ($1,090 under the original 1982 price) that is fully functional and in mint condition. Mine ain't in the best shape, but it's certainly getting a lot of detailing and repairs that are cheap to fix.
 
You would have to thank LGR and 8-Bit (1-Byte) Guy for getting the prices driving up a long stretch.
Why? Because they talk about these old hardware and have a large audience? I agree that probably for a short time after they release a new video prices on that item go up - but not in the long run. It's not much different to showing stuff in forums like this to a larger audience. You may catch some people who think: "wow, I need one of that".
 
If you were in an urgent to sell stuff in order to pay bills, you'll most likely offer it for a very low price so that it sells fast, because you gain nothing if no one buys because of a too-high price. But this was also the case before the pandemic. In Germany, we even have the word "Mondpreise" (lit. prices as high (or far away) as the moon) for that. :D
 
My experience with Offerup and Mercari has been pretty good. Even Facebook Marketplace. You just have to manage it very tightly. When buying I have gotten what I ordered each and every time. Same with selling. However: with selling I am very straightforward: I ask for a pickup one hour from when they respond: in case they do not reply or come up with stories I immediately block them: case closed. Keeps it very manageable.
 
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