Uncreative Labs

Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 62

Is it my imagination is old computers becoming harder to find? In my area the lowest system I can find at a thrift shop is a Pentium II or Pentium III, which I can find for $30 USD or less. I can't seem to find any XTs, ATs, 386, 486 class systems. I will occassionally spot a Tandy 1000, but there is no keyboard for it or monitor. I look on eBay, sure I can find plenty of old computers but the sellers want a fortune for them. There is no way I would pay $300-$500 USD for an old cruddy yellowed 386 computer from some computer recycler on eBay. Heck, I'm even finding Commodore 64 computers sell for upwards of $50 USD on eBay and thats just for the unit and maybe a power brick. Surprisingly people are paying those prices. Heck, back in 1997 I could go to any local thrift and pick one of those up for $5 to $10 USD.

It seems like everyone wants vintage hardware and are willing to pay big bucks for it.

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 594 Location: Western NC

Depends I guess on where you live. I've got a ton of 386's/486's sitting around and can't give them away (though I have fun tinkering around....)

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

as far as I can tell nobody, except a few has any interest
I guess I will sort my old stuff and prepare to sell it 9 someday)
thing is: I am under pressure to trash it all.
One thought for all the 286.386, 486 and early pentium, mb
list on ebay for $1.99 and make $4.00 on the shipping. tho that type of deal offends me.

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

There are collectors for that stuff, if the price is dirt cheap and local or you have a complete system for DOS gaming and the buyer is local.

I have seen system sell for $100+ but that is a rarity and most do not sell. Most people who grew up in the DOS era probably have an old rig leftover or grabbed one on freecyle to relive the old days. Most people who never worked in DOS have no desire to try it now. I think it is just retro for kids to play the old classics and they are used to $100+ consoles so they might pay $100+ for an old DOS machine setup and loaded with games.

Getting rid of one motherboard on ebay is no big deal, if you have a stack be prepaired to spend a long time selling them.

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

wdegroot wrote:

as far as I can tell nobody, except a few has any interest
I guess I will sort my old stuff and prepare to sell it 9 someday)
thing is: I am under pressure to trash it all.
One thought for all the 286.386, 486 and early pentium, mb
list on ebay for $1.99 and make $4.00 on the shipping. tho that type of deal offends me.

Have any decent 386 AT motherboards (with pin sockets for a FPU)?

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

I sold one complete 386 for $75
they are looking for an other
only requirement an acceesibel 387 socket as they are using the system to test 387 chips.
I will put together this syste, soon
but the truck broke and we cannot travel the 100 miles to deliver it
we go that way anyway.

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

Unfortunately ebay is such that it isn't an auction anymore, I can list something cheap and no one bids but a power seller will list it high and wait and it sells for 10x my list rate, that just happened on a THinkjet portable I just tried to sell on ebay for $10, they are very rare but oddly the regular jobbers are selling for $30-$60, yet I list no one bids and then I get a bunch of people after the auction bothering me, why didn't they just bloody bid?

Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Lynnwood,WA

Old computers, (as in 8088-486) are still not a hot commodity within my circles and so fourth locally. There's quite a few stores that still get the occasional computer of that era (in the past 3 years alone I've pulled up at least 4-6 8088-486 based machines).

Most of the people I work with make fun of me for having such old hardware in my possession, as most of it is redundant being as there is Virtual PC and DOSbox now. Sometimes though, there's just nothing like having a good ole keyboard with alps keyswitches, a case with real floppies, and an old EGA display to make things feel authentic.

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:34 pm

creeping, can you point me in your direction? i live in wa aswell, and can travel to your location, everett wa. i'm looking for 8088-486 machines

Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Lynnwood,WA

k2x4b524p wrote:

creeping, can you point me in your direction? i live in wa aswell, and can travel to your location, everett wa. i'm looking for 8088-486 machines

I have a few machines I'm looking to let go of....here's a list....

1991 AST Premium 386 - Needs CMOS Battery but otherwise works
- 386 SX-25
- 10MB of RAM
- DOS 6.22/WFWG 3.11
- BIOS Has automatic hard disk configuration (!!!)
- 124MB and 400(?) Megabyte IDE Hard Drives
- 1.2 & 1.44M Floppies
- On-board VGA Video
- Upgradeable to 486, downgradeable to 286, active backplane system

1988 IBM PS/2 Model 30
- 8086 @6 MHz
- 640K RAM
- 20 MB HDD
- PC-DOS 3.31
- MCGA Video (VGA Connector, Maximum colors 256 @ 320X200)
- Still has packing card in drive
- Rear slot covers still in tact

1984 Tandy 1000 EX
- 8088 @ 4.77 MHz
- 640K RAM
- 360X Floppy X1
- 2400 Baud Modem Card
- PC Jr. Video & Sound

I might have more in time, I have some 486 guts that are in a tower case right now, but I might transplant them into an older Desktop chassis (might set it up like my current hot-rod box, and I think there may be more, plus I have some old Mac stuff.

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:55 am

Awesome, i'd probably be interested in the ps/2 and the 1000 ex
let me know when, perhaps this weekend maybe?
and what, if anything do you want for them?

Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Lynnwood,WA

k2x4b524p wrote:

Awesome, i'd probably be interested in the ps/2 and the 1000 ex
let me know when, perhaps this weekend maybe?
and what, if anything do you want for them?

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