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Comment by rjsw | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if anyone is buying them at those prices though.

I collected a few machines when they were either being given away at work or nearly given away on eBay.

Computer prices are a bathtub curve for interesting computers. Very expensive at the start, then they're worthless garbage for 10-40 years, then prices start to rise. If it's not interesting, then they just stay worthless.

Examples:

- Supercomputer parts

- SGI, HP 9000, Sun SPARC machines and parts

- More esoteric UNIX workstations

- PDPs

- VAXen (how many complete cabinet-style VAXen still exist?)

- Apples

- Terminals (since almost all of these were tossed, these are surprisingly expensive even in bad condition)

And probably need to be in pretty mint condition and find the right buyers. Nothing I have is mint and I wouldn't even try to sell it. The minicomputer boards are from a once major minicomputer maker but very few people have probably even heard of them today.

Yes, I have a number of things on the parent list (e.g. UNIX workstations, deskside and rackmount VAXen, terminals) and I can't give them away.

Really? Looking at the asking prices on eBay, a VT100 terminal seems to go for many hundreds of dollars even in poor condition?

You wouldn't happen to have SUN 3 workstations?

VT100 has some demand; not later less iconic terminals. (Personally, I think I still have a few V2xx and a Wyse or two.) Many of these eBay listings are effectively permanent, from commercial resellers who are waiting for the rare case that some business somewhere really wants an exact replacement for an old system component that no one wants to risk changing.

I may still have a Sun 3/60 pizza box (as well as a Sparc or two), and maybe even keyboard and cables (one of the common problems — I've had people excited about a ‘free’ SGI Indy but they come to their senses when they realize it's a blue paperweight without time, money, and luck finding the ancillaries). Fortunately I found takers for my (three!) deskside Sun 3/160s about a decade ago. But even for a single pizza box, shipping has become a killer for non-local transfers (I'm outside US; SW Ontario).

I had not done an eBay search for "sold" items until now, some people seem to be paying high prices for Atari Falcon systems.

I have a SPARC Station 2, Ultra 1, Ultra 2 and a Macintosh Quadra 950 that all work and would maybe have resale value if I wanted to get rid of them.

Like the other poster wrote, it is time dependent.

The stuff that went into dumpsters in the 1990s can sell for thousands today on eBay. But in 30 years, they might be dumpster bound again.

I just double checked to make sure, and an Atari Falcon early 1990s 68030 CPU computer sells for around $3000 today.

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