The ever-increasing prices of vintage computer parts on the internet...

[RetroHospital]

Anything between 1980 and 2000 roughly 8086->Pentium era, mostly toshiba, compaq, and also apple (PB100->G4).

 

[3lectr1c]

I’m very surprised that you haven’t run into more brittle machines then, especially the Apple stuff.
Toshiba is hit or miss. Some models are still solid while others fall apart. My 430CDT is still doing fine, but my Tecra 500CDT is falling apart and cracking all over.
Compaq is overall pretty solid with some exceptions.
Apple on the other hand… the 100 Series PowerBooks are usually not brittle, but the plastic does shrink which cracks all the screw posts. Not the same as brittle plastic disease though and easy to repair. The Sony-built PowerBook 100 is far more resistant to this shrinkage and is the only one that id truly consider to be rock solid still. Later models though like the 500 series, 190/5300 series, 1400 series, 3400 series are all brittle.

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

I’m very surprised that you haven’t run into more brittle machines then, especially the Apple stuff.
Toshiba is hit or miss. Some models are still solid while others fall apart. My 430CDT is still doing fine, but my Tecra 500CDT is falling apart and cracking all over.
Compaq is overall pretty solid with some exceptions.
Apple on the other hand… the 100 Series PowerBooks are usually not brittle, but the plastic does shrink which cracks all the screw posts. Not the same as brittle plastic disease though and easy to repair. The Sony-built PowerBook 100 is far more resistant to this shrinkage and is the only one that id truly consider to be rock solid still. Later models though like the 500 series, 190/5300 series, 1400 series, 3400 series are all brittle.

Not just laptops and consumer projects, my SPARCStation 10 case which was not an inexpensive computer in 1992 is somewhere between dried playdough and dried sea weed. Wish I'd known how fragile they are before I started manhandling it (although it already had a few cracks).

 

[3lectr1c]

Oh of course, it affected most things ABS of the time, desktops very much included. It's just less damaging on those since it's less structurally integral in most cases.

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

Oh of course, it affected most things ABS of the time, desktops very much included. It's just less damaging on those since it's less structurally integral in most cases.

How does PBT hold up? I went with PBT keycaps for the mechanical keyboard I built knowing it's a little bit soft. Maybe that's a good thing.

 

[NeXT]

I mainly just blamed the price hikes on speculative sellers. Much like thrift shopping, it went to the dogs during COVID with folks who realized they could find old things, shift the decimal and they could leave it on FBM until someone well invested but stupid enough to bite came along. They don't NEED to drop the price.
Is there money to be made? Absolutely. Is it ethical to exploit buying E-waste for its weight and using a dart board to determine the price because you know someone's gonna watch the latest LGR and say "wow! I want that too!". I don't accept to it, no.
The side-effect I find with this kind of speculative dealing is that both you enter into a feedback loop where the list price becomes the reference for other items and unsold stock doesn't go Last Chance. It's "not worth the effort" to take $50 on an item that's been listed for $400 for six months that they bought as part of a $3000 lot consisting of 4 tons of E-waste palletized and it's straight off to recycling for a few dollars in yield. THIS is what drives the scarcity.
from PLC and industrial suppliers it's likely more that they've now shifted into a support window that now more caters both to people like us AND industry. It's like how Facit paper tape punches and readers have never gone down in price. You aren't fighting Jolly B. Dum for the thing. You were against Lorenz Industrial Manufacturing who either had to pay $23000 for a paper tape simulator, or $1800 for one on ebay.

 

[Unknown_K]

Somebody would make a killing if they could dump ewaste machines down a shoot that took good 360 degrees pictures of the item and listed it on a website with no human interaction needed. Once on the website anything with above minimum views would get listed on ebay while the rest gets turned into razor blades.

 

[TH2002]

What Tecra would a SP400 series battery work in? I know the 430CDT battery won't fit in my Tecra 500CDT. In any case, if you have one that works and would fit a 430CDT, I'd totally take it.

My mistake, off the top of my head I thought the Satellite and Tecra laptops used the same batteries. The extra one I have is only for the Tecra laptops. Sorry...

Oh of course, it affected most things ABS of the time, desktops very much included. It's just less damaging on those since it's less structurally integral in most cases.

It's not even limited to computers - I've seen many things made from 90's ABS plastic that is now falling apart. Power strips, picture frames, outlet and lightswitch covers, flashlights... you name it.

Now if only such plastic was as durable as was used on 70's Commodore calculators...

 

[3lectr1c]

The extra one I have is only for the Tecra laptops. Sorry...

Well I’ve also got a Tecra 500CDT that’s missing the battery, so that could potentially work as well!

 

[TH2002]

Well I’ve also got a Tecra 500CDT that’s missing the battery, so that could potentially work as well!

Alright, cool. I'll get around to testing its capacity tomorrow. Not only do I have the extra battery but I also have a complete Tecra 500CDT I'm willing to part with. PM if you're interested.

 

[RetroHospital]

You'll all think I'm crazy but really it is, over here, extremely rare to find anything with that brittle plastic problem. Computers or otherwise.
For sure, taking apart the LCD screen bezel of a toshiba satellite is difficult without breaking the tabs ( they were probably way softer in their prime ) but I haven't seen anything like the entire case turned into a puzzle of plastic chunks like I see from some pictures.

I have no proof of that but I really believe this problem is more common in hot places, and obviously, so is yellowing.

The one thing that is very common is the sticky plastic problem ( affecting eg logitech squeezebox ), every plastic that was supposed to be matte finish is now sticky like glue.

 

[Mr.Amiga500]

I have noticed that estate sale resellers will often accept "lowball" offers because their items are so overpriced to begin with. Quite a few times I have offered 50% and they accepted directly without even a counteroffer. If I see a seller has items in every category, I never feed bad about making a low offer.

I've never understood why some sellers - usually Americans - get horribly offended when you make an offer which they consider "lowballing". Who even invented that stupid term? I've had sellers ban me from buying their items after I made an offer of 60% of what they were asking.

It says, "make an offer", so why get offended because the offer is lower than expected? Just refuse the offer or counter-offer. No need to get offended.

I've done plenty of 50% offers with European sellers that have been accepted with no problem - but with Americans I always have to worry... will he get offended?

 

[3lectr1c]

Alright, cool. I'll get around to testing its capacity tomorrow. Not only do I have the extra battery but I also have a complete Tecra 500CDT I'm willing to part with. PM if you're interested.

I don't really need two of them, unless yours is somehow less brittle than mine is.

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

I've never understood why some sellers - usually Americans - get horribly offended when you make an offer which they consider "lowballing". Who even invented that stupid term? I've had sellers ban me from buying their items after I made an offer of 60% of what they were asking.

It says, "make an offer", so why get offended because the offer is lower than expected? Just refuse the offer or counter-offer. No need to get offended.

I've done plenty of 50% offers with European sellers that have been accepted with no problem - but with Americans I always have to worry... will he get offended?

Sellers with this kind of attitude problem are all too common. They are able to set minimum offers if they want. It's the "I know what I have" syndrome - yeah you have a piece of junk and you are getting an offer to buy it at what someone considers reasonable for a piece of junk.

Lot: Naked well-used Barbie with no hair and GI Joe figure missing one arm with partially melted head. NO LOWBALL OFFERS, I KNOW WHAT I HAVE.

 

[DeltaDon]

How does PBT hold up? I went with PBT keycaps for the mechanical keyboard I built knowing it's a little bit soft. Maybe that's a good thing.

PBT is closely related to PET which is the plastic used for water and soda bottles. AFAIK, it's a long lasting plastic and doesn't react with much and so I think it should last quite well.

 

[wrljet]

Sellers with this kind of attitude problem are all too common. They are able to set minimum offers if they want. It's the "I know what I have" syndrome - yeah you have a piece of junk and you are getting an offer to buy it at what someone considers reasonable for a piece of junk.

Lot: Naked well-used Barbie with no hair and GI Joe figure missing one arm with partially melted head. NO LOWBALL OFFERS, I KNOW WHAT I HAVE.

We sold my wife's childhood Barbie, an early one, on eBay for well over $500 about 15 years ago.

 

[DeltaDon]

If anyone needs mid -'90's to early 2000's laptop drives such as CD drives, early DVD drives plus floppy drives then I have a lot of them in NOS condition from when I had a laptop business. They've been stored in temperature controlled conditions, but floppy drive belts are 20 to 30+ years old even if new. I sell at reasonable prices. I also still have a few unconfigured NOS Green 753 Socket 5/7 Pentium laptops still sealed in the factory shipping boxes.

 

[TH2002]

Speaking of 'if anyone needs [insert item here]'...

So, back to the reason I started this thread in the first place - the Zenith SuperSport 286e arrived today. The seller listed it for "parts or not working" so no surprise that it doesn't do anything when I try to power it on. Took it apart, and the insides of the thing are just covered in rust - there's also what appears to be moisture damage on the stickers covering the EEPROM chips. The mainboard otherwise looks to be in surprisingly decent shape with the circumstances considered, but I'm not going to investigate it further. I scavenged the HDD from the Zenith - it is indeed the Conner CP-3044 I needed, and fortunately the drive escaped the same fate as the rest of the computer. Opened it up (making sure to be extra careful this time) to see that the drive magnet was covered in the same disgusting, disintegrating rubber as the magnet on the original drive from the Toshiba laptop. This stuff is sticky, smears literally everywhere and remains visible on your hands even after washing them several times, so I just replaced it with the magnet that I already cleaned from the original drive.

The T3100e/40 is back in working order, folks! It now boots into a program used to collect data from weather stations, which not only unleashes the weather weenie inside of me but also gives some clues into how the Zenith laptop ended up in such bad condition. Obviously, exiting the program just exits into a standard installation of MS-DOS 4.01.

Unfortunately, I think repairing the Zenith is outside of my ability (assuming it's even repairable) and I have no further use for it. If someone wants it, I'll give it to you for free if you pay shipping (US only please).

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

We sold my wife's childhood Barbie, an early one, on eBay for well over $500 about 15 years ago.

I assume it wasn't filthy and cut up and had its hair removed. That's what I mean, the lottery-win sellers will see something in a category worth a lot (vintage computers, barbies, whatever) and without any reason just take a chance that their junk pile find is also worth that much.

 

[Bruce Tomlin]

My G3 "Pismo" Powerbook basically fell apart inside in about 2-3 years of use, yes, back in the '00s when it was new. All the little plastic posts in the case (that the motherboard was mounted to) broke off.