I’m all in for this hobby. For years now I’ve been messing around with emulation, but now I’m thinking about building the 486 computer I dreamed of when I was a little boy.
Is it me or people on eBay are overpricing their stuff?! Like… “Here’s literal garbage, haven’t tested it, no guarantees, that’ll be 300$. Oh and by the way you’re gonna get screwed again with shipping costs.” Sigh…
I feel like there’s no way to get into the hobby unless you either break the bank or you know someone who’s got spares to give away or sell.
Kijiji in my country.
Some metro areas have businesses that sell technology from our past lives, like WeirdStuff in Sunnyvale (which, uh, closed five years ago … oops) or RE•PC in Seattle.
Also this is one of my excuses to hoard things.
Also check out shopgoodwill.com - it takes a while to find good searches (for this I like “vintage computer”) but there are often systems and parts on there. Right now I don’t see a 486 (though there often is) but I do see an Aptiva, XT clone, a couple of 386 laptops etc. You can also sometimes find parts, like if you do a search for “graphics card”, though you’ll have to go through the results yourself to find a good VLB card. Another good search for components is to go to the Computer Components category and search for “vintage”.
Prices are all over the place, just depends if someone ends up bidding against you. Even when that happens I don’t mind quite as much on there though since I figure at least the money is going to charity.
Just a couple years ago, I could have pointed you in the direction of some really good recyclers that could get you enough parts to build a fun 486 or Socket 5/7-style machine, if you weren’t too picky about what you got. Unfortunately now the supply has either dried up or the recyclers think their extreme budget clone parts are solid gold. The only time I find parts now is when I stumble across them at thrift stores or estate sales.
