An item is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay... :)

[robespierre]

There are some things that are just objectively ridiculous:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Roland-sound-m ... 2976283212
This unit sells for $200-300 on any other day. Just being in mint condition doesn't make it worth ten times list price! And '80s nostalgia doesn't apply.

[ajw99uk]

No SGI machine will ever fetch this get this type of price though, as good examples of these machines are just too numerous.

They (or at least the premium models) did fetch that price, when SGI could build as many as they could sell at this type of price! Quite a few pricelists posted in these forums.

I will admit to a certain frisson on acquiring for a modest sum (or less) a machine that would have been completely out of reach when new, but that is transitory.

[ajw99uk]

I'm an Acorn guy at heart

8bit or ARM? Neither seems immune to some surprising (to a third party) pricing / buying. There's even a longrunning "LOLPRICE" thread on Stardot. That said, the rate of death-by-battery-damage among 1990's Acorns is steadily reducing the stock of working motherboards, and many a good part or peripheral will have been tossed along with them.

I wonder if high starting prices are sometimes a case of "But, my dear, I am TRYING to sell it, but nobody's buying at [ a price I am sure it should fetch / what I paid for it, plus inflation / what we need for that dream holiday ]." Or someone with plenty of attic space simply prepared to wait it out until a buyer stumps up.

[ajw99uk]

For example, almost every time an O2 is sold on eBay, unless it’s packed properly, ends up with broken plastics at its destination. Over time, their numbers are effectively reducing as a result, and this is bound to create a scarcity in the market, which will inevitably result in an increase in price.

It seems a real shame if the global stock of O2s is reducing on account of broken skins. There was a rackmountable "naked" version, from which I infer the machine will work without plastics, so where is the supply of (cheaper ) skinless O2s for those who just want the functionality? When I am spending time on the veteran/vintage kit at home, it's quite often running open-cased anyway (last night for example, a SCSI drive in an external box was not seen by the controller, so lids off to connect a ribbon from the internal plug), so fancy plastics get in the way. I appreciate for others, with different interests, the aesthetic aspect will be much more valuable - and maybe the O2 isn't the best example of a machine to preserve for its computing functionality!

[Irinikus]

It seems a real shame if the global stock of O2s is reducing on account of broken skins. There was a rackmountable "naked" version, from which I infer the machine will work without plastics, so where is the supply of (cheaper ) skinless O2s for those who just want the functionality?

Sadly to say, I think that usually, most of these machines with broken plastics are just parted out and the metal inner-cases discarded as refuse.

[mapesdhs]

No SGI machine will ever fetch this get this type of price though, as good examples of these machines are just too numerous

Hold that thought. Ya just never know with this stuff.

8bit or ARM?

Mainly 8bit. I do have some Arcs, but there's a point at which they lose my interest. I have a maxed-out Acorn Risc PC but it's not something I intend keeping. I have *a lot* of Beebs, Masters and Electrons.

I think I ref'd the pics of my collection earlier, but here's the link again: http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/vintage_Dec2012.zip

I wonder if high starting prices are sometimes a case of "But, my dear, I am TRYING to sell it, but nobody's buying at [ a price I am sure it should fetch / what I paid for it, plus inflation / what we need for that dream holiday ]." Or someone with plenty of attic space simply prepared to wait it out until a buyer stumps up.

Could easily be.

It seems a real shame if the global stock of O2s is reducing on account of broken skins. ...

IMO that's a very real effect.

... skinless O2s for those who just want the functionality? ...

The mbds end up getting sold on their own. After that, it's not worth keeping what's left.

Sadly to say, I think that usually, most of these machines with broken plastics are just parted out and the metal inner-cases discarded as refuse.

I've ended up doing that with dozens of systems.

A while ago I bought a batch of seven O2s, all but one were wrecked in transit by poor packaging.

Ian.

[Hakimoto]

Collecting, by it's very nature isn't rational!

That may sum up most of us here. But hey, it's fun!

I wholeheartedly agree with both of these statements!

[kramlq]

But then, that's my point, ridiculous is in the eye of the beholder. One might think someone is crazy for buying a very famous painting for $20M, but if they then sell it on for $25, well then not so crazy. Or if the painting is in some way very meaningful to them, and they can afford it, then nobody has the right to judge, it's their money. Who knows, maybe one of the high bidders was someone who worked on the original project. I think it's more likely though that this type of item has now simply matured into the category of being worthwhile investments. I know that many of the 80s tech items I bought a few years ago are now even on ebay selling for twice as much or more.

Ian.

Its pretty cool to buy an asset, enjoy it for a time and then sell it on at a profit you would struggle to match via traditional investments such as equities/bonds. Case in point:
A McLaren F1 road car in 1995 - UK £ 540,000.00
A McLaren F1 road car in 2017 - US $15,620,000.00

Even the owners manual goes for $5k nowadays, and the brochure goes for $500-1500.

[guardian452]

I have a bunch of brochures and manuals for the old Fisker Karma, I wonder if they'll be worth anything someday

[mapesdhs]

I have a bunch of brochures and manuals for the old Fisker Karma, I wonder if they'll be worth anything someday

I have a whole bunch of rare SGI manuals and books, leaving them for a while.

Sometimes this sort of thing is very small scale but equally unexpected. I once bought a bunch of 68pin SCSI cables for 25 quid total. Sat in storage for years, I'd misjudged the demand (thought I could sell 12-bay JBOD units to Octane owners). Then out of a blue a company gets in touch looking for exactly that same type of cable, lots of them; I sold the bag of cables for 500. Ya just never know.

Ian.