Where to go for retro computer gear?

[beanzontoast]

Been reminiscing with my son about the two Amigas we had (600 and 1200 - both with hard drives) and the C64... which either broke, got given away years back when my lad moved on or didn't survive in storage. I have a hankering to try to replace them now we have a bit more space (and time!) in order to relive a few old classics in a non-emulation manner.

Apart from Ebay where there seem to be loads at all kinds of prices and conditions and where PayPal (which I don't use) seems widespread, anyone who's into retro computing know of other sources? Would they turn up in general auctions, for instance? Do they appear at car boot sales?

 

[HLaB]

I can't vouch for any of them but for things like that I usually try Google Shopping

Had to laugh though the first seller want £245 for the C64 and a few other sellers just want £80

 

[Bman]

Trying to source old P1 motherboards convinced me to give in to the emulator/virtual machine alternative.

Running full screen, with a joystick... whats the difference

I play all my amstrad, sega, nintendo and playstation games, on my pc.

 

[theloafer]

i think my bro still has his Amiga was the 500 though will find out if you want

 

[MrGrumpy]

lol got an Amiga 1200 with accelerator board and 200mb HD in loft and software. For retro PC stuff, we still have machines in some or mail centres running on 386 and 486s. They have old scsi HDs in them which are near imposssible to get now, just as well all our new stuff is dual core intels and PPC controllers. Oh how things have changed, not that long ago we had to load one machine with a program on ticker tape !!!

 

[beanzontoast]

I can't vouch for any of them but for things like that I usually try Google Shopping

Had to laugh though the first seller want £245 for the C64 and a few other sellers just want £80

+1. As much as I love the old stuff, we're talking 25-30+ years old used goods and if you're intending to use it rather than just own it as an ornament, there's a risk in buying old gear which should be factored into the price IMO.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

You can pick things up at a car boot but it's down to chance whether someone has what you're looking for. You could try freecycle.

If it's to play then emulaters are very good. I hsd a spectrum one many years ago. It cost around £10 and included more games than I ciuld want to play. You can speed the game up if it's slow going too.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

lol got an Amiga 1200 with accelerator board and 200mb HD in loft and software.

An old flatmate had a similar setup. Spent what for us seemed like a small fortune. He put the maximum RAM he could in it and ran a PC emulator on it !?!? Refused to buy a PC for a long time.

 

[beanzontoast]

You can pick things up at a car boot but it's down to chance whether someone has what you're looking for. You could try freecycle.

Haven't been to one in ages, but what I noticed was the way the toys / techno gear in particular that people were selling had moved on a generation - always seems to be a point at which parents decide to de-clutter I think, and what they have on their table is very much of an 'era'. Nowadays it seems to be 1990's / 2000's stuff they are getting rid of very often. So I'm wondering if there might still be some Commodore stuff about at the car boot, but maybe not in the quantities of 10 years ago. May give it a go - nothing to lose in looking.

 

[beanzontoast]

i think my bro still has his Amiga was the 500 though will find out if you want

Cheers for the offer, but I think we'd want to go with a 600 or 1200 so we had the same machine we used to have, if you see what I mean.