ENDING CPUS'S COLLECTION ERA?

[Guest]

Interesting, for some reason I thought I was on the younger end of the forum members. For those younger than I (36)

1) What got you started with collecting?
2) Do you have any chips older than yourself?

[edwardauskis]

Im 42 Where you "old wolfs"?

[Marcin]

30 here and there were younger than me I suspect the age range is between 20-70. I started 11 years ago so I was nineteen.

[Birdman.]

I'm 29 now and I got interested in die shots some years ago instead of CPU collecting.

Dropping prices would be very interesting for me because many interesting die shots may remain missing because those chips are above my budget. There's many very interesting chips like Weitek x86 FPUs, Chips SUPER386 & SuperMATH, IBM 386SLC, PA-RISC NS & PCX, microNOVA, Fairchild F944518, MK3850, VAX V-11 that have just always been above my budget together with too rare ones like custom mainframe CPUs. It's unfortunately difficult to find very rare chips in bad condition at scrap price, and I don't really have time to look for then either if I want to release die shots.

[edwardauskis]

[apa4]

as for me... It started as an idea for recycling.
But cpus were way too beautiful to get destroyed.
Than i found cpu-galaxy.at =) it was my first inspiration.

[g0b]

Some collector sell their collection... and other start collecting... It's hard to tell how many collector there are in the world, and what the trend is. I'm collecting for more than 10 years now and I don't think/feel interest in chip collecting is fading.

But it's clear the most expensive collecting is, the smaller the community. There are many stamps collector, but you can get 100 common stamps for 1 USD... For chips it's one common chip for one USD... And it you collect cars, it's much more expensive (thus even less collectors)

So increasing prices for chips is not such a good news as it could deter people from starting a collection due to high prices...

[edwardauskis]

[rjluna2]

I'm 52 years old

[debs3759]

I was 38 when I started collecting, 43 when I found the forums and am 53 now. My collecting priorities have changed several times (I now mostly collect high end chips from every x86 generation after 386, and graphics cards).

[xsecret]

I'm 35 yo.

Current CPU prices are still much much higher than what they used to be. I just found some old emails from 2005.

In 2005, I bought a Pentium II 266 MHz ES for $0.50 and a P2 300 MHz ES for $1.50. Also spent $9.95 for the NS486SXL25 ES. I bought a PPRO ES 1M from Genna for $30. On march 2005, John sold me a Rapid CAD set for $27 and a bunch of K6/K6-2 ES for $39. On April, 4th 2005, I declined an offer for a 386EXI SAMPLE. Seller wanted 90€ for it and I replied : "too expensive fo a not-that-rare chip.". Yeah, 386EXI SAMPLE used to be "common" in 2005. I thought 90€ for an old CPU was just insane...

Ten years later, I spent $400 for a Nexgen Nx586 ES. I knew that was expensive, but still a good investment. Err! As soon as you start thinking about "investment", you're screwed. I realized that I overpaid for a lot of chip. Without some good advises from John and Smithy, I would have bought a so-called iAPX432 ES last year, for more than $1000 ! Glad I finally declined...

I totally love both the 386 ES and 486 ES from Hugo on eBay right now, but I will not pay $300 or $500 for them anymore. I can afford these CPU, but that's definitely not fun. IMHO, spending $500 for a promising scrap lot (even if you finally just find a bunch of scrap inside) is way more exciting.

[jrmunro]

I guess I`m one of the older collectors at 62.
I started collecting in 2000 and found my way here in
Feb 2003.

[Guest]

This has been an interesting subject so far.

I started collecting around 2002 when I graduated college and had my first decent job but stopped after a year I would guess because of other interests and did not start up again until 2013 and joined here a year later. But from what I can recall I do think prices were a lot lower for some items. I wish I had stuck with it back then or found this forum.

[Guest]

Someday I'd like to do a tour in person of some of these very impressive collections if only some of you lived near me.

[bccwchan]

The price of cpus is not a commodity and don't have the fixed price. That's the fun for all collectors. (It means you may have chance to buy the C4004 below USD100 if you're lucky enough).

I believe the price of the common cpus will keep stable in the future and the uncommon/rare cpus will keep up and up after years and years. So I start to sell the common part of my collection to make room. (We will know the answer when we read this topic after ten years ).

PS: I'm 44 this year.