What the bleedin' 'ell has happened to pricing?!?!?!

[Jope]

Originally Posted by plasmab

Keyboards are like hens teeth though. Working ones anyways

Take an A500 keyboard + a hacksaw and a membrane from RWAP and you have an ample supply of A1200 keyboards. ;-)

[jediknight]

Originally Posted by Jope

Take an A500 keyboard + a hacksaw and a membrane from RWAP and you have an ample supply of A1200 keyboards. ;-)

is it possible really? why not just get pc keyboard converter and have it external ?

[plasmab]

That’s a solution but inevitably people will want the originals and that will push prices up

[Mr.Flibble]

I suspect that there is a new keyboard solution brewing somewhere over in a1200.net towers..

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by plasmab

That’s a solution but inevitably people will want the originals and that will push prices up

And the people who really want originals will get them, because prices are relatively still low.

OTOH if you just want a working A1200 then you can wire an A500 keyboard directly to the motherboard.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=37769

[ubermick]

I still maintain that there's gouging going on. I finally tracked down an A1200 - which I paid about 2x more than I paid last time, although it's coming recapped at least - and now looking for an accelerator card. Been eyeing the Individual ACA1233n since they're brand new and seem to be reviewed well (although why they didn't include a socket for the FPU is beyond me). I can get said card direct from Individual for €211 shipped to the USA brand new. To save a few quid I thought I'd look for a used one - found one that was about nine months old, and he wanted €225 plus another €40 shipping. When I showed him a screen grab of what I can get it for new, he lowered the price by €10 and then claimed what I was showing him was a scam, and that if I ordered it I'd never actually get it.

I'm seeing Blizzard 030s on ebay for ~$500 shipped. I've seen people called out on Amibay the past few days for buying stuff on there and trying to sell it back on there a month later at a markup.

It's all a bit sad, since I remember Amiga users being something of a brotherhood. Some were "better off" than others in terms of contacts and whatnot, but for the most part we all looked out for each other. As things dwindled, that came to the fore more. Now it seems like that's been infiltrated (like everything else I suppose) by people looking to get rich quick, and stuffing the "market" up completely.

[plasmab]

If you buy on eBay then you are correct. There are professional ebayers out there. Nothing to do with Amiga people. They buy cheap and sell as high as they possibly can

[scuzz]

I recall being on an Amiga forum back in 2008 and everyone was taking the p out of an old A500 banged up box with the name 500 scribbled out and replaced with 1200. I kinda sensed something was odd so I put a bid in for £25 and collected the computer. When I got it home not only was the box full of assorted goodies but inside the A500 was a Viper 520 CD.. You can read about it here.

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuz...ber18_0701.htm

Back then I would put bids in for £25 and £15 for assorted Amiga kit, a lot of it obviously broken and I have spent an age just getting it all working. Only yesterday I fitted yet another 2.5" internal drive that I got from China to an A1200 and she's had new keyboard, floppy drive and ROM but its taken me an age to get the computer back as almost new.

I have like over 30 Amiga 1200s that I have codged together from scraps. And I really have enjoyed every minute. I guess in truth the collection of all my retro gear from 2003-08 cost me over £30000 but when you consider I spent £2000 in the first two months of buying my first A1200 in 1993 and that was without the GVP Turbo that set me back £350. I mean monitors were over £300. Hard drives were a quid a MB back then. I was shelling out great sums of money. My first Win95 PC cost over £2000 in 1996.

And so buying an A1200 for £300 now is steep, but compared to say an accelerator in the day or a monitor or pretty much anything it really is worth every penny.

Ebay is all about 'Buy Now' and before anyone puts anything up for auction they just look at the going price for kit. The casual Bayers have all but gone. Its a shame that the concept of the auction dried up cus it was great fun. There are still rare things on Ebay that slip peoples attention. But if you want Elvira the Arcade Game with the poster you are gonna have to pay what the game was worth when it was first sold.

My first Amiga 1200 with 80MB hard drive cost me £550... and she's still here. Working every single day. As is her Microvitec monitor. So its was money well spent.

The days of cheap kit was I would say 2003-2008. I picked up an A1200 for £11 off Ebay and it came with a box of stuff. The Checkmate cost me £42 and that came with a room full of stuff. I don't think I ever put a bid in for an A500 over £25 and yet I finished up with 30 of them and most are boxed. Before Ebay I was on Amibench buying my A4000T for £750 and Apollo 060 for like £120 so prices definitely went down early in the new century.

I'm glad I bought when I did. I sense I was real lucky to get like over 100 Amigas. I even won a brand new unused Amiga 4000T metal outer case in its shipping box from Germany without the motherboard for a few quid. I recall picking it up and this young woman had it sitting on her table. She didn't know what it was. Lots of my items came from Germany and though risky I would wire cash to the sellers as there really wasn't PayPal.

I recall going to pick up an Amiga 2000 for like £15 and as I left this guy asked if I wanted an old Amiga tower. He then closed the door and behind the door was standing an Amiga 3000T. I said I really didn't come for another Amiga. He sold it me for £100 with the feet. My second cost me £320 and I had to go to Stoke to fetch it. On the way home I had been invited into a guys home and he gave me 'GAVE ME' an A2000 with GVP030 and three other Amiga 2000s with bridgeboards. Man it was a different world in those days.

Some of my rarest kit has been gifted. I was in a meeting at work and a lady had just lost her husband and she knew I collected so she wanted me to have this circuit board he had made. It was in a box of other items. When I peeled back the cover inside was a KIM-1 with all the books. And the box was original. I said I couldn't possibly take it, but she insisted. Like I say I have been so lucky.

One day when I pass away no doubt it'll all be dumped down the local tip. Never mind. That's the way of the world.

scuzz
http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog.htm