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Ridiculous eBay prices.


/tilted/

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I just saw a SID 8580 sell on eBay for (drumroll)...

25.50 Euro!

Just the chip, no mainboard, PSU or anything else. -No guarantee it works, either!!

So far I've bought 10 C64s, at an average of $10-30 AU (6-18 Euro) generally with about 2.5 joysticks, a swag of games (and gamez), tape drive, disk drive, psu, anything else the seller wanted to throw away...

Am I just lucky? Is it possible the 25.50 goes toward the cost of storing all that other garbage? I know I've now got a storage shed with a heap of graveyard parts.

Has anyone else seen madness on eBay?

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yeah, it's depressing. seven or eight years ago i was passing up almost full systems for maybe $10-20 after getting a few of them. now they are nowhere to be found in the thrift shops, and i can't see paying all that on ebay especially when there's usually more junk involved that i need. shipping can get real expensive on this stuff.

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They're charging that much for a SID because of the apparent scarcity... people building MB-SID or stocking their Prophet64 or HardSID are all driving the price up... especially 6581s which were up around $40 AU sometimes.

I also have noticed the scarcity of the C64 stuff... I was able to pick up a few with missing keys or just the box (no PSU) for under $20 AU... eventually I gave up on salvaging and found new old stock SIDs, which I've sold on the forum some months ago. Getting one C64 isn't bad value if you're going to reuse the PSU, power socket, switch, case and the SID... but it could get expensive if you're trying to put together an 8xSID box like me  ;D

/tilted/, are you another Aussie MB-SID builder like stryd_one, dcer10 and myself?

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/tilted/, are you another Aussie MB-SID builder like stryd_one, dcer10 and myself?

Indeed.

Melbourne.

-Mind you, until I clear a little space, and make a little time, I wouldn't say I'm a "builder" yet... ;) more of a dreamer, although I am doing a little design work working on integrating the DIN, DOUT and interfacing componentry required for a MBSID into a 3U front panel PCB (using expressPCB), and figuring out a matching panel (using schaeffer).

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There are bargains though: just before Christmas I picked up 7 C64's wiithout PSU's for £25, all working, and I got 4 later and 3 earlier units. I did have to desolder one SID.... I've figured out a trick to mount a temporary ZIF socket to my Mk1 MIDIbox SID board, so I can use it as a SID tester.

A thought: if you are going rely on Your SID system for performance work, make sure you have some spares! Several user of Prphet 84's have reported blowing the chips, though I suspect that is due to faulty stage earthing. If I ever take mine live, I'm going to add some transformer outputs.

Mike

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Look... I just got what I believe as 2 6581's for ... 1 was 10.50 usa. with no power supply.. and another was 28.00 usa. I"m only doing a 2 sid synth anyway so... total invested so far 38.50. No biggie. Peace!

Do you guys like the 6581's or the 8580's? The sid will be going thru my Frac Modular of Doom and a sherman filterbank anyway so..... just wondering. I dont feel like buying 5 more sids' to distinguish getting one of each chip, you know? THanks guys!

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Had an Akai S3000XL lying around. Tought I'd rip out the interior to bang in a PC to take on the road with me (I needed a 2U ravkmount case). Threw all of its bits and pieces on eBay and made €250!! The unit itself wouldn't sell for €120. So you see, sometimes old junk is less than the sum of it's parts!!

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Yup, that´s right. Actually I´m only trying to sell stuff on Ebay and only buy stuff if I really can get some pay-off. Like in the beginning of ebay you saved about 50% of the original price - nowadays you have to spent 50% more than the new price with some stuff!

-> Enough stupid people with enough money still out there! ;D

But it´s really like that, if you look up the price for let´s say mobile phones, digital cameras or other similar stuff you can be 99% sure that you´ll get it a lot cheaper by a small froogle search than *USED* on Ebay.

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for some reason i've never thought to use froogle.  i was about to go to guitar center to buy an m-audio axiom 25 for $180 (some were selling it new for $200+ on ebay), and i found it for $150 brand new and shipped on froogle.  thanks!

i'm afraid to type in "roland v-synth xt".  i got $1000 off what sweetwater sells for a new one at ebay, but who knows...

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But it´s really like that, if you look up the price for let´s say mobile phones, digital cameras or other similar stuff you can be 99% sure that you´ll get it a lot cheaper by a small froogle search than *USED* on Ebay.

That's the best way to use ebay - keep a google window open to check prices. A 5% discount on the new price is never worth the hassle of no guarantee or service.

There is a lot of 'macho bidding' too - people who don't quit when they should, for entirely wrong reasons. I just put up my max and walk away from the computer. If you do a little 'completed item' research, you can get an idea of what is a reasonable top bid.

Mike

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