How much are 286,386, 486 & ps2's with an 8088 processor suppose to go for at auctions/garage sales etc? I was at the salvation army today and a working ps/2 with an 8088 processor had the ridiculous price of $75. I like tinkering with old pc's but I thought the price was a little insane. They act like you can still go into a store & buy software for these things. If it were not for the internet, I would not have any software for the older pc's I have. I think they believe just because the pc is in working order they should charge that price I guess. I dont know what the hell they are thinking. On the other hand I was looking in the thrifty nickel & found a 486dx2 tower pc for $20. The seller wanted $10 for the monitor & $10 for the computer & it came with the original Windows 95 CD. So how can some people charge so much for these ancient pc's?

$75 (usd i assume)is very high. i picked up a packard bell 486, 4mb ram, 200mb hd, for $8, works pretty good, i upgraded the ram to 8mb, everything works great, except for the power supplies fan, still trying to find a sutable replacment. the case/motherboard design is really screwed up, but otherwise its a nice dos system, a complement to my main system, based on NT. both networked, shared internet access, wfw 3.11 may be outdated for the internet, but it still kicks somewhat. it could be that they think that computers age well, and are worth allot of money, about the only computer i can see that is worth any money, is probably pre-war time computers, just from an history point of view. but todays computers, arent' even wrth the $1000+ you spend for them, becuase within a few months, its obsolete, and the wroth just goes straight down. not to say they are not usefull, but they are just not worth anything. my 5 year old pentium 2 system, is really kicking, with the newest version of windows nt. what can you do =)

I'm a veteran thrift store shopper and I can tell you what the problem is: ignorance. Many of the employees that work at thrift stores haven't a clue about computers. They don't know an XT from an AT or an ATX. All they know is that computers are expensive, hence, should sell for a high price. Yes, I've also seen an old 8088 priced for a ridiculous amount. Often, the price is based on the cosmetic appearance of the computer. I've seen beat up 486's selling for half the price of a clean XT 8088. On the other hand, a few thrift stores have employees that seem to understand the concept of outdated computers and reasonably sell older XT/286 computers for $20 or so.

I think you should buy it whenever you find a computer for $10 and a monitor for another $10 unless you have absolutely no place to store it. I am very much afraid IBM and Microsoft are trying to chase cheap computers off the market rather than to sell them. Remember that it all started about 1980 when IBM gave Bill Gates an incredible deal on the OS for their new computer. Even then they were coming into the market to run Commodore and Timex from the computing scene more than to sell computers. But the computer took off, and it has taken hard drives above 8.4 gigabytes to choke the growth off. Remember typing WIN? The next version of Windows may well load when WON is typed. But there will still be all those 386, 486 and Pentium One computers out there--the computers that work for a relative amateur. IBM has always been in the business of BUSINESS machines. So I would hoard vintage PCs a little. It is a junk yard maintenance kind of thing.

There is no doubt that this is overpriced, unless it was some "rare collectable" like maybe an Altair. Yes, most thrift stores are buried in ignorance. The St Vinnie's here gets 20.00 a pop for a "processor"--their word for "the box that looks like a computer" no matter WHAT it is. The best buy I found was a Belchard Pack 486 (66?) working, with 95/sound/CD, a 2400 (!) modem. I bought a NICE big tower case, just for the case (It takes an AT, not an ATX board, which I wanted) but it was a 386, what, 16? with about 4 megs of ram.

Here's a short list of my own Salvation Army experiences: (These are all priced wrong, in my opinion) 1. 33.6 Modem/speakerphone...$3.99 2. 2400 Baud External Modem...$75.00 3. NEC XP17-inch VGA monitor...$9.99 4. Epson LX-810 9-pin printer....$100.00! 5. 13-inch badly burnt VGA Monitor 40.00 6. XT-type computer (no monitor or KB)..$50.00 Obviously, I bought #1 and #3. Anyway, the bottom line is, I guess, visit often to grab the good deals, and ignore the rest. As for what they "should" go for, I can add that I've passed up plenty of opportunities to buy PS/2's, 286's. &386's for $5 to $20.00 at the typical school auction. 486's seem to range anywhere from $50 on down.