[Irinikus]

Today I decided to scan eBay for the first time in quite a while, and was shocked to see the asking prices of the SGI's posted there!

Even Indy's are becoming expensive!

What are your thoughts regarding this?

[Raion]

Scalpers. You can still find bargains you just have to check daily, keep in mind how much an item is worth, and look out for the drops where you can über good gear for cheap.

[Irinikus]

Scalpers. You can still find bargains you just have to check daily, keep in mind how much an item is worth, and look out for the drops where you can über good gear for cheap.

I looked across the complete spectrum, I do agree that there are people who simply don't know what items are worth and hence ask ridiculous prices for them, however, the prices on average have risen considerably!

I do agree that bargains do come along from time to time, if you search for long enough.

[Intuition]

This happens with almost all limited items eventually. 

At first their value drops then over time, as they are perceived valuable, the price begins to rise.

With our little niche computers we have something which will gain in value over time from now on. 

It is starting to become difficult to find great conditioned SGI. Often keeping them alive with refurbished power supplies and printed sleds.

Ian, Mashek, have helped keep a steady supply in addition to whatever ridiculous offers are on Ebay.

But I expect them to start showing up more expensive on average. 

There will always be ridiculous offers from people who think they can charge original prices for them. But they'll just sit until the seller sees there are other items priced much lower.

[callahan]

If you think SGI's are expensive, search for an Alphastation! Even the old models, with very few redeeming qualities, start above $1,000!

[Raion]

Yeah I gave up with Alphas.

[Irinikus]

I was lucky enough to put my Alphastation 255 300 together for about 5 x 💶 (500 Euros), by buying up two non working machines and using parts from both to build up an almost perfect machine.

Such a machine currently sells on eBay for $4975, indicating that it’s probably best to do what I did, in buying up non working machines to build up a working one.

You just have to buy intelligently, as some non working machines are completely destroyed and will just end up by costing you.

[jan-jaap]

This happens with almost all limited items eventually. 

At first their value drops then over time, as they are perceived valuable, the price begins to rise.

Yeah, and it's nothing new really, except limited supply has been mostly a problem with big iron SGIs until recently. 

In the 2nd half of the nineties you get 4D PowerSeries for beer money. Everybody wanted a Crimson ("red fever") and nobody cared for the old SMP systems because they were brown and considered ugly. So I got them for cheap, but at the same time they are irreplaceable these days regardless of what I'd be willing to pay because there is simply nothing left. Now tell me what they're worth.

Many systems are basically never offered anymore, so there's no real baseline for their value. When was the last time you saw a Professional IRIS or an 68K IRIS for sale? If someone were to sell a Crimson today, you can hope they don't know what it is and price is as "useless junk for hobbyists", but you better jump on it quickly or someone else will, or the seller wises up and goes the "hey, people really want this, let's try $10K" way.

I pieced my own Crimson RE together some 15 years ago from a broken Crimson Elan, an Onyx RE2 and some misc bits kindly donated by / bought from Toby Jennings because an original Crimson RE for a halfway acceptable price simply didn't exist anymore, even then. And even at that time a Crimson was basically a fridge sized Indigo, a fragile toy and not very useful as a computer.

There will always be ridiculous offers from people who think they can charge original prices for them. But they'll just sit until the seller sees there are other items priced much lower.

Yup. The problem is that when the "overpriced" parts are the only thing that's left, their prices are no longer corrected by lower priced parts actually selling. Let's say I know nothing about SGIs and wanted to sell an IO4 for an Onyx on eBay. A couple of years ago, I might have looked at prices of closed/sold auctions and decided to price my item at say $50 or $100. Nowadays there is no history of sold items because none have been sold for a while, but there may be one that has been for sale for eternity at a price of $1000. Now guess how the person who knows nothing about SGIs will price his item.

Until recently, this has mostly been a problem for big iron SGIs because there was always a healthy supply of Indys, Indigos and Octanes. But this supply is drying up.

[Irinikus]

I was just perusing eBay and came across these!!!!!! (Madness everywhere!!!)

This is crazy:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SGI-TEZRO-Rack-...SwRn5dQQ34

Also madness:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SGI-Origin-2100...OSwAGxeKNO~

Absolute insanity:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SGI-Origin-200-...SwNNVeHMta

This one actually has two bids on it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Silicon-Graphic...SwVqpei4oE

This for an Indy!???

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Silicon...SwTeRebw-p

This one at least has a "make an offer" option!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-SGI-Sil...0008.m2219

[Raion]

I recommend just chilling out. The economy is taking a huge hit, so the tightwads will loosen their buttholes soon.