It has to do with people wanting what they could not afford when younger, but also this particular stuff is also getting harder to find in good working condition.
I got into this hobby because I wanted to play around with video capture hardware I was reading about back in the early to mid 1990's (magazines I had subscriptions to). So in 2001 I think it was I purchased a 950 to setup. While looking at what parts I needed to do video I decided to spend $150 for a PM8500 and then spent a few hundred more on upgrades to run OS 9 well (G3-400, 256MB RAM, ATA/66 card, UltimateRez video). I had never touched a mac before but it seemed like a cool way to get into all the editing systems I read about in the 90's which were mostly mac based. From there I started putting together old 386/486 systems for playing DOS games and buying up more video editing cards and mac systems.
During the 2001- 2005 or so period I picked up plenty of old PC, mac, Commodore, Amiga, Atari St, IIgs stuff for very little money. Then I noticed Amiga hardware started to cost a lot more, a couple years later IIgs hardware went from being free to people actually wanting it. Now old 68K macs seem to be going up in price as well as old PC gaming cards. Even the old Thinkpads I started collecting a year ago now have multiple bids. So here I am wondering why everything I collect seems to get more expensive. Are more people my age starting to collect as a hobby? Are younger people with money and no patience starting to bid against each other? Has everyone gone recycling crazy and the supply is not meeting demand? Or has everyone who got in early just hoarded all the good stuff and there is nothing left for new collectors? How long will this upward price trend last? Is computer collecting going to end up being a legit hobby like coins, stamps, cars, comics where "experts" in the field come up with grading systems and you see mint examples at all the big auction houses?
I got into this hobby because I wanted to play around with video capture hardware I was reading about back in the early to mid 1990's (magazines I had subscriptions to). So in 2001 I think it was I purchased a 950 to setup. While looking at what parts I needed to do video I decided to spend $150 for a PM8500 and then spent a few hundred more on upgrades to run OS 9 well (G3-400, 256MB RAM, ATA/66 card, UltimateRez video). I had never touched a mac before but it seemed like a cool way to get into all the editing systems I read about in the 90's which were mostly mac based. From there I started putting together old 386/486 systems for playing DOS games and buying up more video editing cards and mac systems.
During the 2001- 2005 or so period I picked up plenty of old PC, mac, Commodore, Amiga, Atari St, IIgs stuff for very little money. Then I noticed Amiga hardware started to cost a lot more, a couple years later IIgs hardware went from being free to people actually wanting it. Now old 68K macs seem to be going up in price as well as old PC gaming cards. Even the old Thinkpads I started collecting a year ago now have multiple bids. So here I am wondering why everything I collect seems to get more expensive. Are more people my age starting to collect as a hobby? Are younger people with money and no patience starting to bid against each other? Has everyone gone recycling crazy and the supply is not meeting demand? Or has everyone who got in early just hoarded all the good stuff and there is nothing left for new collectors? How long will this upward price trend last? Is computer collecting going to end up being a legit hobby like coins, stamps, cars, comics where "experts" in the field come up with grading systems and you see mint examples at all the big auction houses?