I guess I picked the wrong time to get back in to the Amiga

[AMC258]

It could be much worse, at least the stuff is still available, even if the prices are high.
You really have to keep your lids peeled though.  There are still people who don't know any better giving away hardware.  Check craigslist.

[Triton199]

while i agree completly that the prices seem to be totally INSANE if you keep your eyes peeled and search diligantly you can turn up some deals like i did. amiga 1200 1gb hdd DKB cobra 28mhz w/32mb ram supergen SX and squirrel scsi for 80$! a setup like this would probably reach into the hundreds on ebay, future plans involvo 3.1 roms os3.5 or 3.9 a FPU and overclocking to 40-45mhz, already have it rockin 128mb ram!

[countzero]

My theory is, Amiga userbase is aging, they get senior jobs and more money to spend at their disposal. Therefore they don't hesitate spending these sums for this 'hobby'.

AMC258 wrote:

Plus, UAE can't run OS4 yet

UAE will never run OS4.

[Damion]

Triton199 wrote:
while i agree completly that the prices seem to be totally INSANE if you keep your eyes peeled and search diligantly you can turn up some deals like i did. amiga 1200 1gb hdd DKB cobra 28mhz w/32mb ram supergen SX and squirrel scsi for 80$! a setup like this would probably reach into the hundreds on ebay, future plans involvo 3.1 roms os3.5 or 3.9 a FPU and overclocking to 40-45mhz, already have it rockin 128mb ram!

Being patient does help. I picked up a spare A1200, boxed with an '030 card and SCSI for something like $80, BIN... cosmetically near perfect, too. I just happened to be searching at the right time. The seller indicated that there was an intermittent stability problem, which turned out to be a loose SCSI add-on (IIRC).

It might take a year of periodic searching, but the deals are there.
 
On the flip side... $800 for a cherry A3000??? It might sound insane, but as a cool retro-toy I really don't think it's a bad price if you have an interest and the cash to burn. (Might help that I'm "kind of" in the market for a nice A3000 ATM, LOL.) While the deals are there, you're still unlikely to find something both cosmetically new AND fully loaded for $50... so I can understand the desire for avoiding the hassle of searching for rare, specific bits and pieces forever until it's finally where you want it.  

[yogisumo]

Yep.  A bit sick.  My A4000T/060@50mhz basically cost me about $1500 but I just built a cheap E6600@2.4ghz / 2gigsDDR2 / 320gSATA2HD for about $550.  Hmmm....

Of course my first A2000 in 1989 ( 1meg ram, 1 floppy, xt bridgeboard, 1084s, kickstart 1.3 ) cost me $3200.  

My first 100 megabyte scsi hd cost me $600 in the early 90's.  The controller (2091) was about $250.  2 megs ram on a 2088 memory card was about $600 if memory serves...

[B00tDisk]

countzero wrote:
My theory is, Amiga userbase is aging, they get senior jobs and more money to spend at their disposal. Therefore they don't hesitate spending these sums for this 'hobby'.

AMC258 wrote:

Plus, UAE can't run OS4 yet

UAE will never run OS4.

"The PC will never be able to emulate an Amiga."

[Ami_GFX]

Yeah prices might seem high now,especially for certain things like PPC cards, but if you look at an Amiga World magizine from around 1993-1995, it will give you some perspective. My A2500 retailed for around $2000 with monitor in the early 90s. I could never afford the RTG, Flicker Fixer, and memory card that I've installed recently back in the day.

You can get a fairly tricked out A2000 for around $200-300 with some smart ebay shopping. For $300-400, you can get a good stock A4000D if you look hard enough. Sniping ebay auctions and doing an rss feed of what you're interested in for buy it now bargains are ways of getting what you want. Being clear about what you want and a little patience are all you need.