> so i guess i had a good experience.

I've been to a few of them over the years.  My experience has been that
there are very few actual deals, compared to what you can find on
pricewatch and ebay (if you swing that way).  The exception is if you're
looking for something old and/or obscure.

For instance, a number of years ago I found a 3com MCA NIC for a few
bucks.  I had been looking for one to put into an older PS/2 system that
only took MCA cards, so that was a deal.

And sometimes you get the guys that are unloading a bunch of equipment
that they bought from a going out of business sale and they underprice a
lot of the stuff that they don't know what it is.

Oh, and books.  Most of the books are old (and therefore useless), but
very cheap.  I picked up a book on Apache internals a few years ago for a
couple bucks.  It was old, but still relevant.

Overall, it seems to me that the newer systems are priced about the same
as they would be retail.  The ads make you think you're going to get a
great deal on everything there, and there are really good deals on some
(mostly older) hardware, but if you're looking to buy something newer,
you're going to pay about the same.  But who knows, maybe it'll be
different this year...

I won't be going, but it would be interesting to see someone go and record
the specs and pricing on a few random systems - some older, some newer,
and then compare with pricing on-line and see what the spread looks like.

Adam Maloney


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