O tempora! O mores! O 3dfx!

{Continuation of "So, You Think You Can Just GLIDE Through Life?"}

Part 2: "How to Buy a 3dfx Card in Today's Depressed Market"

While you're choosing which 3dfx matches your needs and budget, here's the best way that I've found to purchase one of these hard to get and getting even harder cards: E-bay...

Needing a V2 1000 for my low-end, but reliable, Packard-Bell Celeron 366, I just keyed in "Voodoo 1000"; I did so over a few evenings, keeping track of the various auctions (there were two). Fortunately, a third appeared, with a "buy it now" option. I contacted the seller (and his rating as an E-bay seller was a high one to begin with), asking if the card were new; he answered promptly *telling me that the card had been used once to see whether or not it was working properly. Well, used or not, it only cost $25 (and shipping was another $5), so the price was right (BTW, a brand-new boxed card retailed at about $80 when 3dfx Interactive was still around); after buying it, the card arrived within the week, and you could see that it was in excellent condition.

It was that simple.

Now onto-- ahem-- COMPUVEST. This California-based company sold me a card on-line, assuring me that, while unboxed, it was brand-new, and they consequently charged me the brand-new price of $200. Well, when the 5500 did arrive, it was immediately apparent that not all was as it should have been: first off, the software drivers CD was a copy! When I regained consciousness, I inspected the card more closely, and found-- gasp!-- scratches on the gold contacts where the card mounted into the AGP slot. This was, obviously, *a card that had been used before; but, like Franz-Josef, I was to be spared nothing. Further inspection revealed-- horrors!!-- cotton waste on the chipset and solders. While still reeling, I thought to myself, "What kind of a stupid s.o.b. uses *cotton to clean a component? Didn't they ever hear about using a lintless cloth?"
And when it came time to return the poor unfortunate-- remember, I was to be spared nothing-- COMPUVEST, this abomination, this excrement, had the nerve to charge me-- Ladies, for your own sake, please leave the room now-- a restocking fee! (Let us magnanimously draw the curtain now on the above regretable episode...)

Well, all in all, I may be sadder, but certainly wiser; I hope that the above has been of some use to you.

Good luck and good hunting!

VBR,
Captain Video Lewis

[wolfenbill]

Thank you for the warning and the insight Capt. Lewis!!