I wish more places like this existed. Old tech can be used and doesn’t have to go to e waste with a bit of time and care. I’d love to volunteer my time at one of these places, if one was near to me
Agreed I wish we had this in the UK. I currently spend a few hours each week refurbishing 3-4 year old laptops and turning them into Chromebooks for families who need them.
I second this. I had a lot of stuff that could have gone to a store like this, only to have to end up scrapping it because goodwill stopped taking computers and parts:( to my knowledge no such place exists in FL. if I had the time and space I would definitely have run a florida branch of this store, oh well..
Yesss and even if the prices are too high (some places are expensive like the vancouver if i remember), i can just happily spend my time doing all the recycling stuff and get free computer or maybe just to channel my geek sides
Hi, current board member of Free Geek Twin Cities here. All the locations are separate and only unified in spirit. Each one is run quite differently. That’s why we have “Twin Cities” after our name, the original Portland Free Geek is the original.
@@jeremiahrex If you're a board member. Why don't you open one in Southwest VA or Northeast TN. Heck, even open one in Asheville, NC or Knoxville, TN. My area has a retro shortage.
Great job on the story! Backstory on the light-up signs around the 7 minute mark, those were a donation from Kent @ Burg Electronic Recovery in Anoka, and had indeed been salvaged from an old computer store years ago. I had noticed them sitting in a corner of his warehouse on a few occasions, and when I explained Free Geek's mission and pending retail store opening he offered them to dress up the new space. I'm surprised nobody jumped out of their chair at the 3 IBM PS/2 systems at the 2:05 mark, which will hopefully be tested and pushed to the store soon. One of them even included a discrete (vs on-board) micro channel ESS Sound Piper audio adapter plus the IBM video adapter card. The two newer IBM systems a shelf above are also notable, as one is a socket 8 / Pentium Pro machine that was upgraded with a unicorn Pentium 2 Overdrive CPU at some point in time. Coming soon to a Free Geek Twin Cities retail outlet near you...
My car only uses cds, and cds are a great way to get mp3 files for cheap. I love cds, crazy to think they’re considered “old and outdated” to the point of being retro
@@bobbyhinner3225 They aren't even cheap anymore. My local store wants roughly 1 euro for a single CD-R. I remember back when you could get 2 of them for that much.
Funny enough my engineering professor ask, "who has a cd player in their car" and no one raised their hands. I told him a cd player was a luxury when my truck was made, apparently when we asked around I was the only one driving a vehicle without power locks or windows. Over a 100 students and only one had manual locks and windows
I drooled over those VAIO all in ones back in the day! I'd love to see a video about vintage word processors some day, stuff like the Magnavox Video Writer and the like.
i live in canada and just seeing all those cheap pc parts all in one place makes me want to fly there with nothing but 300 dollars and see what things i can buy
Same here (North Carolina), found a computer shop that also sold working/refurbished stuff (got a couple of laptop power supplies, optical drive and some SATA cables) just before the lockdown......and now they're gone :(
Damn, I was just google searching places like this in the Twin Cities metro area a night or two ago, and I just happened accross this video right now. Weird.
This is a beautiful celebration of the evolution of the computer industry. I'm so glad such a place exists. I hope more such stores start popping up to teach a new generation how we got to where we are today.
Great video. A very LGR Thrifts vibe - always a popular format. That place is the bomb. Would love to visit and drop some cash if I lived anywhere near.
Some of those prices seem stupid high, but some seem really good, like that IBM media for $1, or the Apple CRT for $25. Those Dell PowerEdge 2950 servers were overpriced as they are essentially scrap at this point.
Who here remembers the Weird Stuff Warehouse here in the Bay Area? Sunnyvale to be specific. It was featured in the doc "Triumph of the Nerds" by Robert X. Cringely.
The Respective Brands does not go outdated, its custom fit to serve, provide leisure time, create still and moving images into moving arts. No dead pixels. The brands are always complete features no one can refuse, tangible standards designed for excellence soft and hardwares and peripherals. SMEs........respectively.
I'm kind of glad I'm over the retrotech phase going into my 40s. It's crazy seeing stuff sell for just as much as it was new almost thanks to the pandemic.
I'll bet those wiped and tested hard drives will be flying of the shelves to the CHIA miners. Remember that the big money is selling mining or farming supplies, not the activity itself! 😉
I wish we had a free geek or hacker space near me. So much gets tossed here because to do anything else is an hours drive or more away. Wonder how tough it is to start one?
5:30 I paid a company in the U.K. to get past the activation lock on the iPad I bought used on offer up. As long as it hasn't been reported stolen they'll do it. It's NOT impossible.
But how much did you pay? Unlocking one item might be worth it to you, but Free Geek has a bunch (based on this video) and not a lot of money to invest in that sort of thing.
Thanks for highlighting this store! I’m a Minnesotan, but was unfamiliar with this business. Will definitely have to check them out the next time I’m in the Twin Cities-and bring some donations to boot!
They’re very backlogged right now, but there’s definitely cool stuff that trickles out. Apparently a 20” Sony PVM was available not long ago, but sold in just 2 days.
Meanwhile in Canada, retro tech rarely pops up and when they do 99% of the time they either put them in a glass case and / or ask eBay price and nothing lower.
I used to find some good industrial handheld PCs on the $1 table when the local computer surplus store was still around. They all seemed to come from the Chicago Board of Trade back when they were the first exchange in North America to offer digital trading on the floor. I prefer the TI-86 over the TI-84 Plus.
10:20 I thought the prices were 'a tad on the high side for something calling itself free geek', but these are just shocking. 70 cents to a buck for an empty CD? You can buy spindles of 100 of them new for 20 bucks still, and I thought that was already a lot as they used to be half of that. That PS3 was also a bit of a shocker. That said, rices for hardware components and 'oldish' pc's are a bit more reasonable for a store like this. There's a lot of fun stuff there, but I feel like they were more about helping a community and less about making money than they are now. Great video though, and I'm far away enough to not be able to buy any of this anyway :D.
I hope they've been saving old cards rather than recycling them for the metals like old Sound Blasters and gasp 3DFX cards given how valuable they've become over the years. Sold one broken 3DFX card earlier this week for $150 on eBay an hour after listing it.
8:50 Nope, your looking for a chrome bezel and sometimes black bezel not gray for native ps2 back compat. It would still play ps1 and ps3 games though so It would still be worth it. Phat ps3s are a little easier / better to hack so it would still be a good machine.
wish there was a place like this around cincinnati. there used to be one called cincinnati computer concept that used to be something kind of close to this. but since covid they closed there doors to general public and only deal with large donations to school groups (mainly work from home/school batches) and the rest is sadly e-waste before it even has a chance to be gone over by enthusiasts/retro collectors.
Great to see a place where they actually seem to know what they're doing. I'm so tired of going to surplus stores where random electronic parts are stacked up two stories high between piles of dog poop and used pizza boxes, thrift stores where all the good stuff gets shipped away to be sold on eBay and you have to dig through isles full of old people's clothes and 1960s nicknacks to find anything, and city surplus stores that are only open 2 hours a week and don't know anything about what they're selling. If I would have a store like that in my neighborhood, I would first clean out my garage, and then sign up as a volunteer. And I would probably fill my garage right back up again hahaha
What a fantastic place. I would volunteer there every week if there was one where I live. Spotted a Yamaha RX series Amp, I did a video where I repaired one of those. Go into your iCloud now and remove any old devices people!
I am so jealous to your side of the world. It's just non existing here, people don't care and people care even less fixing these kind of things. Great video!
In Japan, this kind of stores was opened about near 10 years ago since I was living there and most of the thigs sold there was completely in good shape and sometimes like news for a very low price. In this times they notice that many people are becoming more rtro stuffs interesting soy the prices was going up every month. Great video and thanks so much for the effort in production.
13:30, Oh my god. Lenovo Horizon 27 for only $410? How? (It's actually a 27" tablet that runs Windows 8. Has a battery, the stand can be folded away and it has a touchscreen)
Some cable companies won't service you unless you rent their modem. I was with the company for years and I use my own order when I went back to the main cable company they wouldn't let me use my modem I had to rent one
Ti84 plus for $45? Not bad!! Especially since it's like $150 in store. Also I don't think I've ever seen DDR1 in a store so it was cool to see all of this stuff even though it's all before my time lol
It looks like they are using a lot of what appears to be new USPS boxes inappropriately. Those boxes are the property of the postal service and are intended to be used for shipping only.
My comment is not meant in a mean way , just realistic.I think the store is doing a great deal of good by refurbishing old systems , however a few of the prices on the (So Called) gaming systems are a bit steep , one in particular at over 800 dollars features a 5 year old processor , and a eight year old video card, neither of which were blazing , or noteworthy when they were new. Definitely not worth an $850.00 dollar price tag. I can find better deals for those items on Amazon , or Ebay.
4:23 I totally read that as "¡Que! Fire!" 4:35 I don't miss the translucent grey plastic trend (1999) as much, but I DEFINITELY miss the translucent colors (1998). 6:14 Okay, THAT is something I never thought I'd see, and honestly never conceived of in my life. Even in the old days. I'm so glad we're living in the days of dirt cheap optical mice. I remember when the first ones were around a hundred bucks! Even BLUETOOTH mice have finally gotten down to the $15 price point -- they were $50 or more for the longest time! 11:28 Oh man, I haven't even heard "AGP" mentioned in so many years. I had an AGP Tseng Labs ET-somethingorother in the mid-90s. I remember its most advanced feature (other than 640x480x24bit or 1024x768x8bit video modes) was a hardware-accelerated mouse cursor. As in, a single, solitary sprite. XD 12:40 Those are worthless, IMO. Out of a handful of Express and Extreme units we bought a few years back, only the one Extreme unit is still working well. 14:42 Oh man, the old Sylewriter. I remember when that came out, I was working at the university computer store. They were pretty forgettable, hapless little things. Typical mid-90s Apple: overpriced crap.
I seriously wish there was a place like this near me... especially for old or decommissioned server gear because I would love nothing more than to score some deals on old LGA2011 server gear...
I used to have that exact Sony 5 disc changer. I had it paired to a Sony STR-GX47ES and a Sansui SE-300 graphic equalizer, driving a pair of Sanyo SS-4000 3 way 12 inch passive radiators. I still have the Sanyos, but the rest of the system I traded away for an Ibanez DTB400B Explorer Bass guitar. Maybe not my best trade, but I loved that bass. Sadly, that bass was stolen when someone broke into my house.
Also some and reads and with prints and c and copyright books and with r and publishers and with also post and some and works and with also ... Codes Program F keys and functions OS Operating systems Print selects Replace Switch's Highlights Bold ( S) Int Some and insert Feeds Line Bell Telephone functions Screen rolls Tape or line Replaces CD DVD functions Note or paper clip features Design and with system and standard P and p White Graph S check A tel Com G graph and ball bouncing and with screen and machine Power plug options S cords Serial cords Cord functions Tables with watts and power Conversion and table The access Excel and access Access and function or advertise Plug and to video Day plan or digrm Digrm features and book form one to one hundred or one to .. twenty lists. Functions and with power and vent .. heat mentions Common functions. Press lists and white and Xerox and with sheets or schedule folders forms Functions with off the printer Ability and antenna and connect RC and computers RC and mobile Nokia Systems
I wish we had places like these here in Poland. Sure we have people that fix-up and sell decommissioned computers and parts (mostly imported), but they are way overpriced (x3 to x4 the prices at Free Geek). I know they are perfectly good computers, but treating what companies consider electro-junk like gold? That's just stupid. Someone should take them down to Earth. Just to be clear I mentioned Polish "recyclers", Free Geek does an amazing job.
Wish there were places like this where I live. Of course, I'd be broke in no time. _Gee, Your Honor, the Trinitron CRT was bright and inviting and just oozing with high contrast DOS game goodness! When I came to my senses, I had 20 Pentiums and a Quadra loaded up in the back of my truck, and there was my bank account lying dead on the floor..._
I HAD ( AND STILL HAVE THE SYSTEM ) AN ASUS A7N8X-X MOBO! I SAW IT IN THE RETRO ROOM! Shit was one of the best AMD OC boards of it's era, second only to the Abit NF7
That Que! Fire drive was also my first CD burner, and I bought it specifically because it matched the case on my G4/450. My parents won the very base model of those Technics CD players, kind of like the one on top but without a remote control, at a murder mystery dinner in the mid-80s.
I’ve volunteered at FreeGeek in the past. If you purchase PCs / laptops from them, their prices are extremely competitive, PLUS each system has had a burn-in time that you probably won’t get from a regular Craigslist sale.
Hello How are things..? * . Mister D. L. Branch stoping by. Or Shaun or One. Computer operator or User or Computer Associate and titles. In addition a check in post a trip and also with some and friendly hellos and we'll wishes. Go Good memory's. And go good things and A items and desks and Computers. And go good things. And go good notes and go good albums and desk things and xeroxs and types and prints. And go good Library's and video s. Mister Branch
4:47 - Ha, I got one of those! It was actually my first laptop. I didn't feel like it was worth buying a laptop in the 1990s (too bulky, poor battery life) but in the early 2000s I wanted one for doing panels at anime conventions, and decided to go for a Mac because I felt it would be less of a hassle than trying to setup a Linux laptop. I kept running it until about the time that support for the PowerPC processors started to really get dead-ended. It was a nice little machine, for sure.
I really wish we had places like this in the UK - so much tech just goes to landfill or 'the tip' and never sees a new life, just the bottom of a dumpster.
What is that yellow monstrosity of a keyboard! Also, nice that they have one XBox Duke controller. Probably have more, but shelfspace is still limited. :p
As a Minnesota native currently living in Houston (work), I wish I knew about this place before I moved. How are their prices? I would live to bring home a retro Thinkpad when when I visit this summer. I don't trust eBay listings where I can't see the hardware working
Hey Colin. I'm interested in doing a collaboration. I have a channel, but not really any decent way of editing video. Looks like Think Geek might have some great possibilities. I've been wanting to visit since the last time you shared this location. I have 5 laptops. One is mine that no longer works, and 4 I found while dumping recycled plastic into a collection bin. 3 of those 4 work, and there is some... "revealing information" on them. So how about doing a video about the importance of not just dumping your junk and getting things properly recycled? Can we work something out? Contact me.
TDNC: "You can make up your own joke about the mouse balls." Me: I'm sorry but that's NOT what I come here for! That just lazy! I come here to laugh at someone else making bad jokes. I feel robbed!
yeah we have a freegeek in the portland, OR area too. i've been out there a few times but not since the plague hit. Really good people i think that is a requirement to work there. you have to be a good person haha. they had some really good stuff last time i visited. Picked up an imac G4 with 2gb ram and a 200gb IDE drive for 20 bucks complete with keyboard and airport card.
What a great idea, if you can recycle or reuse it helps prevent it going to landfill. I used to build pc’s for gaming and sell them to my daughter’s friends at university. I really enjoyed the process of building the computers, it would take me 3 days to complete, it could have been done in a day but it’s very time consuming,day 1 , mount all the components into case and install windows, day 2 install driver’s and update windows, over clock the processor and ram, then run a programme to stress test and find a stable over clocking. Day 3 tidy all the wiring and zip tie all cables, job done.
Hi Collin. I know this video was posted awhile back, but I wanted to say that I made it to Free Geek Twin Cities today and man, it was a treat! I talked with the manager and he told me about their eligibility program to help people who cannot afford a modern system. Their mission to serve less fortunate families is amazing! I highly recommend this wonderful organization!
I wonder what happened to the days when clones where not what people made. Now a day most computers are ibm pc and compatible. Including the older Mac's before they went to M1. Though they're designed to still use the same peripherals and stuff so backwards compatible.
Its a shame shops like this aren't common in the UK, only overpriced repair shops.. :( and ebay etc charge silly prices with clickbait "vintage" names on bad hardware
I wish more places like this existed. Old tech can be used and doesn’t have to go to e waste with a bit of time and care. I’d love to volunteer my time at one of these places, if one was near to me
I feel ya. Suck that there nothing like Free Geek in my country. What a place to nerd out at! haha
The do. Nine other locations including Portland (where it started), Chicago and Detroit.
Agreed I wish we had this in the UK. I currently spend a few hours each week refurbishing 3-4 year old laptops and turning them into Chromebooks for families who need them.
I second this. I had a lot of stuff that could have gone to a store like this, only to have to end up scrapping it because goodwill stopped taking computers and parts:( to my knowledge no such place exists in FL. if I had the time and space I would definitely have run a florida branch of this store, oh well..
There's 2 retro stores called 'Milwaukee PC' around Milwaukee, Wi.
Getting an LGR Thrifts vibe from this one with the jazz music. Love it!
That keyboard feels just like something LGR would get. 😂
yeah but he did not show us wath is as buy ...
i like to see more store's like this open up every where. store's like this can save me alot of money on computer part's.
Maybe internationally, I would love to have one in Ashford or even a single one in London for the south of the UK
Saaaaaaaammmmmeeee. I live in NY so this place is a bit of a drive for me.
@@oldtechnobodycaresabout one in Southampton will be cool :)
@@oldtechnobodycaresabout there is a shop that sells retro stuff here in the UK but doesn't have too much stock.
Yesss and even if the prices are too high (some places are expensive like the vancouver if i remember), i can just happily spend my time doing all the recycling stuff and get free computer or maybe just to channel my geek sides
Keep in mind the Free Geek is a chain with nine other locations including Portland (where it started), Chicago and Detroit.
Portland? Oh dear.
Better het ready for some involuntary donations.
Hi, current board member of Free Geek Twin Cities here. All the locations are separate and only unified in spirit. Each one is run quite differently. That’s why we have “Twin Cities” after our name, the original Portland Free Geek is the original.
no fucking way. CHICAGO. NI HAVE TI GO NOW
@@jeremiahrex If you're a board member. Why don't you open one in Southwest VA or Northeast TN. Heck, even open one in Asheville, NC or Knoxville, TN. My area has a retro shortage.
This was like Alice in Retro Geekland. Thumbs up for more places like this.
Great job on the story! Backstory on the light-up signs around the 7 minute mark, those were a donation from Kent @ Burg Electronic Recovery in Anoka, and had indeed been salvaged from an old computer store years ago. I had noticed them sitting in a corner of his warehouse on a few occasions, and when I explained Free Geek's mission and pending retail store opening he offered them to dress up the new space.
I'm surprised nobody jumped out of their chair at the 3 IBM PS/2 systems at the 2:05 mark, which will hopefully be tested and pushed to the store soon. One of them even included a discrete (vs on-board) micro channel ESS Sound Piper audio adapter plus the IBM video adapter card. The two newer IBM systems a shelf above are also notable, as one is a socket 8 / Pentium Pro machine that was upgraded with a unicorn Pentium 2 Overdrive CPU at some point in time. Coming soon to a Free Geek Twin Cities retail outlet near you...
believe me, i noticed them :)
9:50 "If you want to get into retro audio, it seems like CDs are starting to make a comeback." Gez now I feel old...
My car only uses cds, and cds are a great way to get mp3 files for cheap. I love cds, crazy to think they’re considered “old and outdated” to the point of being retro
Look up Umatic . I feel so old
@@bobbyhinner3225 They aren't even cheap anymore. My local store wants roughly 1 euro for a single CD-R. I remember back when you could get 2 of them for that much.
i just bought a new cd yesterday. i refuse to feel old.
Funny enough my engineering professor ask, "who has a cd player in their car" and no one raised their hands. I told him a cd player was a luxury when my truck was made, apparently when we asked around I was the only one driving a vehicle without power locks or windows. Over a 100 students and only one had manual locks and windows
God I wish we had places like this over in the UK 😭 Although I'd certainly be poorer if we did! 😂
Man I wish I had a place like this in my city here in Brazil! I have quite a good amount of tech to donate to a store like this!
Why don't you try to get one made?
@@jackkraken3888 I don't have the money nor the resources to do so.
@@Vitz_atelier team up with some like minded people? Good luck!
@@Vitz_atelier Regarding the money issue, you might be able to get some assistance from the government because this is a nonprofit..
Aqui em Curitiba eu já vi sebo vendendo algumas peças mas em bem menor quantidade
2:39 Yes Please. That AIO looks pretty interesting
Got a man of taste here
I think the old Gateway all in one looks MORE interesting, so get both!
Oh fudging yes, need a video about it!
I refurbed that machine, it’s an interesting one 😀
Yes, take it please! 😁
Definitely get that Sony all-in-one if you can.
I'll have to check out FreeGeek Chicago at some point. I'm sure FreeGeek has plenty of locations in other states, too.
Those older Compaqs for $30 was actually a super steal and a gem of a find. One of them had a Cyrix CPU, super rare.
They've really fixed the place up since I was there in late 2019! Glad to see they did something productive with the downtime
I drooled over those VAIO all in ones back in the day! I'd love to see a video about vintage word processors some day, stuff like the Magnavox Video Writer and the like.
I have currently a Sony VAIO laptop as my main computer right now.
Ugh, I LOVE these videos! Wish we had a place like this in Mississippi.
I wish we had a place like this in Philadelphia, PA as well
i live in canada and just seeing all those cheap pc parts all in one place makes me want to fly there with nothing but 300 dollars and see what things i can buy
Same here (North Carolina), found a computer shop that also sold working/refurbished stuff (got a couple of laptop power supplies, optical drive and some SATA cables) just before the lockdown......and now they're gone :(
idk if there is a Place Like thisin germany, does anonym know that? i hope there is one here because that would be like heaven for me
@@budderbrotDE not sure, usually cool things like this are only in america
Damn, I was just google searching places like this in the Twin Cities metro area a night or two ago, and I just happened accross this video right now. Weird.
This is a beautiful celebration of the evolution of the computer industry. I'm so glad such a place exists. I hope more such stores start popping up to teach a new generation how we got to where we are today.
Great video. A very LGR Thrifts vibe - always a popular format. That place is the bomb. Would love to visit and drop some cash if I lived anywhere near.
Some of those prices seem stupid high, but some seem really good, like that IBM media for $1, or the Apple CRT for $25. Those Dell PowerEdge 2950 servers were overpriced as they are essentially scrap at this point.
Who here remembers the Weird Stuff Warehouse here in the Bay Area? Sunnyvale to be specific. It was featured in the doc "Triumph of the Nerds" by Robert X. Cringely.
I definitely getting an LGR vibe here 😂👍
Let's go thrifting with some classic music 🎶
Why can't Apple take them iPads and iPhones off free geek in return for a small donation? It would show they're really into saving the environment!
Apple sends them specifically to their own recycling facilities.
I wish I loved closer to this. So many useful things I could get from here.
What a treasure trove! As an upstate new yorker, I would practically swim through the great lakes and hitchhike to MN to visit here if I could
@Greg Briggs Im in Rochester NY wish we had something like this but with WNY it would all be overpriced.
The Respective Brands does not go outdated, its custom fit to serve, provide leisure time, create still and moving images into moving arts. No dead pixels. The brands are always complete features no one can refuse, tangible standards designed for excellence soft and hardwares and peripherals. SMEs........respectively.
I'm kind of glad I'm over the retrotech phase going into my 40s. It's crazy seeing stuff sell for just as much as it was new almost thanks to the pandemic.
I'll bet those wiped and tested hard drives will be flying of the shelves to the CHIA miners. Remember that the big money is selling mining or farming supplies, not the activity itself! 😉
This Earth needs more of these places!!! Reduce e-waste, satisfy us geeks and give opportunities for those who cant afford fancy tech!
6:17 If they were in a bag rather than a box, then it would be a 'ballsack'. I'm sorry.
I got my Ti 84-plus for €9 at a store that didn't even sell tech in the first place
I wish we had a free geek or hacker space near me. So much gets tossed here because to do anything else is an hours drive or more away. Wonder how tough it is to start one?
Wow, I'm in the Twin Cities, and I had no clue this place existed. I've even been looking for something like this. I'll have to check it out.
Oh wow, I'd go bananas in that place... and quickly go poor to boot.
Man, that place is so cool I'd pay to do some volunteer work. :-P
I would definitely be interested in a video about that VAIO all-in-one!
We need Free Geek in every cities..
5:30 I paid a company in the U.K. to get past the activation lock on the iPad I bought used on offer up. As long as it hasn't been reported stolen they'll do it. It's NOT impossible.
But how much did you pay? Unlocking one item might be worth it to you, but Free Geek has a bunch (based on this video) and not a lot of money to invest in that sort of thing.
Thanks for highlighting this store! I’m a Minnesotan, but was unfamiliar with this business. Will definitely have to check them out the next time I’m in the Twin Cities-and bring some donations to boot!
Ever since the remodel, the cool stuff is never on display anymore. It’s really kind of slowed down the fun. Be glad you have real access.
They’re very backlogged right now, but there’s definitely cool stuff that trickles out. Apparently a 20” Sony PVM was available not long ago, but sold in just 2 days.
Cool thift shop. I wish we would have auch good source for old and usuable tech in our town. Keep up the good work. Stay safe. Stay healthy.
Gosh, wish we had a Free Geek in the UK, specially in the North West!
You could''t pay me to take a chinese branded PC
i wish i could go there ;-;
I am from Germany
If we had a store like that in West Virginia I might just never leave it
Meanwhile in Canada, retro tech rarely pops up and when they do 99% of the time they either put them in a glass case and / or ask eBay price and nothing lower.
Yeah, offering a working 90's Apple CRT for $20 is pretty much inviting the scalpers.
There's a Free Geek in Vancouver. Linus Tech Tips did some videos about them and wtf how is that 5 years ago... >_
I used to find some good industrial handheld PCs on the $1 table when the local computer surplus store was still around. They all seemed to come from the Chicago Board of Trade back when they were the first exchange in North America to offer digital trading on the floor.
I prefer the TI-86 over the TI-84 Plus.
10:20 I thought the prices were 'a tad on the high side for something calling itself free geek', but these are just shocking. 70 cents to a buck for an empty CD? You can buy spindles of 100 of them new for 20 bucks still, and I thought that was already a lot as they used to be half of that. That PS3 was also a bit of a shocker. That said, rices for hardware components and 'oldish' pc's are a bit more reasonable for a store like this.
There's a lot of fun stuff there, but I feel like they were more about helping a community and less about making money than they are now.
Great video though, and I'm far away enough to not be able to buy any of this anyway :D.
I hope they've been saving old cards rather than recycling them for the metals like old Sound Blasters and gasp 3DFX cards given how valuable they've become over the years. Sold one broken 3DFX card earlier this week for $150 on eBay an hour after listing it.
Colin "Heyyy guys, what would I have to do to take that 12" home?"
FG:TC " Well, how about a nice video tour?"
Great space, I'd add.
8:50 Nope, your looking for a chrome bezel and sometimes black bezel not gray for native ps2 back compat. It would still play ps1 and ps3 games though so It would still be worth it. Phat ps3s are a little easier / better to hack so it would still be a good machine.
Oh, ✋😮
how old computer hardware... 👀
Laptops are interesting. 😀👍
Laptops are perfect for old games.. 🎮 yes. Thank you, 🌱🌷 Mr. Engineer... ✋😉 .
These lgr thrifts vibes in this video! Thanks for the tour!
wish there was a place like this around cincinnati. there used to be one called cincinnati computer concept that used to be something kind of close to this. but since covid they closed there doors to general public and only deal with large donations to school groups (mainly work from home/school batches) and the rest is sadly e-waste before it even has a chance to be gone over by enthusiasts/retro collectors.
Great to see a place where they actually seem to know what they're doing. I'm so tired of going to surplus stores where random electronic parts are stacked up two stories high between piles of dog poop and used pizza boxes, thrift stores where all the good stuff gets shipped away to be sold on eBay and you have to dig through isles full of old people's clothes and 1960s nicknacks to find anything, and city surplus stores that are only open 2 hours a week and don't know anything about what they're selling.
If I would have a store like that in my neighborhood, I would first clean out my garage, and then sign up as a volunteer. And I would probably fill my garage right back up again hahaha
What a fantastic place. I would volunteer there every week if there was one where I live. Spotted a Yamaha RX series Amp, I did a video where I repaired one of those. Go into your iCloud now and remove any old devices people!
I am so jealous to your side of the world.
It's just non existing here, people don't care and people care even less fixing these kind of things.
Great video!
In Japan, this kind of stores was opened about near 10 years ago since I was living there and most of the thigs sold there was completely in good shape and sometimes like news for a very low price. In this times they notice that many people are becoming more rtro stuffs interesting soy the prices was going up every month. Great video and thanks so much for the effort in production.
13:30, Oh my god. Lenovo Horizon 27 for only $410? How? (It's actually a 27" tablet that runs Windows 8. Has a battery, the stand can be folded away and it has a touchscreen)
Some cable companies won't service you unless you rent their modem. I was with the company for years and I use my own order when I went back to the main cable company they wouldn't let me use my modem I had to rent one
If a PS3 Phat is retrocompatible, check the number of USB ports at the bottom face.
Four of them? BINGO!
I would have grabbed that Walkman immediately (assuming that it was working, of course)!!!
Ti84 plus for $45? Not bad!! Especially since it's like $150 in store. Also I don't think I've ever seen DDR1 in a store so it was cool to see all of this stuff even though it's all before my time lol
It looks like they are using a lot of what appears to be new USPS boxes inappropriately. Those boxes are the property of the postal service and are intended to be used for shipping only.
15:46 "Molex to SATA, lose all your data."
Also, regarding the content of this video and its soundtrack: Clint Basinger would like a word, Mr. Wirth.
My comment is not meant in a mean way , just realistic.I think the store is doing a great deal of good by refurbishing old systems , however a few of the prices on the (So Called) gaming systems are a bit steep , one in particular at over 800 dollars features a 5 year old processor , and a eight year old video card, neither of which were blazing , or noteworthy when they were new. Definitely not worth an $850.00 dollar price tag. I can find better deals for those items on Amazon , or Ebay.
I think a video on that VAIO would be interesting, VAIO seems to have made a lot of interesting models.
4:23 I totally read that as "¡Que! Fire!"
4:35 I don't miss the translucent grey plastic trend (1999) as much, but I DEFINITELY miss the translucent colors (1998).
6:14 Okay, THAT is something I never thought I'd see, and honestly never conceived of in my life. Even in the old days. I'm so glad we're living in the days of dirt cheap optical mice. I remember when the first ones were around a hundred bucks! Even BLUETOOTH mice have finally gotten down to the $15 price point -- they were $50 or more for the longest time!
11:28 Oh man, I haven't even heard "AGP" mentioned in so many years. I had an AGP Tseng Labs ET-somethingorother in the mid-90s. I remember its most advanced feature (other than 640x480x24bit or 1024x768x8bit video modes) was a hardware-accelerated mouse cursor. As in, a single, solitary sprite. XD
12:40 Those are worthless, IMO. Out of a handful of Express and Extreme units we bought a few years back, only the one Extreme unit is still working well.
14:42 Oh man, the old Sylewriter. I remember when that came out, I was working at the university computer store. They were pretty forgettable, hapless little things. Typical mid-90s Apple: overpriced crap.
Whyy can't we have something like this in Boston, or at the very least, one of the surrounding areas like Manchester NH or Providence RI :-(
I seriously wish there was a place like this near me... especially for old or decommissioned server gear because I would love nothing more than to score some deals on old LGA2011 server gear...
I used to have that exact Sony 5 disc changer. I had it paired to a Sony STR-GX47ES and a Sansui SE-300 graphic equalizer, driving a pair of Sanyo SS-4000 3 way 12 inch passive radiators. I still have the Sanyos, but the rest of the system I traded away for an Ibanez DTB400B Explorer Bass guitar. Maybe not my best trade, but I loved that bass. Sadly, that bass was stolen when someone broke into my house.
Also some and reads and with prints and c and copyright books and with r and publishers and with also post and some and works and with also ...
Codes
Program
F keys and functions
OS
Operating systems
Print selects
Replace
Switch's
Highlights
Bold ( S)
Int
Some and insert
Feeds
Line
Bell Telephone functions
Screen rolls
Tape or line
Replaces
CD
DVD functions
Note or paper clip features
Design and with system and standard
P and p
White
Graph
S check
A tel
Com
G graph and ball bouncing and with screen and machine
Power plug options
S cords
Serial cords
Cord functions
Tables with watts and power
Conversion and table
The access
Excel and access
Access and function or advertise
Plug and to video
Day plan or digrm
Digrm features and book form one to one hundred or one to .. twenty lists.
Functions and with power and vent .. heat mentions
Common functions.
Press lists and white and Xerox and with sheets or schedule folders forms
Functions with off the printer
Ability and antenna and connect
RC and computers
RC and mobile
Nokia
Systems
I wish we had places like these here in Poland. Sure we have people that fix-up and sell decommissioned computers and parts (mostly imported), but they are way overpriced (x3 to x4 the prices at Free Geek). I know they are perfectly good computers, but treating what companies consider electro-junk like gold? That's just stupid. Someone should take them down to Earth. Just to be clear I mentioned Polish "recyclers", Free Geek does an amazing job.
Wish there were places like this where I live. Of course, I'd be broke in no time.
_Gee, Your Honor, the Trinitron CRT was bright and inviting and just oozing with high contrast DOS game goodness! When I came to my senses, I had 20 Pentiums and a Quadra loaded up in the back of my truck, and there was my bank account lying dead on the floor..._
It's like a dream goodwill!
(5:30) You mean "forgot to factory reset it"?
(14:17) I hope they remember to turn off Computrace or Find My tracking before donating them.
I HAD ( AND STILL HAVE THE SYSTEM ) AN ASUS A7N8X-X MOBO! I SAW IT IN THE RETRO ROOM!
Shit was one of the best AMD OC boards of it's era, second only to the Abit NF7
That Que! Fire drive was also my first CD burner, and I bought it specifically because it matched the case on my G4/450. My parents won the very base model of those Technics CD players, kind of like the one on top but without a remote control, at a murder mystery dinner in the mid-80s.
Heard about this place several years ago, still haven't made it out (I am in Anoka). Great Video, I really need to get over there.
7:19 Nice Samsung SyncMaster (226bw???) on the back. I still have a 931bw from 2005/06 working flawlessly on a daily basis.
I’ve volunteered at FreeGeek in the past. If you purchase PCs / laptops from them, their prices are extremely competitive, PLUS each system has had a burn-in time that you probably won’t get from a regular Craigslist sale.
Hello
How are things..? * . Mister D. L. Branch stoping by. Or Shaun or One. Computer operator or User or Computer Associate and titles. In addition a check in post a trip and also with some and friendly hellos and we'll wishes.
Go Good memory's. And go good things and A items and desks and Computers. And go good things.
And go good notes and go good albums and desk things and xeroxs and types and prints. And go good Library's and video s.
Mister Branch
$200 for that Panasonic VCR is a steal if it works, that's one of the best VCR's ever made.
12:16 Last time I was in there, I raided the bin for the smaller IDE drives. Hopefully they've been able to restock the
4:47 - Ha, I got one of those! It was actually my first laptop. I didn't feel like it was worth buying a laptop in the 1990s (too bulky, poor battery life) but in the early 2000s I wanted one for doing panels at anime conventions, and decided to go for a Mac because I felt it would be less of a hassle than trying to setup a Linux laptop. I kept running it until about the time that support for the PowerPC processors started to really get dead-ended. It was a nice little machine, for sure.
I really wish we had places like this in the UK - so much tech just goes to landfill or 'the tip' and never sees a new life, just the bottom of a dumpster.
What is that yellow monstrosity of a keyboard!
Also, nice that they have one XBox Duke controller. Probably have more, but shelfspace is still limited. :p
As a Minnesota native currently living in Houston (work), I wish I knew about this place before I moved. How are their prices? I would live to bring home a retro Thinkpad when when I visit this summer. I don't trust eBay listings where I can't see the hardware working
Hey Colin. I'm interested in doing a collaboration. I have a channel, but not really any decent way of editing video. Looks like Think Geek might have some great possibilities. I've been wanting to visit since the last time you shared this location.
I have 5 laptops. One is mine that no longer works, and 4 I found while dumping recycled plastic into a collection bin. 3 of those 4 work, and there is some... "revealing information" on them.
So how about doing a video about the importance of not just dumping your junk and getting things properly recycled? Can we work something out? Contact me.
I"m a little glad i don't have one of these near me because my wallet would deplete to zero real fast
TDNC: "You can make up your own joke about the mouse balls."
Me: I'm sorry but that's NOT what I come here for! That just lazy! I come here to laugh at someone else making bad jokes. I feel robbed!
yeah we have a freegeek in the portland, OR area too. i've been out there a few times but not since the plague hit. Really good people i think that is a requirement to work there. you have to be a good person haha. they had some really good stuff last time i visited. Picked up an imac G4 with 2gb ram and a 200gb IDE drive for 20 bucks complete with keyboard and airport card.
I wished I could buy some of their stuff online. But a small store like this one can't possibly do overseas shipping... :(
Wish there was one in Bakersfield, will never happen though because Bakersfield isn’t a popular city.
What a great idea, if you can recycle or reuse it helps prevent it going to landfill. I used to build pc’s for gaming and sell them to my daughter’s friends at university. I really enjoyed the process of building the computers, it would take me 3 days to complete, it could have been done in a day but it’s very time consuming,day 1 , mount all the components into case and install windows, day 2 install driver’s and update windows, over clock the processor and ram, then run a programme to stress test and find a stable over clocking. Day 3 tidy all the wiring and zip tie all cables, job done.
Hi Collin. I know this video was posted awhile back, but I wanted to say that I made it to Free Geek Twin Cities today and man, it was a treat! I talked with the manager and he told me about their eligibility program to help people who cannot afford a modern system. Their mission to serve less fortunate families is amazing! I highly recommend this wonderful organization!
Just as a coincidence, there's a Free Geek store about 2 hours from me in Arkansas. I've been meaning to check it out if I get a chance...
I'm looking for a place like this in CT where I can donate some old PCs, anybody have any suggestions? preferably in the Fairfield County area.
I wonder what happened to the days when clones where not what people made. Now a day most computers are ibm pc and compatible. Including the older Mac's before they went to M1. Though they're designed to still use the same peripherals and stuff so backwards compatible.
Its a shame shops like this aren't common in the UK, only overpriced repair shops.. :( and ebay etc charge silly prices with clickbait "vintage" names on bad hardware