Don Valley Computer Fair

Jay794

Jay794

Jay794

Soldato
Joined
27 Aug 2011
Posts
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Location
Sheffield, UK
Decided to check out the local computer fair today, after the £3 entrance fee, I gotta say WTF?! maybe it's my fault, maybe I shouldn't have gone there with the preconceptions of seeing £1000 watercooled, modded computers with LED's all over them, but what I was treated to was a bunch of Warcraft players selling knock off ink cartridges, out-dated hardware and what looked like a lot of damaged laptops.

On the plus side I did manage to pick up a few black SATA cables for £3 lol.

Is this specific computer fair just ****, or are they all like this?

I was expecting it to be really busy, with computer enthusiasts showing off their extremely powerful systems, you know like, Max Power, but with computers instead of cars.
 
They are all like that, computer fairs are for selling all the **** you have hoarded.

I haven't been to Bowlers computer fair in years but it was just a hall filled with people selling all kinds of electronics and stuff.

It used to be a place where you could get your PS1/PS2 chipped, buy knock off games and software, then it changed to mostly computer shops hiring stalls to sell their stuff.
 
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The one held at the local Racecourse is the same, it's just full of electronics stuff. I'm amazed that it's still going actually considering the amount of pirated software thats so blatantly on show that you could hardly miss it. Although i've not been in months, so it could have changed but i doubt it.
 
Ive only been to two ever but they were both like this. A few (over 10) years ago in Doncaster I went to one and all I remember seeing was knock off 'Blobby' CDs and yellow printers and monitors from all the fag smoke! :)
 
One thing I will say, if I was going to build a budget gaming PC and eventually when I build the HTPC I will definitely go there, loads of cheap old stuff available
 
last time i went to one at aintree, the dodgy software sellers got raided by Trading standards and the police :)
 
Been to three, ever. Two in Tottenham Court road many yrs back. First time i bought a 4Gb Hard disk, S7 motherboard, K6 166 and 64mb RAM cheapish, second time i bought a Wintv GO card when they first came out and a 17Gb Western digital hard disk. Went to some other one somewhere, cannot remember where as i didn't drive that time around, all i saw was as you say, bunch of knockoff crud and like everyone was selling PII mobo combos with Slot 1 chips for stupid money, this was like 2005! Never went back to one again.
 
I used to go to them a decade ago, for a few years. They've always been rubbish. Even if you have actual new stuff, it;s the poverty-spec end of the trade - but not at poverty-spec prices. Essentially, they can't compete with on-line sellers and Fleabay for decent stuff, so they can only sell junk to the ignorant.

Think of them like Woolworths: too rubbish to buy for the price, but too expensive for how poor they are.
 
Mate reminded me that i went to one in Woodgreen a couple of yrs ago as well, 15" CRT for 70.00 is what he remembered, in the year 2008!
 
Justintime said:
Mate reminded me that i went to one in Woodgreen a couple of yrs ago as well, 15" CRT for 70.00 is what he remembered, in the year 2008!
Click to expand...

Bargain. I lived in Palmers Green for a while and there was a distinct lack of PC type shops (well a few internet cafes selling vastly overpriced DDR RAM and AGP GPUs :D)
 
I've only really been to a few when I was younger, and I have not really purchased much from them, as they never really sell any good stuff.

I think I got an optical Microsoft Intellimouse or whatever they were and that's probably the best thing I've got from one.

Some of the software stalls are obviously all full of pirated stuff, explaining how to get the software working by installing cracks and what not in the instructions. My grandad used to believe that they were all legal.

I've not been to one for 7-8 years as it's just easier and better to just find stuff online.
 
They filled the Niche gap pre E-Commerce when AMD K6s ruled the world.

I wouldn't go to one now .
 
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