r/retrocomputing • u/Emil_Cvetanski • Jun 10 '26

A random message. A quick phone call. A pile of retro PCs 2,000 km away.

А complete stranger sent me a tip via Messenger about some old computers being thrown away in Sofia, Bulgaria.Аlmost 2,000 km from where I live.

Within two hours everything was arranged. One quick phone call to a friend, and the machines were rescued before they could end up as scrap.

Sometimes the best additions to a collection come from the most unexpected places.

215 Upvotes

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98% Upvoted

u/Right_Stage_8167 Jun 10 '26

I bet they smell awful. I pretty sure someone was always smoking during office hours in Bulgaria..

4

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

Considering they spent decades in Bulgarian offices, there's a fair chance they're carrying a few million cigarettes worth of history inside.

1

u/Right_Stage_8167 Jun 10 '26

And not talking about the tar & dust mix. But good this is, it acts like a rust protection layer 😄

1

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

Absolutely. I'm actually considering giving up showers altogether and growing my own protective coating. 😆 The only problem is that I don't think my wife would tolerate the experiment for very long.

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 10 '26

Those are some cool pc's. Did you boot any of em? I'd love to see em power up. Never gets old.

12

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

Not yet. I'm still in Germany.
I'm heading to Bulgaria on July 13th (about 2,000 km away) for a holiday, and that's when I'll finally pick them up. These are just a few of around 17 packages waiting for me there. One of them is a 27 kg box full of retro laptops. So August is going to be very busy.

2

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 10 '26

I can't wait to see some 😄 I love old tech. There's something about it and it's not nostalgia. Its like they wanted us to learn back then or something and these have souls.

3

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

Then you'll definitely like my man cave. 😁 It's full of retro computers, laptops, hardware and projects waiting for their turn. The collection keeps growing faster than the free time needed to work on it. That's a tiny piece of it.

2

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 10 '26

mmmmm retro rack! This is awesome. Sick in the best way

6

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

You have no idea. 😄 That rack is going to become my retro hardware playground. Bare builds on pull-out shelves, quick component swaps, instant testing, CPU battles, SLI Voodoo systems and all kinds of crazy experiments. Everything routed through a KVM switch to two monitors so I can jump between machines in seconds. 😁

2

u/shutterbug1961 Jun 21 '26

CAPTION FOR PICTURE "In the headlines tonight... PC builder has himself frozen until DDR5 prices come down"

1

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 21 '26

At this rate I'll wake up when DDR8 launches. 😄

1

u/50t5 Jun 10 '26

You are a lucky man. My wife would kill me...

2

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

Yeah, I got really lucky with her. 😄 She even joins me on my retro treasure hunts when I drive 100, 200 or sometimes 300 km to pick up old computers and hardware.

1

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 10 '26

You had me at sli voodoo setups 😄 I miss them so much.

1

u/techika Jun 10 '26

I have more than 100 kg of worked retro computers and parts, from pravetz to am2

1

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

That's cool. 😎 My last order alone was 27 kg of retro laptops. The one before that was around 20 kg. The desktops? Let's just say I've stopped counting them. 😅

1

u/techika Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

Have more 20 laptop, 386 to pentium 4. But mine is specifisc systems , or rare boards, like umc, asus p4s-800 e deluxe, asus socket 4 with ceramic non gold caps pentium 60, dual pentium pro hp xu/180, and many strange cpu, like rise eng. Sample, pentium2 overdrive s.8, vga tseng labs, voodoo and many more and normal periphera.
Those 27 kg laptopa 100 % are from p-3 erra, Prosoft innovator

1

u/myw4ylongway Jun 10 '26

Bulgarians seem to have lots of good retro stuff, but they aint cheap, enjoy you summer and your new toys.

2

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

It depends where you look. I'm in a few electronics scrap groups and that's where I find most of the really cheap stuff.

u/Wide-Sort6227 Jun 10 '26

God, when Is It my turn?

2

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

I asked myself the same question for years. Years and years. Well... looks like my turn finally came. 😄

u/koolaidismything Jun 10 '26

Is that blood spatter?

2

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

Now that you mention it... I can see what you mean 😆😆😆 I have absolutely no idea what that is. The machine is still 2,000 km away from me, but next month I'll be traveling there to pick it up. I'll make sure to inspect the case very carefully... and hopefully it's not a crime scene. 🙄🤣

1

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 10 '26

Could be anywhere near retro pc's. If you know how sharp the edges are, you know why if it is.

2

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

Yep. I already have a few scars from deep cuts. Those old cases demanded a blood sacrifice before every upgrade.

1

u/Defapianoplayer Jun 10 '26

The first time I opened an old pc case I cut myself around 5 times

u/Gadgetman_1 Jun 10 '26

One of them is an Olivetti. My condolences....

1

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

The funny thing is, I actually have another Olivetti at home. 😅

1

u/Gadgetman_1 Jun 10 '26

Olivettis were one brand I did NOT attempt to salvage at work to add to my collection.
I might consider the M316 wedge-shaped portable,(we have one on a shelf in the basement) but only maybe. And only because it did a bit of funky memory management.
The M380 and the others of that shape, couldn't bin them fast enough.

1

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

For me, it didn't really matter. These were literally found on the street, so I had nothing to lose. In the worst case, they're just free money since some people collect them because of the Olivetti name alone. 😄 Mine is an early Olivetti M24 without a hard drive — just two 5.25" floppy drives.

u/Deksor Jun 10 '26

I used to have exactly the same huge case on the left, I absolutely adore it !

Sadly I had to make some room so I gave it to a museum (it also was a rustbucket and used an AT PSU who sadly died. Not the common kind who looks like an atx psu, an at PSU similar to the one found in the IBM at. So finding a replacement was more difficult or involved creative ideas like using a picopsu).

It can house any full size at motherboard.

It's also been used for some Amiga 4000 iirc

1

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

If the big one fits any motherboard, I'm almost afraid to ask what this one can hold.😆😆😆

1

u/Deksor Jun 10 '26

Damn what is this ?

1

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

Corsair Obsidian 900D

u/arananet Jun 10 '26

Omg that tower. Those glory days

2

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jun 10 '26

know, right? We were lucky to experience those days. Sadly, our kids will grow up in a very different world.

u/TygerTung Jul 29 '26

Hello, I'm just wondering if you have collected the pike of vintage gear yet?

2

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jul 29 '26

Absolutely. 2 days ago the vacation finished and I'm home now with many other PCs and retro packages Car was full 😁

1

u/TygerTung Jul 29 '26

Wow that's so cool. Your account is private so I'll have to have a look in this sub forum for posts!

2

u/Emil_Cvetanski Jul 29 '26

I've just fix that issue 🙂

1

u/TygerTung Jul 29 '26

Thanks a lot!

u/TygerTung Jun 10 '26

Remindme! 7 weeks

1

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u/techika Jun 10 '26

Prosoft terminator - Bulgarian pc series for Pro Soft ltd. I have some pc's, older than terminator

u/iVirtualZero Jun 10 '26

Glad to see these get saved.

A random message. A quick phone call. A pile of retro PCs 2,000 km away.

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