I assume some of that stuff was purchased for TV show or movie props.
Anyway you can't really complain unless you know the origins of those front panels. Some of that equipment was scrapped a long time ago and somebody found the front panel or other parts cool and kept them. You can't really expect people to keep everything from being made into razor blades 20+ years ago and kept in heated and cooled low humidity storage so somebody down the road could snag it for lunch money.
If somebody pays a decent amount of cash to mount something on a wall it will sooner or later end up being resold to a collector so its not really lost in the long view of things.
If there is enough demand or it is worth the economics to recreate somebody will 3D print parts and have boards made.
-----Original Message----- From: Tom Hunter via cctalk
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2022 10:44 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Cc: Tom Hunter Subject: [cctalk] Re: Minicomputer front panel. I cannot understand the mindset of people who buy up components desperately sought by others who want to restore machines just to nail them to their man cave or living room wall. These same types of people vacuum up core memory boards, keyboards, disk platters, 9-track tapes, etc just for bragging rights and as a result depriving those who restore and preserve computer systems from doing so. For some time I have been looking for a PDP-8/e front panel PCB needed to make a machine complete. Until now I had no luck. No doubt there are dozens of these hanging off people's walls. Like Peter I don't care if the PCB is functional, but unlike Peter I can and will repair it. Peter please consider the negative impact of your hobby on historically valuable computer systems. Tom -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com
