Always happens in the petroleum industry as well. Cartel collusion. War, summer travel season, weather creating shipping issues, refining problems, you name it. The price always goes up in large increments, and IF it comes down, never returns to its previous levels. I'm not amazed this happens in any other industry. Why should you stop reaping higher prices when supply returns?

Most "normal" Americans haven't lived abroad for 20 years. That being said, what you described does sound like a total hassle and I would never want to put up with it.

I've played lots of Syndicate, I know what corporations can accomplish!!!

I'm one of those strange purchasers, and I know there of more of you guys out there (c'mon chip in here!), that when I buy something new the first thing I do is put all the packaging, box, manuals, etc, right in the attic. I always think I might need some vintage PC gear here or there, so I've ended up with nearly everything I've purchased new at one time or another. After recently getting married, I had to trim down the collection a bit, and was shocked to find that eBay was an awesome outlet for what most people would consider just junk. I've always been an early adopter, and my items are largely the very first editions of anything, I've sold (working, of course) like new in box original Soundblaster, Disney Sound Source, Thunderboard, IBM PS/1 expansion bay, Soundblaster AWE32 (bidding war on that one), a large portion of my Commodore 64 software, VIC modem, Monster 3D, Stealth 3D, and Orchid video cards, packages of unopened Bonus (the brand) 5 1/4" floppies (who'd have thought?!?), external 1x SCSI CD-ROM drive, and the list goes on and on. That group alone, short a few hundred dollars in spending case, paid for me to honeymoon in Barbados. I haven't even gotten to my Roland sound gear, but I hate to part with my MT-32, SC-55 and LAPC-1. I always sit and debate on making a monster DOS box and not mess around with emulating anything on my gaming rig anymore, I'm just lazy as hell I guess. This poll really does remind me that its time to let go.

It has plenty of swastikas and other Nazi symbolism. Pretty sure thats illegal where you're from. Cheer up though, you get the interesting pornography!

Wow, and you missed Spear of Destiny, that came shortly after Wolfenstein 3D. Its not an expansion to Wolf 3D, its a completely stand alone game. I own it, original box and all. Thanks for the histroy lesson.

Exactly this! I put 125 hours into my savegame, have two trophies to go, and find out that my quest to complete the Thieves Guild chain is broken (with no plans of of them patching it). PS3 version, the PC has work arounds and a community that may be able to mod a fix (yes, yes, I know, thats why you play on PC, not the point here). No way will I start over, but I just feel let down. Came so close, just for the game to not allow me to complete it to my standard.

Still remember going online with the old 300 baud Vic Modem. It was cool, but the per-minute prices were outrageous and the fact that it moved so slowly you could almost feel the money leaving your pocket.

I realize that, just making a joke.

They forgot a few, C64, IBM, NES, SNES, N64, PSX, PS2, PS3, XBOX, WII, XBOX360, DC, GB, GBA, NDS, 7800, CVS, Mac, NEO-GEO, etc.

Is this actually true?

"Amen" to that. It bothers the shit out of me that most people who post on /. act educated, and yet believe in fairy tales. Any human being smart enough to put their efforts towards technology should be smart enough to be atheist/agnostic. Religion truly is the opiate of the masses, it makes us all kill each other over nonsense.

Speaking of, its right the first time.

(holds up pinky finger at corner of mouth) the Alan Parsons Project.