Over the last couple of years, I've snagged a number of old i386/i486/early Pentiums from the side of the road/various dumpsters. I open e'm up and strip anything remotely useful... I've got a drawer full of floppy and ATA33 cables, a half dozen speakers, a handful of floppy drives, etc...
Best dumpster dive to date; Found a WD 20GB WD200ES hard drive in the dumpster behind a local shop behind my apartment building (drive by it almost daily, and saw a mATX case sticking out the top...had to check it out...LOL).
The drive itself was throwing S.M.A.R.T. error codes...however, it was still under warranty from WD. $12 shipping got me a nice refurb.
2nd best, same dumpster; They tossed out a HP DeskJet932c printer one day...this is the same one I use, so I grabbed it, for at least spare parts. It had a piece broken, and the paper would jamb immediately. I managed to fix that broken part...
It even still had both ink cartridges in it, half or more full...LOL.
Heatsinks from P I's cut up make real nice sinks for clock generators...
And I've got enough ISA based soundcards to last me two lifetimes...
You just never know what people will toss out to the side of the road...
B.