"and I ordered some 2602B 1K X 1 static RAM chips, which DID arrive, but in dip packages with bottom painted part numbers and the WRONG NUMBER OF PINS! I understand the "proprietor" left town"<p>Humorously this still goes on with ebay today. There are a few trustworthy sources. The real killer is collectible chips like historic CPUs. If you want a CDP1802 for your collection you can get visually indistinguishable fakes. If you want a CDP1802 to build an operational ELF controller in 2017 or to replace a broken part in a working machine, well that's nearly impossible. Then there's the salvage and pull suppliers where the price is about a quarter normal but at least half the parts when tested will be broken.<p>I would estimate in excess of 99% of LM323K voltage regulators on ebay are 2N3055 transistors with the transistor labeling wiped off with solvent and polishing compound and LM323 look alike markings silk screened. That regulator is essentially unobtainable for the last couple years. Ironically if you're willing to do some ugly rewiring, there are brand new manufacture TO-220 package linear regulators that brand new shipped from the mfgr are cheaper than the ebay fake TO-3 regulators, but the rewiring and hole re-drilling is going to be ugly...
If you enjoyed this I strongly recommend Steven Levy's Hackers [1]. Also Amazon's recent Halt and Catch Fire, which really captures the spirit of the 80s and what we called the micro revolution at the time.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Compute...</a>
Mirror available on archive.org: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170510043308/http://www.bambi.net/bob/homebrew.html" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20170510043308/http://www.bambi....</a>