Sounds like it wound up in a used system, I've worked for a few rebuilders over the years and we all had the bad habits of marking up components we tested.
You're probably past the standardisation point where some basic industry standards were agreed to among builders. The second great hard drive shakeup from 89-92 (part of the 4th pc shakeup) was the massive string of bankruptcies and buyouts caused by nobody's this working with anybody's that. As the controllers were segmented from all in and on the drive to the hardware controller only and the translator on the board a world of mess was created with all the variations in drives. As with any computer scrap if your looking for a retirement fund purchase the best is high end mid 80s non-clone pc compatible equipment. Especially industrial computers. For two years Dec used 24kt gold PLATED on carbon-manganese nickel platters. Whole platters like these can be sold to almost any jewellery shop that buys plate; at the same rate of gold plated nickel rings and necklaces. Weigh it up and do the math. 1/8 24kt a typical 5 ounce 5.25 inch platter is worth about $60-$80. The aluminium platinum platters with the rhodium coating in some quantum Bigfoot drives can fetch over $400 each.
The things to remember on this stuff is there were very short runs of test units in the sub 100 numbers; many cases a few dozen or less. They were sold to/with prior knowledge, specific end users for testing and came with all sorts of special warranties and benefits. As time went by and management and directors changed they were forgotten, scrapped tossed or resold and generally lost. The two platters from the QBF that are $400 each is a nice payday but the whole drive with them will fetch many thousands from select collectors.
The other catch is there is absolutely no way to know what something is till you open it. Numbers mean nothing in the pre 90s era. Ive made hundreds of dollars off $10 computers from surplus sales, and lost hundreds on ebay purchases of servers. I generally gave up on paying premiums (and buying for pm in general) because it's hit and miss.
Like gambling I've always suggested you spend as much as you want but never more than you're willing to loose. Finding a double sided gold PGA spark 16 (a test run of risc 32 CPUs with x16 translation) or a Russian 8080 platinum cap will be one of the happiest moments of your life! But you'll fail more often then you win. The good news is your odds are better than the lottery (7/29) but not as good as vegas slots (9/10).
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