Well this week I went to check out the Silicon Valley Electronics Flea Market and I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  Collectors, hoarders and electronics gurus of all shapes and sizes gather under the solar panels of De Anza College to buy and sell just about everything.

I even got to play the rube and ended up paying $20 for a 8″ silicon IC wafer.  I think this one was the most beautiful one the vendor had in stock:

I think this wafer is full of processors and I believe it was taken out just after front end processing before any metallization.  Correct me if I’m wrong!  I doubt this wafer would have sold for $20 whenever it was built, but it’s worth more than $20 to me!