The price of a pico is what the zero used to be, and the 4gb/8gb 5 is $110 to $185 depending on ram when the 4 used to be I think $55 to $75 at the same ram.

I shouldn't be surprised because it's similar to/worse than the transition from DDR3 to DDR4, but I still was caught off guard to some degree.

This is something that a lot of people seem to forget. I remember a friend showing me a low-performance Linux-based devboard shortly before the release of the Raspberry Pi. It cost hundreds of dollars. On top of that, support for the board was worse than the support for most of the Linux devboards released after the Raspberry Pi (which often has poor support compared to the Raspberry Pi).

> unless you need GPIO

I'm not even sure how that is relevant in most use cases if cost is a factor. Microcontroller development boards are inexpensive and will hook up to the x86 mini PC via USB. If you're willing to pay a bit more, many Wi-Fi based options are available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_Film_Card_calculators

I don't think it's too wild to expect Linux to run in this form factor, 40 years later.

People don't sell enough of them[1], so the supply/demand curve favors demand and the price is only tempered by that of new hardware (if it is readily available).

That's good for sellers who pay attention. If you've got stuff that you aren't using and the price is high-enough to get your interest, then: Please sell it. :)

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[1]: I have a theory for why it is this way:

Lots of folks buy Pi hardware. And by that, I mean: It's small compared to the market for iPhones, but it's enormous for a quirky SBC with DIY traits. But lots of those folks futz around with them and lose interest. Into the drawer they go.

People assume the value of computer-ish electronics drops dramatically over time. And for most of the history of personal computers, that's broadly been very true.

Plenty of folks do sell stuff on eBay, and those who have done so know that it can be a pain in the ass to deal with. Packaging, descriptions, printing, photos, getting the thing to the post office or whatever, dealing with the risk of getting ripped off: It sucks. It especially sucks for small quantities of unique (to the seller) low-value items.

So that Raspberry Pi (whether once $20, $40, $80, or whatever) sits in the drawer. They might sell for $200 today, but the uninterested owner doesn't know that. They assume that it's worth less than the cost of a pizza and just isn't worth fucking with at all.

So, even if they might be motivated to deal with eBay for a couple of hundred bucks, their lack of interest means that they never know that the price is high.

Accordingly, the devices stay in the drawer. The $200 remains unrealized. The devices will probably get binned after a few more years of taking up space, if they aren't binned in the next move.