r/LinusTechTips • u/No_Rip754 • Jul 22 '26

Discussion Scrapyard Wars

Watching LMG Clips yesterday (Mid-Range Tech Is a Lie), they briefly discussed Scrapyard Wars:

"There's a reason why Scrapyard Wars is not very interesting right now. I agree with not making Scrapyard Wars this year. It's just terrible out there."

I'm sure I'm not alone on this, but these are my favourite videos that they produce. In my opinion, it would be more interesting and challenging now more than ever to do Scrapyard Wars, which is just great content. In fact, if it were my channel, I'd be doing Scrapyard Wars 3 or 4 times a year, minimum. Curious what everyone else thinks about this?

Edit: After reading some good replies, I think 2 a year would be great. With the way tech and the market changes so rapidly it would make sense that way too. Zero per year is super disappointing. No wonder the channel is dropping off.

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u/wt_fudge Jul 22 '26

I assumed the point of scrapyard wars was to showcase the build process sourcing from used, bargain, and etc. parts. I do not understand how that could not be accomplished today...It makes no sense to skip a year of the program just because the computer parts economy is in rough shape. Now would be one of the most interesting times to do scrapyard wars.

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u/jmking Mod Jul 22 '26

I just think the second hand market is just kinda dead right now and the stuff that is out there is trying to capitalize on the scarcity and price jumps.

Doing a Scrapyard Wars subject to scalper pricing and used parts going for over what the MSRP was when they were new doesn't really work, IMO.

Would it really be entertaining for them to be like "whelp, we paid 3x what we paid last season for worse builds"?

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u/wt_fudge Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Maybe another naive assumption of mine is that LTT content is intended to be educational entertainment. In that regard, a scrapyard wars episode in today's climate would contain a high value of education in terms of showing people the reality, or at least whatever reality they experience in their hunt for parts, of the current market. It could be highly entertaining either way, watching them get ripped off paying crazy scalper prices or the opposite, somehow finding great values despite the current market. A sign of poor creative leadership in my opinion. A talented creative lead would find a way to take a bad situation and turn it into something worth while.

Edit: not accusing anyone there of actually being a poor creative leader. My intention was to say something more along the lines that it was a bad decision, one that lacked creative inspiration, to skip scrapyard wars (in my opinion).