The old Raspberry Pi 4 sitting in your drawer is worth more now than the day you bought it

Every computing device, big or small, has seen an astounding price rise in the last few months. Memory and storage prices have quadrupled, and it's even hard to find “in-stock” products. Like everything else, the Raspberry Pi lineup is feeling the impact. Nothing is selling at its original price, and if you've got an older board like the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, it's a valuable commodity now.

The board comes in multiple memory versions, and each one now sells for double (or more) on e-commerce platforms. It's amusing that a board that's built on older technology has a higher cost. Usually, it's the other way round, but these are testing times. Let's discuss the current pricing of Raspberry Pi 4 Model B boards, and why it's still useful for home servers.

It's the worst time to buy an SBC

Difficult to digest pricing changes

The 1GB Raspberry Pi 4 Model B launched at $35 in 2019. The 2GB version costs $45, while you could snag a 4GB version for just $55. Even an 8GB version launched a year later at $75. Five years back, this seemed expensive. The Raspberry Pi 5 launched with just a $5 increase in price for the same memory capacity but a newer generation (LPDDR4X).

I lost interest in the older board because the memory was 1.5 times faster than the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, along with other upgrades. Currently, the 1GB Raspberry Pi 4 Model B version is the only one without a price hike. All the other versions have updated their pricing to reflect the memory apocalypse. The 2GB version retails for $67.50, while the more popular 4GB version is available for $83.

These are official prices, but realistic pricing is $5–15 more for high-demand boards. I'm surprised by the 8GB version's price because it's more than double, and now sells for $165. The 1GB model prices have been kept intact because these boards find a lot of use in industrial applications. Higher-density memory (4GB and 8GB) has seen the biggest price spike, which is good news for hoarders and reseller markets.

Your old Raspberry Pi 4 is worth more

Enthusiasts can rejoice

The Raspberry Pi 4 lineup was modestly priced at its launch time. If you bought these boards anywhere between 2019 and early 2025, you would've escaped the inflated pricing. Some who have multiple Raspberry Pi 4 boards can make good money in the reseller or even box-sealed market. I don't expect average users to be sitting on piles of these SBC boxes. But small retailers and some hoarders will surely benefit from this unexpected opportunity.

If you've got a couple of spares and have upgraded to Raspberry Pi 5s, you can earn some profit in the used market. However, it's not a great time for consumers. They have to pay more money for an older-generation board, and the limited availability makes it even worse. Even the used boards will sell for a few dollars less than the current price. So, it'll be a bad couple of years for anyone looking to build a cheap mini server.

A refurbished thin client seems like a better proposition now. I recently bought one for about $45 with 8GB of memory and a 128GB SSD, and both components are new. So the price-to-performance ratio doesn't seem appealing enough. I also purchased a 1GB Raspberry Pi 4 Model B for $35, and adding an SD card bumped its price to $60. Apart from the low power usage, there is nothing in favor of either the Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 lineups. But that doesn't make your old Raspberry Pi 4 Model B a bad device.

Putting the SBC to good use

Endless possibilities

Ignoring the current prices, the Raspberry Pi has the best software support and community, and that advantage is hard to beat. I've tried boards from other brands, but they are nowhere close to this one. The new Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, except for the 1GB version, is not a smart pick. But if you already own the board and haven't built anything with it in a while, now’s the chance.

Even the lowest memory capacity in the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B lineup can act as a great local cloud storage alternative, a DNS sinkhole and server, or a password manager. I've run some of these projects on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, so the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B will undoubtedly have better performance. The 1GB memory versions can run most of the self-hosted tools without falling short of memory.

The focus has also shifted to more lightweight tools like BentoPDF, Papra, Vaultwarden, and the board can run multiple tools like these. Another advantage is that it's a full-sized board with all the necessary ports. The Ethernet port and additional USB ports are an advantage for network-focused projects like Pi-Hole.

Even the dedicated 3.5 mm audio port is great for audio-focused projects like reviving old speakers that lack HDMI. If you use a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W or even the Raspberry Pi 5, you'll have to buy an additional USB DAC to get the job done. While it may not support native NVMe SSDs or AI HAT modules, it can still offer better storage speeds via the USB 3.0 connection ports.

Surprising value increase

Old hardware tends to depreciate, but this memory and storage apocalypse has turned the tables for them. An old SBC like the Raspberry Pi 4 was slowly becoming less popular after the launch of the Raspberry Pi 5. But the current pricing suggests otherwise, and even with a huge spike from the original rates, the demand is there. The 4GB and 8GB editions seem to be out of stock everywhere because anyone looking for serious computing projects will want them. Meanwhile, you can rejoice a bit because your old board is worth more now.