But seriously, one way to leverage survivorship bias is to buy the old thing that survived. When I was a kid I would buy tons (probably literally) of discarded

But seriously, one way to leverage survivorship bias is to buy the old thing that survived. When I was a kid I would buy tons (probably literally) of discarded computers from warehouse sales. Most stuff wouldn't work, but the few parts that survived being thrown into piles and shoved around by forklifts tended to be rock freaking solid and last for years.