... among other things ...

Yes, some antiques are collectible, and some are just fine antiques. They do possess utility, however, else they would not have been preserved. Items of low quality exhaust their utility long before they become old. From what I recall, antiquity makes some postage stamps collectible even though they're not particularly rare, simply because some people want to have the complete selection in the album. I'm not sure that applies to integrated circuits. After all, the i4040 wasn't a rarity among microcomputer chips when it was in full production, and people might debate it's quality. Obviously it was good enough to sell.

I've encountered cases wherein people, collectors, perhaps, but ones wishing to retain the hardware of their early youth, kept and maintained computers of the late '70's, not because they were rare, but because they had some intrinsic historical value to the "collector." Those items certainly weren't old enough to qualify as antiques in anything other than relative terms.

Antiques Roadshow does emphasize collectibility, though they do give credit for rarity. Most items that attract great interest are not only rare, however, but are also of high quality. I suppose that's because long enough ago that an item made then would be considered an antique, things simply weren't made shoddily, and if they had been, they wouldn't have lasted. However, stuff that ends up as rubbish normally wasn't far from rubbish when it was new.

RE