Great/Interesting Finds

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Argh, him!!

The switch photo is missing from this auction:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280987461516

I managed to e-mail him to ask him to restore the image, but he's neither replied nor has he put the image back.

He's in my bad books now :[

[julencin2000]

Spanish Model M (Dome Switches) 71G4638 30€ or less +shipping



http://r.ebay.com/o7XBS5

[matt3o]

Not in great shape though

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Sperry- ... SS:IT:3160

[BlueBär]

Look at JKL, so much to doubleshots last forever

[HzFaq]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-Model-M-I ... 557wt_1156

Place your bets.

edit - Also, UK ISO Dolch

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dolch-PAC-62- ... 280wt_1161

[Hypersphere]

Magnavox Videowriter keyboard.

Anyone know about this? What switches? Can it be interfaced with a contemporary computer?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/310973767123?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

[photekq]

edit - Also, UK ISO Dolch

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dolch-PAC-62- ... 280wt_1161

Haven't seen that before Awesome!

[HzFaq]

Someone here uses a UK ISO one as a daily driver (I want to say Findecanor but can't remember of the top of my head) and sixty sold a DE ISO one not that long ago so there are different flavours kicking about. I personally don't like Dolch but I understand that lots of others do.

Not sure if the UK ISO is a plus or minus point to most, I've got a nice growing collection of Cherry UK ISO boards/sets so I'm half interested just from that front. I'm still debating on leaving a snipe on it to see what happens, probably won't though as this is already looking like an expensive month.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Wait, does that mean that an ISO version of the ML Dolch keyboard might exist … ?

[Dubsgalore]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-Model-M-I ... 557wt_1156

Place your bets.

edit - Also, UK ISO Dolch

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dolch-PAC-62- ... 280wt_1161

I've only seen DE Dolch before, nice link

[Nuum]

6x French Raptor K1, could have doubleshot keycaps: http://www.ebay.de/itm/331249722862
Blue Alps?: http://www.ebay.de/itm/291180459564
Eraser in form of keycaps: http://www.ebay.de/itm/331249592184

[HzFaq]

As far as I can tell those are just stock photos; 4 of them won't load for me for some reason, but the top two and the main one at the top of the auction I'm 90% sure are. More than likely will have the standard POM caps (which I really like, proabaly as much as ABS Cherry DS).

I've picked a couple of these up for about £25 a time and they're pretty nice boards for that price.

[Nuum]

Yeah, of course. The pictures display DE-Layout and the third picture shows lasered keycaps. But at least the text states N-Key-Rollover, which is quite nice.

[HzFaq]

I never tested for NKRO actually, at a guess I'd say it does it by pretending to be more than one keyboard...

Also, even though they're PCB mounted, the switches feel really solid as they have little skirts that clip around the bottom of the switches for stability. Compared with a 11900 from around the same time it feels much more solid and stable. Still not anywhere near a plate mount board, but much better than the standard (newer) Cherry G80 boards.

[Nuum]

Well, I just tried my luck on this one: http://www.ebay.de/itm/371093798346. Let's see how it feels and how much of the sellers description is correct.

[plasticchair]

Blue Alps?: http://www.ebay.de/itm/291180459564

Looks like complicated blue ALPS. Found that as well. Probably trying my luck if I don't forget about it.

[mind_prepared]

To whom this may concern,

guys, I've been following your discussions and posts for quite a while now and have had a few good laughs on the occasion of the more facetious remarks, too. I've also learned that I've acquired a certain reputation, if not notoriety, among the select members of this peculiar institution. Just to do away with any ambiguations, my Ebay seller name is chance_favors_the_prepared_mind. [insert thunder and lightning here]

Not very surprisingly, the main accusation brought forth in this forum is excessive pricing on my part ("luxury items at a price" etc). If to an effect or not, I'd like to ask you to lay of the unwarranted hating. Except for a few items, most of the stuff I'm offering involves a significant, although not outrageous, degree of elbow grease and tinkering. I have to pay for water, electricity, tools, utensils and the like and hence I have no love for cheapskates, sorry to say that. I'm making but a little pocket money here, although I *wish* I could make serious money like that.

Some of you seem to entertain the idea that spending hours of one's labor for cleaning, processing and shipping an item doesn't have a value of its own. But it's ridiculous to ask of anyone to continually give away his labor free of charge. If you're not satisfied with my pricing, say on the MX 5000 - go ahead and make me a "realistic" offer. On a sidenote: The last ones sold on Ebay for around 300€. The only offer I've received from a non-Chinese buyer amounted to 150€ - is that realistic for a super-rare item in mint condition? C'mon!
The same goes for all other items I've got on offer. Everyone's free to suggest a new price. If mashing a few buttons and typing a number different from the one already displayed on the screen is too much asked, I can't help you out.

The only time I ever tried to get away with something dubious was the, as you guys like to call it, G80-"Frankenboard" case. I was secretly following the discussion here on the forum during that time and have learned a lesson. I feel obliged to add, however, that I've also learned that charging 30€ for 102 MX blue switches was still a give-away price for the switches alone. Of course the deal would have been even more satisfying to the buyer, who's a member in this forum, I see, had he also obtained a set of Cherry doublehots in mint-condition on top of the switches (or vice versa). Sure, everyone here prefers the naive, doofus or self-exploiting Ebay seller over the "prepared" seller, including myself. However, everyone is entitled to base his pricing on the actual market value of an item, given that he can extract the necessary information from the ongoing market process.

I hope my intervention is conducible to a slight shift in opinion towards my case. So if anyone has any suggestions to make, fire it at me.

[Muirium]

Ah, I remember you, Chancey! Someone said they were sure you were either in, or kept an eye on, the keyboard community or you wouldn't be quite as… prepared. They were right! Welcome through the looking glass.

Generally, what people react to and either grumble or praise is the apparent attitude of a seller. eBay is a narrow channel for communication, by design, and doesn't help us get a handle on the real person. It's easy to imagine that everyone is like Monedas (look him up, he was a notorious seller who fought many a flamewar here last year!) when, of course, there's two sides to every story.

The best way to sell in this community is by classifieds right here or on whatever forum of your choice. Especially at DT there's a lot of frank discussion amongst anyone who shows up, which is often very informative to those of us doing research later on. There's always some cheapskates out there (myself sometimes included) who want to take pot shots, but there's much to be said for earning a real reputation here rather than a number next to a star on an auction site everyone and their dog wouldn't piss on in a fire!

[kbdfr]

Nice to see proven experts join DT
Your prices are in fact rather on the stiff side, but well, nobody wants you to have your water and electricity turned off

[photekq]

Chance,

Recently brand new, still in their box ISO 5000s have been selling for around 300eur

[mind_prepared]

@kbdfr: of course I'm not gonna have my electricity etc cut off. I didn't wanna come across whiny or anything, but if you do the math you'll see that it doesn't come down to a lot if you actually take into account your own labor. and I have a hunch people like to forget that. I've almost given up on the tedious stuff anyway.
take the Focus keyboards I'm offering, for instance. All in all, I reckon I must have spent more than a day at least (I mean literally) finding, cleaning, retrobrighting, and modifying the PCB to add a USB controller... and the two boards I'm offering right now are in wonderful shape with no signs of wear (including the white ALPS switches) whatsoever. The quality of these boards is unlike anything sold today, why should they, given the extra features, not be worth 129€? what's so "stiff" about that? Just look at the crappy boards Matias is making and what they're charging for it: ugly, bad layout, cheap keycaps, horrible switches...

@photekq: not all of the recent MX 5000s on Ebay were NIB. the old listings have been deleted tho, I can't find them now. but I'm certain at least one was looking rather shabby and even missing the keypad and it sold for 260€ or something

[DerpyDash_xAD]

Although I have heard all the other things said about Matias, I have never heard their switches described as 'bad', let alone 'horrible'. Why do you think this, if you don't mind my asking?

[mind_prepared]

my choice of words was not precise, true dat. the Matias switches are not horrible. but they're very unlike complicated ALPS switches. the quiet Matias switches feel to me like a stiffer version of the MX browns.

[Hypersphere]

Although Matias boards do not get high marks from me for their aesthetics, I rather like the Matias tactile/clicky switches. I prefer Matias switches over any of the Cherry mx switches.

[strafe]

Toshiba T3200 (in Australia)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Older-1987-T ... 1397177720

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Blue Alps?: http://www.ebay.de/itm/291180459564

Looks like complicated blue ALPS. Found that as well. Probably trying my luck if I don't forget about it.

Looks that way from that particular shade of blue. I've never seen a blue Alps KB-6151 before. Sadly the FCC ID record for the NTC KB-6151 lists 1990 as the final action date for a "Class II Permissive Change", meaning that 1990 isn't the filing date, and I cannot find that date. Blue Alps were last seen in 1988 — they were only made for a few years — and that's well before the final action date.

One should be able to get the manufacture date from the keyboard itself, such as off the controller chip.

[Nuum]

Well, I just tried my luck on this one: http://www.ebay.de/itm/371093798346. Let's see how it feels and how much of the sellers description is correct.

Ok, the keyboard arrived today. Unfortunately no doubleshots, but NKRO over USB (got it to register approx seven or eight keys, perhaps a problem with my USB3.0 controller) and nice thick POM keycaps. So I think the french ones should have that, too.

[kbdfr]

I bought the French one you had linked to ( http://www.ebay.de/itm/331249722862 ).
Got it today as well.

And mine definitely has doubleshots

Board didn't t come in a display box as shown in the stock picture,
but in a simple brown box (with tape and shipping label sticked directly on it, but easily removed without much damage).
It is new in its plastic bag, and keycap remover, keyblockers, glow-in-the-dark caps and instruction leaflet are included.
Layout is French AZERTY, so just in case Frenchies are interested I asked the seller if he would ship to France (and how much it would be).
If he won't, I could proxy, total price shipped (tracked and insured) to France would then be just under 31€ (19.90€ purchase price with free shipping inside Germany + 10.99€ DHL shipping to France)

[Nuum]

Ah, nice, I wish mine had doubleshots, too, but this way I can try POM.

IBM 6742-2 for local pickup, should be buckling springs: http://kleinanzeigen.ebay.de/anzeigen/s ... 3-168-9602

[IvanIvanovich]

White on black Cherry FR doubleshots...very tempting!