Great/Interesting Finds

[Tuntematon]

I probably should have just gone for the G80 at the BIN price, I even have a few other Tandem G80s so it would have fit in nicely. Wasn't feeling spendy today.

[E3E]

This seller had a few Tandem boards I was watching, this and another. Both gone now. Nothing good lasts on eBay!

They seem to always come in pairs.

Unlike the member's club elitists, I just saw this one on my ebay feed.

Certainly could just be something to make a profit on if someone wanted to exploit them like SKCM Greens have been exploited. $8 a switch, goodness gracious.

Damn, talk about a price hike. They jacked it up by $30 after selling the first Tandem. Sheesh.

[ohaimark]

They were probably shocked that things started flying off the shelves.

[Seraxis]

there's this FK 8000 with an apparently working calculator for sale:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-compu ... SwfVpYrNQU

[subcat]

If the Tandem buyer wants to part out its switches at some point, please let me know

[alh84001]

Damn ebay, I have the term "Tandem 6526" in followed searches, but nothing showed up.

[E3E]

Damn ebay, I have the term "Tandem 6526" in followed searches, but nothing showed up.

It happens! Luck of the draw, I think. I got lucky last year around this time with the Xerox boards, my Acer KB101A, and a Dell AT101 for a cheap price.

I've seen sold listings and people talking about boards I have in my followed searches but never saw pop up too.

[alh84001]

Well, if it had to go to someone, I would vote for the guy who got it, so I'm not hung up on it

And yes, what subcat said

[Harshmallow]

I got the first Tandem 6526, then I posted the second one and mentioned the seller's G80 HAU in the club member section. TBH, it's the first time I've really had a 'great' find on Ebay haha. I raced to check to make sure it was the board I was thinking of, then I bought it while I was at work. I'm still pretty new to this, and I'm definitely not planning on flipping it for a profit. I am expecting SKCL browns and can't wait! Because I probably wouldn't be able to convert it, I most likely will use the switches in a future project - maybe my very first custom keyboard build =D

Oh, and I posted it in the club members section for the following reason: I was worried that posting it in the general section would alert resellers who would just buy it and flip it and us DT peeps would never see it again...OR, the buyer would see it and possibly jack the price up after seeing the chatter. I definitely wasn't intending to keep the news from any of you fine DT folks, but maybe this will just be further incentive to join the club!! Heheh...

I promise to let you all know what turns up at my doorstep. Regardless of the switch type it has - there will be photos! And thank you for the kind mention Alh! Err, unless you meant the guy that got the second one hahah.

EDIT: Just to clarify - there were two Tandem 6526 boards posted today. This was the one I got...for a whole $45, plus almost the same price to f**king ship it to Canada lol.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/232248208848?_tr ... EBIDX%3AIT

[cumwagondeluxe]

Dirty DC-2014 went for $87US. Pretty good price for whoever got it! Hopefully it's somebody here too

[//gainsborough]

Dirty DC-2014 went for $87US. Pretty good price for whoever got it! Hopefully it's somebody here too

Woah! That seems pretty reasonable. I remember hypersphere picked one of these up in like december and cleaned it up to look practically brand new. If the switches are in good condition I would say this was a great buy! ...but I base that statement on current blue alps prices...haha.

[E3E]

That is indeed a very reasonable price.

Concerning the DC-2014

I got the first Tandem 6526, then I posted the second one and mentioned the seller's G80 HAU in the club member section. TBH, it's the first time I've really had a 'great' find on Ebay haha. I raced to check to make sure it was the board I was thinking of, then I bought it while I was at work. I'm still pretty new to this, and I'm definitely not planning on flipping it for a profit. I am expecting SKCL browns and can't wait! Because I probably wouldn't be able to convert it, I most likely will use the switches in a future project - maybe my very first custom keyboard build =D

Oh, and I posted it in the club members section for the following reason: I was worried that posting it in the general section would alert resellers who would just buy it and flip it and us DT peeps would never see it again...OR, the buyer would see it and possibly jack the price up after seeing the chatter. I definitely wasn't intending to keep the news from any of you fine DT folks, but maybe this will just be further incentive to join the club!! Heheh...

I promise to let you all know what turns up at my doorstep. Regardless of the switch type it has - there will be photos! And thank you for the kind mention Alh! Err, unless you meant the guy that got the second one hahah.

EDIT: Just to clarify - there were two Tandem 6526 boards posted today. This was the one I got...for a whole $45, plus almost the same price to f**king ship it to Canada lol.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/232248208848?_tr ... EBIDX%3AIT

Good call, on all the above. I might end up getting a club subscription to support Deskthority and also share finds without alerting sellers. True sellers that care would do more than perfunctory google search to find out what their boards really are; if they care enough to dig deeper to find prices, that's fine by me, but we shouldn't give them the luxury of just being able to find out price at a glance.

Congrats with your find, Harsh! Let us know if you get Striped Ambers or SKCL Browns. From what I'm aware, we've seen two of these with SKCL Browns so far and two of them with Striped Ambers, though more with the Ambers were shredded.

I think it can easily go either way, so I'm excited to hear back from you! Please let us know!

[Harshmallow]

I had a thought that I would be the first guy to get this board in Blue Alps and be the first person to ever be disappointed to see Blue Alps

[Harshmallow]

Speaking of interesting Tandems - anyone near Nashville want to check this listing out? I've never seen a keyboard quite like this one before, and based on the computer label it appears to be from 1987.

https://nashville.craigslist.org/bar/5966408634.html

[seebart]

This fun auction ended, I really hope kani99_de enjoys his very expensive Nixdorf magnetic switches...

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Nixdorf-Computer ... 7675.l2557

[ohaimark]

That looks foam and foilish to me. LED locations and the keycap legends I can sort of see lead me to that conclusion.

[//gainsborough]

another tandem just sold it looks like!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tandem-Computer ... Sw~AVYrbXz

[Tuntematon]

I got a late, single word response from the seller this morning about the $75 Tandem 6526 that sold yesterday: Brown.

Maybe we can assume they are all SKCL Brown. In any case, if you see another nasty old Tandem pop up, remember that SKCL Brown is just like every other linear Alps switch, only slightly different. It will change your life. Buy no matter what the cost!

[Harshmallow]

I got a late, single word response from the seller this morning about the $75 Tandem 6526 that sold yesterday: Brown.

Maybe we can assume they are all SKCL Brown. In any case, if you see another nasty old Tandem pop up, remember that SKCL Brown is just like every other linear Alps switch, only slightly different. It will change your life. Buy no matter what the cost!

Haha, why do you say that? I mean I'm pretty excited for mine, but I guess just buying it for the rarity is what some people do too. Geez, the seller did just sell a third one - and the price crept up another $20 haha...still testing the waters. That one was not tested though - and he made sure to note it wasn't. Mine and the second one apparently work without issue. It looks like they got a small lode from a hospital IT sale...this seller has mostly medical equipment. They have a few other types of Tandem keyboards up...haven't seen any of the actual computers/terminals - they probably didn't take them.

Oh, he just put up another G80 btw! It's a G80-1191HPU.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tandem-Computer ... 2249215551

[ohaimark]

Looks a bit more worn than the 1080 I snagged, but still cool.

[Harshmallow]

The seller has sold 4 Tandem 6526's since yesterday actually. I wonder how long this might keep going for. The one no one posted here was sold earlier than the one Gainsborough mentioned. It has a broken F keycap, revealing a Brown SKCL switch. Mine seems to have the latest serial number so far, with the QA sticker marked in late 1989..or 1987 - it's really hard to make out that hand-written digit, but 87 would make more sense. The oldest one seems to be in late 86 I believe. Not sure if that is of any significance.

http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40 ... 5573.m1684

[cumwagondeluxe]

Got the super clean SKCM brown board (Videowriter 250) for $89USD. Pretty satisfied - was feeling kind of regretful about passing up on the dirty DC2014 at $87 yesterday but I think I'll be happier playing around with this for a while until a cleaner blue alps board comes along. Plus I still have like 4 or 5 boards to get with some of the easier to find switches (e.g. I don't have a good condition ZKB-2 which I'd like to grab soon-ish)

[Mattr567]

So do we know if any of them are SKCL Striped Amber?

My Striped Amber Tandem has no serial number btw. Idk about E3E's Amber Tandem. Mine could be from either '86 or '87, can't tell for sure.

[//gainsborough]

Got the super clean SKCM brown board (Videowriter 250) for $89USD. Pretty satisfied - was feeling kind of regretful about passing up on the dirty DC2014 at $87 yesterday but I think I'll be happier playing around with this for a while until a cleaner blue alps board comes along. Plus I still have like 4 or 5 boards to get with some of the easier to find switches (e.g. I don't have a good condition ZKB-2 which I'd like to grab soon-ish)

congrats dude! I had that in my watch list, but I already spent a good amount of money this month (coincidentally on a pretty good condition zkb-2, haha). I'd love to hear your opinion on the brown alps, same from harshmallow - one of you guys should post a sound test video on youtube! =)

[Harshmallow]

So do we know if any of them are SKCL Striped Amber?

My Striped Amber Tandem has no serial number btw. Idk about E3E's Amber Tandem. Mine could be from either '86 or '87, can't tell for sure.

Not yet - the first one only sold yesterday. I should receive mine early next week since the seller shipped it today.

His (I can't type your name without cracking up man...cumwagon HAHA) should be SKCM Brown, which is tactile. My Tandem board should have SKCL Brown linears. So we should definitely both post separate typing tests as they'll sound quite different.

[ohaimark]

So much hype. Bwahaha. They really aren't as magical as you all make them out to be, frankly.

[//gainsborough]

So much hype. Bwahaha. They really aren't as magical as you all make them out to be, frankly.

Hype train derailment!

[seebart]

62580792.jpg (32.5 KiB) Viewed 4480 times

[Tuntematon]

I got a late, single word response from the seller this morning about the $75 Tandem 6526 that sold yesterday: Brown.

Maybe we can assume they are all SKCL Brown. In any case, if you see another nasty old Tandem pop up, remember that SKCL Brown is just like every other linear Alps switch, only slightly different. It will change your life. Buy no matter what the cost!

Haha, why do you say that? I mean I'm pretty excited for mine, but I guess just buying it for the rarity is what some people do too. Geez, the seller did just sell a third one - and the price crept up another $20 haha...still testing the waters. That one was not tested though - and he made sure to note it wasn't. Mine and the second one apparently work without issue. It looks like they got a small lode from a hospital IT sale...this seller has mostly medical equipment. They have a few other types of Tandem keyboards up...haven't seen any of the actual computers/terminals - they probably didn't take them.

Oh, he just put up another G80 btw! It's a G80-1191HPU.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tandem-Computer ... 2249215551

Just poking a little fun. We all get in such a frenzy over the rare stuff. Alps SKCM Green is the most extreme example. Its predecessor is much cheaper and easier to get, and probably better too, but people go mad over Green because it's extremely rare. The only over-hyped Alps switch that is really worth it is SKCM Blue, since it is the best of its kind, not just among Alps, but probably among all modern discrete clicky switches of that style. Congrats on snagging the first Tandem 6526, you got a pretty good deal there. In before the inflation!

[seebart]

Just poking a little fun. We all get in such a frenzy over the rare stuff. Alps SKCM Green is the most extreme example. Its predecessor is much cheaper and easier to get, and probably better too, but people go made over Green because it's extremely rare. The only over-hyped Alps switch that is really worth it is SKCM Blue, since it is the best of its kind, not just among Alps, but probably among all modern discrete clicky switches of that style. Congrats on snagging the first Tandem 6526, you got a pretty good deal there. In before the inflation!

1+ to this. Rarity does not make anything better, just possibly more desirable.