Out of sheer chance I got my third IBM Model F AT

[Mr.Nobody]

This one could be the only one showed up in China over the past 13 months of time during which I've been extremely busy, I barely spent any time on scanning Taobao or Xianyu(咸鱼) for keyboards. However, on the night of 12 April, I didn't know for what reason that I opened Xianyu and immediately a new listing prompt popped out, it's no other than an IBM Model F AT, I bought it without any hesitation lest others did first, only 2 seconds after the seller had listed it...Well, it seems what belongs to you will come to you, you don't even need to search for it.

微信图片_20180429185605.jpg (2.46 MiB) Viewed 3162 times

[Dingster]

Getting one in China should be pretty hard right?
Congrats on the awesome find

[green-squid]

whoaaaa! Awesome! China has so many good deals that can't be found anywhere in the west anymore.

What's the best way to get keyboard stuff from china? Are Taobao proxy services the best way to import things?

[Mr.Nobody]

Getting one in China should be pretty hard right?
Congrats on the awesome find

Yes, I remember before 2017, there were many SSKs and other gems waiting for months before sold even though the prices were extremely low. Nowadays, you can hardly spot one. From the beginning of 2018 China has banned E-waste import completely, so it's more likely to get boards from India or Africa in future.

whoaaaa! Awesome! China has so many good deals that can't be found anywhere in the west anymore.

What's the best way to get keyboard stuff from china? Are Taobao proxy services the best way to import things?

Most used stuff now have been transfered to another platform called Xianyu(咸鱼), an mobilephone-only app derived from formerly Taobao flea market. You need a proxy who's willing to take the risk and go through all the hassle.

[green-squid]

Getting one in China should be pretty hard right?
Congrats on the awesome find

Yes, I remember before 2017, there were many SSKs and other gems waiting for months before sold even though the prices were extremely low. Nowadays, you can hardly spot one. From the beginning of 2018 China has banned E-waste import completely, so it's more likely to get boards from India or Africa in future.

whoaaaa! Awesome! China has so many good deals that can't be found anywhere in the west anymore.

What's the best way to get keyboard stuff from china? Are Taobao proxy services the best way to import things?

Most used stuff now have been transfered to another platform called Xianyu(咸鱼), an mobilephone-only app derived from formerly Taobao flea market. You need a proxy who's willing to take the risk and go through all the hassle.

Oh.. that sucks. I've still seen many great deals on stuff on TB, but nothing like this!

[depletedvespene]

Congratulations! Ensure they're well taken care of.

[FSTP]

WOW! so special! I still don't have an AT version. o lucky to have that many in such amazing shape! Congratulations.

[Mr.Nobody]

@green-squid
China was almost a decade late for the computer age, everything started from late 1980s when almost everything had an IBM AST or Compaq label, this is one of the reason we still can stumble upon IBM keyboards from time to time but vintage boards like beamsprings or the Honeywell with Micro Switch SW I mentioned days ago seldom show up.. For decades China had been the destination of E-waste, I guess before the keyboard collection became a thing, countless boards had ended up in shredders. Personally, I think the golden age of getting decent boards at a reasonable price from China is drawing to an end owing to the new policy banning E-waste import.

@depletedvespene
Thanks buddy, I promise.

@FSTP
What belongs to you will come to you, I heard some DT memeber got a NIB AT from Ebay for 100$, another one got it from a kid for 70$ which looks rather new. Scan ebay bro.

[wobbled]

Now you have three of them, will you be doing anything interesting with them? I'd love to see them turned in to ISO, ANSI and UNIX HHKB layouts with some xwhatsit controllers, perhaps a space bar and alt key mod as well, unless of course you prefer them stock

[depletedvespene]

Now you have three of them, will you be doing anything interesting with them? I'd love to see them turned in to ISO, ANSI and UNIX HHKB layouts with some xwhatsit controllers, perhaps a space bar and alt key mod as well, unless of course you prefer them stock

Funny you should mention that - I got one F AT that I intend to keep "stock" and one that I want to have modded to use a TIE instead of a BAE or an ANSI or an ISO Enter key. Perhaps in a few months I'll present this to the public (and be embarrassed by the results or whatever).

[Mr.Nobody]

Now you have three of them, will you be doing anything interesting with them? I'd love to see them turned in to ISO, ANSI and UNIX HHKB layouts with some xwhatsit controllers, perhaps a space bar and alt key mod as well, unless of course you prefer them stock

In fact, I expect someone who has the technical know-how could develop a Bluetooth kit for converting ATs into wireless, so we can rid ourselves of the cumbersome cable. As for the layout and keycaps, I prefer keeping historic boards as original as possible as long as it doesn't affect my typing experiences, if you scrutinize the photo of my three ATs, you may notice that I've relocated the "ESC" keys farther lest trigger the ESC inadvertently when my fingers reach out for the backspace key, TBH, I had this this sort of accident for several times, and whole pages of texts I'd keyed in vanished, really frustrating.