Great/Interesting Finds

depletedvespene · 14 Jul 2018, 15:39

scottc wrote: Need to remember to grab one of those the next time I'm in the USA.

Been there, done that.

Dingster · 14 Jul 2018, 16:06

depletedvespene wrote:
scottc wrote: Need to remember to grab one of those the next time I'm in the USA.
Been there, done that.

How do you feel about it?

depletedvespene · 14 Jul 2018, 17:25

Dingster wrote:
depletedvespene wrote:
scottc wrote: Need to remember to grab one of those the next time I'm in the USA.
Been there, done that.
How do you feel about it?

Great, thank you!

snuci · 14 Jul 2018, 21:01

Engicoder wrote:
snuci wrote: Bought it for $50. I'll take pics when it comes. Should be no surprises but it's a parallel ASCII keyboard which will have great vintage usability. Classic era look too!
Looks homebuilt and fantastic. Looking forward to the pics!

After some research, looks like there is more to this keyboard than it being homebuilt. It is, in fact, a full Cherry keyboard in authentic Cherry enclosure shown in the 1979 Cherry catalog. It's also documented in that catalog as the B70 Pro Series on page 21. That's a bonus.

It is now a bonafide "Interesting Find".

Spoiler:

Engicoder · 14 Jul 2018, 23:45

Wow...really interesting.

ramnes · 15 Jul 2018, 01:30

Does it need a description?

https://ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-5291-C ... 2773312923

wobbled · 15 Jul 2018, 03:27

ramnes wrote: Does it need a description?
https://ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-5291-C ... 2773312923

Phwoahhhr check out all her other items for sale, it makes one hell of a fun browse!

Half-Saint · 15 Jul 2018, 06:25

Interesting marketing strategy

wobbled wrote:
ramnes wrote: Does it need a description?
https://ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-5291-C ... 2773312923
Phwoahhhr check out all her other items for sale, it makes one hell of a fun browse!

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

Sangdrax · 15 Jul 2018, 06:55

snuci wrote:
Engicoder wrote:
snuci wrote:
It is now a bonafide "Interesting Find".

Spoiler:
Cherry Enclosure.jpg

Definitely. And a good score too. Surprising to see a seller willing to negotiate that much.

snuci · 15 Jul 2018, 15:42

Sangdrax wrote: Definitely. And a good score too. Surprising to see a seller willing to negotiate that much.

I didn't actually see the keyboard here until after I bought it. It was originally part of a vintage computer system I was watching with a Ferguson Big Board II (you probably don't know what that is but it's an old hobby computer board that one would build a computer system around). I already have one of these but I was wondering what it might sell for. The system had floppy drives and the keyboard but it didn't sell because the price was high.

Spoiler:

The seller then split it up. Someone mentioned this was selling for $500 then dropped down to $210, then $100 then $80, all within the space of a few hours. As soon as he dropped it to $80, I made my offer and he took it. This seller had two computer systems (not sure if both had keyboards) but I assume these were bought at an estate auction so we had someone who didn't really know the value of the computer system. They were a motivated seller in the end.

By the way, this happens occasionally with vintage computers; probably not so much with keyboards.

green-squid · 15 Jul 2018, 18:45

duuuuuuude that thing looks so awesome!!!! Very awesome find.

mog_genius88 · 16 Jul 2018, 08:49

https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/com ... _w_paypal/

I thought this was pretty interesting. People have been posting NoS Browns and AEK64s for $500 EACH. This guy sold them both for about that price.

Alps prices are ridiculous. Got lucky with my browns for around $160 but I think even that was a lot.

Nuum · 16 Jul 2018, 09:37

Those prices seem even worse than the prices for blue Alps, are 500$ really realistic for ~60 NOS brown Alps?

AndyTC · 16 Jul 2018, 10:38

He didn't sell an aek for $500 or 60 browns for $500 either

he sold a Clueboard aek64 (alu case that was $300-ish retail price) built with hasu pcb and NOS brown alps for $500 +shipping
seems like a pretty good price to me
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nuum · 16 Jul 2018, 13:55

I see that, but he also mentioned, that other people were asking 500$ for the Brown Alps switches alone, so I was wondering if they are indeed worth that much.

ramnes · 16 Jul 2018, 15:31

No, they're not.

TheInverseKey · 17 Jul 2018, 02:56

I just bought one and so did a friend of mine. They are NOS and come with white Alps. The caps are pad printed thin ABS and are not the best but switched out this would make a good under the desk keyboard. Mine came with the rails to mount it to a server rack but mine came wit 2 sets and my friends came with 1.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-RACKMOUNT-D ... 2749.l2649

I don't know about the shipping out side of Canada but inside it was free.

orihalcon · 17 Jul 2018, 05:59

Fully refurbished and converted IBM 3278 Beamspring with odd tripple shot GREEN APL layout:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/253757176042

Doubt it's going to last long given that these keycaps are definitely uncommon. This seller is also known for quality restorations.

Elrick · 17 Jul 2018, 11:16

orihalcon wrote: Fully refurbished and converted IBM 3278 Beamspring with odd tripple shot GREEN APL layout:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/253757176042

Decent price and ONLY for US citizens (due to heavy weight)

.

Really good price on that version.

darkcruix · 17 Jul 2018, 12:06

Elrick wrote:
orihalcon wrote: Fully refurbished and converted IBM 3278 Beamspring with odd tripple shot GREEN APL layout:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/253757176042
Decent price and ONLY for US citizens (due to heavy weight) .

Really good price on that version.

Oh man - only US... a real bummer. This one is extraordinary.

codemonkeymike · 17 Jul 2018, 12:42

Beautiful board, but hell why didn't the post something here before cleaning it. I always make it my duty to tell people to not clean front printed caps in soap or anything stronger. They most certainly destroyed that front printing by cleaning it.

ekeppel · 17 Jul 2018, 12:44

It arrived to me in that condition, unfortunately. I am always really careful with front-printed caps because I know how easily they can rub off with overzealous cleaning.

codemonkeymike · 17 Jul 2018, 12:46

ekeppel wrote: It arrived to me in that condition, unfortunately. I am always really careful with front-printed caps because I know how easily they can rub off with overzealous cleaning.

That's a fucking bummer, but it gives me an excuse to not drop the price of a used car on a keyboard right now.

Did it come to you "cleaned"/"restored" ?

ekeppel · 17 Jul 2018, 12:55

Yeah I know the prices are crazy these days. I've paid less for several different cars over the years. I think my wife's last car was $900 and mine was $1400.

We've recently moved on to better cars, but not by a large margin, lol. It's tough to find a not-completely-rusted-out vehicle up here in New England for a reasonable price.

depletedvespene · 17 Jul 2018, 12:58

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell... we could think 1700 bucks is too high of a price for a rather unique beamspring, then THIS shows up: http://www.ebay.com/itm/253756981168/.

swampangel · 17 Jul 2018, 14:44

TheInverseKey wrote: I just bought one and so did a friend of mine. They are NOS and come with white Alps. The caps are pad printed thin ABS and are not the best but switched out this would make a good under the desk keyboard. Mine came with the rails to mount it to a server rack but mine came wit 2 sets and my friends came with 1.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-RACKMOUNT-D ... 2749.l2649

I don't know about the shipping out side of Canada but inside it was free.

I bought one of these - thanks!

TheInverseKey · 17 Jul 2018, 15:21

swampangel wrote:
TheInverseKey wrote: I just bought one and so did a friend of mine. They are NOS and come with white Alps. The caps are pad printed thin ABS and are not the best but switched out this would make a good under the desk keyboard. Mine came with the rails to mount it to a server rack but mine came wit 2 sets and my friends came with 1.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-RACKMOUNT-D ... 2749.l2649

I don't know about the shipping out side of Canada but inside it was free.
I bought one of these - thanks!

So after getting mine today I noticed that the return key has a bit of an issue with off center key presses. It seems to use a weird stabilizer pin that I haven't seen. Adding lube helped a bit but not that much.

JP! · 17 Jul 2018, 15:42

Oh man that beamer is super cool. I've not seen one like it before. Anyone know how they painted or printed these sub legends?

swampangel · 17 Jul 2018, 18:52

TheInverseKey wrote: So after getting mine today I noticed that the return key has a bit of an issue with off center key presses. It seems to use a weird stabilizer pin that I haven't seen. Adding lube helped a bit but not that much.

Thanks for the heads up. It'll probably go on my home server and only rarely get used.

xxhellfirexx · 17 Jul 2018, 19:01

depletedvespene wrote: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell... we could think 1700 bucks is too high of a price for a rather unique beamspring, then THIS shows up: http://www.ebay.com/itm/253756981168/.

Save your money. There is already an ebook version.
https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_a ... 4_19164640