Not-So-Great Finds

[ander]

...Anyway, one of the more common examples of this pricing phenomenon I've seen is with the Chicony 5161. Ones with blue alps in the past have sold for 200+ obviously so we have sellers listing their 5161 in the same range without any awareness of the switches, which as you know, vary greatly.

Yeah, I've seen that, and it's wacky. On the plus side, there are many other White Alps boards of equal or superior build quality.

Bothers me most when they have opted not to receive any messages!

Even if they did, though, do you think you could get keeb-ignorant sellers to relist their boards for much lower prices just by telling them they had less valuable switches? Most people don't want to bother reading through forum threads to learn about stuff like that.

[ander]

"Vintage Original IBM PC 5150 Keyboard From 1982 in box - Very Rare"

Hey, an IBM Model F with the original box!

Er... Except it's not a Model F:











It's not even an IBM. It's not even mechanical. It's a rubber-dome BTC-5339.

When I pointed this out to the seller, they replied, "This is the original keyboard that I purchased with the IBM PC in 1982. It came in the displayed box."

I wanted to reply with that "boinggggg!!!" sound they play in cartoons when a character has an anvil dropped on their head or something, but unfortunately eBay's message system doesn't support soundfiles.

[rowdy]

"Vintage Original IBM PC 5150 Keyboard From 1982 in box - Very Rare"

Hey, an IBM Model F with the original box!

Er... Except it's not a Model F:


(Attachment Link)


(Attachment Link)


(Attachment Link)


It's not even an IBM. It's not even mechanical. It's a rubber-dome BTC-5339.

When I pointed this out to the seller, they replied, "This is the original keyboard that I purchased with the IBM PC in 1982. It came in the displayed box."

I wanted to reply with that "boinggggg!!!" sound they play in cartoons when a character has an anvil dropped on their head or something, but unfortunately eBay's message system doesn't support soundfiles.

"This listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing."

[ander]

[JP]

Should someone tell the seller?

[ander]

That a BTC isn't an IBM? I tried, but I think they're acronym-challenged.

[ander]

"Used IBM keyboard modified to work with USB..3ft coiled cable is provided"

The seller has even left it out in their backyard for a while so the birds could test it:








[Description:] "Used IBM keyboard modified to work with USB..3ft coiled cable is provided... These keyboards are home built one at a time."

So it's not only bird-tested, but hand-built by the seller (who must've worked for IBM or Lexmark, and taken home enough equipment to turn out their own M's...?). A remarkable find, I'm sure you'll agree!

[fohat.digs]

The seller should write a book on marketing techniques.

[ander]

Fake news and disinformation are just a few of the symptoms of what’s wrong. The problem is something far more fundamental. The problem is these vastly powerful algorithmic engines are blackboxes. And, at the business end of the operation, each individual user only sees what each individual user sees. The great lie of social media has been to claim it shows us the world. And the follow-on deception: That their technology products bring us closer together. In truth, social media is not a telescopic lens — as the telephone actually was — but an opinion-fracturing prism that shatters social cohesion by replacing a shared public sphere and its dynamically overlapping discourse with a wall of increasingly concentrated filter bubbles. Social media is not connective tissue but engineered segmentation that treats each pair of human eyeballs as a discrete unit to be plucked out and separated off from its fellows. It’s a trypophobic’s nightmare. Or the panopticon in reverse — each user bricked into an individual cell that’s surveilled from the platform controller’s tinted glass tower. Little wonder that lies spread and inflate so quickly via systems that are not only hyper-accelerating the rate at which information can travel but deliberately pickling people inside a stew of their own prejudices. - Natasha Lomas 2018

On the plus side, Triscuits come in a wide range of flavors now.

[fohat.digs]

On the plus side, Triscuits come in a wide range of flavors now.

Most of those look disgusting but I am going to have to try smoked Gouda.

[ander]

On the plus side, Triscuits come in a wide range of flavors now.

Most of those look disgusting but I am going to have to try smoked Gouda.

Indeed, I find the Smoked Gouda's particularly good at taking my mind off of the world's sorry political state for a while.

[ander]

IBM Model M keyboard with SDL cable vintage clean tested $10 below Unicomp price








BIN $74.00 + shipping.

The really interesting thing about this keeb is that it's actually this logoless 1397735 I posted about on the 22nd:








...with the case top from a different M—to make it more appealing, apparently, to peeps who can't appreciate how the relatively rare 1397735 was intentionally logoless.

So if you've always wanted a Model M with a top and bottom from two different M's, but don't want to bother switching case-halves between two you already own, here's your chance.

[ander]

What's more, it's even being described as "complete":





...so they may not even mind including the original 1397735 case top, if you ask.

[JP]

I almost think that the top case is original but the seller has cleaned it up a little bit and applied a logo from a donor M. They also re arraigned the arrow keys and replaced the missing alt key with one with black lettering instead of green.

Also this has sold now.

[ander]

I almost think that the top case is original but the seller has cleaned it up a little bit and applied a logo from a donor M...

Hmm, you may be right—it wasn't put on straight, was it? (How could anyone fail to do that, though, considering the indentation's there?)

They also re arraigned the arrow keys and replaced the missing alt key with one with black lettering instead of green.

Really? All I see is one Alt cap missing, and the original green one on the other.

[clickityClackity]

Just.... I can't.... Here:
http://r.ebay.com/K3rvCb

[rowdy]

Fake news and disinformation are just a few of the symptoms of what’s wrong. The problem is something far more fundamental. The problem is these vastly powerful algorithmic engines are blackboxes. And, at the business end of the operation, each individual user only sees what each individual user sees. The great lie of social media has been to claim it shows us the world. And the follow-on deception: That their technology products bring us closer together. In truth, social media is not a telescopic lens — as the telephone actually was — but an opinion-fracturing prism that shatters social cohesion by replacing a shared public sphere and its dynamically overlapping discourse with a wall of increasingly concentrated filter bubbles. Social media is not connective tissue but engineered segmentation that treats each pair of human eyeballs as a discrete unit to be plucked out and separated off from its fellows. It’s a trypophobic’s nightmare. Or the panopticon in reverse — each user bricked into an individual cell that’s surveilled from the platform controller’s tinted glass tower. Little wonder that lies spread and inflate so quickly via systems that are not only hyper-accelerating the rate at which information can travel but deliberately pickling people inside a stew of their own prejudices. - Natasha Lomas 2018

On the plus side, Triscuits come in a wide range of flavors now.

Are they cooked three times or something?

[ander]

Just.... I can't.... Here:
http://r.ebay.com/K3rvCb

All the comforts of foam.

On the plus side, Triscuits come in a wide range of flavors now.

Are they cooked three times or something?

Triscuit is made from wheat, which is first cooked in water until it reaches about fifty percent moisture content, then tempered to allow the moisture to diffuse evenly in the grain. Slotted rollers form the grain into shredded wheat strands, which are then formed into webs. Several webs are stacked together and the still-moist stack is crimped to produce individual crackers. Oven baking then reduces the moisture content to five percent.

[ander]

What is that... thing at the top of this keeb?:





At first I thought it was a card reader. But it starts as a slot—then it sort of, well, blends into the board, becomes part of it.

So I'm wondering if it could actually be some kind of... keyboard vagina.

[mrhead]

It could be a multipurpose area - some of them show having an RFID reader and a swipe reader in that weird area up at the top.   Maybe it's got a fleshlight attachment?

[rowdy]

On the plus side, Triscuits come in a wide range of flavors now.

Are they cooked three times or something?

Triscuit is made from wheat, which is first cooked in water until it reaches about fifty percent moisture content, then tempered to allow the moisture to diffuse evenly in the grain. Slotted rollers form the grain into shredded wheat strands, which are then formed into webs. Several webs are stacked together and the still-moist stack is crimped to produce individual crackers. Oven baking then reduces the moisture content to five percent.

The reason I asked is the biscuit (bi-scuit) means twice-cooked.  This is tri-scuit - thrice cooked?

[ander]

It could be a multipurpose area...

Well, a vagina's a multipurpose area, technically.

Maybe it's got a fleshlight attachment?

Does it seem like we're taking keeb fetishism to a whole new level here?  :?O

The reason I asked is the biscuit (bi-scuit) means twice-cooked.  This is tri-scuit - thrice cooked?

All I know is what I stole from Wikipedia up there.

[Deefenestrate]

Nice box.

[mogo]

Ack—did someone really pay 99 bucks for one barrel from the Model F repro project?:

(Attachment Link)

Maybe they didn't read the description and thought they were getting the whole board?

I think this was one of XMIT's sales. He starts them at $9.99, so some people must've bidded this one up to $99. Anyway, sure is intriguing!

I HATE THIS LISTING. It's so skeezy! I see it every time I go searching through IBM boards for anything new.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-IBM-Model-F-reproduction-keyboards-barrel-Kishsaver-clicky-Model-M/222826735996?hash=item33e182297c:g:kPUAAOSwD8BZbpQx
They are selling barrels at $100, flat-out. No bidding. It isn't until the third paragraph of the listing that it specifies

Please note that this listing is for the barrel only (the black plastic item in the photo).

but it seems obvious by the vague, jumbled wording of the listing title and the featured picture of a full board that they are banking on people making a mistake and ordering a tiny tube of useless black plastic. I have half a mind to attempt a report on these things. 

[UsualSuspectXXX]

Ack—did someone really pay 99 bucks for one barrel from the Model F repro project?:

(Attachment Link)

Maybe they didn't read the description and thought they were getting the whole board?

I think this was one of XMIT's sales. He starts them at $9.99, so some people must've bidded this one up to $99. Anyway, sure is intriguing!

I HATE THIS LISTING. It's so skeezy! I see it every time I go searching through IBM boards for anything new.
(Attachment Link)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-IBM-Model-F-reproduction-keyboards-barrel-Kishsaver-clicky-Model-M/222826735996?hash=item33e182297c:g:kPUAAOSwD8BZbpQx
They are selling barrels at $100, flat-out. No bidding. It isn't until the third paragraph of the listing that it specifies

Please note that this listing is for the barrel only (the black plastic item in the photo).

but it seems obvious by the vague, jumbled wording of the listing title and the featured picture of a full board that they are banking on people making a mistake and ordering a tiny tube of useless black plastic. I have half a mind to attempt a report on these things. 

This listing trips me up every time!

Favorite part...

The barrel was rejected for being out of spec and will not function with any keyboard.

[fohat.digs]

I see it every time I go searching through IBM boards for anything new.

This listing trips me up every time!

Didn't someone recently discuss how some sort of "robo-buying-app" could be tripped up to stick you for a purchase, using an ambiguous listing and a "no return" policy?

[UsualSuspectXXX]

I see it every time I go searching through IBM boards for anything new.

This listing trips me up every time!

Didn't someone recently discuss how some sort of "robo-buying-app" could be tripped up to stick you for a purchase, using an ambiguous listing and a "no return" policy?

Robots, can never trust them

[ander]

Nice box.

LOL

I HATE THIS LISTING. It's so skeezy! I see it every time I go searching through IBM boards for anything new.
(Attachment Link)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-IBM-Model-F-reproduction-keyboards-barrel-Kishsaver-clicky-Model-M/222826735996?hash=item33e182297c:g:kPUAAOSwD8BZbpQx
They are selling barrels at $100, flat-out. No bidding... I have half a mind to attempt a report on these things. 

I agree, it's crazy. You don't have to keep seeing it, though—just add this to your search words:

-reproduction

(You did know you can exclude a word from your eBay searches by starting it with a hyphen, didn't you?)

[fohat.digs]

Robots, can never trust them

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608248/biased-algorithms-are-everywhere-and-no-one-seems-to-care/

[JP]

You could filter this listing out. Ex: "IBM Keyboard -kishsaver" which excludes one of the terms in that listings title.

[mogo]

I agree, it's crazy. You don't have to keep seeing it, though—just add this to your search words:

-reproduction

(You did know you can exclude a word from your eBay searches by starting it with a hyphen, didn't you?)

Yes, I know how search engine terms work, but the point of my complaint isn't that I can see it and I don't want to, it's that I can see it and so can every potential sucker out there. Blinding myself to it isn't the solution I wish for.

[JP]

I agree, it's crazy. You don't have to keep seeing it, though—just add this to your search words:

-reproduction

(You did know you can exclude a word from your eBay searches by starting it with a hyphen, didn't you?)

Yes, I know how search engine terms work, but the point of my complaint isn't that I can see it and I don't want to, it's that I can see it and so can every potential sucker out there. Blinding myself to it isn't the solution I wish for.

I believe the seller of these is Ellipse, the the very same person running the new Model F project. You could simply challenge him to a typing death match. Also you could do us a favor and buy them so we wouldn't have to see them. Once you have them you can either fashion a necklace with them for use in occult keyboard rituals or toss them into a fiery abyss.

[ander]

I agree, it's crazy. You don't have to keep seeing it, though—just add this to your search words:

-reproduction

(You did know you can exclude a word from your eBay searches by starting it with a hyphen, didn't you?)

Yes, I know how search engine terms work, but the point of my complaint isn't that I can see it and I don't want to, it's that I can see it and so can every potential sucker out there. Blinding myself to it isn't the solution I wish for.

Ah, so it's the principle of the thing... I get it. Right on, then.

I believe the seller of these is Ellipse, the the very same person running the new Model F project. You could simply challenge him to a typing death match. Also you could do us a favor and buy them so we wouldn't have to see them. Once you have them you can either fashion a necklace with them for use in occult keyboard rituals or toss them into a fiery abyss.

LOL

Robots, can never trust them

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608248/biased-algorithms-are-everywhere-and-no-one-seems-to-care/

DOOMED—we're all DOOMED!! But at least we have great keebs to type on meanwhile, so ha.

You could filter this listing out. Ex: "IBM Keyboard -kishsaver" which excludes one of the terms in that listings title.

But what if a real KS turns up, at a bargain price? You'd miss it. Then someone would post about the bargain KS they'd grabbed on eBay, and you'd be, like, "Gaah, I filtered that out!!" And it'd all involve at least as many italics as you're seeing here, at least in spirit. Not pretty, from any angle.

[JP]

Filtering out kishsaver would be ideal. More for me  Also I would recommend this as an eBay search filter: ibm keyboard -ibm -keyboard -kishsaver -unsaver -beamspring

[ander]

Filtering out kishsaver would be ideal. More for me  Also I would recommend this as an eBay search filter: ibm keyboard -ibm -keyboard -kishsaver -unsaver -beamspring

In my case, that'd be a good formula for staying married. (My wife was a Great Find, BTW!)

[mogo]

I could be very wrong, but I don't feel like a bit of history as a popular trader's keyboard warrants this bloomberg keyboard a $400 asking price.

[ander]

I could be very wrong, but I don't feel like a bit of history as a popular trader's keyboard warrants this bloomberg keyboard a $400 asking price.

Agreed. My guess is he's trying to emulate Bloomberg's wealth-accruing tactics.

[JP]

A noteworthy keyboard 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Toshiba-Noteworthy-VINTAGE-KEYBOARD-m-n-NWKBEXT101-ships-worldwide/192357656486?hash=item2cc968e7a6:g:sEkAAOSwLnBX9n8f

[fohat.digs]

A noteworthy keyboard

Obviously too valuable to let go with in the $100K warehouse sale.

[JP]

A noteworthy keyboard

Obviously too valuable to let go with in the $100K warehouse sale.

I see the warehouse has been discounted $10k. Perhaps the seller has unloaded a few things  )

[ander]

A noteworthy keyboard

Obviously too valuable to let go with in the $100K warehouse sale.

But it's really rare rubber.  :?)

Speaking of "rare" stuff, here's a good one (zoom all the way in for the full dramatic effect):

IBM PC Clicky Keyboard w/ rare APL overlays. Model F. 1801449 1501100





BIN $249 + shipping

Rare stickers, woo!! Well, okay, they are rare—but they're, like, stickers. They're stuck on there. In a rare, but stuck-on, way.

[mogo]

But it's really rare rubber.  :?)

Speaking of "rare" stuff, here's a good one (zoom all the way in for the full dramatic effect):

IBM PC Clicky Keyboard w/ rare APL overlays. Model F. 1801449 1501100

Show Image

BIN $249 + shipping

Rare stickers, woo!! Well, okay, they are rare—but they're, like, stickers. They're stuck on there. In a rare, but stuck-on, way.

And that's value and rarity you'll be able to feel! Because stickers on keycaps feel terrible and you'll never be able to ignore them!

[JP]

Brown Alps. Get it now. Only $5,000 and free shipping I messaged the seller so hopefully they price more appropriately.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-5140-Laptop-PC-Convertible-AS-IS-UNTESTED-COMPLETE-WITH-KEYBOARD/323083837303?epid=1903489235&hash=item4b394c1f77:g:AucAAOSwJRZaiamW

[mogo]

Brown Alps. Get it now. Only $5,000 and free shipping I messaged the seller so hopefully they price more appropriately.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-5140-Laptop-PC-Convertible-AS-IS-UNTESTED-COMPLETE-WITH-KEYBOARD/323083837303?epid=1903489235&hash=item4b394c1f77:g:AucAAOSwJRZaiamW

(Attachment Link)

If they are listing it with a first minimum bid of $500, they almost certainly think this thing is super valuable.

[sncbraxsc2]

Brown Alps. Get it now. Only $5,000 and free shipping I messaged the seller so hopefully they price more appropriately.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-5140-Laptop-PC-Convertible-AS-IS-UNTESTED-COMPLETE-WITH-KEYBOARD/323083837303?epid=1903489235&hash=item4b394c1f77:g:AucAAOSwJRZaiamW

(Attachment Link)

I just saw that  )

Also this

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-SILICON-GRAPHICS-SGI-IRIS-INDIGO-R3000-KEYBOARD-9500801-MOUSE-9150800/222841051717?epid=8015029274&hash=item33e25c9a45:g:49MAAOSwWEZahgco

Bid high and bid early

[OldIsNew]

Brown Alps. Get it now. Only $5,000 and free shipping I messaged the seller so hopefully they price more appropriately.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-5140-Laptop-PC-Convertible-AS-IS-UNTESTED-COMPLETE-WITH-KEYBOARD/323083837303?epid=1903489235&hash=item4b394c1f77:g:AucAAOSwJRZaiamW

(Attachment Link)

You have been warned:  "These items are intended for for professional buyers only."

[ander]

This is actually encouraging. If people list boards like these for many times what they're worth, other clueless peeps are probably listing stuff for much less than it's worth.   

[JP]

Someone beat this seller with a sock filled with wood screws. Beam spring only $4k.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5640890-IBM-TERMINAL-87-KEY-BEAMSPRING-KEYBOARD-C-1982/173168164660?hash=item2851a07f34:g:YskAAOSwll1aiwjJ

[jdcarpe]

Why will Tapatalk not open these eBay links? It will only open plain text eBay links, not the one in the above post.

[JP]

Why will Tapatalk not open these eBay links? It will only open plain text eBay links, not the one in the above post.

Help, I don't know the syntax to do an href style link.

Code: [Select]

<a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/5640890-IBM-TERMINAL-87-KEY-BEAMSPRING-KEYBOARD-C-1982/173168164660?hash=item2851a07f34:g:YskAAOSwll1aiwjJ]https://www.ebay.com/itm/5640890-IBM-TERMINAL-87-KEY-BEAMSPRING-KEYBOARD-C-1982/173168164660?hash=item2851a07f34:g:YskAAOSwll1aiwjJ">here</a>