Rootwyrm -
The question came up in another thread, and you are probably the man to ask:
What were the original selling prices for the Model F and Model M, back in the day?
F I don't know. M varied by what you ordered it with, before applicable discounts (which could get really sexy if you ordered with an RS/6000.) The most accurate source for IBM list prices is the IBM price books for the relevant years - which are hard to come by outside of IBM. Also, depending on what type and size of customer, your list price would also vary. The best book to go buy would be IBM GSA - they couldn't sell parts below those prices.
I know that my two M13's were two different prices - one was $329.99 list / $131.60 paid (60 points as part of large purchase), and another was $279.89 discounted (but I don't know how many points were applied on that purchase.) The SSK had five different OPNs with five different prices - again, depending what you ordered it with. Anyone who claims the M13 ever sold below $250 list is wrong. Maybe $240 for TrackPoint II. Best of my recollection, the M4-1 was list $179 though, to give you some idea. TrackPoint was never, ever cheap. Not till post-TPII and they switched to shells on ThinkPad keyboard assemblies. Even then, list as part of a 7014-T42, option 7316-TF3 (1U LCD + ThinkPad keyboard) is
still $3000, with the keyboard at $150 list.
But remember that with IBM you have multiple OPNs for the same FRU because it's either as part of a system purchase, an accessory purchase, or an Options purchase. (Which is not the same as accessory - accessory is equivalent to spares system.) So there's actually not one single list price for the M, and a single OPN could map to multiple FRUs. (e.g. 1390131 and 1391401 shared some OPNs as they were functionally identical.)
Taking our 7316-TF3 example again, Feature 6350 (US English keyboard) is a list price of $150 as spare. The functionally equivalent
Lenovo 55Y9003 is available for just $59.
The M15 was only ever offered as part of the Options catalog though - $179 without number pad, $199 with number pad.