attitudes like that are what destroy the personal nature of dealing within a community.
Maybe. But it has been my personal impression that what this community does not particularly value is work and knowledge.
When lovingly restored items such as bolt-modded Model Ms turn up for sale here, at some few tens of dollars above the current random ebay pricing, there is usually a torrent of derision from non-buyers about how some profit-monger is attempting to charge premium prices for "damaged goods" and otherwise disparaging both the item for sale and the audacity of the person attempting to make a few bucks on the restoration.
If I bought this lot (which I will not) and tried to work it for a couple of free keyboards and some profit, I see likely dozens of hours of restoration work, replacement key cap orders, individually arranging transactions, packaging keyboards and taking them to the Post Office, paying shipping fees almost 30 times, generally a sizable amount of aggravation for possibly a few hundred dollars clear, at best.
In my eyes, items "in need of repair" are worth considerably less than items "complete and working" which are in turn worth considerably less than items "refurbished throughout and immaculately clean" but every time I look at a used IBM keyboard my mind instantly makes the calculation of what it will take to make it pristine. And I have done enough of them to know that I am tired of giving away my skilled time and effort at minimum wage levels.
I would not want to charge less for a Model M from this lot that I completely restored than I would for any other similar keyboard, because it is no different. Here the actual "original price" is blurred because it is a large lot, but I would be insulted if someone here attempted to use it to get me to negotiate my price downwards.
However, if I had this big pile of ugly stuff in my garage, and someone offered me some small profit for one of the keyboards < EXACTLY AS-IS > then I would be much more likely to turn it over, as long as I had not invested time and effort into it.