Questions about the IBM Pingmaster

[Rhienfo]

Hello, I was looking into more vintage boards and one that came up was the IBM Pingmaster, and have a couple questions on them

I have heard that there were being sold at one point for like 30 USD, I understand that vintage stuff has shot up in price massively, so I was wondering what a good price for a pingmaster, I saw on another thread that 75 USD and under is a good price for them, but that was over a year ago, so I'm not sure about today's value of it, so I would to know a good price before I spend my money, to make sure I'm not getting ripped off.

Obviously ebay isn't a good option for buying one (One is on ebay for 500 AUD on ebay australia) so I would like to know if there are any other spots to potentially find a pingmaster internationally, if I need to go to use that option?

How common are the pingmaster, on the same thread that I looked at they said they were fairly common but there is only 4 or 5 on ebay internationally so I'm quite confused about that. Would they also be common in japan as well, like in thrift shops and the like, as If I ever go to Japan I could pick one while I'm there.

Finally, I know that Alps switches are very prone to dust and may need to be cleaned in order for it to be good, are the SKCC line like in the pingmaster, more or less resistant to dust compared to the SKCL/M series?

would like to know about this stuff before I buy one.

[Sup]

The prices of these keyboards have gone up since Taeha Types made a video about them. As a result, many new people bought them, which has driven up the prices. The cost also depends on whether you want the Chinese or Japanese version. The Japanese one tends to be more expensive because of the demand from weebs. On Mechmarket, you can expect to pay around $150 for the Chinese version and about $200 for the Japanese version. However, the prices can vary, and the last one sold two months ago, so it really depends on the seller.

The Pingmaster keyboard used to be common because one store had a lot of new old stock (NOS) sitting in their warehouse. However, that stock has since depleted, and these keyboards are not as easy to find anymore. It's unlikely that you'll come across any in thrift stores in Japan. With the NOS Pingmasters, cleanliness isn't a concern, but vintage Alps keyboards can be tricky because people often store them in dusty or dirty places.

Your best bet is to check Mechmarket frequently or join discords with vintage enthusiasts to increase your chances of finding one.

[Rhienfo]

yeah thank you for that, shame that I missed out on $35 pingmasters though.