Vintage MX black keyboards for sale at dirt cheap price?

[cnrmsn]

Found this on mendelsons when I was looking at the IBM "Chinese lettering keyboards" aka pingmaster. Apparently these have MX black and doubleshot keycaps. $40
https://meci.com/ucs-ansi-keyboard-terminal-version-2-0.html

[pixelpusher]

I don't know enough about "vintage" switches to commit $40 though.  I've certainly tried older MX blacks that were scratchy.  How do you know if they are smooth or not?

[HotRoderX]

I don't know enough about "vintage" switches to commit $40 though.  I've certainly tried older MX blacks that were scratchy.  How do you know if they are smooth or not?

you don't and to be 100% honest with ya in concept vintage blacks should be smoother but in reality... bet 99% of the time there not any smoother then fresh manufactured switches.

The reasoning behind this is simple. The thing that makes a "Vintage" black or "Vintage" switch in general desirable is the use its seen. A lot of these bulk buy keyboard's like the ones advertised above. Are most likely NIB or almost NIB or seen 3-5 year's worth of use. That's not enough to really break in and ware a switch down. The good vintage switches are most likely coming from POS terminal's. That seen use almost 24-7 for 10-20 year's. Such as a POS terminal from a gas station or department store. Those sorts of switches should be much much smoother. Perhaps data entry cleric's keyboard. The entire vintage switch thing is kinda over blown in my opinion unless your sourcing the switches from high traffic board. Then the people that lube vintage blacks and claim how much smoother they are, duh bet if you lubed new cherry switches they be smoother also.

[ander]

Also, aren't these going to have some unusual terminal protocol? RJ connector, and look at the layout.







The color keys are fun, though. Just wondering if you could actually use it with anything... Or were you suggesting the switches could be harvested? I live in a small town, so there's not a lot for me to do but hash out details like this, you understand.