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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: y11971alex on Sun, 13 March 2016, 03:08:36

Title: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Sun, 13 March 2016, 03:08:36
http://b.mashort.cn/h.OTr3l?cv=AADRfaTf&sm=972d26

It's ¥599, or about $75.  If nobody is snapping up, I'm biting.
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: jaffers on Sun, 13 March 2016, 03:14:56
Hot damn thats a good deal
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Sun, 13 March 2016, 03:16:19
Hot damn thats a good deal
Dibs :P
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: appleonama on Sun, 13 March 2016, 03:34:49
fkkk!! my credit cards deny alipay wtf!

edit: got it! for some reason paypal wasn't working
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Sun, 13 March 2016, 03:46:03
fkkk!! my credit cards deny alipay wtf!

edit: got it! for some reason paypal wasn't working
How could you? I was going to get that one!
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: appleonama on Sun, 13 March 2016, 03:46:28
fkkk!! my credit cards deny alipay wtf!

edit: got it! for some reason paypal wasn't working
How could you? I was going to get that one!
Theres is 3
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Sun, 13 March 2016, 03:55:36
fkkk!! my credit cards deny alipay wtf!

edit: got it! for some reason paypal wasn't working
How could you? I was going to get that one!
Theres is 3
Well, I found one for ¥400 :p
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: appleonama on Sun, 13 March 2016, 04:10:15
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Sun, 13 March 2016, 04:16:20
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: appleonama on Sun, 13 March 2016, 04:19:40
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.

Nice man!
I've been wanting to try a buckling spring but I don't like full size. Also, I can't find one for a reasonable price, but this SSK is something else!
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Sun, 13 March 2016, 04:22:24
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.

Nice man!
I've been wanting to try a buckling spring but I don't like full size. Also, I can't find one for a reasonable price, but this SSK is something else!

Well, as I've always said, the FAT (!) and F XT are technically space saving (having only 83 keys) but is probably the heaviest modern keyboards around
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Sun, 13 March 2016, 04:22:52
Double posted.
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: chryos1029 on Sat, 19 March 2016, 20:18:46
I asked the seller before, isn't it out of stock already?
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: appleonama on Sat, 19 March 2016, 20:21:07
I asked the seller before, isn't it out of stock already?

just about alll the listings are out of stock I check everyday and a new posting just popped up. I am waiting on taobaofocus to snag it for me
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Sun, 20 March 2016, 00:17:04
I asked the seller before, isn't it out of stock already?
There are actually quite a few sellers; at least six, I gather.
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: klennkellon on Sun, 20 March 2016, 01:56:27
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.
Nice, but the F is still the best feeling buckling springs board, remember the entire point of the Model M was to be cheaper than the Model F.
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: chyros on Sun, 20 March 2016, 10:27:01
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.
Nice, but the F is still the best feeling buckling springs board, remember the entire point of the Model M was to be cheaper than the Model F.
I think if you go from F to M you'll be quite disappointed as a matter of fact xD .
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Mon, 21 March 2016, 00:11:22
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.
Nice, but the F is still the best feeling buckling springs board, remember the entire point of the Model M was to be cheaper than the Model F.
I think if you go from F to M you'll be quite disappointed as a matter of fact xD .
Having enjoyed your thoroughly informative and most excellent review and (included comparison with Model F) of the IBM Model M, I've braced myself for a bit of less than remarkable typing experience when receive the Model M, but I've found an endless amount of praise on YouTube for the Model M, so I'm quite sure, for better or worse, that I'd want to try one out.  Plus, I'm purchasing an SSK, which is better received on this forum than the regular Enhanced Keyboard.  I've even found a reviewer who praised the Model M at the expense of the Model F.
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: y11971alex on Mon, 21 March 2016, 01:43:23
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.
Nice, but the F is still the best feeling buckling springs board, remember the entire point of the Model M was to be cheaper than the Model F.
With respect, but how much cheaper could it have been for IBM?  As far as I could tell, there could have been a similar amount of labour involved in matching keys to barrels and assembling the plates together, in both the Model F and the Model M.  What could be automated on the Model M could certainly have also been automated on the Model F, unless the F was manufactured in such limited quantities that IBM didn't automate their production.  In fact, a video from an esteemed member of this community on YouTube seems to suggest that the XT keyboard was manufactured with a high degree of automation.

What's left is essentially material cost.  Model F has an barrel plate made of metal instead of plastic and individual barrels.  Model M has a multi-layer membrane making up the circuitry instead of a circuit board.

I'm sure IBM would still have developed the Model M in '84 but still priced it similarly with the Model F, had they not faced such stiff competition in the business personal computer market starting in the mid-'80s.
Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: chyros on Mon, 21 March 2016, 03:27:10
I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.
Nice, but the F is still the best feeling buckling springs board, remember the entire point of the Model M was to be cheaper than the Model F.
I think if you go from F to M you'll be quite disappointed as a matter of fact xD .
Having enjoyed your thoroughly informative and most excellent review and (included comparison with Model F) of the IBM Model M, I've braced myself for a bit of less than remarkable typing experience when receive the Model M, but I've found an endless amount of praise on YouTube for the Model M, so I'm quite sure, for better or worse, that I'd want to try one out.  Plus, I'm purchasing an SSK, which is better received on this forum than the regular Enhanced Keyboard.  I've even found a reviewer who praised the Model M at the expense of the Model F.
Oh the M is a great keyboard, I'd pop mine on any day. But compared to an F, it's just not as good. Or at least, in my opinion. The few people who prefer the M generally like it better for its less invasive sound - although I prefer the sound of the F as well, myself.

I just want my first buckling spring keyboard  :D
I wanted my first model M.  I started with F AT and now XT, now trying the legendary SSK.
Nice, but the F is still the best feeling buckling springs board, remember the entire point of the Model M was to be cheaper than the Model F.
With respect, but how much cheaper could it have been for IBM?
Didn't the patent claim it cost about half as much to make? The retail price was half as much, at least.

Title: Re: Model M SSK IBM located on Taobao
Post by: E TwentyNine on Mon, 21 March 2016, 07:00:48
Oh the M is a great keyboard, I'd pop mine on any day. But compared to an F, it's just not as good. Or at least, in my opinion. The few people who prefer the M generally like it better for its less invasive sound - although I prefer the sound of the F as well, myself.

To do the motorcycle analogy, an F is a sportbike (tucked down, harder ride, performance over comfort) and an M is more of a metric cruiser (more relaxed seating, softer ride,  not the same performance numbers).

Plenty of times I prefer the M over the F.  SSK is my daily driver and it's not the noise that's the difference.  It's a little less snappy but just more comfortable for 8 hours of driving every day.

With respect, but how much cheaper could it have been for IBM?
Didn't the patent claim it cost about half as much to make? The retail price was half as much, at least.

There's video of the automation of the keyboard building.  They *might* have been building XT's in it, but it seems pretty straightforward that the single barrel plate with plastic rivets is a cheaper simpler construction than the metal plate with individual barrels that's sandwiched and locked together, not to mention the simpler electronics of a contact matrix vs a capacitive pcb.