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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: pseudolobster on Thu, 10 December 2009, 22:31:43

Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: pseudolobster on Thu, 10 December 2009, 22:31:43
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-IBM-Clicky-Keyboard-101-Key-1390120-Model-M_W0QQitemZ230360357084QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_2?hash=item35a28c18dc

January 31st, 1986, two weeks older than the 4th oldest recorded on clickykeyboards.com

Certainly there are thousands older than this that haven't been reported, but it's still pretty damn old and looks to be in fine condition.

Auction says it includes a PS/2 cable, which probably isn't vintage, though the price is still pretty reasonable. I'd probably buy it, just to have a functional piece of history from when I was 4 years old, but ~$120CAD is a bit much for a christmas present for myself.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: pseudolobster on Thu, 10 December 2009, 23:24:25
Well, since it's BIN OBO, you can skip bidding... Either way you're free to make all the Canadian jokes you want, we're pretty good-natured. I recently had an American over the phone earnestly ask me if I lived in an igloo. I had to stifle my chuckles to answer his question. Go ahead, questions about maple syrup and moose hair between the keys is fair game.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: HaaTa on Thu, 10 December 2009, 23:41:51
My general disclaimer about Canada, is to:

a) Don't be like German tourist, and look for Grizzly Bears to pet
b) The only thing you can do about a moose is pray that it doesn't charge you
c) Its cold, if you live in Winnipeg
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: ricercar on Fri, 11 December 2009, 00:04:51
Quote
make all the Canadian jokes you want, we're pretty good-natured. I recently had an American over the phone earnestly ask me if I lived in an igloo



Ignorance can be quite humorous.

Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: ak_nala on Fri, 11 December 2009, 02:39:15
Quote from: ricercar;141258
Ignorance can be quite humorous.

  • When I lived in Nebraska in the 70s, a New Yorker asked me seriously if we still had buffalo and Indians.
  • After the Northridge earthquake in southern California, an Iowan relative asked me if I felt it up here in San Francisco bay. Then I explained that Iowa would fit between my house and the epicenter.

Ahhhh, but the scary thing is that the big San Francisco quake of '06 WAS felt in L.A. - and Oregon as well.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: Mnemonix on Fri, 11 December 2009, 02:52:42
Quote from: HaaTa;141250
a) Don't be like German tourist, and look for Grizzly Bears to pet


Awww, but they are so cute!
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: ch_123 on Fri, 11 December 2009, 04:25:54
Webwit - in some of your posts you describe the 1390120 as having different shaped keycaps to the later Model Ms. Does this also apply to the 1390131 and early Industrials?
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: ch_123 on Fri, 11 December 2009, 04:40:01
It seems pretty weird that they would make one type of keycap for one model of keyboard, and not the others.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: itlnstln on Fri, 11 December 2009, 08:32:03
Quote from: ricercar;141258
Ignorance can be quite humorous.

  • When I lived in Nebraska in the 70s, a New Yorker asked me seriously if we still had buffalo and Indians.
  • After the Northridge earthquake in southern California, an Iowan relative asked me if I felt it up here in San Francisco bay. Then I explained that Iowa would fit between my house and the epicenter.

We get the same crap in TX. Everyone thinks we ride horses (*looks at avatar*). Stereotypes... At least the one about everyone packing heat is true.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: ch_123 on Fri, 11 December 2009, 11:21:08
Do you go around wearing cowboy hats all the time?

Although I am probably the last person who should be making jokes about ethnic stereotypes...

(http://greywolf.critter.net/images/gallery/sketches/2007-05-22-leprechaun.gif)
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: itlnstln on Fri, 11 December 2009, 11:26:51
Quote from: ch_123;141345
Do you go around wearing cowboy hats all the time?

More than you know.  Not me, though, I am very anti-country.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: microsoft windows on Fri, 11 December 2009, 14:17:01
San Antonio is a city.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: GenEric35 on Fri, 11 December 2009, 22:09:31
I had seen this item for sale a few weeks ago, but back then the seller said he didn't have a cable. I ended up buying a 131 instead. As for the 131 keys they look the same size as my other model 1995 Model M, maybe there is a difference in the curve on the top of the key(the 131 having a slightly flat part in the middle compared to the 1995 model M). Anyway, I had passed on this 1390120, and still would today, I didn't trust it, it should come with it's own AT cable. According to this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard) they were AT only.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: pseudolobster on Sat, 12 December 2009, 00:17:09
Quote from: GenEric35;141625
I had seen this item for sale a few weeks ago, but back then the seller said he didn't have a cable. I ended up buying a 131 instead. As for the 131 keys they look the same size as my other model 1995 Model M, maybe there is a difference in the curve on the top of the key(the 131 having a slightly flat part in the middle compared to the 1995 model M). Anyway, I had passed on this 1390120, and still would today, I didn't trust it, it should come with it's own AT cable. According to this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard) they were AT only.


I don't see any reason not to trust it, it looks pretty legit... Sure, it doesn't come with a period cable, but if I'm not mistaken, these use the same standard SDL cable used on the 1391401.. I still remember my fist experience finding an M, back in the late 90's or maybe like 2001 or so, a friend of mine's dad bought a company that was going out of business and a box full of keyboards was a part of the deal... I grabbed a 139401 and a bluelabel, amazed at their clickyness, and I'm 95% sure there was a black AT cable in there I could have grabbed instead of the grey PS/2 cable I grabbed.. I'm fairly sure they were interchangeable.

I don't find it suspicious at all that the guy's offering a PS/2 cable as a replacement for the missing AT cable, it just means a part of it isn't as vintage as the rest.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: ch_123 on Sat, 12 December 2009, 05:35:39
SDL cables are definitely interchangable.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: AndrewZorn on Sat, 12 December 2009, 07:23:17
Quote
two weeks older than the 4th oldest recorded on clickykeyboards.com
doesnt this make it the [new] 4th oldest recorded one?
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: pseudolobster on Mon, 14 December 2009, 20:55:08
Quote from: AndrewZorn;141671
doesnt this make it the [new] 4th oldest recorded one?


Durr. My bad. I meant the board in question is two weeks *newer*... I routinely get brainfarts wrapping my head around time.
Title: Fifth-oldest-recorded Model M 1390120 $80 (silver label)
Post by: GenEric35 on Mon, 14 December 2009, 21:27:15
Quote from: pseudolobster;141641
I don't see any reason not to trust it, it looks pretty legit... Sure, it doesn't come with a period cable, but if I'm not mistaken, these use the same standard SDL cable used on the 1391401.. I still remember my fist experience finding an M, back in the late 90's or maybe like 2001 or so, a friend of mine's dad bought a company that was going out of business and a box full of keyboards was a part of the deal... I grabbed a 139401 and a bluelabel, amazed at their clickyness, and I'm 95% sure there was a black AT cable in there I could have grabbed instead of the grey PS/2 cable I grabbed.. I'm fairly sure they were interchangeable.

I don't find it suspicious at all that the guy's offering a PS/2 cable as a replacement for the missing AT cable, it just means a part of it isn't as vintage as the rest.



not much of a collection item if only the case is vintage
as I said, a few weeks before it was selling with no cable, and a few weeks before that someone on ebay.ca was selling an empty 120 case, take it for what it's worth