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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: t21rockstar on Fri, 13 April 2018, 21:48:00
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So I was at my buddy's house last weekend. His wife had been complaining about the brakes on her nissan, I figured I'd give him a hand changing them. A few beers, a whole lot of BS, busted knuckle, good times.
So it was later, after his wife had made us dinner, that we retired to his office. The game was on, stacks of papers and boxes everywhere. In the midst of that chaos, I saw what looked to me to be a huge keyboard. I don't know if it was because of how far I was standing, the beers I had had, or what. But the keyboard seemed unusually big. I was determined to get more info about it, but in a surreptitious way. People sometimes, even that you think you know, can behave differently once they know something, or think they know something.
I played it off, my bud never saw me make eye contact with it. Later, his wife called him downstairs about something. I was like, perfect. I waited till he was long gone, then I moved some papers and boxes to get a better look.
The keyboard was bigger. Much bigger than a normal keyboard. It had that curly wire closer resembling an old land line phone, than a regular keyboard today. The plug end had weird pins. It was a brownish/gray with some white keys.
I flipped it over, there was a sticker on the back from the manufacturer. It was an IBM. I had left my cellphone in my car when I got to my buddy's house. I had done so on purpose, as I didn't want to hear from my wife while I was over there. Seemed like a great idea at the time, but now I was so missing my camera.
I told myself to memorize the numbers, but I couldn't. There seemed like their were so many. The only numbers I was able to memorize were part number 1386xxx. It was from the eighties for sure.
I've googled the heck out of it, and have found alot of info on part number 1390xxx, 1391xxx, etc., but nothing as early in what appears to be a series as my friends.
Is it rare, or common? Does anyone know anything about it? I know, I wished I had gotten more info from the sticker also. :-[ :-\
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https://deskthority.net/wiki/IBM_Enhanced_Keyboard#1386303.2F1386304
its a model m
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Ahh, ok. Yeah, I spent alot of time on google, with most of the results sending me to wikipedia. It unfortunately had no info on this particular keyboard.
Now the link you provided does appear to. It mentions it being one of the earliest extended keyboards, but mentions it being common as well. I mean, its states that it mentions it for being noteworthy, but still common.
I'm guessing it doesn't have any particular value or worth associated with it then? Just that its a 30 year old keyboard?
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The terminal model Ms aren't worth as much as the PC versions, because you'd need a converter to use them with a modern PC instead of the terminal they originally came with. So probably $40-$80? A hardcore completist Model M collector might pay more. But it's important to realize that there were hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of these 101-key Model M keyboards made over a span of ten years. And they were very well constructed, so they are still very easy to find.
I do have to say, though, that regardless of the value of your find, your story was very entertaining! I got quite a few chuckles out of it. The way you were doing covert recon, and leaving your phone in the car so your wife didn't bother you... Bravo. :D
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I still don't understand why you felt the need to be so covert about the whole thing.
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thread title got me so excited
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thread title got me so excited
yeah, reminded me of this (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=10347.msg192075#msg192075) (rip images)
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Hmm. I have a funny feeling about this story, like there might be some chain-yanking going on. :rolleyes:
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Yup. Def bogus.
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I still don't understand why you felt the need to be so covert about the whole thing.
Exactly. I mean be covert about it if there happened to be a "personal massager" sitting on top of the keyboard. But if it's just in an office with papers? Maybe t21rockstar hasn't let his friend know that he's into keyboards and doesn't want to let his geek flag fly?
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I got the impression that if the keyboard was worth a lot of money, he might try to casually offer to take it off his friend's hands "if you don't use it any more," then turn around and sell it for big bucks.
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I got the impression that if the keyboard was worth a lot of money, he might try to casually offer to take it off his friend's hands "if you don't use it any more," then turn around and sell it for big bucks.
As long as you were genuinely curious because it's vintage and weren't asking overtly obvious questions like, "Nice keyboard, what's it worth?" I don't understand how that would translate to someone snooping to make money, especially if the entire premise for the visit was to help him with his breaks.
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thread title got me so excited
yeah, reminded me of this (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=10347.msg192075#msg192075) (rip images)
This was my thought too, almost had a heart attack. But then the story mentioned a large keyboards so I figured a 122-key M.
Alas, the mini-M mystery lives on.
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I was totally expecting the thread to be about a beamspring.