geekhack
geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: nowsharing on Sat, 08 May 2010, 14:00:21
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http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-1987-IBM-MODEL-M-CLICKY-KEYBOARD-1391401-/270575878944
Not a bad price for such an early (4-23-87) model. I prefer the blue labels myself, but if someone is hunting down the classic early M they could certainly do worse.
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Worth noting, there are probably very few 1987s left with a decent number of rivets.
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That's true, and more will probably be lost during shipping. Although my experience with these surplus places is that they usually overdo the shipping--better than your average schmuck at least.
I bought a 1390131 from them earlier today, and requested that they take extra care when packaging it up.
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That's a very nice price actually :-)
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It's still for sale. Does this mean that the geekhack demand has been completely satisfied, or that the ebay forum lurkers have upped their game?
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From my point of view, it's still for sale because he didn't yet answer if he would ship to Europe or not.
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I was going to say that's a good price, but that would be about $65 shipped to Canada. (>$70 after exchange... damn dollar dropped again)
That's a white label. I thought early '87 still had silver label. My June 86 Model M is silver label. Does anybody know the exact date they changed? Was it Jan. 1, 1987?
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I thought early '87 still had silver label. My June 86 Model M is silver label. Does anybody know the exact date they changed?
I don't think that any 1391401s had silver labels. 1390120 and 1390131 did regardless of the year of manufacture however.
Also, I'm starting to get a little suspicious of the seller. Yesterday I asked why they had relisted the 1390131 that I had purchased earlier in the day, and his response was that they had 3 of them to sell. Reusing pictures is troublesome on many levels, not the least of which is that you could end up with the wrong model number, and almost certainly a different date.
Their response was defensive in a jackass kind of way as well. They ignored two of the other questions in my email entirely. I don't understand why people waste their time selling on ebay if they aren't going to bother with even a decent level of customer service.
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It's the UK I worry about. Reminds me of Florida during Gore vs. Bush.
Legal challenges will ensue, people will get compensation, but it won't change anything in the long run. The outcome was pretty much as predicted. And it's about the most exciting thing to happen to British Politics for a long time. Which says it all really.
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The guy probably didn't put too much into it. He probably thought something along the lines of "Hey I'll try selling these ugly old keyboards before I throw them out". True, it's always better when you get a photo of the actual item, but if you aren't satisfied with the photos, or are a little suspicious, definitely send the guy a message and ask him about it. The worst that'll happen is they'll have lousy customer support. And then you just don't have to buy their product.
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Looking at the source of the negative feedback, we see the sort of problems typically associated with the sort of seller who has lots of items for sale (power seller or not, if you have MANY simultaneous listings, your service is typically lame...unless you're in Hong Kong, in which case you somehow reply same-day every time and offer outrageous refunds and free replacements until you receiving a positive rating).
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That's a white label. I thought early '87 still had silver label. My June 86 Model M is silver label. Does anybody know the exact date they changed? Was it Jan. 1, 1987?
The silver labeled Model Ms were used on keyboards for AT and XT based machines, these included the 1390131, 1390120 and 1390653. The Grey label was introduced to match the label on the PS/2 computer and monitor, and the associated keyboard was the 1391401. There were never any silver labeled 1391401s, and there were never any grey labeled 1390120s or 1390131s (there were some 1390653s with the later labels, but Industrial keyboards were a bit unpredictable like that).
Ultimately they were different labels for different part numbers for different product lines; there was no changeover as such. In fact, the silver Model Ms were in regular production as late as 1990.
By the time of the Lexmark changeover, most of the beige keyboards were for the PS/2, so when IBM decided to change the logo, pretty much all the non-Industrial keyboards got it. Bare in mind that the logo change was due to IBM coming out with new-look PS/2s and nothing to do with Lexmark, after all Lexmark had owned the keyboard factory since 1991, over a year before the blue label keyboards started showing up.
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In fact, the silver Model Ms were in regular production as late as 1990.
A few silver label 1390131s manufactured in 1996 showed up on Ebay last year. I remember commenting that they must have been the 10 year anniversary edition.
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And there's some on clickykeyboards. I'm not sure whether they were refurbs, or whether Lexmark was actually still making replacement AT keyboards for IBM as late as 1996.
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Someone bought the keyboard at the top of this thread, but the seller has listed another keyboard with the same picture & label: http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-1987-IBM-MODEL-M-CLICKY-KEYBOARD-1391401-/270577807025
Not a bad price for any decent M, but don't cross your fingers on the date.
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The guy still didn't say if he would ship to Europe or not. I guess he won't.