Could be worse, could be this Northgate Omnikey 102 for $179.95 plus same high shipping. I mean I know it's got the gold label and blue sliders. So the good side is you get a more collectable keyboard, bad side is you pay through the nose for it.
That is one of the rarest keyboars out there and Northgate has a strong collector following. If I didn't already have 2 of them I'd be a buyer at $179 in a heartbeat because you just don't see these things. This is one of the first keyboards from Northgate who made the most over-engineered keyboards to date in my opinion. Only IBM compares in quality and only the PC AT Model F. (excluding non-AT compatible boards) And they lacked the insane backplate of Northgates, the multiple PCB's internally in some cases, internal flash and programmability even scan rates can be adjusted, interfacing with every PC known to man at that time - some had ADB and PS/2 ports on them plus an ADB to add a mouse to the keyboard. It can be argued that you prefer other switches, but no one can dispute that Northgate put more into their keyboards than anyone else at that time. They are the only company I know of that chose keyboards as their method to stand out from the crowd of PC makers. The result is they were the most popular replacement keyboard when Northgate was in their prime. This is why you see them fetch up to $500 when rare ones pop up. The only keyboard that consistently beats the rarer Northgates in auction prices is an IBM M13.
Who cares if the keyboard's yellow? It'll still work just fine.
You should always know what you're getting when you bid. If you think you're getting an unyellowed board and a banana shows up in the mail, that's not cool. "Simply retr0brite it" takes multiple applications and several hours in the sun each time.
