Author Topic: Two model M space savers on ebay- 1 day left @ $15 (Read 4357 times)

AMoody · « **on:** Mon, 11 July 2011, 09:37:17 »

posted untested/as is but super cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Model-M-Keyboard-/160616512249?_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D5%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D1268284546656863947

prd · « **Reply #1 on:** Mon, 11 July 2011, 14:40:49 »

I was just about to bid 1000 USD when I realized it's only 1 board he's selling.

prd · « **Reply #2 on:** Mon, 11 July 2011, 18:06:02 »

I've raised the stakes to [strike]70[/strike] [strike]60[/strike] 50 USD.

AdamW · « **Reply #3 on:** Mon, 11 July 2011, 20:07:37 »

damn you, amoody. here I found these two poorly titled auctions through careful searching and was sitting on them thinking 'hey, finally I can get a fricking SSK at a reasonable price'. but nooo, you just had to let the insane people in this forum know about it. there goes THAT chance...=)

REVENGE · « **Reply #4 on:** Mon, 11 July 2011, 21:10:07 »

Quote from: AdamW;378480

damn you, amoody. here I found these two poorly titled auctions through careful searching and was sitting on them thinking 'hey, finally I can get a fricking SSK at a reasonable price'. but nooo, you just had to let the insane people in this forum know about it. there goes THAT chance...=)

Why don't we have a poll for how many people on this forum put in an eBay search for "IBM Keyboard" every 6 hours.

AMoody · « **Reply #5 on:** Mon, 11 July 2011, 22:23:08 »

lol sorry

TexasFlood · « **Reply #6 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 10:13:52 »

Quote from: prd;378411

I've raised the stakes to [strike]70[/strike] [strike]60[/strike] 50 USD.

Quote from: AdamW;378480

damn you, amoody. here I found these two poorly titled auctions through careful searching and was sitting on them thinking 'hey, finally I can get a fricking SSK at a reasonable price'. but nooo, you just had to let the insane people in this forum know about it. there goes THAT chance...=)

And off we go! [ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20494[/ATTACH]

TexasFlood · « **Reply #7 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 10:17:13 »

Quote from: prd;378411

I've raised the stakes to [strike]70[/strike] [strike]60[/strike] 50 USD.

Quote from: AdamW;378480

damn you, amoody. here I found these two poorly titled auctions through careful searching and was sitting on them thinking 'hey, finally I can get a fricking SSK at a reasonable price'. but nooo, you just had to let the insane people in this forum know about it. there goes THAT chance...=)

And off we go!
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20495[/ATTACH]

prd · « **Reply #8 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 12:48:28 »

You shouldn't be upset. Some sharks are always lurking around without sharing. The price would have risen anyway.

AMoody · « **Reply #9 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 18:19:34 »

I'm surprised people are paying this much considering they might not work

I wonder if this guy is confused by why his two older/smaller IBM keyboards are at $75 but his newer rubber dome hasn't been bid on.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #10 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 18:58:31 »

$76.00 and $81.00, it's a race down to the wire...

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20573[/ATTACH]

litster · « **Reply #11 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 19:04:48 »

Quote from: prd;378411

I've raised the stakes to [strike]70[/strike] [strike]60[/strike] 50 USD.

Are you p***c(9)?

Edit: yup, you are. Are you going to stop at $50, or are you going to snipe it at the last second?

AdamW · « **Reply #12 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 22:03:30 »

amoody: way I figure, M's are so sturdy it's quite unlikely they'd be completely broken; for bad cables or springs or anything minor like that I have a ton of spares. But still, I think $80 + shipping is a bit much. Not sure I'm gonna bid on these now. thanks again

litster · « **Reply #13 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 22:08:18 »

Quote from: AdamW;379221

amoody: way I figure, M's are so sturdy it's quite unlikely they'd be completely broken; for bad cables or springs or anything minor like that I have a ton of spares. But still, I think $80 + shipping is a bit much. Not sure I'm gonna bid on these now. thanks again

I agree, but the going price is between $110 (if you are lucky), to $200 for a used one.

SSKs on ebay in the last 2 weeks.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #14 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 22:16:28 »

Quote from: litster;379228

I agree, but the going price is between $110 (if you are lucky), to $200 for a used one.

SSKs on ebay in the last 2 weeks.

Seems like pricing standards on these is different unfortunately. If the prices stay put I gues somebody will be getting a relatively good deal. Almost done, less than an hours now.

HOW... HIGH... WILL... THEY... GO...?

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20583[/ATTACH]

Oops, now up to $90.98 and $102.50, so much for the prices staying put. Same bidder n***l currently has high bid on both, he sure wants some IBM space saving keyboards.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #15 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 22:37:09 »

Quote from: litster;379228

I agree, but the going price is between $110 (if you are lucky), to $200 for a used one.

SSKs on ebay in the last 2 weeks.

Seems like pricing standards on these is different unfortunately. If the prices stay put I gues somebody will be getting a relatively good deal. Almost done, less than an hours now.

HOW... HIGH... WILL... THEY... GO...?

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20584[/ATTACH]

Oops, now up to $90.98 and $102.50, so much for the prices staying put. Same bidder n***l currently has high bid on both, he sure wants some IBM space saving keyboards.

AdamW · « **Reply #16 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 22:44:26 »

litster: pricing standards _on the ones that get posted here_. I think there's rather a lot more SSKs moldering away out there than the prices being paid lately suggest; too few of the people who own them realize a) they have them and b) other people want them. I don't think these absurd prices are going to last. I've got four 1391401s and the most I paid for one is $25, four times that much for an SSK is absurd. I know a lot more 1391401s were made than SSKs, but not to the point where SSKs should have such a premium. I'm prepared to wait until a few more sellers discover that they have them lying around, and the nuttier buyers calm down...

litster · « **Reply #17 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 22:47:10 »

keep waiting

. SSKs are much more rare than regular Model Ms. Just compare how many Model Ms are listed and how many SSKs are listed on ebay.

litster · « **Reply #18 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 22:51:52 »

BTW, welcome to GeekHack, Adam!

litster · « **Reply #19 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 22:58:17 »

Somebody head shot this!

litster · « **Reply #20 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:01:37 »

someone pulled the trigger 2 mins too early!

TexasFlood · « **Reply #21 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:01:44 »

Quote from: ripster;379268

Wow, I never knew moldering was a real word. In gratitude for increasing my vocabulary I won't be posting my Supply/Demand Curve.

Moldering? No wait, guess not...

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20592[/ATTACH]

litster · « **Reply #22 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:04:29 »

e***s (86) got sniped by e**k (117)! $121 isn't too bad, if this thing works and in good condition.

wcass · « **Reply #23 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:05:45 »

$121 is still a good deal. Was it one of us? will #2 go for <$100?

TexasFlood · « **Reply #24 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:07:11 »

Quote from: wcass;379287

will #2 go for <$100?

Seems unlikely, I'd probably bet not, and I'm not a betting man usually.

wcass · « **Reply #25 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:13:00 »

i bet e***s is pissed. #2 on both.

litster · « **Reply #26 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:14:06 »

No kidding. Tied bid at $130 toward the end, and the earlier bird got the worm.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #27 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:15:29 »

Quote from: wcass;379292

i bet e***s is pissed. #2 on both.

Drat, double-sniped, somebody is cursing about now.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #28 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:26:29 »

Quote from: ripster;379299

Meanwhile his IBM KB-7993 Keyboard at 99cents gets 0 bids.

He's going, "WTF? just happened?".

I've used those, couldn't pay me to take it.

litster · « **Reply #29 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:37:30 »

That was fun entertainment for a Tuesday night. Thanks for sharing.

AdamW · « **Reply #30 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:49:45 »

litster: thanks...I've seen the curve, and I am familiar with basic economic principles

. But it assumes a perfect marketplace, which is a bit like Physics Experiment Land, and especially so in this case; again, there's probably a lot of these lying around in various basements and company stores that the owners have forgotten about, or don't know are even worth selling. And I think the demand is ultimately fairly limited too; however rare the SSKs are I don't think they're rare enough to have intrinsic worth to collectors (especially not used) and the amount of people who really really want one to type on is never going to be _that_ great. Even here among the nutty keyboard enthusiasts, it's clear quite a lot of people prefer different models, and another bunch of people are perfectly happy with (or prefer) having a numeric keypad. So I don't think your curve entirely applies.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #31 on:** Tue, 12 July 2011, 23:57:08 »

I'd love for that logic to be correct but they keep going for the $100-$300 range, even these totally untested and not guaranteed ones went for over $100. I'd like to get one but am not paying those prices so...

theferenc · « **Reply #32 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 00:42:26 »

One thing that often surprises people about these things is the sheer size. Yeah, it's smaller than the standard 101 key Model M, but it's still nearly as large as a 104 key Filco. These are NOT small keyboards, even if they are tenkeyless.

I do agree though there are more out there than it seems from the rarity on ebay. These things were often used as rack mount keyboards. Anyone here a server admin? When was the last time you changed your server keyboard? I know in the server room across the hall from my office there are 4, for instance. Practically unused. Most of the admins prefer to use the serial console in the front of the room to admin the servers, but the keyboards are there. And no, I can't get them...I've asked. I've even offered replacement rack mount keyboards, but no dice.

Their take: why should we even consider pulling them off the KVM? They work, they will work until the building falls down around them, so what's the point of swapping them?

Then again, we also have a full size 200MB IBM HDD sitting in there, sort of on display. I'm talking about the massive ones, that you needed a cart to move around. So maybe I'm wrong about how many are out there in the wild.

litster · « **Reply #33 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 01:13:19 »

Adam, while your assumptions might be right, the current SSK market price is disagreeing with you. I agree with you that SSKs shouldn't be this expensive, but they are indeed being sold for that much. That is a fact. On ebay now, there about 81 model M keyboards listed, while there are only 3 SSKs. That is a fact. That is a 27 to 1 ratio. That is how much less frequently they appear on ebay.

Even then that is besides the point. All it takes are 2, only 2, willing bidders to bid up anything. If there are two people want it bad enough, the winning price will always be 1 incremental bid over the 2nd highest bid. That's what happened with the SSK I won and the SSKs I didn't win. When you want it bad enough, you put in a higher maximum bid than the last time when you lost. And that is what happened to the $1,800 winning price for an M15 last year. When there were not enough bidders, then you have SSKs sold over just over $100 (happened last week) or less.

All it takes are 2 willing bidders, and all your theories are out of the window :-)

See how pretty they can be?

Half-Saint · « **Reply #34 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 02:12:34 »

These two went for cheap.

AdamW · « **Reply #35 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 10:52:41 »

Quote from: litster;379346

Adam, while your assumptions might be right, the current SSK market price is disagreeing with you. I agree with you that SSKs shouldn't be this expensive, but they are indeed being sold for that much. That is a fact. On ebay now, there about 81 model M keyboards listed, while there are only 3 SSKs. That is a fact. That is a 27 to 1 ratio. That is how much less frequently they appear on ebay.

Even then that is besides the point. All it takes are 2, only 2, willing bidders to bid up anything. If there are two people want it bad enough, the winning price will always be 1 incremental bid over the 2nd highest bid. That's what happened with the SSK I won and the SSKs I didn't win. When you want it bad enough, you put in a higher maximum bid than the last time when you lost. And that is what happened to the $1,800 winning price for an M15 last year. When there were not enough bidders, then you have SSKs sold over just over $100 (happened last week) or less.

All it takes are 2 willing bidders, and all your theories are out of the window :-)

See how pretty they can be?

Show Image

Current price on eBay, sure. But again, I'm taking a longer term view, and eBay isn't the whole marketplace. It's not where I buy my 1391401s for a start. =)

MissileMike · « **Reply #36 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 12:55:34 »

Okay I will admit to sniping the second one. 121$ was actually my max bid.

These boards look pretty rough- definitely going to need some TLC...

wanabe · « **Reply #37 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 13:02:59 »

i predict that the price of gold plummet once we drill to the center of the earth and find a huge cache of undiscovered reserves. for now it will cost you over $1k to buy an ounce

litster · « **Reply #38 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 13:13:27 »

Quote from: AdamW;379511

Current price on eBay, sure. But again, I'm taking a longer term view, and eBay isn't the whole marketplace. It's not where I buy my 1391401s for a start. =)

Certainly people find them in garage sales, estate sales, recycling centers, closed out businesses, etc. That's how sellers get them and sell them on ebay. On my NIB SSK, there is a $19.99 sticker on the cardboard box. If you can find them cheap, the more power to you! And you should sell them to us with just a small markup. Or would you rather sell them on ebay to make more money?

TexasFlood · « **Reply #39 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 20:04:54 »

Someday I'll find a deal my cheap gene will allow, someday...
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20726[/ATTACH]

TexasFlood · « **Reply #40 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 20:07:22 »

Someday I'll find a deal my cheap gene will allow, someday...

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20729[/ATTACH]

TexasFlood · « **Reply #41 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 20:16:45 »

Someday I'll find a deal my cheap gene will allow...

Someday...

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 20730[/ATTACH]

litster · « **Reply #42 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 20:16:53 »

Adam is cool. Civil conversation. I hope he is right and we all get to buy SSKs for cheap and enjoy one of the finest human creations.

keyboardlover · « **Reply #43 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 20:30:04 »

Quote from: ripster;379895

He doesn't yell at me or call me racist.

I wouldn't feel bad. Welly called me racist once.

IIRC, it was because I posted this photo claiming Obama was a Republican in disguise.

litster · « **Reply #44 on:** Wed, 13 July 2011, 20:33:31 »

noodles called me racist once, and then I bought his Filco MX Blue. We are good buddies!

AdamW · « **Reply #45 on:** Thu, 14 July 2011, 11:47:35 »

wanabe: people have been trading gold for several thousand years, and the supply of it is pretty well established. Just about everyone in the world knows that gold is valuable and if they have it they can sell it. The gold market is about as mature as any market that exists and pricing is consistent all over the world. I submit to you that the same conditions do not entirely obtain in the second-hand IBM keyboard market.

wanabe · « **Reply #46 on:** Thu, 14 July 2011, 11:58:13 »

that was a joke. i don't believe that perfect markets will ever exist, theyre good in theory but it takes time for information to flow. it's the reason why i would pick up a dollar bill from the sidewalk even though any rational economist would tell me that i'm wasting my time.

right now ebay is pretty much the marketplace for these things so i would say that it gives us a fair representation of the current price. it's of course a smaller market than gold, so some volatility should be expected.

theferenc · « **Reply #47 on:** Thu, 14 July 2011, 14:12:10 »

I thought I had posted this, but apparently I hadn't. The price of SSKs on Taobao is only about $40. And some chick on there apparently has an almost unlimited supply, too. She seems to come and go, but when she's there, they are only 275 RMB. At least, they were a couple months ago when I was there.

So, in the west, the market is claiming they are worth a premium. In China, the ones that are priced similar to the west don't sell, and the ones that do sell for about the same price as a regular Model M.

MissileMike · « **Reply #48 on:** Thu, 14 July 2011, 17:27:54 »

Quote from: theferenc;380387

I thought I had posted this, but apparently I hadn't. The price of SSKs on Taobao is only about $40. And some chick on there apparently has an almost unlimited supply, too. She seems to come and go, but when she's there, they are only 275 RMB. At least, they were a couple months ago when I was there.

So, in the west, the market is claiming they are worth a premium. In China, the ones that are priced similar to the west don't sell, and the ones that do sell for about the same price as a regular Model M.

I have tried a couple of times to get these on Taobao, but they're never actually available.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #49 on:** Thu, 14 July 2011, 17:54:51 »

Quote from: MissileMike;380510

I have tried a couple of times to get these on Taobao, but they're never actually available.

Coincidentally I also have an almost unlimited supply of unavailable Space Saving keyboards, want to buy one? :lie:

Wish I could get lucky and find a source that the larger market demand didn't have access to therefore lowing the price. See what I did there Ripster? Your graph can't hurt me, :wink:.

News:

Author Topic: Two model M space savers on ebay- 1 day left @ $15 (Read 4357 times)