Black Dell AT101W, new in box

[lexicon]

Here.

"Buy it now" for $19.99. I have bought from this seller before, but I have no knowledge of this particular item.  He/she must have a few, because this is the third one up in two days.

[itlnstln]

If I already did not have a few of these, I would be all over it.  It's local to me, too, so I could pick it up if I wanted it and save on the shipping.  Oh well.

[mr_smith]

What a pity that the seller only ships continental U.S. only and not to Germany

In general there're not many boards for sale/available in Germany (even worse for *NIB* ones)

Oh, and someone prevented "Buy it now" with his/her bid.

[djones]

some dumbass bid 19.00 on this thing so now I have to wait 5 days to get it :-|

[itlnstln]

This item is no longer BIN.  I didn't know you could change up your listing like that without re-listing.  Hmm, live and learn.

[lexicon]

I think that option disappears if somebody puts in a bid, which somebody did, which makes zero sense since the BIN price was, as I recall, like a dollar above the minimum bid.

I have a fairly old black AT101, and I find it much nicer to use than the beige ones for some reason.  The keystrokes have less of that plastic sound, and not having that expanse of beige in my field of view is nice.  On the down side, from what I've seen the lettering on the keys tends to wear off.  The core keys on mine are much fainter than, say, the scroll lock key.

[itlnstln]

How are the letters applied to the keys on the black version?  On the beige, they are laser-etched.  I would imagine they would have to be silk-screened or 2-color molded on the black version.

[lexicon]

I can't really tell.  The letters themselves are slightly raised.  The worn letters are a bit narrower than the unworn ones, and a bit fainter because of that, but none of the keys are actually misssing parts of letters.  It looks like very durable paint, actually.

I wish that the lettering had been thicker to begin with, like on my black G84-4100.  You can read those keys from across the room.  I've been considering buying some key stickers and re-doing all the keys.

[itlnstln]

You could always harvest some Alps keys, too.

[lexicon]

some dumbass bid 19.00 on this thing so now I have to wait 5 days to get it :-|

Confession:  I bought (BIN) the one in the auction before yours.  It arrived today and I love it, it's beautiful.  Much classier than the beige ones, and I swear the sound is less plastic-y.

[itlnstln]

How are the letters inscribed on the keys (2-color molding, silk-screen, etc)?

[lexicon]

I guess they must be silk-screened -- they are slightly raised and don't have the fine texture of the keycaps underneath.

[itlnstln]

That kinda sucks, but, then again, I have never had an issue with silk screened caps.

[lowpoly]

They will wear off but I don't think that will happen to any member here.

[bhtooefr]

/me looks at his 1.5 year-old ThinkPad's silkscreened caps...

/me notes that W, E, A S, D, C, V, M, and left Shift, Ctrl, and Alt have partially worn off...

[lowpoly]

Oh, I meant with the Dell. Usually, who buys this here has other keyboards to distribute the load.

[Chloe]

I wish that the lettering had been thicker to begin with, like on my black G84-4100.  You can read those keys from across the room.

When I first got my G84-4100 (also black) I found the lettering quite distracting, and I don't often look at the keyboard. I imagine backlit keys will be the same.