[ebay] Unicomp 122 USB

[dante]

link

$59.99 w/ $13.04 shipping.  Includes 'Make an Offer' option.

[berserkfan]

link

$59.99 w/ $13.04 shipping.  Includes 'Make an Offer' option.

I personally am staying away from these. You can get Model M terminals for much less.

The main reason to avoid, btw, is because of the crappy keycaps. These are from the time when Unicomp made crapcaps that turn yellow really quickly.

In any case this has been posted before. Dorkvader posted photos of his internals. I think he got it for $20 shipped thanks to seller's mistake.

[dorkvader]

In any case this has been posted before. Dorkvader posted photos of his internals. I think he got it for $20 shipped thanks to seller's mistake.

here's the topic
Nah it was just a low price. These never did sell for much and he didn't realize they were in demand at all until several sold really fast. I was lucky enough to get one. It was NIB. I think he joined the forum. Seller was a really cool guy.

I'm probably going to chop it for kicks.

Anyway, I think the point of this "great find" is to highlight the "best offer" button.

[berserkfan]

Well I don't think I'm ever to get these for $19 anymore, but at $39 (a more realistic Best Offer accepted price) anyone who buys still has to factor in buying a set of keycaps. The keycaps on this are really the worst PBT keycaps ever produced. Unicomp did a great job making the keyboard inexpensive for the masses, but in neglecting the keycap quality, they made the keyboard look cheap and crappy.

Something that yellows in a year is going to look awful even if the internals are actually quite fine. Remember that your main interaction with any keyboard is via the keycaps. If keycaps look icky to touch the entire keyboard gets devalued rightaway.

[dorkvader]

Well I don't think I'm ever to get these for $19 anymore, but at $39 (a more realistic Best Offer accepted price) anyone who buys still has to factor in buying a set of keycaps. The keycaps on this are really the worst PBT keycaps ever produced. Unicomp did a great job making the keyboard inexpensive for the masses, but in neglecting the keycap quality, they made the keyboard look cheap and crappy.

Something that yellows in a year is going to look awful even if the internals are actually quite fine. Remember that your main interaction with any keyboard is via the keycaps. If keycaps look icky to touch the entire keyboard gets devalued rightaway.

Well other than the colour and the flashing left on the sides a little, I think unicomp keycaps feel ratehr nice and will remain entirely functional through decades of use. If you want something that's pretty you might want to shop elsewhere though.

IBM changed the surface roughness (and font!) of their caps a few times over the production run so unicomp caps are a bit more smooth than (say) a PC keyboard. Even if they yellow (my model M from them with metallic grey caps I used for about 2 years daily and it shows no signs of yellowing, so ymmv) the feel is the same.