Author Topic: Fantastic Model M deal - requires massive Geek cooperation (Read 12441 times)

berserkfan · « **on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:35:18 »

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-64-Unicomp-Model-M-Clicky-Mechanical-Buckling-Spring-USB-Keyboard-AS-IS-/191474899591?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item2c94cb1a87

64 for $9.99 starting bid???

Lets sign up at least 20 people for this. If each is willing to contribute $20, they can bid $400 shipped.

Maybe let Ezrahiliyer or some volunteer sort out the keyboards. I'm pretty sure they aren't really faulty.

I'm willing to be No.1.

Defect · « **Reply #1 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:41:54 »

I want an M. I'm in.

How much you think shipping will be?

Edit: these are Unicomp. Still down for 1 or 2 if were saying 20 bucks each.

Computer-Lab in Basement · « **Reply #2 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:43:05 »

I would totally get in on this.

DrHubblePhD · « **Reply #3 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:43:28 »

I'm in, sounds like a good idea!

SpAmRaY · « **Reply #4 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:45:06 »

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62060.0 dv's teardown

MythicalWagyu · « **Reply #5 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:45:52 »

****, I'd get one for work - count me in!

SpAmRaY · « **Reply #6 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:49:30 »

Also need to find someone local to pick them up so you don't pay the freight shipping plus secondary shipping.

JinDesu · « **Reply #7 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:50:34 »

I'd be in

MGH · « **Reply #8 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:53:50 »

I may be down for 2

n0rvig · « **Reply #9 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:56:51 »

Is interesting... even with an ISO enter key.

Computer-Lab in Basement · « **Reply #10 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:11:29 »

Quote from: n0rvig on Wed, 07 January 2015, 12:56:51

Is interesting... even with an ISO enter key.

These would be prime candidates for ISO-to-ANSI mods.

MGH · « **Reply #11 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:15:41 »

I'm in for one, I will be attempting an ansi 60% mod with a janky case.

Xonar · « **Reply #12 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:19:14 »

I got one of these from another auction. It's a good enough keyboard despite the build quality being a bit questionable. I'm not really interested in participating in this since I already have one, but I think you guys should go for it! It's a fantastic deal.

orihalcon · « **Reply #13 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:35:27 »

Hmm, does it not bother anyone that the seller states that a large percentage are faulty? Description says that he is selling them this way because he gets complaints daily from buyers wanting to return them because they have stopped working. If they are brand new and many are bad from the start, the long term longevity probably won't be there either. Just curious what everyone else thinks. Problem with these is the cost to reship and The likelihood of failure that the re-seller would kind of have to assume.

I know berserkfan doubts that they are actually faulty, but I do not think the seller would be listing them like this otherwise. They had been selling really quickly since he was charging so little to begin with.

Computer-Lab in Basement · « **Reply #14 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:37:26 »

So we'll get 45 project boards to work on. What's wrong with that?

SpAmRaY · « **Reply #15 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:39:17 »

I'm wondering where this seller got them from to start with.

Could there be some protocol issue where these are made to speak to something other than a modern pc or something other than windows?

Xonar · « **Reply #16 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:43:13 »

If the quality concerns you, definitely don't go for this. This board is probably one of the worst Unicomp has ever made. But I still think for most it's worth giving it a try for such a low price. If it's faulty the keycaps, barrel plate, or case can be salvaged for another Model M, the board could be repaired / upgraded, etc.

Touch_It · « **Reply #17 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:56:03 »

hmm, let me think about this, but I'm probably down for 1.

Just a thought, what if everything in the universe lined up and we (collectively) put in 1 bid and got them for say $20.00. :DDDDDDD

Computer-Lab in Basement · « **Reply #18 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 14:58:38 »

Quote from: Touch_It on Wed, 07 January 2015, 13:56:03

hmm, let me think about this, but I'm probably down for 1.

Just a thought, what if everything in the universe lined up and we (collectively) put in 1 bid and got them for say $20.00. :DDDDDDD

Great idea in theory, but one rouge bid and it'd be ****ed.

orihalcon · « **Reply #19 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 15:43:24 »

Yeah, they would definitely be interesting for key caps and cases, just would need to make sure that everyone kind of knows what to expect prior to doing a group buy. I'd say expect one that doesn't work, but hope for one that works

Given that so many have issues, it is probably safe to assume it is the controller (given that the membranes are new and really can't be much wrong with them) which may have intermittent problems which might not show up when testing prior to shipping. My guess is that the seller started testing them all prior to shipping but still got complaints after arrival, which again fits why he would list like this rather than listing just The ones that tested bad.

When people are thinking $20 each, is that to include shipping? Probably would be interested in one either way.

mason · « **Reply #20 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 16:35:14 »

I'm down for one

minh278 · « **Reply #21 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 17:03:08 »

Ill join this buy

fohat.digs · « **Reply #22 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 17:21:41 »

PBT dye-sub keycaps for <$0.25 each are probably worth it on their own.

If someone could determine whether the "problems" are consistent (eg all bad controllers) then solutions would be easier to formulate.

JWK · « **Reply #23 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 17:21:51 »

I'm in.
$20 for three and whoever does the pickup gets the 4 extras?

Sygaldry · « **Reply #24 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 17:24:51 »

I'm in!

Why don't we just set up an auction sniper for 400 dollars, that way the chance of the bids going so high stays low.

dorkvader · « **Reply #25 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 17:48:57 »

Quote from: orihalcon on Wed, 07 January 2015, 15:43:24

When people are thinking $20, is that to include shipping?

I estimate it'll take at least $17 to ship these.

dante · « **Reply #26 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 18:46:21 »

Why couldn't they unearth 64 Kentucky Wildcats Unicomps

orihalcon · « **Reply #27 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 18:59:22 »

Yeah, I was thinking the $20 including shipping didn't seem realistic, but at the current bid, actually could be in that realm. Doubt it will stay there though.

I think before deciding on a snipe amount, you'd have to know what people are willing to pay including shipping. I'd be surprised if the auction price went for more than $20 per board, but have to also figure in that whoever actually does the buy deserves something for their time testing and reshipping.

Would buy one assuming the cost shipped to the USA is $40 or less. Mostly interested to see the manufacturing quality in person, since I hear that these are not so great.

berserkfan · « **Reply #28 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 19:53:37 »

Geek cooperation needed, simple as that.

Since some boards are faulty we cannot have more than 21 people, just to stay on the safe side. When I made my post I deliberately assumed 2/3 failure rate. EG I was hoping to get 1 fully working and 1 faulty for parts.

I am also definitely not intending to use this keyboard as my daily driver. The cheap price and the known failures suggests that they should be used for experimentations - eg replacing controller with teensy, bolt modding for first time, etc.

It is best that a professional modder like Orihalcon or Ezra get the boards first and sort them out for everyone. As part of his benefits, he can keep the extra parts. EG 21 faulty boards will provide enough parts for Orihalcon or Ezra to work on the next year or two.

Once we have agreement that we do one single snipe bid 1-2 seconds before auction close, the actual bidding amount should be left to discretion of Ori/ Ezra and must be kept secret. We don't want some mischievous person to bid one cent lower just for fun. One way to do this could be to be much more conservative that our max price - eg max bid $300. If a mischievous bidder goes for $350 thinking that he can screw us over because we'll bid $400, he will win, have to back out, and we'll get ours for $300.

SpAmRaY · « **Reply #29 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 20:08:14 »

Don't forget the initial freight shipping as these will be on a pallet.

slickmamba · « **Reply #30 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 20:20:02 »

I'm in! Great board for my students to use!

trizkut · « **Reply #31 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 20:31:54 »

I'm in~

hwood34 · « **Reply #32 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 22:54:56 »

In here

orihalcon · « **Reply #33 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 23:21:21 »

I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I don't think I will have the space or time to go through these properly at the moment unfortunately. I'm cool with Ezra having first dibs if he wants. In an ideal world, we'd have the sorter/reshipper pick up locally in Reno Nevada to avoid the initial freight cost.

Another thought would be to see if the seller would just be willing to ship the units individually fully knowing that they are being sold AS-IS in unwarranted condition for the actual cost to the list of buyer's addresses, but not through ebay so he doesn't have to worry about his reputation there. This avoids the problem of reshipping and the cost of shipping them twice. Buyers would have to be more willing to accept what they get by chance though since apparently a healthy portion have been DOA.

Snowdog993 · « **Reply #34 on:** Wed, 07 January 2015, 23:36:30 »

Quote from: orihalcon on Wed, 07 January 2015, 23:21:21

Another thought would be to see if the seller would just be willing to ship the units individually fully knowing that they are being sold AS-IS in unwarranted condition for the actual cost to the list of buyer's addresses, but not through ebay so he doesn't have to worry about his reputation there. This avoids the problem of reshipping and the cost of shipping them twice. Buyers would have to be more willing to accept what they get by chance though since apparently a healthy portion have been DOA.

I agree about this. This seems to be the best choice for everyone. Maybe Ezra could just make an offer to take them all off his hands for one price. Let him repair and send the keyboards to the group buyers. It would save money on both sides.
The advantage is that after Ezra looks at them he will have extra parts for other projects. And everyone will have fully functional keyboards too.

I'm not going to be in this group buy however. Good luck however it goes.

rowdy · « **Reply #35 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:40:41 »

Although tempting, I'd be worried that shipping to Australia would make prices silly.

Does anyone have an idea how much it would cost to ship something large and heavy like this to Australia?

Also if it broke, I'd pretty much be stuck with it, or pay for shipping back and forth again.

fanpeople · « **Reply #36 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:50:53 »

Quote from: rowdy on Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:40:41

Although tempting, I'd be worried that shipping to Australia would make prices silly.

Does anyone have an idea how much it would cost to ship something large and heavy like this to Australia?

Also if it broke, I'd pretty much be stuck with it, or pay for shipping back and forth again.

I had the same thought, my guess would be that shipping as a minimum $60. Otherwise I would jump in just for a low cost BS board.

rowdy · « **Reply #37 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:58:36 »

Quote from: fanpeople on Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:50:53

Quote from: rowdy on Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:40:41
Although tempting, I'd be worried that shipping to Australia would make prices silly.

Does anyone have an idea how much it would cost to ship something large and heavy like this to Australia?

Also if it broke, I'd pretty much be stuck with it, or pay for shipping back and forth again.

I had the same thought, my guess would be that shipping as a minimum $60. Otherwise I would jump in just for a low cost BS board.

Exactly. A1 Computers has the original Model M 122 for $50 or thereabouts. In Melbourne! All I'd need is a Teensy (AFAIK), and should have a reliable board to last for years.

crazystu · « **Reply #38 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 04:10:59 »

I'm also interested but I'm sure shipping to New Zealand will be just as bad as Australia. I think when the seller listed these they were around $60-$70 USD to ship here (not including cost of keyboard).

fanpeople · « **Reply #39 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 05:23:28 »

Quote from: rowdy on Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:58:36

Quote from: fanpeople on Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:50:53
Quote from: rowdy on Thu, 08 January 2015, 03:40:41
Although tempting, I'd be worried that shipping to Australia would make prices silly.

Does anyone have an idea how much it would cost to ship something large and heavy like this to Australia?

Also if it broke, I'd pretty much be stuck with it, or pay for shipping back and forth again.

I had the same thought, my guess would be that shipping as a minimum $60. Otherwise I would jump in just for a low cost BS board.

Exactly. A1 Computers has the original Model M 122 for $50 or thereabouts. In Melbourne! All I'd need is a Teensy (AFAIK), and should have a reliable board to last for years.

I emailed them about a board a few weeks ago, haven't had a response yet. I hope they are just on holidays. I tried calling just after new years and no answer. Honestly I think that place is a potential gold mine for Australian BS boards.

dorkvader · « **Reply #40 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 09:41:10 »

Quote from: orihalcon on Wed, 07 January 2015, 23:21:21

I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I don't think I will have the space or time to go through these properly at the moment unfortunately. I'm cool with Ezra having first dibs if he wants. In an ideal world, we'd have the sorter/reshipper pick up locally in Reno Nevada to avoid the initial freight cost.

Another thought would be to see if the seller would just be willing to ship the units individually fully knowing that they are being sold AS-IS in unwarranted condition for the actual cost to the list of buyer's addresses, but not through ebay so he doesn't have to worry about his reputation there. This avoids the problem of reshipping and the cost of shipping them twice. Buyers would have to be more willing to accept what they get by chance though since apparently a healthy portion have been DOA.

agreed. We'd need a knowledgeable Gh'er in that location willing to sort them out. I have the time and experience but am located far away.

R1N3 · « **Reply #41 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 09:59:44 »

I'd commit to this for sure. Got paypal standing by.

daerid · « **Reply #42 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 12:38:35 »

I'm in. Been itching for another BS board, although I'm not sure I like the layout.

Glod · « **Reply #43 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 14:43:28 »

I bought a brand new one of these for 45 dollars shipped last year.

I'm warning you guys, these are not great, they are flimsy and flex when you type. The layout is strange too and it's not true iso. If you are new to buckling spring then these unicomps are a terrible way to start.

kalrand · « **Reply #44 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 15:08:44 »

Quote from: Glod on Thu, 08 January 2015, 14:43:28

I bought a brand new one of these for 45 dollars shipped last year.

I'm warning you guys, these are not great, they are flimsy and flex when you type. The layout is strange too and it's not true iso. If you are new to buckling spring then these unicomps are a terrible way to start.

I got one too. And promptly sold it. These are the cheapest construction cheapy buckling spring cheap-o boards ever cheaply made. Cheap.

fohat.digs · « **Reply #45 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 16:04:09 »

Quote from: kalrand on Thu, 08 January 2015, 15:08:44

These are the cheapest construction cheapy buckling spring cheap-o boards ever cheaply made.

Wrong!

I had a Chinese buckling spring board with a translucent case that was amazingly bad.

Maybe a brand name like "Pinnacle"? I can't remember.

Glod · « **Reply #46 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 16:08:46 »

You don't have a good buckling spring board unless you can bludgeon someone to death with it, wipe off the blood and go back to typing on it.

MGH · « **Reply #47 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 16:16:14 »

Quote from: Glod on Thu, 08 January 2015, 14:43:28

I bought a brand new one of these for 45 dollars shipped last year.

I'm warning you guys, these are not great, they are flimsy and flex when you type. The layout is strange too and it's not true iso. If you are new to buckling spring then these unicomps are a terrible way to start.

How were the keycaps?

Glod · « **Reply #48 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 16:23:57 »

Quote from: MGH on Thu, 08 January 2015, 16:16:14

Quote from: Glod on Thu, 08 January 2015, 14:43:28
I bought a brand new one of these for 45 dollars shipped last year.

I'm warning you guys, these are not great, they are flimsy and flex when you type. The layout is strange too and it's not true iso. If you are new to buckling spring then these unicomps are a terrible way to start.

How were the keycaps?

Same ole unicomp pbt dye sub based on the original ibm caps. You don't need to salvage this board to get them, unicomp sells full sets for $25 in grey like these and classic pearl-pebble direct on their website. You can buy custom printed individual caps to fill in a 122 for a buck each. They even sell red, blue, and green legends as well for $20 more. However you can't get iso sets from unicomp I don't think

Snowdog993 · « **Reply #49 on:** Thu, 08 January 2015, 16:59:34 »

Quote from: Glod on Thu, 08 January 2015, 16:23:57

Same ole unicomp pbt dye sub based on the original ibm caps. You don't need to salvage this board to get them, unicomp sells full sets for $25 in grey like these and classic pearl-pebble direct on their website. You can buy custom printed individual caps to fill in a 122 for a buck each. They even sell red, blue, and green legends as well for $20 more. However you can't get iso sets from unicomp I don't think

I ordered the green legends on brilliant white, they are on the way for me. I think it will be a nice change for my new keyboard.

Edit: They didn't include the spacebar, but everything else is there. I was assured by them it included it. Oh well.

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Author Topic: Fantastic Model M deal - requires massive Geek cooperation (Read 12441 times)