My wife would absolutely positively kill me. I've got waaaaaaay too much other stuff...
Before you say no, realize that the eBay seller has, for some reason, selected Expedited Shipping by default. If you scroll down the page and click "Shipping and Payments", you'll see Economy Shipping is available for about half as much.
And now let's do a little imagining:
Your doorbell rings. You open the door and a UPS delivery person is standing there holding a box for you. It's 22" long, 9" wide and 4" high, and each side is printed with a blue
IBM logo and some international "fragile" symbols.
You sign for the box, take it inside, open it, and slide out a styrofoam casing with a multilingual instruction pamphlet fitted neatly into an indentation on the top. You crack open the casing—and behold, sealed in a transparent bag, a
pristine IBM keyboard very similar to the legendary, super-rare
IBM 4707 banking keyboard. Except this one also has secondary legends with Japanese or Chinese characters. And instead of $1000, it cost you, like,
$40.
You order a Teensy board and
follow Soarer's clear instructions to replace the board's existing CPU with it, converting it to USB. Congratulations—you now own the coolest vintage mechanical keyboard in your neighborhood, maybe your whole town!
I personally recommend
the Japanese version, as its legends are a bit more interesting, including some English terms and a unique
000 numpad key.
As I write this, there are 10 left. You won't see any new, unopened IBM keyboards of
any kind for a price like this. A year from now a speculator may return with some, asking 5 or 6 times as much—and you'll slap your forehead and think, "
Why didn't I get one when they were so ridiculously cheap?"
Believe me, dude, it's far better to risk a minor argument with your wife than to miss something this special. Your wife will forgive you—but will you forgive
yourself if you let these slip away?
Buh ha ha. Anyway, I love mine.
Enticingly, A.
