If this one is yellowed, it's the first yellowed one I've seen!
I would guess that is it just dirty. Covered in some sort of residue.
That seems more likely. I've seen scratched and chipped F's, but never any that turned a different color. Not even the ones whose color was painted on instead of molded, like these.
As with all ancient IBM iron, they come and go in radical cycles. However, after watching ebay closely for at least 4 years, I have never seen them turn up at anything like this rate... I predict that prices will slump to a deep low by the end of the year, and after all that supply is exhausted, prices and scarcity will climb back to "historic" levels of about 1 per month hitting ebay and selling in the $100-$150 range.
Which means we should all snap up as many F's as we can, right now! Buh ha ha! Oh well, I didn't want to be married anyway.
Adding to what SpamRay said, I have read some threads, mainly on the bank president or some such who claimed that a whole store of Kishsavers (I think, not the most well-versed in IBM), could potentially hold sensitive information and had them all destroyed without giving her much of a chance.
"Hold sensitive information"? A
keyboard? Are we talking massive technological ignorance here? How do people like that get into positions of authority?
When houses started getting electrical power at the beginning of the 20th century, some people kept their outlets covered because they were afraid electricity was going to leak out of them... I'm guessing some of them were bank executives too. :?D
I had a mixed experience with Cindy... Then there was a bunch of beamsprings that came up. I politely PMed and emailed her with no reply.
Is it possible she hadn't seen your handle before, dude? Could she have thought it was a prank—especially over on Deskthority, where people tend to be more polite 'n' refined? If I didn't already know you, I'm not sure what I'd think if I suddenly found a PM from you... "Yow, is a biker gang recruiting me?" (LOL) Oh well, maybe I shouldn't have even brought up... I'm just theorizing.
I helped XMIT a bit with one of the spreadsheets he and Cindy put together that listed all the details of hundreds of vintage boards for sale, and got to know them a bit. For what it's worth, I think they're excellent people, and that they're
really not in this for the dough. I think they've just been big vintage hardware fans for quite a while, and they like the idea of keeping hard-to-find cast-off boards out of the landfills and getting them into the hands of people who want to make them beautiful and useful again.
Many of Deskthority's members are in Europe, too, so they tend to be more civilized (for lack of a better word) than we Westerners. That may have made it seem more practical to distribute quantities of highly coveted items in as fair and organized a way as possible, with a minimum of bloodshed. Anyway, I've seen nothing but enthusiasm and gratitude on DT for C. and X. and their efforts.
Are these cases swappable with an M-122 case?
Well, the bottoms of F's aren't like M's at all... They're a big metal plate. (You've already seen that if you've followed the modding links the guys posted for you.) So they're even more massive and imposing than Model M's, which most people consider pretty heavy-duty. But it sure makes F's fun to type on. They're real pieces of computing history, too... The first time you see an F-122 in person, it may take your breath away. That's how I reacted—they're that impressive. :?)
