'94 IBM Model M - $39.99 BIN + shipping

[jerue]

edit:

another one popped up for the same price: free shipping this time! (rubber dome)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Lexmark-Model-M-Keyboard-NON-Clicky-PS-2-Part-71G4644-Dated-08-04-95-/121906764131


original post:

More

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Model-M-Keyboard-Good-Condition-pn-1370477-11-21-94-/301873403971

Removable cable, could use some cleaning. But if it's working for $50 after shipping it's not a bad deal.

[ComradeSniper]

Holy crap, shipping is $40.14 to me. )

Probably only worth it if you're in the same shipping zone as the seller.

[ander]

People like this don't realize they can pick up a free Priority Mail "Board Game Box" at most USPS offices that'll enable them to send a KB anywhere in the U.S. for under $18. I've drawn several sellers' attention to that, and as a result have made several boards affordable for friends who were interested in them.

[fohat.digs]

People like this don't realize they can pick up a free Priority Mail "Board Game Box" at most USPS offices that'll enable them to send a KB anywhere in the U.S. for under $18. I've drawn several sellers' attention to that, and as a result have made several boards affordable for friends who were interested in them.

The boxes are not officially on display, although they can be ordered in packs of 25 and delivered to your doorstep free. I think that when you see them at the PO, leaning against the wall near the other flat rate boxes, it was probably because somebody only needed one or few and brought the rest in so as not to waste them.

[ander]

The boxes are not officially on display, although they can be ordered in packs of 25 and delivered to your doorstep free. I think that when you see them at the PO, leaning against the wall near the other flat rate boxes, it was probably because somebody only needed one or few and brought the rest in so as not to waste them.

Maybe you're right. However, when I asked for a BGB at the little PO in Blaine, WA about a month ago, the woman there just went in back and got one—thus my assumption.

If POs are glad to accept surplus boxes, they must think they can use them. If that's true, why would USPS rely on people bringing in their spares? Wouldn't they just furnish POs with them?

It also seems unlikely that most people would bother lugging their extra boxes to the PO when they could just put them out for the recycler.

We may be drifting beyond this topic's scope here, but I love protracted discussions of things like this. It makes the mind-bending mediocrity of the suburbs temporarily fade into the distance.

It also gives us another reason to use these great KBs of ours. If we typed only about KBs, it'd be like someone without a garden buying a garden hose so they could take it around saying, "Hey, look at this swell garden hose I bought." Can we talk about oil changes or oven mitts next?

[shicky256]

Pretty happy that I got in on that (the cat spilled water on my old Unicomp and it actually would have cost me more to get the old one fixed than to buy a new one), especially since the seller accepted my offer of $33

He hasn't shipped it yet, however so I'll probably shoot him a message if he doesn't ship tomorrow.

[romevi]

Pretty happy that I got in on that (the cat spilled water on my old Unicomp and it actually would have cost me more to get the old one fixed than to buy a new one), especially since the seller accepted my offer of $33

He hasn't shipped it yet, however so I'll probably shoot him a message if he doesn't ship tomorrow.

Listing says it'll ship within two business days.

[njbair]

Pretty happy that I got in on that (the cat spilled water on my old Unicomp and it actually would have cost me more to get the old one fixed than to buy a new one), especially since the seller accepted my offer of $33

He hasn't shipped it yet, however so I'll probably shoot him a message if he doesn't ship tomorrow.

Congrats, that's an awesome deal for a Model M.

[ander]

Pretty happy that I got in on that (the cat spilled water on my old Unicomp and it actually would have cost me more to get the old one fixed than to buy a new one), especially since the seller accepted my offer of $33 :D

You didn't have to pay $40 for Economy Shipping, though, did you? That's crazy. The seller either made a wild guess at the board's weight (and entered that in eBay's shipping calculator), or they were deliberately trying to gouge someone.

If you did pay that much, when you get the package, see if it says how much the shipping actually cost. If it's substantially less—that is, if they didn't also enclose a couple of bricks or something!—I'd ask the seller to refund you the difference. If they don't respond, or give you a hard time, you can bring eBay into the dispute and they'll almost certainly side with you. Charging people double for actual shipping is just stealing. Good luck!

[shicky256]

Pretty happy that I got in on that (the cat spilled water on my old Unicomp and it actually would have cost me more to get the old one fixed than to buy a new one), especially since the seller accepted my offer of $33

You didn't have to pay $40 for Economy Shipping, though, did you? That's crazy. The seller either made a wild guess at the board's weight (and entered that in eBay's shipping calculator), or they were deliberately trying to gouge someone.

If you did pay that much, when you get the package, see if it says how much the shipping actually cost. If it's substantially less—that is, if they didn't also enclose a couple of bricks or something!—I'd ask the seller to refund you the difference. If they don't respond, or give you a hard time, you can bring eBay into the dispute and they'll almost certainly side with you. Charging people double for actual shipping is just stealing. Good luck!

Nah, I only had to pay $16.70 for the shipping (I offered $33 because if I was paying more than $50, I could have just asked Unicomp to fix the keyboard I own).

[shicky256]

The seller didn't ship the keyboard today or respond to my message (sent about 2:30 PM, it's about 5:15 PM now). I hope he'll ship it tonight, and that I'm not being scammed.

[Vanilla]

The seller didn't ship the keyboard today or respond to my message (sent about 2:30 PM, it's about 5:15 PM now). I hope he'll ship it tonight, and that I'm not being scammed.

I know you're excited but be patient and dont worry, nobody is going to scam your $40. You bought it on either yesterday or the day before too.. 

[romevi]

The seller didn't ship the keyboard today or respond to my message (sent about 2:30 PM, it's about 5:15 PM now). I hope he'll ship it tonight, and that I'm not being scammed.

I know you're excited but be patient and dont worry, nobody is going to scam your $40. You bought it on either yesterday or the day before too.. 

This. As I mentioned before, they said they'd ship within 2 business days.

As a seller who's gotten "please ship my stuff" hours after an item sold, it's really frustrating when buyers don't acknowledge that handling time part.

[shicky256]

The seller didn't ship the keyboard today or respond to my message (sent about 2:30 PM, it's about 5:15 PM now). I hope he'll ship it tonight, and that I'm not being scammed.

I know you're excited but be patient and dont worry, nobody is going to scam your $40. You bought it on either yesterday or the day before too.. 

This. As I mentioned before, they said they'd ship within 2 business days.

As a seller who's gotten "please ship my stuff" hours after an item sold, it's really frustrating when buyers don't acknowledge that handling time part.

As a buyer who's had eBay sellers forget to ship my stuff days after I bought their item, it's really frustrating when sellers don't acknowledge that I bought their stuff. Speaking of which, today's the third business day since I bought the keyboard and the seller never responded to my PM or shipped the keyboard. I'll give them until Monday before I ask for my money back.

[romevi]

The seller didn't ship the keyboard today or respond to my message (sent about 2:30 PM, it's about 5:15 PM now). I hope he'll ship it tonight, and that I'm not being scammed.

I know you're excited but be patient and dont worry, nobody is going to scam your $40. You bought it on either yesterday or the day before too.. 

This. As I mentioned before, they said they'd ship within 2 business days.

As a seller who's gotten "please ship my stuff" hours after an item sold, it's really frustrating when buyers don't acknowledge that handling time part.

As a buyer who's had eBay sellers forget to ship my stuff days after I bought their item, it's really frustrating when sellers don't acknowledge that I bought their items. Speaking of which, today's the third business day since I bought the keyboard and the seller never responded to my PM or shipped the keyboard. I'll give them until Monday before I ask for my money back.

It can be frustrating, but I wasn't referring to days longer than 2; just that it was in the listing that it says ships w/in 2 business days when you were wondering why they didn't ship the next day.

However, by tomorrow you should definitely issue a warning before opening a claim.

[shicky256]

Guess who still didn't ship the damn thing? Anyway, tomorrow is the "expected arrival date" so hopefully I can get my money back.

[romevi]

Guess who still didn't ship the damn thing? Anyway, tomorrow is the "expected arrival date" so hopefully I can get my money back.

Ooh, that sucks. That's definitely way longer than it should've been. They haven't responded at all?

[fohat.digs]

Chill, dude.

Shipping is a pain in the butt. Besides the postage, there are packing effort and materials, time and gasoline driving back and forth to the PO. I don't charge more than estimated actual postage (and sell with "Free Shipping" if possible) but I don't think that $5-$10 for "packing expenses" would be out of line at all.

As far as time, you never know when you will be in bed sick for 3 days or your car will break down. Or be stuck inside due to weather.

Having sold a lot of things over many years, I can see where a lot can go wrong. I sent a present to a friend recently (from Atlanta, GA to Knoxville, TN - about 180 miles) and it went to Memphis (~400 miles) then back to Atlanta (~400 miles) then finally up to Knoxville.

[romevi]

Chill, dude.

Shipping is a pain in the butt. Besides the postage, there are packing effort and materials, time and gasoline driving back and forth to the PO. I don't charge more than estimated actual postage (and sell with "Free Shipping" if possible) but I don't think that $5-$10 for "packing expenses" would be out of line at all.

As far as time, you never know when you will be in bed sick for 3 days or your car will break down. Or be stuck inside due to weather.

Having sold a lot of things over many years, I can see where a lot can go wrong. I sent a present to a friend recently (from Atlanta, GA to Knoxville, TN - about 180 miles) and it went to Memphis (~400 miles) then back to Atlanta (~400 miles) then finally up to Knoxville.

As a seller, it sometimes definitely can be a pain when stuff goes wrong; but it seems here that the seller never once communicated with the buyer, and the shipping timeframe has come and gone. Definitely worth to open up a claim.
I have to follow up, though, that the estimated delivery date is bullcrap and something eBay should remove. I didn't realize they even added that until I got several complaints from buyers about it not arriving on time, even though I shipped stuff a day later with tracking, only to realize that eBay suddenly added some estimated arrival date like they can guarantee it. As I've learned, USPS can take up to three weeks to deliver first-class stuff, and even 6 business days to deliver Priority 2-3 day.

[1391406]

If the seller still hasn't shipped this, file a dispute. They've had more than enough time to get off their laurels.

I agree about eBay's estimated arrival date. There seems to be absolutely no correlation between the estimate eBay provides and that of USPS.

[ander]

Nah, I only had to pay $16.70 for the shipping...

That's good. How'd you do that? Did they use eBay's invoice feature to bill you for less than the auction page's total?

I've experienced longer-than-expected delays with some KBs—but it's usually been my own doing. Ever since I received a Model M shipped with a single layer of cardboard around it, I've made a habit of dropping sellers a note asking them to be sure to pack securely. ("These look sturdy," I write, "but the electronics inside are fragile." It doesn't seem necessary to mention it's usually the case that breaks, if anything.) This has caused some sellers to delay shipping while they found larger boxes.

In your case, the seller may have gone to pack your KB and realized it was bigger and/or heavier than they'd realized, and that they'd need more ambitious packing stuff to send it safely.

In any case, you needn't worry about losing your dough. After a certain waiting period (a week?) to give the seller a chance to follow through, eBay usually refunds your money right away, then chases after the seller on their own. They know it's important to keep buyers from feeling like they could be ripped off.

[jerue]

another one popped up for the same price: free shipping this time!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Lexmark-Model-M-Keyboard-NON-Clicky-PS-2-Part-71G4644-Dated-08-04-95-/121906764131

[fohat.digs]

another one popped up for the same price: free shipping this time!

Model Ms with part numbers starting with "7" are rubber domes.

[jerue]

another one popped up for the same price: free shipping this time!

Model Ms with part numbers starting with "7" are rubber domes.

I completely missed the "non-clicky" part of that description.... 

don't mind me.

[appleonama]

The seller didn't ship the keyboard today or respond to my message (sent about 2:30 PM, it's about 5:15 PM now). I hope he'll ship it tonight, and that I'm not being scammed.

I know you're excited but be patient and dont worry, nobody is going to scam your $40. You bought it on either yesterday or the day before too.. 

This. As I mentioned before, they said they'd ship within 2 business days.

As a seller who's gotten "please ship my stuff" hours after an item sold, it's really frustrating when buyers don't acknowledge that handling time part.

As a buyer who's had eBay sellers forget to ship my stuff days after I bought their item, it's really frustrating when sellers don't acknowledge that I bought their stuff. Speaking of which, today's the third business day since I bought the keyboard and the seller never responded to my PM or shipped the keyboard. I'll give them until Monday before I ask for my money back.

Relax man impatient much? They aren't amazon prime. I am a seller but I hate it when I get hounded for being 1 day late. When I don't buy from amazon I just forget about what i bought and wait patiently, but obviously if its 1-2 weeks without shipment something is wrong.

[shicky256]

For the thrilling conclusion, I got my money back yesterday since the seller never responded and ended up paying about $60 for a 1397661 instead. It would be nice to see how the one piece keycaps feel compared to the two piece ones on the Unicomp. If this keyboard doesn't ship as well, I think I'm just going to get Unicomp to fix the water damaged keyboard instead (I wanted to buy a Model M because it's cheaper than getting the Unicomp repaired, when you take shipping into consideration).

[romevi]

For the thrilling conclusion, I got my money back yesterday since the seller never responded and ended up paying about $60 for a 1397661 instead. It would be nice to see how the one piece keycaps feel compared to the two piece ones on the Unicomp. If this keyboard doesn't ship as well, I think I'm just going to get Unicomp to fix the water damaged keyboard instead (I wanted to buy a Model M because it's cheaper than getting the Unicomp repaired, when you take shipping into consideration).

Ouch. That sucks. Well, I guess I'll never buy from that dude!

[ander]

Glad you got your dough back. And enjoy the 1397661—it's always fun having one of the lesser-seen M's.

[rowdy]

People like this don't realize they can pick up a free Priority Mail "Board Game Box" at most USPS offices that'll enable them to send a KB anywhere in the U.S. for under $18. I've drawn several sellers' attention to that, and as a result have made several boards affordable for friends who were interested in them.

The boxes are not officially on display, although they can be ordered in packs of 25 and delivered to your doorstep free. I think that when you see them at the PO, leaning against the wall near the other flat rate boxes, it was probably because somebody only needed one or few and brought the rest in so as not to waste them.

Sometimes I wonder what it would cost for someone to ship such a pack of boxes to me so I can store my keyboards in them.  We have to buy boxes from Australia Post, and they are not big enough.

[fohat.digs]

Sometimes I wonder what it would cost for someone to ship such a pack of boxes to me so I can store my keyboards in them.  We have to buy boxes from Australia Post, and they are not big enough.

It would be a large heavy package, probably at least $100

If you have an equivalent of a large supply house like our "U-Line" they could probably fix you up better, and it would be plain brown boxes instead of red, white, and blue with "US Postal Service" written all over them.

[shicky256]

So the keyboard arrived today, and was packaged fairly well. Besides a broken spring on the "plus" key (which I fixed by harvesting one from my Unicomp M), the thing works beautifully. I'm probably going to give it a full clean this weekend, as the case feels kinda gross in some spots. In a possible help to the "Does the 1397661 have one or two piece keycaps" conundrum, mine has one piece keycaps. They feel pretty good, and overall the keyboard has a better typing feel than the Unicomp (although I don't know if that's because this one's been broken in or not).