[SOLD] NIB Lexmark Model M 1397135 (WP legends), $69 shipped

[ander]

"IBM 1397135 BUCKLING SPRING KEYBOARD 101 key WordPerfect Keys 1995"








New in box, including cable, $60 each + free shipping. As I post, there are 5 available.

No, they're not "IBM" Model M's as the seller claims, but some that Lexmark made for an unnamed OEM. So, no logo. But that's quite a nice deal for a NIB buckling-spring M of any kind, not to mention one with unusual secondary legends.

These are actually quite a rare variant. They weren't mentioned anywhere else on the Web till I added them to WP's Model M list. (Hey, I live in the suburbs; there's not much to do out here). If the few being sold here are the only known examples, they're actually much rarer than, say, these:





The keyboard-collecting world doesn't work that way though, apparently.  :?)

[ekeppel]

If I'm not mistaken, Unicomp has a bunch of these under their warehouse deals section.

EDIT:  I just checked and it looks like they are out of them now.  They used to have them listed there for about the same price as that auction, if I remember correctly.  I know I saw them less than a month or so ago, so it seems that they ran out recently.  I imagine they sold a bunch of them when they had that 40% off warehouse sale over the holidays. :-)

[ander]

If they did, they're gone now.

[ekeppel]

Yup!

That was a great sale that they had recently.  I know I bought a bunch of things from them myself.  40% off and free shipping was too hard to pass up! :-)

[chyros]

This is a very nice deal indeed.

I especially love the double return enter key xD .

[ed_avis]

The WordPerfect labels are pretty obviously printed on top of the vanilla keycaps.  For purists, this could make them not real "custom keycaps" in the same way as the APL or Data Entry layouts were.

[chyros]

The WordPerfect labels are pretty obviously printed on top of the vanilla keycaps.  For purists, this could make them not real "custom keycaps" in the same way as the APL or Data Entry layouts were.

The F keys look pretty custom to me, though.

[E TwentyNine]

The WordPerfect labels are pretty obviously printed on top of the vanilla keycaps.  For purists, this could make them not real "custom keycaps" in the same way as the APL or Data Entry layouts were.

Not sure what you mean.  If they're secondary dyesub, they're exactly as custom as APL or the blue secondaries on a 122.

[ed_avis]

By true custom keycaps I mean this kind of thing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7500206@N08/6888470076/in/album-72157629730273251/

[E TwentyNine]

OK, you're talking completely different primaries.  APL's are the "vanilla" caps with a secondary orange legend.

[ed_avis]

Ah, I didn't know that about the APL caps, thanks.  And I hadn't realized the extra legends could be secondary dyesub rather than pad printed.

I do think these Wordperfect legends look a bit cheesy, but that's just a personal aesthetic judgement.

[1391406]

This was manufactured before they changed the clamshell cover material and doesn't have a permanently attached cable. Overall, a great quality (new) board for the price.

[ander]

The WordPerfect labels are pretty obviously printed on top of the vanilla keycaps.  For purists, this could make them not real "custom keycaps" in the same way as the APL or Data Entry layouts were.

This seems like a fine esoteric point. Does adding sublegends in a 2nd color require feeding the caps through the dye-sub machine a 2nd time? Or can it all be done in one pass? If it's the latter, I doubt Lexmark would've bothered over-printing an existing set—which would, IMHO, make these true custom caps. (Am I making any sense here? Does it matter? Maybe I just need more coffee?)

I do think these Wordperfect legends look a bit cheesy, but that's just a personal aesthetic judgement.

I must agree. For some reason, the secondaries look more like Unicomp's printing quality than Lexmark's. (That said, I have nothing but love for Unicomp—they're obviously doing the best they can, considering how limited their staff and resources must be compared to the Lexmark/IBM days.)

This was manufactured before they changed the clamshell cover material and doesn't have a permanently attached cable. Overall, a great quality (new) board for the price.

Yes, $69 shipped for an NIB 11-year-old Lexmark M is quite a nice deal. Maybe the lack of logo has held people back.

In collectors's terms, though, the lack of a logo is authentic for this variant. And t here are precedents: Lexmark made several logoless M's for OEM customers, and IBM themselves produced the logoless 1397735, some of which I posted about here some time ago: