deskthority

Chyros wrote:

Techno Trousers wrote:

orihalcon wrote:At least auctions like this raise awareness that they can be sold for quite a bit, which will draw more out of the woodwork and bring prices down over time due to increased supply out there for sale.

Solid logic. I'm still hoping that might happen for beamers someday. But realistically, I'll bet too few of them survived to the present day to make that economy of scale work.

Pretty sure it IS happening for beamspring. As I recall there weren't anywhere NEAR as many beamers popping up as are doing nowadays.

Yeah it's getting to the point where I don't report them on ebay anymore unless there's something exceptional about the listing. That said, an unconverted 5251 in really good condition just sold north of $2K. It will be interesting to see if and when equilibrium is reached for beamer pricing.

digital_matthew wrote: Yeah it's getting to the point where I don't report them on ebay anymore unless there's something exceptional about the listing. That said, an unconverted 5251 in really good condition just sold north of $2K. It will be interesting to see if and when equilibrium is reached for beamer pricing.

Really? I was actually under the impression that beamspring prices have plateaued or even slightly declined recently given how many 5251's I have seen on ebay listed for just under $1k taking a while to sell. And then there's that Cyrillic 3278 that's been sitting at just a bit above $2k for quite a while too. Wondering if the 5251 you are talking about was simply really clean on the outside or if the seller posted interior shots showing no rusty stems.

Anyways while I was posting this I saw a restored and converted fullsize 3277 for $1.5k, same person who sold the green APL 3278 a few weeks ago.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-3277-Beam- ... 3278&rt=nc

That's another from my beamspring 'harem'. I figured it was worth more than the 5251s I've sold in recent months at $1399, but hard to say. The conversion to USB on the 3277 is a bit more involved for sure.

digital_matthew wrote: That said, an unconverted 5251 in really good condition just sold north of $2K. It will be interesting to see if and when equilibrium is reached for beamer pricing.

No such thing, the beamer's are just rising and getting higher with every model sold on Flebay .

They have become the runaway success in keyboards but do not work unless the new owner spends serious time in converting them, to make it usable.

Bass wrote:

digital_matthew wrote: Yeah it's getting to the point where I don't report them on ebay anymore unless there's something exceptional about the listing. That said, an unconverted 5251 in really good condition just sold north of $2K. It will be interesting to see if and when equilibrium is reached for beamer pricing.

Really? I was actually under the impression that beamspring prices have plateaued or even slightly declined recently given how many 5251's I have seen on ebay listed for just under $1k taking a while to sell. And then there's that Cyrillic 3278 that's been sitting at just a bit above $2k for quite a while too. Wondering if the 5251 you are talking about was simply really clean on the outside or if the seller posted interior shots showing no rusty stems.

Anyways while I was posting this I saw a restored and converted fullsize 3277 for $1.5k, same person who sold the green APL 3278 a few weeks ago.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-3277-Beam- ... 3278&rt=nc

Yeah it took me by surprise too. Usually a decent 5251 will fetch ~$1K, but it looks like a real bidding war was fought between two bidders, just to have a third snipe it at the last moment.

You may be right, Elrick. The folks that covet these keyboards are just too deep-pocketed; it's difficult to predict an average price.

My theory is that the black JX board had SKCM "Neon" Green. If you look at the pictures the slider is definitely a different shade of green on the black board than it is on the beige.

Gamuholic wrote: My theory is that the black JX board had SKCM "Neon" Green. If you look at the pictures the slider is definitely a different shade of green on the black board than it is on the beige.

Both the beige and the black had led-cutouts on the switches. I might be wrong but I don't believe that neon greens have these.

RealityCavesIn wrote:

Gamuholic wrote: My theory is that the black JX board had SKCM "Neon" Green. If you look at the pictures the slider is definitely a different shade of green on the black board than it is on the beige.

Both the beige and the black had led-cutouts on the switches. I might be wrong but I don't believe that neon greens have these.

You're right! I kept thinking "they're linear, so a cutout makes sense", but they're tactile! Doh! I don't know why that didn't register with me until now

Can I ask questions here? Who has bought this keyboard?
https://m.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Keyboard ... noapp=true

Not me. But the caps, and to a lesser extent the PCB, look familiar. Honeywell / Micro Switch familiar. I could well be rusty, though.

Muirium wrote: Not me. But the caps, and to a lesser extent the PCB, look familiar. Honeywell / Micro Switch familiar. I could well be rusty, though.

Clear indication it's an early Cherry board:

1) UncleFan is showing interest in the board
2) The big fat CHERRY logo on the PCB

probably M8 switches. The caps are these very early Cherry sphericals too.

I’ll blame eBay on iPhone for photo illegibility.
Zoom and enhance!

But yeah, I’m hella rusty! Those caps got me starry eyed. Cherry really made them like that in the day?

Wodan wrote:

Muirium wrote: Not me. But the caps, and to a lesser extent the PCB, look familiar. Honeywell / Micro Switch familiar. I could well be rusty, though.

Clear indication it's an early Cherry board:

1) UncleFan is showing interest in the board
2) The big fat CHERRY logo on the PCB

probably M8 switches. The caps are these very early Cherry sphericals too.

M8 is sort of a low-profile switch, those caps would not fit on them, so it's probably Cherry M7.

Those caps are also made by Cherry but some of them have a weird top, I wonder why those are different.
The board itself is clearly made by Cherry and not a M8 board, only flat spericals (DSA-like) were used on M8. M7 is a good guess for this board

hansichen wrote: Those caps are also made by Cherry but some of them have a weird top, I wonder why those are different.

I would wager that they are key caps that light up and are made of translucent plastic. It would be a dashboard, of sorts.

snuci wrote:

hansichen wrote: Those caps are also made by Cherry but some of them have a weird top, I wonder why those are different.

I would wager that they are key caps that light up and are made of translucent plastic. It would be a dashboard, of sorts.

That's an interesting thought. I hope that the buyer is on dt and makes a post about the board so that all our questions are answered.

Oh god I regret hesitating on this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintage-P ... m570.l1313

It went within minutes, I didn't realize how rare the brown SKCL are.

UncleFan wrote:
Can I ask questions here? Who has bought this keyboard?
https://m.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Keyboard ... noapp=true

My experience is that Apple Design Keyboards with attached cables are rubber dome with useless keys, while Apple Design Keyboards with detachable cables at least Alps-compatible PBT caps.

That is only based on a handful of specimens, however.

Chalba wrote: Oh god I regret hesitating on this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintage-P ... m570.l1313

It went within minutes, I didn't realize how rare the brown SKCL are.

Hope this guy's description on brown Alps makes you feel better:
https://old.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... n/e44t55b/

Chalba said SKCL Brown while the guy on Reddit is talking about SKCM Brown. And in fact that Reddit user really wants SKCL Brown.

fohat wrote: My experience is that Apple Design Keyboards with attached cables are rubber dome with useless keys, while Apple Design Keyboards with detachable cables at least Alps-compatible PBT caps.

That is only based on a handful of specimens, however.

For ISO AppleDesign keyboards, the Czech Republic made ones have a fixed cable and PBT Alps mount caps. Their cables are fixed and they have three screws on the bottom.

(IIRC, the Mexico-made ANSI variant had ABS pad printed Alps mount caps, but don't quote me on that.)

hansichen wrote:

snuci wrote:

hansichen wrote: Those caps are also made by Cherry but some of them have a weird top, I wonder why those are different.

I would wager that they are key caps that light up and are made of translucent plastic. It would be a dashboard, of sorts.

That's an interesting thought. I hope that the buyer is on dt and makes a post about the board so that all our questions are answered.

Yes, I think those are M7 types switches, please pay attention to those illumination keycaps. I guess it might be M4 switch.
Unfortunately, I didn't found any news about it.

Gotta love a keyboard with a bigass octagon key:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-and-Ra ... SwA-JbdMa6

Ok I've been searching all over to find out what that thing is, I give up, if it's a beam spring, for that price, it'll be gone in the next five secs.

https://www.ebay.it/itm/IBM-5251-tastie ... %7Ciid%3A1

Maybe not the best price, but saw this interesting looking Neopost keyboard with some very colorful keycaps. Not exactly sure what switches it has but I recall seeing a very similar looking board with black alpha keycaps instead that had SCKM White Alps.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Neopost-Vintag ... 2848340423

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-Vint ... SwS2FbdSFN

.....here come the JXs I suppose..

Bass wrote: Maybe not the best price, but saw this interesting looking Neopost keyboard with some very colorful keycaps. Not exactly sure what switches it has but I recall seeing a very similar looking board with black alpha keycaps instead that had SCKM White Alps.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Neopost-Vintag ... 2848340423

I'm the person who originally found one a Neopost board. I think it should be obvious that these were used by shipping companies on specialized POS systems with a scale (mine also came with the scale, which I still have). No the caps I sold it with weren't original - they were extras I had as I wanted to keep the shipping keycaps. The shipping keycaps are the TALLEST keys I've ever seen and also pad print, so I'm not sure that I'll ever actually use them. The scale has a serial connector and is good up to 105 pounds if I recall. Haven't tried to get that running but it would be nice since I ship a lot.

//gainsborough wrote: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-Vint ... SwS2FbdSFN

.....here come the JXs I suppose..

Oh that's the same person who buys my vintage stuff all the time.

"Warm" keyboard.

https://amzn.to/2MO29vU

Read (US Vice President?) M Pence’s review. Apparently some people really need it. Pity that board isn’t up to the task.


I’m blessed with the opposite problem: permanently warm hands. Not hot enough to damage any of my keyboards, fortunately. And I don’t run off USB…

Blaise170 wrote:

Bass wrote: Maybe not the best price, but saw this interesting looking Neopost keyboard with some very colorful keycaps. Not exactly sure what switches it has but I recall seeing a very similar looking board with black alpha keycaps instead that had SCKM White Alps.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Neopost-Vintag ... 2848340423

I'm the person who originally found one a Neopost board. I think it should be obvious that these were used by shipping companies on specialized POS systems with a scale (mine also came with the scale, which I still have). No the caps I sold it with weren't original - they were extras I had as I wanted to keep the shipping keycaps. The shipping keycaps are the TALLEST keys I've ever seen and also pad print, so I'm not sure that I'll ever actually use them. The scale has a serial connector and is good up to 105 pounds if I recall. Haven't tried to get that running but it would be nice since I ship a lot.\

Ah, so that was your board. Out of curiosity, do you have any pictures of the keycaps still? When I think of tall keycaps I generally think of spherical since most cylindrical profiles I know of (with the exception of IBM Buckling Spring) tend to be rather short.