deskthority

Posted: **29 Jul 2020, 03:29**

Thanks for the almost instant response!

Posted: **29 Jul 2020, 15:51**

hellothere wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 03:07 I'm a n00b, so I'll ask it because y'all brought it up: is there any mechanical difference between the industrial Model M(s) and a bog-standard one?

I bought a square badge one off Ellipse last year, for reference, even that one was only $500. Yeah, it was a lot but to this day it's my favorite buckling spring to type on, yes even above every model F I own including a 107, although I've heard XTs are the best to type on. Haven't tried one of those yet. So to me, worth every penny. Plus, it looks cool, plus, it's built heavier and sturdier. I've never tried an oval badge one so I can't say. I'm guessing it's just a slightly thicker case but the innards are the same? I think for most people it's just the looks.

For me, I'm excited to have a 'crappier quality' industrial m from unicomp because I can actually stick on my workbench in my garage and not worry if it gets a bit scuffed up.

Posted: **29 Jul 2020, 21:05**

hellothere wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 03:07 I'm a n00b, so I'll ask it because y'all brought it up: is there any mechanical difference between the industrial Model M(s) and a bog-standard one?

Zero difference other than the colour....

Also I noticed people posting that some of their model Ms are better than others. I am assuming their judgement is based on how the keys feel. The fact of the matter is that most people I know try on used model Ms (I don't know many people who bought brand new old stock Model Ms).The wear on the spring (on these used model Ms) will obviously vary between each keyboard and that depends on how it's been used over the years. The same applies to model Fs as well.

Some of the best model Ms I've tried have been new or sparsely used Unicomps.

Posted: **29 Jul 2020, 21:07**

ddrfraser1 wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 15:51
hellothere wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 03:07 I'm a n00b, so I'll ask it because y'all brought it up: is there any mechanical difference between the industrial Model M(s) and a bog-standard one?
....I'm excited to have a 'crappier quality' industrial m from unicomp....

Those are original IBM old stock items ...

Posted: **29 Jul 2020, 21:38**

Good evening,

I am the chap who sold the keyboard 18 months ago to the seller that currently has it on eBay for £800, and I think I should clear things up as I am getting a number of threats and insults thrown at me via my eBay account.

I wake up at 4AM today and the first I hear about this debacle is an eBay message from the original buyer stating I am a scam and a fraud that must now be "exposed to the community", I then secondly received a barrage of vitriolic abuse from someone via a troll account on eBay.

So I am I now being lambasted as a villain sitting on a pile of money with a stack of Unicomp grey housings at my side. The untold drama now unfolding is quite frankly, ridiculous. There is no need for threats or snide remarks when it could be discussed openly and with dignity.

First and foremost, I am not a keyboard enthusiast, I am a hardware enthusiast. I collect vintage hardware and have an extensive collection of mainly IBM machines. I have exclusively used Model M keyboards for 20+ years and over that time amassed quite a collection, mainly items I have rescued from corporate disposals over the years or acquired cheaply on my travels, or even eBay. Since I realised that my three regular Model M keyboards are probably going to outlive me, I decided to sell the rest, including most of my machines. I was blissfully unaware of the apparent value of vintage mechanical keyboards until I sold one on eBay in 2017. It was a blue alps board, which to my surprise fetched a pretty penny (I was expecting £15 or so as it had an XT/AT switch!). I sold it to a very nice gentlemen who I met in person to hand over the keyboard and he introduced me to Deskthority to which I signed up in 2018. I had not realised there was such a big community for vintage mechanical keyboards. I have since refurbished and sold a lot of my collection, and I probably have 10-15 Model M keyboards left that don’t belong to their original machines. I still have lots of other keyboard left, blue alps, cherry mx, even brand new never used cherry mx black keyboards in the boxes. I am slowly going through my storage and finding stuff I didn’t realise I have. It’s all too much for me to manage, I need to sell a lot of it.

This particular keyboard I can’t remember its exact origin as I used to have two industrial grey IBM keyboards. One is the one detailed in this thread, the other was a square-badge early model from an industrial 5170. Both came in separate bulk buys and were all filthy. I can’t remember exactly what I did to restore this keyboard as I did it a number of years ago now, but I think it was in such perfect condition, with not a single rivet missing on the back. Yes the badge was missing, I actually dressed it with a printed out badge stuck on some time, but after joining Deskthority in 2018 I bought four reproduction badges from a member on here.

So why do I think it the keyboard in question is a genuine industrial? Firstly, the context of where it came from, as many have suggested I did not buy a Unicomp housing and throw a spare keyswitch assembly in it. Secondly, it has the full liquid drainage system inside, so the holes on the back that everyone is talking about being a trait of a “fake” actually do line up with the plastic frame inside the keyboard, so if you pour water in it, it is immediately channelled out of the holes. While some of my normal M's have the holes, they don't have the frame. Finally, the Unicomp industrial cases are all drilled for later Lexmark style LED boards which are in a different position to the earlier boards. I assume this was so Unicomp assemblies and PCBs could be retro-fitted to these earlier cases. You can clearly see them in the picture taken from Unicomp’s website linked below this paragraph. If the current owner of the keyboard opens the case, you will see there are no extra drilled holes behind the LED plate, only the ones for the early style LEDs. As for the “wrong” label, I really have no idea. That was the label it came with, and to be honest I never gave it a second thought as it matched an ANSI-layout Model M. Here in the UK I don’t have many Lexmark keyboards, they are all Greenock-made early ones that the large case sticker which has fallen off on about 50% of them.

I did sell this keyboard via eBay in early 2019. Personally I loved this keyboard but was ultimately useless to me as I can’t type properly with an ANSI layout, working in IT the location of the \ is very wrong and I can’t hit the ANSI return key properly. IIRC, I sold it for just over £200 (plus the £50ish it cost to post and insure to the buyer in Greece). Quite why it now re-appears on eBay for over £800 is quite astonishing. Prices in the UK are significantly higher than the USA, the keyboards are much rarer, and often reach £150 in an unrestored condition. At the time, I was selling them from £175 for a refreshed decent board to £225 if it had a complete screw mod carried out.

When I sold it, I was actually contacted by the buyer from another Model M listing I had running, we had a discussion about blue vs white badges as whatever I had for sale he wanted the other colour. One was a Swiss layout (hence the confusion that I was Swiss) and the other was Danish. I mentioned I had other keyboards I would be happy to list, including this Industrial grey one, and he was interested so I listed it. Unfortunately he couldn’t buy it as eBay came up as “restricted postage to Greece”. So we did a deal outside of eBay for it. I reduced the price by the value of the listing fees I would have paid (which went a long way to making the postage affordable!). It was paid for via PayPal as “goods and services” to ensure we were both covered in the event of any drama. Photos of the keyboard inside and out were provided in the original auction and I was open and transparent about what I had for sale. We were ultimately both happy with the sale.

If anyone wants to talk about it then I am here, open for discussion. Please post here or if you like PM me. I still have a number of photos from when I had it for sale, so am happy to post those up too.

If an admin is reading this, can my surname and eBay link please be redacted from this thread?

Howard

Posted: **29 Jul 2020, 22:58**

Howard81 wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 21:38 […] If an admin is reading this, can my surname […] please be redacted from this thread?

For our admins: the surname appears in this post:
viewtopic.php?p=468968#p468968
and is also included as a quote in these posts:
viewtopic.php?p=468969#p468969
viewtopic.php?p=468970#p468970

Posted: **29 Jul 2020, 23:11**

Just some information to all users on the forum, posting a private conversation is completely illegal under EU laws. A private conversation as the name suggests is private between the parties concerned and can't be posted publicly unless there is an explicit approval of the parties involved....

Posted: **29 Jul 2020, 23:40**

I have never had an original old industrial M, but I did buy 2 of the replacement cases from Unicomp in recent years.

The question that I have asked multiple times but never gotten a firm answer to is this: the modern replacements seem to be brighter and greener than the old ones, but that is based only on what I see on my screen.

Can someone who has both variants tell me whether there is a difference?

Thanks!

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 00:51**

Howard81 wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 21:38 Good evening,

I am the chap who sold the keyboard 18 months ago to the seller that currently has it on eBay for £800, and I think I should clear things up as I am getting a number of threats and insults thrown at me via my eBay account.

I wake up at 4AM today and the first I hear about this debacle is an eBay message from the original buyer stating I am a scam and a fraud that must now be "exposed to the community", I then secondly received a barrage of vitriolic abuse from someone via a troll account on eBay.

So I am I now being lambasted as a villain sitting on a pile of money with a stack of Unicomp grey housings at my side. The untold drama now unfolding is quite frankly, ridiculous. There is no need for threats or snide remarks when it could be discussed openly and with dignity.

First and foremost, I am not a keyboard enthusiast, I am a hardware enthusiast. I collect vintage hardware and have an extensive collection of mainly IBM machines. I have exclusively used Model M keyboards for 20+ years and over that time amassed quite a collection, mainly items I have rescued from corporate disposals over the years or acquired cheaply on my travels, or even eBay. Since I realised that my three regular Model M keyboards are probably going to outlive me, I decided to sell the rest, including most of my machines. I was blissfully unaware of the apparent value of vintage mechanical keyboards until I sold one on eBay in 2017. It was a blue alps board, which to my surprise fetched a pretty penny (I was expecting £15 or so as it had an XT/AT switch!). I sold it to a very nice gentlemen who I met in person to hand over the keyboard and he introduced me to Deskthority to which I signed up in 2018. I had not realised there was such a big community for vintage mechanical keyboards. I have since refurbished and sold a lot of my collection, and I probably have 10-15 Model M keyboards left that don’t belong to their original machines. I still have lots of other keyboard left, blue alps, cherry mx, even brand new never used cherry mx black keyboards in the boxes. I am slowly going through my storage and finding stuff I didn’t realise I have. It’s all too much for me to manage, I need to sell a lot of it.

This particular keyboard I can’t remember its exact origin as I used to have two industrial grey IBM keyboards. One is the one detailed in this thread, the other was a square-badge early model from an industrial 5170. Both came in separate bulk buys and were all filthy. I can’t remember exactly what I did to restore this keyboard as I did it a number of years ago now, but I think it was in such perfect condition, with not a single rivet missing on the back. Yes the badge was missing, I actually dressed it with a printed out badge stuck on some time, but after joining Deskthority in 2018 I bought four reproduction badges from a member on here.

So why do I think it the keyboard in question is a genuine industrial? Firstly, the context of where it came from, as many have suggested I did not buy a Unicomp housing and throw a spare keyswitch assembly in it. Secondly, it has the full liquid drainage system inside, so the holes on the back that everyone is talking about being a trait of a “fake” actually do line up with the plastic frame inside the keyboard, so if you pour water in it, it is immediately channelled out of the holes. While some of my normal M's have the holes, they don't have the frame. Finally, the Unicomp industrial cases are all drilled for later Lexmark style LED boards which are in a different position to the earlier boards. I assume this was so Unicomp assemblies and PCBs could be retro-fitted to these earlier cases. You can clearly see them in the picture taken from Unicomp’s website linked below this paragraph. If the current owner of the keyboard opens the case, you will see there are no extra drilled holes behind the LED plate, only the ones for the early style LEDs. As for the “wrong” label, I really have no idea. That was the label it came with, and to be honest I never gave it a second thought as it matched an ANSI-layout Model M. Here in the UK I don’t have many Lexmark keyboards, they are all Greenock-made early ones that the large case sticker which has fallen off on about 50% of them.

I did sell this keyboard via eBay in early 2019. Personally I loved this keyboard but was ultimately useless to me as I can’t type properly with an ANSI layout, working in IT the location of the \ is very wrong and I can’t hit the ANSI return key properly. IIRC, I sold it for just over £200 (plus the £50ish it cost to post and insure to the buyer in Greece). Quite why it now re-appears on eBay for over £800 is quite astonishing. Prices in the UK are significantly higher than the USA, the keyboards are much rarer, and often reach £150 in an unrestored condition. At the time, I was selling them from £175 for a refreshed decent board to £225 if it had a complete screw mod carried out.

When I sold it, I was actually contacted by the buyer from another Model M listing I had running, we had a discussion about blue vs white badges as whatever I had for sale he wanted the other colour. One was a Swiss layout (hence the confusion that I was Swiss) and the other was Danish. I mentioned I had other keyboards I would be happy to list, including this Industrial grey one, and he was interested so I listed it. Unfortunately he couldn’t buy it as eBay came up as “restricted postage to Greece”. So we did a deal outside of eBay for it. I reduced the price by the value of the listing fees I would have paid (which went a long way to making the postage affordable!). It was paid for via PayPal as “goods and services” to ensure we were both covered in the event of any drama. Photos of the keyboard inside and out were provided in the original auction and I was open and transparent about what I had for sale. We were ultimately both happy with the sale.

If anyone wants to talk about it then I am here, open for discussion. Please post here or if you like PM me. I still have a number of photos from when I had it for sale, so am happy to post those up too.

If an admin is reading this, can my surname and eBay link please be redacted from this thread?

Howard

First of all I'm sorry that guy put your last name out there, to be honest I only just noticed it myself today despite having replied to that message. Hopefully an admin can remove it for you.

As for the Model M, most Lexmark Model M's did have the drainage system anyway, so if a beige Lexmark Model M was swapped into the industrial enclosure it would still work perfectly as the drainage holes & channels all line up.

The reason most of us think it's a fake is because the identifying Model number on the back corresponds with 15-20 other beige Model M's, and not a single other industrial grey.
If we had pictures of the inside, it'd help us see what the keyboard actually is. If indeed the internals have a model number that corresponds with known industrial Model M's, and it's just the outer grey case that has the Lexmark sticker on it then we could probably write it off as a Lexmark or Unicomp repair service applying spare parts to the keyboard.

If the internals too have the same model number as the one listed outside the keyboard, that to me tells me that it was almost definitely a beige Model M swapped into a Unicomp case.
I've ordered about 12 grey cases from Unicomp in the past, and there were a couple of them that only had the bottom slots cut out (no top drilled holes for newer Unicomp LEDs) so it is more than possible that your case was swapped out in the past, whether it be by whoever you got the keyboard from, yourself, or legitimately by Unicomp / Lexmark in the past?

But really, until you can prove to your buyer that this was indeed a legitimate Industrial Model M, and not someones hobby project then it's probably only fair that you get the keyboard back, and your buyer is refunded.
This is the problem with Unicomp making Industrial cases available - unlike the black IBM badges they are literally legitimate IBM / lexmark components so it starts making it difficult to tell them apart from factory industrial M's.

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 01:01**

fohat wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 23:40 I have never had an original old industrial M, but I did buy 2 of the replacement cases from Unicomp in recent years.

The question that I have asked multiple times but never gotten a firm answer to is this: the modern replacements seem to be brighter and greener than the old ones, but that is based only on what I see on my screen.

Can someone who has both variants tell me whether there is a difference?

Thanks!

To answer your question, there's literally no difference. The keyboards appear both grey and green in different lights, and are captured differently on different cameras.

edit: managed to find this old ass picture (cropped to show the two boards) but one of these was fake, and one was a legit industrial. I have no idea which is which now.

: Screenshot 2020-07-30 at 00.04.44.png (2.64 MiB) Viewed 7252 times

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 02:23**

kmnov2017 wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 21:07
ddrfraser1 wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 15:51
hellothere wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 03:07 I'm a n00b, so I'll ask it because y'all brought it up: is there any mechanical difference between the industrial Model M(s) and a bog-standard one?
....I'm excited to have a 'crappier quality' industrial m from unicomp....
Those are original IBM old stock items ...

Hence the quotation marks

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 03:42**

So, and this is an honest question here, if there's no difference between an industrial keyboard made my IBM and one made by swapping cases, why do they go for so much more if you can prove if they're real? Would that guys keyboard be worth $800 if they're identical?

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 04:00**

Weezer wrote: 30 Jul 2020, 03:42 So, and this is an honest question here, if there's no difference between an industrial keyboard made my IBM and one made by swapping cases, why do they go for so much more if you can prove if they're real? Would that guys keyboard be worth $800 if they're identical?

It literally comes down to the model number on the backplate / back of case now, those that are proven genuine industrials (1394946) are always going to be worth that bit more because of their exclusivity.
Also that difference of amount has come down significantly, probably due to how easy it is to create your own now.

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 08:21**

1394946 wrote: 28 Jul 2020, 23:46 he replied,

The keyboard was bought initially.... [snip]

It has been brought to my attention that publishing Private Messages is illegal under EU laws. I don't have the legal expertise but while I don't believe the case applies here, I still find --and I've always found-- publishing private messages on a public forum very lame, disrespectful and quite disgusting (no matter your reasons).

If anyone can point me to this specific "EU law" I'll comply and delete the posts, BUT I highly encourage 1394946 to edit his posts. That nobody actually pointed that out to 1394946 is also alarming, but you know, in the Facebook/Google/TikTok era, who cares about privacy, right?

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 15:17**

matt3o wrote: 30 Jul 2020, 08:21
1394946 wrote: 28 Jul 2020, 23:46 he replied,

The keyboard was bought initially.... [snip]

It has been brought to my attention that publishing Private Messages is illegal under EU laws. I don't have the legal expertise but while I don't believe the case applies here, I still find --and I've always found-- publishing private messages on a public forum very lame, disrespectful and quite disgusting (no matter your reasons).

If anyone can point me to this specific "EU law" I'll comply and delete the posts, BUT I highly encourage 1394946 to edit his posts. That nobody actually pointed that out to 1394946 is also alarming, but you know, in the Facebook/Google/TikTok era, who cares about privacy, right?

Aight, thanks for the info, I'll edit the posts now

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 15:20**

Howard81 wrote: 29 Jul 2020, 21:38 Good evening,

I am the chap who sold the keyboard 18 months ago to the seller that currently has it on eBay for £800, and I think I should clear things up as I am getting a number of threats and insults thrown at me via my eBay account.

I wake up at 4AM today and the first I hear about this debacle is an eBay message from the original buyer stating I am a scam and a fraud that must now be "exposed to the community", I then secondly received a barrage of vitriolic abuse from someone via a troll account on eBay.

So I am I now being lambasted as a villain sitting on a pile of money with a stack of Unicomp grey housings at my side. The untold drama now unfolding is quite frankly, ridiculous. There is no need for threats or snide remarks when it could be discussed openly and with dignity.

First and foremost, I am not a keyboard enthusiast, I am a hardware enthusiast. I collect vintage hardware and have an extensive collection of mainly IBM machines. I have exclusively used Model M keyboards for 20+ years and over that time amassed quite a collection, mainly items I have rescued from corporate disposals over the years or acquired cheaply on my travels, or even eBay. Since I realised that my three regular Model M keyboards are probably going to outlive me, I decided to sell the rest, including most of my machines. I was blissfully unaware of the apparent value of vintage mechanical keyboards until I sold one on eBay in 2017. It was a blue alps board, which to my surprise fetched a pretty penny (I was expecting £15 or so as it had an XT/AT switch!). I sold it to a very nice gentlemen who I met in person to hand over the keyboard and he introduced me to Deskthority to which I signed up in 2018. I had not realised there was such a big community for vintage mechanical keyboards. I have since refurbished and sold a lot of my collection, and I probably have 10-15 Model M keyboards left that don’t belong to their original machines. I still have lots of other keyboard left, blue alps, cherry mx, even brand new never used cherry mx black keyboards in the boxes. I am slowly going through my storage and finding stuff I didn’t realise I have. It’s all too much for me to manage, I need to sell a lot of it.

This particular keyboard I can’t remember its exact origin as I used to have two industrial grey IBM keyboards. One is the one detailed in this thread, the other was a square-badge early model from an industrial 5170. Both came in separate bulk buys and were all filthy. I can’t remember exactly what I did to restore this keyboard as I did it a number of years ago now, but I think it was in such perfect condition, with not a single rivet missing on the back. Yes the badge was missing, I actually dressed it with a printed out badge stuck on some time, but after joining Deskthority in 2018 I bought four reproduction badges from a member on here.

So why do I think it the keyboard in question is a genuine industrial? Firstly, the context of where it came from, as many have suggested I did not buy a Unicomp housing and throw a spare keyswitch assembly in it. Secondly, it has the full liquid drainage system inside, so the holes on the back that everyone is talking about being a trait of a “fake” actually do line up with the plastic frame inside the keyboard, so if you pour water in it, it is immediately channelled out of the holes. While some of my normal M's have the holes, they don't have the frame. Finally, the Unicomp industrial cases are all drilled for later Lexmark style LED boards which are in a different position to the earlier boards. I assume this was so Unicomp assemblies and PCBs could be retro-fitted to these earlier cases. You can clearly see them in the picture taken from Unicomp’s website linked below this paragraph. If the current owner of the keyboard opens the case, you will see there are no extra drilled holes behind the LED plate, only the ones for the early style LEDs. As for the “wrong” label, I really have no idea. That was the label it came with, and to be honest I never gave it a second thought as it matched an ANSI-layout Model M. Here in the UK I don’t have many Lexmark keyboards, they are all Greenock-made early ones that the large case sticker which has fallen off on about 50% of them.

I did sell this keyboard via eBay in early 2019. Personally I loved this keyboard but was ultimately useless to me as I can’t type properly with an ANSI layout, working in IT the location of the \ is very wrong and I can’t hit the ANSI return key properly. IIRC, I sold it for just over £200 (plus the £50ish it cost to post and insure to the buyer in Greece). Quite why it now re-appears on eBay for over £800 is quite astonishing. Prices in the UK are significantly higher than the USA, the keyboards are much rarer, and often reach £150 in an unrestored condition. At the time, I was selling them from £175 for a refreshed decent board to £225 if it had a complete screw mod carried out.

When I sold it, I was actually contacted by the buyer from another Model M listing I had running, we had a discussion about blue vs white badges as whatever I had for sale he wanted the other colour. One was a Swiss layout (hence the confusion that I was Swiss) and the other was Danish. I mentioned I had other keyboards I would be happy to list, including this Industrial grey one, and he was interested so I listed it. Unfortunately he couldn’t buy it as eBay came up as “restricted postage to Greece”. So we did a deal outside of eBay for it. I reduced the price by the value of the listing fees I would have paid (which went a long way to making the postage affordable!). It was paid for via PayPal as “goods and services” to ensure we were both covered in the event of any drama. Photos of the keyboard inside and out were provided in the original auction and I was open and transparent about what I had for sale. We were ultimately both happy with the sale.

If anyone wants to talk about it then I am here, open for discussion. Please post here or if you like PM me. I still have a number of photos from when I had it for sale, so am happy to post those up too.

If an admin is reading this, can my surname and eBay link please be redacted from this thread?

Howard

My apologies for giving the link to your Ebay account, I wasn't trying to expose you I was just forwarding this guys replies, andxwhen he said he would take his listing down, I just copied and pasted as fast as I could, I've edited the post now

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 15:32**

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 15:33**

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 18:24**

matt3o wrote: 30 Jul 2020, 08:21
1394946 wrote: 28 Jul 2020, 23:46 he replied,

The keyboard was bought initially.... [snip]

It has been brought to my attention that publishing Private Messages is illegal under EU laws. I don't have the legal expertise but while I don't believe the case applies here, I still find --and I've always found-- publishing private messages on a public forum very lame, disrespectful and quite disgusting (no matter your reasons).

If anyone can point me to this specific "EU law" I'll comply and delete the posts, BUT I highly encourage 1394946 to edit his posts. That nobody actually pointed that out to 1394946 is also alarming, but you know, in the Facebook/Google/TikTok era, who cares about privacy, right?

Posting this quote from a solicitor.

"the fact that these were private messages between you and them does not create an automatic right of privacy. In fact there is no such automatic protection under law – for example people post private messages from Facebook, etc on public platforms all the time. There will only be an expectation of privacy if it was explicitly stated that this was the case – if the person had clearly asked you to keep these messages confidential and you had agreed to do so or you had promised them that you will be treating this with a degree of confidence. Without it, it would be very unlikely they would have any legal comeback against you."

So no, it's not illegal. Just distasteful.
If it was an EU law, it also would not apply to everybody as EU does not have jurisdiction everywhere.

Posted: **30 Jul 2020, 19:12**

wobbled wrote: 30 Jul 2020, 04:00
Weezer wrote: 30 Jul 2020, 03:42 So, and this is an honest question here, if there's no difference between an industrial keyboard made my IBM and one made by swapping cases, why do they go for so much more if you can prove if they're real? Would that guys keyboard be worth $800 if they're identical?
It literally comes down to the model number on the backplate / back of case now, those that are proven genuine industrials (1394946) are always going to be worth that bit more because of their exclusivity.
Also that difference of amount has come down significantly, probably due to how easy it is to create your own now.

Of course, exclusivity doesn't necessarily mean "best." I know there's a thread here that talks about how the Model M weights changed over the years and there's at least two threads that talks about the differences in the key construction/molds. The controller boards also changed.

It kinda sounds like, say, Porsche had a specific color for their 2000 anniversary model then decided in 2020 to sell that color to anyone that had the $ / £ / €.

I don't blame Unicomp at all for selling the Industrial cases. They probably started selling them well before mechanical keyboards were a "thing." I do, however, blame all you folks for making vintage keyboards a "thing." The cheapest Model M I've bought in the past year or so was $50.

Posted: **31 Jul 2020, 02:09**

Posted for 300 now. Still seems steep.

Posted: **31 Jul 2020, 04:11**

Meh, what're you gonna do? That guy's been trying to sell that board for a long time. One of the guys on Reddit is using that to try and sell his own frankenboards for outrageous prices.

As for paying $50 for a Model M, the only Models M I've bought that have cost more than $50 have been New In Box in the past year. And I've bought like 20. I have a problem.

Posted: **31 Jul 2020, 15:44**

funkmon wrote: 31 Jul 2020, 04:11
I've bought like 20. I have a problem.

I have 4, and I don't even use them (1 each stock and bolt-modded standard and SSK) (wait, make that 5, I have an early-2000s Unicomp with Windows keys) even though there may come a time that I do use them or loan them to family or friends.

An ANSI-modded 122-key F is so close to conventional M layout that the biggest realistic difference is that the M lacks the 2nd set of function keys on the left, which are very easy to get used to and to prefer.

Over the years, I have always been disappointed when I have tried to buy and re-sell them for a profit. Theoretically, buying one for $30-$40 and selling it for $50-$60 should yield some return, but with fees, taxes, postage, etc, etc, there is realistically nothing to be made.

And forget about getting a premium price after bolt-modding one. Years ago there were a couple of guys like Merforever and ezrahilyer who had brief runs selling refurbished ones at $100+ but they didn't last.

Posted: **01 Aug 2020, 03:04**

Got all my ingredients.

: 359BB59E-5564-4515-8A3B-99071274C345.jpeg (3 MiB) Viewed 6734 times

Who’s ready to be extorted?

Posted: **01 Aug 2020, 04:06**

So slightly off topic, were the computers that came with the industrial Ms grey as well? Anyone got pics?

Edit: May have just answered my own question. Looks like these were rack mount PCs. What a beast. What a beautiful, beautiful beast.

: A45E3C6E-3652-4FD5-8CFB-F2E000D25D64.jpeg (141.6 KiB) Viewed 6720 times

Welp, now I obviously have to build a sleeper PC out of this. It will be glorious.

Posted: **04 Aug 2020, 08:36**

Holy smokes now that's a fucking boss looking computer. I do hate the power cord on the side of the rack though.

Posted: **04 Aug 2020, 12:51**

: industrial2.jpg (566.21 KiB) Viewed 6589 times

: industrial.jpg (607.69 KiB) Viewed 6589 times

Posted: **04 Aug 2020, 15:06**

Awesome

Posted: **05 Aug 2020, 03:17**

webwit wrote: 04 Aug 2020, 12:51 industrial2.jpg

industrial.jpg

Huuuuuhh... that non-Industrial Model M has Arabic legends.

And the industrial keyboard is also ISO instead of ANSI, so.........

deskthority

Mind The Gap - Unicomp NOS Industrial case

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Re: Mind The Gap - Unicomp NOS Industrial case

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