OMG, a truck load of IBM Model Ms...

[elecplus]

So where are these things?

[clickykeyboards]

It is a beautiful to see a large lot of 200 keyboards.. at a rate of 1 hour to 1.5 hours of cleaning and testing per keyboard, it would take us 200-250 hours of organizing, testing, finding matching parts before we start cleaning each keyboard. We typically clean 7 keyboards per week, so 28.5 weeks or work for half a year.

[seebart]

This month I accomplished a little humble rescue mission myself

You got a beige barrel, quite rare. Nice work!

[Phenix]

I could also need some onepiece caps in ISO-DE..

[micrex22]

You got a beige barrel, quite rare. Nice work!

I ended up with two beige barrel boards over the years. The latest one a terminal one I converted, sadly for me I prefer the black barrels--which is why I was considering painting the barrel assembly at the bottom black

Spoiler:

[Harshmallow]

So is there any info/news yet on where these are and when or how that person might be selling them?

[Mr.Nobody]

So where are these things?

Currently they are within the borders of People Republic of freakin' China, I wish they could be sent back to United States of freakin' America and let Clickykeyboard deal with them, here they aren't gonna end up properly. According to Wikipedia IBM more than 10 million 1391401 were produced...How many of them are still in existence? I bet most Ms have ended up in shredders.

[Mr.Nobody]

So is there any info/news yet on where these are and when or how that person might be selling them?

The seller has started to sell them; $20 one piece, but she doesn't have much interest; she just wants to get rid of them and get the money as fast as possible...in her eyes, just a pile of trash if they don't sell...

[Mr.Nobody]

This month I accomplished a little humble rescue mission myself

You got a beige barrel, quite rare. Nice work!

So far I have only got 4 Ms, three of them are beige ones, which gave me an impression that black-barrel ones are rarer, here, almost 3-5 out of 10 from online shops are beige ones, I personally prefer black ones for no reason. I have sold two of them (including the one in the picture, sold yesterday), kept two nearly in mint conditon, one is beige blue lable, the other is black grey label. It seems I should feel less disappointed next time when I receive a beige barrel M.

[Mr.Nobody]

It is a beautiful to see a large lot of 200 keyboards.. at a rate of 1 hour to 1.5 hours of cleaning and testing per keyboard, it would take us 200-250 hours of organizing, testing, finding matching parts before we start cleaning each keyboard. We typically clean 7 keyboards per week, so 28.5 weeks or work for half a year.

You are the savior of Ms, every M in China, if they gonna go through my hands, I will register the infor into your databse for sure. Up to now, four entries already...

[Ir0n]

That is a lot of Model Ms ..hopefully they all sell and go to good homes.

[seebart]

This month I accomplished a little humble rescue mission myself

You got a beige barrel, quite rare. Nice work!

So far I have only got 4 Ms, three of them are beige ones, which gave me an impression that black-barrel ones are rarer, here, almost 3-5 out of 10 from online shops are beige ones

That's definitely not the case, of course the color of the barrel makes no difference really. My first SSK had one:

photos-f62/ibm-ssk-club-t2885-270.html?hilit=ssk%20club

[Harshmallow]

So is there any info/news yet on where these are and when or how that person might be selling them?

The seller has started to sell them; $20 one piece, but she doesn't have much interest; she just wants to get rid of them and get the money as fast as possible...in her eyes, just a pile of trash if they don't sell...

So this means we're all gonna get sweet deals on some Model M's?

[Mr.Nobody]

So is there any info/news yet on where these are and when or how that person might be selling them?

The seller has started to sell them; $20 one piece, but she doesn't have much interest; she just wants to get rid of them and get the money as fast as possible...in her eyes, just a pile of trash if they don't sell...

So this means we're all gonna get sweet deals on some Model M's?

To me, it's not a sweat deal, coz they don't come with SDL cables which is hard or even impossible to find a spare one without being overcharged.

[micrex22]

To me, it's not a sweat deal, coz they don't come with SDL cables which is hard or even impossible to find a spare one without being overcharged.

Unicomp sells them by the truckload:
http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/1395110

$15 isn't too bad, especially considering the cables are well-made and durable.

I'd be after at least the keycaps since I need some old stock IBM ones for refurbishing purposes.

[Mr.Nobody]

To me, it's not a sweat deal, coz they don't come with SDL cables which is hard or even impossible to find a spare one without being overcharged.

Unicomp sells them by the truckload:
http://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/1395110

$15 isn't too bad, especially considering the cables are well-made and durable.

I'd be after at least the keycaps since I need some old stock IBM ones for refurbishing purposes.

Thank you, but the shipping to China is not cheap, unless I buy in bulk.

[micrex22]

Thank you, but the shipping to China is not cheap, unless I buy in bulk.

When I shipped a package to Japan it was pretty expensive, but I thought shipping to China was cheap? It's at least cheap to buy stuff from there... so you'd think shipping wouldn't be that bad?

Have you considered the following:
A) using a proxy for cheaper shipping
B) creating your own SDL cables
C) hard soldering raw PS/2 cables to the Model M controller

[Mr.Nobody]

Thank you, but the shipping to China is not cheap, unless I buy in bulk.

When I shipped a package to Japan it was pretty expensive, but I thought shipping to China was cheap? It's at least cheap to buy stuff from there... so you'd think shipping wouldn't be that bad?

Have you considered the following:
A) using a proxy for cheaper shipping
B) creating your own SDL cables
C) hard soldering raw PS/2 cables to the Model M controller

Thank you for the advice, if I buy in bulk, definitely I WILL figure out an approach to shipp ecomonically. But currently,the cost of one piece of SDL cable from unicomp almost equals the cost of buying an 80s' 1390141 M in rather good condition here.

I am kind of a purist... I want everything remain "original" as possible. That's why I highly appreciate what Clickykeyboard does.

[lancre]

So what happened with all the keyboards?

I'm finding this thread really confusing.

[elecplus]

So is there any info/news yet on where these are and when or how that person might be selling them?

The seller has started to sell them; $20 one piece, but she doesn't have much interest; she just wants to get rid of them and get the money as fast as possible...in her eyes, just a pile of trash if they don't sell...

So how would one go about buying these, either in bulk or one at a time?
Is there a website, or an email, or something?
And does the seller read/write English?

[Mr.Nobody]

The seller doesn't speak English, in fact, she is little bit under-educated, sometimes I feel she can barely understand Chinese or she might be rather young, we have a mobile-phone APP for second-hand stuff which becomes rather hot recently, because this APP is a derivative of Taobao, she listed these Ms...in fact, I bought my very first mechanical keyboard from this seller, about half a year ago when I started my hobby of collecting mechnical keyboard.

Is it worth the trouble buying one from her if you are abroad, the shipping will cost 50-60 US$ at least, and these Ms are dirty without cable. However, if you want to buy in bulk, to restore and resell those Ms, I can help coordinate...

[Mr.Nobody]

In fact, I am little surprised many folks in U.S. want to buy these Ms,why? Aren't Ms easier and cheaper to find in U.S., according to youtube, I know many people got their Ms from swift stores or disposal centers for 1-3 dolloars or even for free which really appalls me and there are plenty listings on Ebay for regular Ms in fairly good condition with cables, for instance here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Model-M-Key ... SwUsJYVvp2

50bucks+30bucks shipping, isn't it a good deal if you want an M, then why bother buy from China ? What's fair price in total in your opinion to get an M including shipping and everything?

[fohat]

I know many people got their Ms from swift stores or disposal centers for 1-3 dolloars or even for free

What's fair price in total in your opinion to get an M including shipping and everything?

People love to crow about these finds, but they are pretty rare.

New Unicomps are around $100 with shipping, a good complete vintage M for under $60 is a bargain.

[elecplus]

Standard 101-key Model Ms are not that common at the recyclers any more. Most of the recyclers ship 45 foot container loads of keyboards, mice, and speakers to China, India, Ghana, or Pakistan. There the labor is very cheap, and they sort into USB and "other". The "other" pile is usually ground for scrap. The USB keyboards they try to make complete if missing caps, replace cables, etc. Some places even have the equipment to make the PS/2 keyboards into USB keyboards. These are then tested, cleaned, and re-sold. The scrap pile usually is not available to be picked through, so almost all of the vintage keyboards that are sent overseas never make it back to the US. Getting the keyboard back here is not very difficult, and not expensive when done in bulk. The problem is that they will save "all white keyboards" or something equally vague, so you get a bunch of crap. They will almost never sort for you by brand, model, or part numbers. Trying to explain that Cherry G80 or G81 and IBM Model M buckling spring are both mechanical, and both desirable, is very confusing to them.

[Chyros]

The problem is that they will save "all white keyboards" or something equally vague, so you get a bunch of crap. They will almost never sort for you by brand, model, or part numbers. Trying to explain that Cherry G80 or G81 and IBM Model M buckling spring are both mechanical, and both desirable, is very confusing to them.

This is exactly what I've found as well, but I don't mind too much. At one of the centres I've been going to the longest, the guy's got a reasonable grasp for it, and he filters out ~90% of the crap, but still the majority of what he selects is rubber dome. At other centres they just save ALL the white stuff and I go through the lot of it myself - and I scour the grounds for any others they might have missed. It's good fun though, usually I leave empty-handed, but sometimes I get whole piles at the same time.

[Mr.Nobody]

If under $60 is a real bargain then why this M is still there? It's BIN and in good condition, it'd have been sold not long after it's listed.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Model-M-Key...SwUsJYVvp2

[Elrick]

At other centres they just save ALL the white stuff and I go through the lot of it myself - and I scour the grounds for any others they might have missed. It's good fun though, usually I leave empty-handed, but sometimes I get whole piles at the same time.

Just like me with Wrecking Yards, that is the first place I visit when I land in another country on the globe. I could stay the whole day at the wrecker's looking through tonnes of metal and engines looking for that special motor block or body.

For me it's like the ultimate hunt for a rare item not normally seen on the streets and I always make sure to ship a couple pallet loads back to my address.

Although I am in no way that addicted to Keyboards such as you but I appreciate the determination and of course savoring the find, which always leaves an inner glow of achievement, far better than sex.

[Mr.Nobody]

In fact the recyclers in Guangdong province are rather professional ones, they have 3 decades of experience of recycling imported E-waste, they don't miss anything valuable, believe me, they are able to extract everything they got right down to the bone. The problem is the seller who has the truckload of Ms are not from Guangdong, she is a northerner in the suburb of Beijing as far as I know, northerners don't know much about how to recycle...

[terrycherry]

If someone want buy some from the photo, pm me for the decent price.

[Mr.Nobody]

If someone want buy some from the photo, pm me for the decent price.

with cable or without?