deskthority

Oh, you'll get a pretty penny for the SAUs, that's for sure. Photekq is probably best at answering their exact value, but consider that he sold a bunch of BNIB ones over at GH for $450 recently. With use, yours are going to fetch considerably less, but still a considerable amount of money.

ISO guys might love that Acer as well. Although, it looks like the board has been through a lot, and that's usually a bad sign for Alps switches.

Those two SAUs are some of the most used ones I've ever seen. That second one looks almost entirely shined over, which is an incredibly rare sight.

I would struggle to place a value on them, since I've never seen any sold in that condition outside of taobao.

The KB101A in that layout is an odd duck. It's usually desirable for its ANSI layout. I would say this would appeal mainly to those who like ISO.

An ANSI model in that shape would probably get $150-200. Much more if it was cleaned up and made more presentable. Nothing you can do about the yellowed indicator strip though. That won't brighten with retrobright.

A mint ANSI KB101A can go for $400 or more.

Thank you all for the information you provided.

The Acer keyboard is so sweet - the switch itself is extraordinary rewarding to use. I never made my own custom keyboard but this switch makes me wanna do it. I am aware that it's not that easy but, if I were to make a custom keyboard, I would use a 60% layout plate, with an aluminum case and some kind of PBTs with alps mounts.

mbc wrote: Thank you all for the information you provided.

The Acer keyboard is so sweet - the switch itself is extraordinary rewarding to use. I never made my own custom keyboard but this switch makes me wanna do it. I am aware that it's not that easy but, if I were to make a custom keyboard, I would use a 60% layout plate, with an aluminum case and some kind of PBTs with alps mounts.

That's the way to go, man. Yeah, PBT caps and a nice case will make you quite happy. Blue Alps are magical.

Khers wrote: Oh, you'll get a pretty penny for the SAUs, that's for sure. Photekq is probably best at answering their exact value, but consider that he sold a bunch of BNIB ones over at GH for $450 recently. With use, yours are going to fetch considerably less, but still a considerable amount of money.

photekq wrote: Those two SAUs are some of the most used ones I've ever seen. That second one looks almost entirely shined over, which is an incredibly rare sight.

I would struggle to place a value on them, since I've never seen any sold in that condition outside of taobao.

A few months ago I sold a Cherry G81 SAU on eBay in almost pristine condition:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/252375971935
There was only one bid (from a DT member ), so it sold for the starting price of 275€.

I think you can expect something like half that price given the condition of yours, but the market seems to have evolved in the recent past. To be honest, for mine I had expected about twice the starting price.
As for the one with the missing cap, I think it has practically no value at all unless you can spot a replacement F8 cap.
I have a lot of spare original Cherry dyesubs, but unfortunately F8 is already gone.

Right now both Cherry keyboards are sold. Acer's case is also sold. I kept Acer's switches for myself and hope to get around and build a 60% keyboard sometime.

It's just amazing how much interest is there for these Cherry dye subbed keycaps.

mbc wrote: Right now both Cherry keyboards are sold. […]

Care to say how much you got for them?
It will help us give realistic quotes in the future

mbc wrote: Right now both Cherry keyboards are sold. Acer's case is also sold. I kept Acer's switches for myself and hope to get around and build a 60% keyboard sometime.

It's just amazing how much interest is there for these Cherry dye subbed keycaps.

One of the perks to being an Alps nut over a Cherry nut. Nooooo thank you exorbitant prices. Alps can get a little crazy, but it's usually not THAT crazy.

Can anyone tell me how much I'd need for a Cherry G80-1950 (or other 195x)? Any condition provided it works and I don't catch a disease off it. And also, do they come up for sale often? The only one I've seen for sale was berserkfan's, but I may be looking in the wrong places...

citrojohn wrote: Can anyone tell me how much I'd need for a Cherry G80-1950 (or other 195x)? Any condition provided it works and I don't catch a disease off it. And also, do they come up for sale often? The only one I've seen for sale was berserkfan's, but I may be looking in the wrong places...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/2010503411 ... noapp=true

elecplus wrote:

citrojohn wrote: Can anyone tell me how much I'd need for a Cherry G80-1950 (or other 195x)? Any condition provided it works and I don't catch a disease off it. And also, do they come up for sale often? The only one I've seen for sale was berserkfan's, but I may be looking in the wrong places...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/2010503411 ... noapp=true

I must have been looking in the wrong places, or at the wrong time... (Note to self: look at the other ebay sites as well as the UK one.)

Not the 5000-esque price I feared - perhaps collectors don't like matrix boards. Pity the seller won't ship to me... still, it gives me an idea of price. Thanks!

citrojohn wrote:

elecplus wrote:

citrojohn wrote: Can anyone tell me how much I'd need for a Cherry G80-1950 (or other 195x)? Any condition provided it works and I don't catch a disease off it. And also, do they come up for sale often? The only one I've seen for sale was berserkfan's, but I may be looking in the wrong places...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/2010503411 ... noapp=true

I must have been looking in the wrong places, or at the wrong time... (Note to self: look at the other ebay sites as well as the UK one.)

Not the 5000-esque price I feared - perhaps collectors don't like matrix boards. Pity the seller won't ship to me... still, it gives me an idea of price. Thanks!

If he won't, I will. I know the guy personally. I can do the buy for you if you want.

elecplus wrote: If he won't, I will. I know the guy personally. I can do the buy for you if you want.

Oo, that's very kind of you. The difficulty is customs, and shipping... well, I'll do some reading up, and very likely PM you. And to think this morning I was going to buy a Tipro, or a phone...

I got an Apple M0118 with orange alps, switched one of the original connectors for a teensy acting as the adb/usb converter. The spacebar is yellowed and the top bezel has some yellowed spots. How much can I ask for this?
http://imgur.com/a/UOJQJ

Last night I desoldered an AEKII to cannibalize its plate for my 60% Alps build, and this morning I noticed that the switch sliders are a bit too white to be cream damped Alps. I checked the wiki and it seems that some AEKIIs did in fact come with "white damped Alps", but apparently not many.

So my question is in two parts:

1. Did I commit a terrible sin in desoldering it? and

2. I now have a bag full of white damped Alps - are they worth anything? I have no use for them myself so I'll happily part with them if there's someone out there who really likes them.

/Scarpia

Scarpia wrote: Last night I desoldered an AEKII to cannibalize its plate for my 60% Alps build, and this morning I noticed that the switch sliders are a bit too white to be cream damped Alps. I checked the wiki and it seems that some AEKIIs did in fact come with "white damped Alps", but apparently not many.

So my question is in two parts:

1. Did I commit a terrible sin in desoldering it? and

2. I now have a bag full of white damped Alps - are they worth anything? I have no use for them myself so I'll happily part with them if there's someone out there who really likes them.

/Scarpia

My experience is that 1989 copyright AEK2s may have either salmon or dampened cream, 1990 copyrights have dampened cream, and 1995 copyrights have dampened whites.

I don't know whether the underlying PCBs changed between iterations, but it probably will not make much difference if you are doing a "chop job" anyway.

Most people consider older Alps to better than newer ones in general, for various reasons, but the dampened whites are not all that different from the creams, although they will be worth less on the market.

fohat wrote: My experience is that 1989 copyright AEK2s may have either salmon or dampened cream, 1990 copyrights have dampened cream, and 1995 copyrights have dampened whites.

Mine was a 1990 copyright, and it had dampened whites.

An AEKII is not a particularly sinful board to desolder. White damped Alps are hit and miss, but I think they're decent personally. That said, I think the best Apple keyboard ever made is probably an AEK with oranges.

I personally feel that m0116 is better, since it's more compact and isn't as hollow as the AEK. It's 60% plus numpad layout is closer to TKL, which is a plus for me, but granted, numpad instead of nav cluster and no F-keys leaves something to be desired.

And allow me to go on a tangent - I hate the m0116/AEK inconsistency. They should either be called ASK/AEK/AEKII or m0116/m0115/m3501 for specific models.

I agree on the ASK bit. I guess it looks too much like a common word for people to be comfy with using, but it makes the most sense logically.

I loved my AEK with Oranges. Got it for $30 off of eBay and it was grand. My vintage second mechanical keyboard after my NTC 6151N, and it I enjoy the "hollowness" case. :3 I think it gives it good resonance. However, its body parts are scattered in some landfill now, no doubt.

I desoldered the switches for a scammer who I ended up getting privy to just before I sent them out, but by then, the AEK's parts were in the trash and gone. Maybe I'll get another one someday. I saw a pretty swanky looking boxed model go on eBay lately.

NIB keyboards are OMG yes. <3

And to know that I'm looking for an AEK case, because I botched retr0bright on one That's why I got a second one from Cindy for cheap, and it's switches were better than in the first one (both Orange with white switchplate). However, that one has yellowed too, and yellowing is uneven too. It's _really_ hard to find an AEK that hasn't yellowed.

I have AEK I and II that will prob never sell, because they are worse than banana yellow! They have actually turned a very dingy brown...

A fellow bought an AEKII from me online, and his sole request was that the space bar was not yellowed. Even that was hard to find in my stash, and I have over 30 of them!

elecplus wrote: I have AEK I and II that will prob never sell, because they are worse than banana yellow! They have actually turned a very dingy brown...

A fellow bought an AEKII from me online, and his sole request was that the space bar was not yellowed. Even that was hard to find in my stash, and I have over 30 of them!

I don't think that I have ever seen an original Apple space bar that was not at least slightly yellowed.

fohat wrote: I don't think that I have ever seen an original Apple space bar that was not at least slightly yellowed.

I have, my NIB AEK2:

I have an ANSI AEK II that I got a while back from ebay that had a mint spacebar
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Apple-Tastatur-M ... 1933462633

alh84001 wrote: And to know that I'm looking for an AEK case, because I botched retr0bright on one That's why I got a second one from Cindy for cheap, and it's switches were better than in the first one (both Orange with white switchplate). However, that one has yellowed too, and yellowing is uneven too. It's _really_ hard to find an AEK that hasn't yellowed.

I still have the AEKII case from the one I just desoldered. I believe its color is pretty even, but I can take some pics for you. If you want it I'll be happy to send it to you for the price of shipping. Better than sending it to the landfill.

I should have specified it more precisely - AEK I case . But I appreciate the thought.

alh84001 wrote: And to know that I'm looking for an AEK case, because I botched retr0bright on one That's why I got a second one from Cindy for cheap, and it's switches were better than in the first one (both Orange with white switchplate). However, that one has yellowed too, and yellowing is uneven too. It's _really_ hard to find an AEK that hasn't yellowed.

I think I might actually still have my AEK 1 case, or maybe it came from a job I did for someone; actually yes, I think so. It came from an AEK 1 with salmons.

Only thing is that the shipping would be expensive.