Separating keyboard from PC

[zippolupan]

This one is more of a moral debacle than anything else. There's this guy in my neighbourhood who wants to sell his PC AT system. I see this as the perfect opportunity to finally get an F AT, but he won't sell just the keyboard.

I'm not a computer collector myself and I live in a diminutive flat that's already collecting too much occasional dust from the keyboards that are waiting to be cleaned behind the front door. I don't really have any use for the screen/computer, so I'm considering making the guy an offer and potentially try to resell the rest (if it is ever easy to do so) to someone else. If not, the time this gear sits around here cluttering up will directly correlate to a chance of divorce (or manslaughter).

Is separating a PC from its original keyboard a nefarious thing to do? Or even, is there anyone with an F AT who is missing all the rest?

[zrrion]

If both components go to a good home it doesn't matter to me if they go to the same home. I'm not the seller so perhaps they don't see it that way.
Either way, see if someone wants the PC either to repair theirs or because they don't have one yet, then everyone will get something that they will actually use.

[zippolupan]

Depending on how unsuccessful I am in selling the PC I might be urged to send it to the recycling centre sooner rather than later. Not sure if the market for these things is super hot...

[Weezer]

As with anything, I'm sure it depends on the price.

[Redmaus]

Depending on how unsuccessful I am in selling the PC I might be urged to send it to the recycling centre sooner rather than later. Not sure if the market for these things is super hot...

I know someone who would want it, so send it to me before you do that

[fohat]

The seller may have bought the system together at the time, but IBM replaced the F AT keyboard long before they replaced the AT system itself. After about 1986, AT systems had Model M keyboards.

[zippolupan]

It's a 1984 model apparently. He says "turns on and should work fine with correct leads". I'm not quite sure what he means by that, but hopefully I can negotiate the price a bit.

[Blaise170]

Here most people will give you the advice that it's okay as long as the orphaned system goes to a good home, which is also the mindset that I use (generally). On the other hand, I'm a member of a few vintage computing servers and they strongly disapprove of us doing so, and I've taken heat from them even though 99% of the keyboards I buy were already separated to begin with.

[zippolupan]

To be honest I don't think the seller is being precious about it - he doesn't seem to know anything beyond it being a "vintage computer". Maybe the reason he won't sell the keyboard alone is that he probably thinks it will make it even harder to sell.

Any idea how much those systems go for? I suppose shipping all that must be prohibitive as well.

[Blaise170]

A year or two ago I bought an old IBM InfoWindow II that came with both the CRT and keyboard, I think shipping was around $50 if I'm remembering that right. The CRTs are (obviously) quite heavy, much more so than the keyboards.

You can always offer it for free and just have the recipient pay shipping on it.