IBM 3278 Beam Spring

[cKype]

Hi,

managed to get my hands on IBM 3278 Beam Spring just while ago (not USB modded).
Condition what I heard from couple of users in here is more than excellent. I have only opened the outside cover to check inside for photos and possible date and other numbers that might mean something for someone who knows more than I do.

I did clean key caps and outside metal cover. There is 0 rust in switch springs or case.
Outside Case has 2-3 really small usage marks on it and the bottom is close to new, even the rubber parts on "legs".
It does not have manual on it.

Keyboard is located in Finland and has Ö Ä Å keycaps next to L and P.
I'm willing to discuss prices
I was suggested to take few offers to know what average price we are looking at here. I was told Ebay might be the best way to go but will see.

I'm new here so go easy on me

Couple of images:
https://imgur.com/a/zKVfEh8
More:
https://imgur.com/a/nEC8WoK
If you want more detailed photos or questions just PM me and i'll try to answer as fast as possible

Happy typing!

-Henri Suominen
Discord cKy#6630

Edit: I have the rubber mat that is under the switches for dust cover. I just didn't put it back for some reason after cleaning key caps. Bottom I did not clean at all so It might have some dust on it still.
This behemoth weights around 4.8kg

[zzxx53]

I'll take one for $200! /jk
Very nice board you have here. GLWS!

[cKype]

Thank you! And from the amount of people contacting me so far I assume this is somewhat wanted behemoth.

[Redmaus]

Thank you! And from the amount of people contacting me so far I assume this is somewhat wanted behemoth.

You would be correct, I sent you a friend request on discord but I fear I might be too late.

[Invisius]

Very clean 3278, I'm surprised you don't want to keep it and use it yourself! This doesn't even need any restoration work

[Weezer]

Interested in what the final sale price will be

[cKype]

Just woke up, and damn I have stuff to read, i'll answer all of you, and finally someone has given me an offer with numbers so I can give people some base to start with. If you are interested contact me with PM i'll give more details and what kind of pricing we are currently standing at. A member made a bid that sounds very appealing to me.

I'm more interested in custom built boards that I can make myself and I still play video games a lot so It's nice to choose which switches I wanna use. If the value would have been way lower than it is right now I would have kept it most likely, but we are talking too high numbers for someone who can't appreciate the board enough compared to what most of you can.

[cKype]

Update about the situation. I'm planning on selling the keyboard in next few days maybe ( 7.9 or 8.9 ). Currently highest bid by forum member is 1500usd (1260€) so If I wont receive better deal by then I'm willing to let the board go for that price. If the trade will not happen for some reason in the end, I'm gonna contact whoever has the second highest bid and so on. So now is a good time to send your own offer no matter what it is, in case it happens to be the next highest one.
If anyone wants to see the board live for sound and visual demo I can always show it through Discord stream.

UPDATED INFO BELOW

[Sturmtiger001]

It looks fantastic!

[cKype]

A member contacted me and heavily suggested putting the item up on Ebay with the price being 2999.99$. He said if I was not going to do that, he would buy the board from me with 2000$ and continue from there. So we made a deal. I'm trying to sell the product through Ebay (maybe Reddit aswell) with the price being 2999 for few weeks, if the board will not sell with those prices, he can buy the board from me, unless some crazy maniac in here is willing to offers more than 2000$. The price of this machine went out of the roof if compared to what I was originally hoping to get. Hope people can understand my point of view in this regard.

[Half-Saint]

Two years ago people were dissing me for asking 900€ for a short 3278 and now it's $2000?

[cKype]

Don't ask me, anything with 3 digits would have made me happy originally. I'm more clueless than any of you

[Bass]

I am a little surprised that someone actually suggested asking $3K for this given it's one of the more common models of Beamspring out there. I mean yeah it's in great condition, but if you had asked me 2 years ago I would have said $1.5K would have been close to the upper limit. I guess beamers are now listed less frequently than I remember?

[M9HM]

The thing is I totally understand the seller here. I would love to have a beamspring, as its probably typing summit, but, if I get offers for that amount, I think I would sell as well, I mean, its not like you get 3k out of thin air everyday.

[cKype]

The amount I paid for this door stopper was 30€ and found it from recycling center. So, I took it home since it somehow felt nice and was in great condition. I cleaned it just for time killing sake, then added it online just to ask what is this machine, since it clearly has no specific model numbers like keyboards nowadays do. Found out eventually it actually might be worth more than 30€ and 10 minutes of cleaning. I'm not in a hurry while selling this, so that is why I'm taking my time here. But since joining here I have met some amazing people and will probably stick with you guys even if I don't own anything special or necessarily even have interest on vintage stuff after selling the IBM.
Maybe someday I manage to find another gem and come here for rescue once again.

[quaker]

That is a epic find indeed O: Welcome and good luck!

[cKype]

I made serious video review about the board. Check if you are interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5FGr1QVxyw

/jk
Hope it's cringe enough to make you feel better about yourself. Have a wonderful day!

[Redmaus]

A member contacted me and heavily suggested putting the item up on Ebay with the price being 2999.99$. He said if I was not going to do that, he would buy the board from me with 2000$ and continue from there. So we made a deal. I'm trying to sell the product through Ebay (maybe Reddit aswell) with the price being 2999 for few weeks, if the board will not sell with those prices, he can buy the board from me, unless some crazy maniac in here is willing to offers more than 2000$. The price of this machine went out of the roof if compared to what I was originally hoping to get. Hope people can understand my point of view in this regard.

Is $1500 not enough? I mean you got it for 30 Euro. Sorry but it seems like you are actively contributing to the price inflation that makes it so hard for people(especially newer members such as yourself) to obtain these boards. Most people don't have the money to put out a car payment on a beamspring.

I guess what I'm saying is make your money but don't get lost in trying to get as much as you can.
Probably not a popular argument I'm making but these kinds of prices basically ensure that no beamspring will belong to any user that isn't a longtime member or has very deep pockets.

[cKype]

I can understand point of view from collectors perspective, but if there is 500 usd difference between prices, It would be same as: "Wouldn't 100$ be enough, rather than asking for 600$ when you only paid 30$ for it" in the end, the difference would be identical. I wrote my text only because so many people were curious how did I end up getting it. If I edit the post saying I paid 300$ for it, would this change your opinion?

[Weezer]

Redmaus, so your argument is to fix the prices for beamsprings at lower than what people are willing to pay for them?

[Redmaus]

I can understand point of view from collectors perspective, but if there is 500 usd difference between prices, It would be same as: "Wouldn't 100$ be enough, rather than asking for 600$ when you only paid 30$ for it" in the end, the difference would be identical. I wrote my text only because so many people were curious how did I end up getting it. If I edit the post saying I paid 300$ for it, would this change your opinion?

I'm not pointing fault at selling it for an offer that was sent to you for $2000. I'm more opposed to attempting to selling it at $3000 on ebay and reddit in an effort to get max profit off something that you are already making an absurd profit margin on. If the average price is raised to $3000 pretty much everybody except a few users with an insane amount of liquidity. There's a point to where it will take you more effort and time to sell it in pursuit of an absurd price while also hurting the market for anyone else when you could take your already insane amount ($2000). This means you get a lot of money for it and don't have to hurt the market for everyone else.

Redmaus, so your argument is to fix the prices for beamsprings lower than what people are willing to pay for them?

I guess I think differently than other users, but I think there's a point to where you can make a very nice profit on something and another situation where you are pushing the envelope and taking advantage of someone's desperation since the boards are so rare.

I mean he will sell it for whatever price he wants, and that is 100% his choice. I already have two beamsprings, and I was very fortunate that I was able to get one of mine from a member that decided to sell at a more reasonable price while still making plenty of money. I just think that those types of situations get even more unlikely when the beamspring price range goes through the roof like this.

[Dingster]

A member contacted me and heavily suggested putting the item up on Ebay with the price being 2999.99$. He said if I was not going to do that, he would buy the board from me with 2000$ and continue from there. So we made a deal. I'm trying to sell the product through Ebay (maybe Reddit aswell) with the price being 2999 for few weeks, if the board will not sell with those prices, he can buy the board from me, unless some crazy maniac in here is willing to offers more than 2000$. The price of this machine went out of the roof if compared to what I was originally hoping to get. Hope people can understand my point of view in this regard.

Is $1500 not enough? I mean you got it for 30 Euro. Sorry but it seems like you are actively contributing to the price inflation that makes it so hard for people(especially newer members such as yourself) to obtain these boards. Most people don't have the money to put out a car payment on a beamspring.

I guess what I'm saying is make your money but don't get lost in trying to get as much as you can.
Probably not a popular argument I'm making but these kinds of prices basically ensure that no beamspring will belong to any user that isn't a longtime member or has very deep pockets.

Hey no offense buddy, but didn't you get A LOT of rare and valuable keyboards from the Dallas computer reset sale and sold them for a massive profit ?

[cKype]

2000$ is WAY more than I could have ever dreamed of. But this buyer/highest bidder was the one that suggested me putting it up first for 2999.99$ since he expected it to go for that much, and clearly said if I don't wanna use ebay and such I could sell it right now for him. So basically the buyer asked me if I wanted to sell this right now for 2000$ or take my time and try higher price first, and go back to 2000$ unless nothing shows up.

[Redmaus]

Hey no offense buddy, but didn't you get A LOT of rare and valuable keyboards from the Dallas computer reset sale and sold them for a massive profit ?

Take a look at my website and tell me if those prices are insane. https://redmarket.store

I got a bunch of stuff yes, but I kept the prices down and it was more about getting these boards to the community rather than jacking up prices. This also wasn't as simple as picking something up from an erecycler, it was far more effort to categorize and photograph all these boards, as well as store them.

2000$ is WAY more than I could have ever dreamed of. But this buyer/highest bidder was the one that suggested me putting it up first for 2999.99$ since he expected it to go for that much, and clearly said if I don't wanna use ebay and such I could sell it right now for him. So basically the buyer asked me if I wanted to sell this right now for 2000$ or take my time and try higher price first, and go back to 2000$ unless nothing shows up.

So yeah I would rather you sell to him for $2000 than listing it on reddit and mechmarket for $3000 which would raise the prices to an even more insane amount.

[Weezer]

I guess I think differently than other users, but I think there's a point to where you can make a very nice profit on something and another situation where you are pushing the envelope and taking advantage of someone's desperation since the boards are so rare.

I mean he will sell it for whatever price he wants, and that is 100% his choice. I already have two beamsprings, and I was very fortunate that I was able to get one of mine from a member that decided to sell at a more reasonable price while still making plenty of money. I just think that those types of situations get even more unlikely when the beamspring price range goes through the roof like this.

Yeah I'm not sure that I follow the logic. It sounds like you want him to leave money on the table for no other reason than charity towards someone he doesn't know. This seems akin to insisting that people sell Stradivarius violins for $300 and Ford GT40s for $40,000 simply because they're unattainable to the average person.

[cKype]

Currently you are asking from a person who have stated multiple times him not being into vintage stuff, but custom built new ones, to sell his keyboard cheaper than what you could get to avoid markets staying high.
I know our mindsets are totally different, but if I try to use an example: I don't own driving licence, but if I bought a nice old car for cheap, should I sell it for half the price since I have no use for it, or should I sell it for the price people are willing to pay. Which way would you go in this case? Make car people happy, that old car model went down on price, or make just one guy happy that really wanted the car no matter what.

[Redmaus]

Yeah I'm not sure that I follow the logic. It sounds like you want him to leave money on the table for no other reason than charity towards someone he doesn't know. This seems akin to insisting that people sell Stradivarius violins for $300 and Ford GT40s for $40,000 simply because they're unattainable to the average person.

False equivalence. I'm not saying he should sell it for $500, just not sit on it for weeks to try and get another grand on top of the already insane profit he's making. I already have a beamspring I'm satisfied with, it doesn't really serve my self-interest I just don't like newer users being locked out of beamsprings due to the insane price inflation.

Currently you are asking from a person who have stated multiple times him not being into vintage stuff, but custom built new ones, to sell his keyboard cheaper than what you could get to avoid markets staying high.

I'm just saying there's a point to where you are already making an insane profit and trying to sell it for $3000 on mechmarket and ebay takes up more of your time and effort while at the same time raising market prices while you could sell it to that guy for $2000.

I know our mindsets are totally different, but if I try to use an example: I don't own driving licence, but if I bought a nice old car for cheap, should I sell it for half the price since I have no use for it, or should I sell it for the price people are willing to pay. Which way would you go in this case? Make car people happy, that old car model went down on price, or make just one guy happy that really wanted the car no matter what.

Another false equivalence. I'm not saying sell it for half price, I'm saying don't try and push the envelope for weeks on an already crazy profit margin in an effort to get even more out of a great deal for you. The person that buys a 3278 for $3000 is either incredibly desperate or insanely loaded. I haven't said once you should sell for pennies on the dollar, just maybe be content with the already great deal(for you) price of $2000.

EDIT: Once again, its your board and you can sell it for whatever price you want as long as people are willing to pay. I'm just suggesting that maybe you could make your money and be done with it instead of trying to squeeze every penny you can at the expense of anyone else who wants a beamspring for a reasonable price down the line.

[cKype]

I edited my original story about the price to "The amount I paid for this door stopper was 2000$ and found it from recycling center. " now I wan't to make profit and take no less than 2500 for it. Now everything is like it should be is what you're saying.

[Weezer]

"I just don't like newer users being locked out of beamsprings due to the insane price inflation."

"because they're unattainable to the average person."

[Redmaus]

I edited my original story about the price, now I wan't to make profit and take no less than 2500 for it. Now everything is like it should be.

Like I said your choice, I was just hoping that you would maybe consider the fact that selling for such a high price negatively affects others. Clearly you would rather make as much money as you can instead of taking an already great deal.

"I just don't like newer users being locked out of beamsprings due to the insane price inflation."

because they're unattainable to the average person.

They are definitely unattainable when the prices get higher and higher. I know users who have traded + cash for a beamspring that turns out to a reasonable transaction. That doesn't really happen when the price goes from an average of $1500 to $3000.