Great/Interesting Finds

[abrahamstechnology]

65% MX Black keyboards with built in touchpad, ~$20 shipped.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TG3-Mechanical ... 3283292957

[mike52787]

65% MX Black keyboards with built in touchpad, ~$20 shipped.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TG3-Mechanical ... 3283292957

this thing has a rubber condom over the switches that makes it pretty well spillproof, but feel like shit at the same time. also the caps are pretty awful, but if you want to replace the caps and remove the condom it could be a pretty nice little board. the back is metal even, so that's a little plus.

[abrahamstechnology]

65% MX Black keyboards with built in touchpad, ~$20 shipped.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TG3-Mechanical ... 3283292957

this thing has a rubber condom over the switches that makes it pretty well spillproof, but feel like shit at the same time. also the caps are pretty awful, but if you want to replace the caps and remove the condom it could be a pretty nice little board. the back is metal even, so that's a little plus.

The problem is the layout is a bit non-standard.

[kokokoy]

Another TG3 but very expensive. And are those MX to MX extenders?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3471718994

[abrahamstechnology]

also the caps are pretty awful.

Actually I found out that the non-backlit versions use doubleshots.

[ZedTheMan]

65% MX Black keyboards with built in touchpad, ~$20 shipped.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TG3-Mechanical ... 3283292957

this thing has a rubber condom over the switches that makes it pretty well spillproof, but feel like shit at the same time. also the caps are pretty awful, but if you want to replace the caps and remove the condom it could be a pretty nice little board. the back is metal even, so that's a little plus.

Some weirdos (like myself) find that if you cut up the rubber condom sheet and put it on top of light linears (or even linears without springs), and with SA R3, it actually feels a lot like BKE Heavies. Not bad at all, actually.

I'm considering buying another board just so i can have more of the rubber condoms, haha.

[TheMilkmen]

65% MX Black keyboards with built in touchpad, ~$20 shipped.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TG3-Mechanical ... 3283292957

this thing has a rubber condom over the switches that makes it pretty well spillproof, but feel like shit at the same time. also the caps are pretty awful, but if you want to replace the caps and remove the condom it could be a pretty nice little board. the back is metal even, so that's a little plus.

Some weirdos (like myself) find that if you cut up the rubber condom sheet and put it on top of light linears (or even linears without springs), and with SA R3, it actually feels a lot like BKE Heavies. Not bad at all, actually.

I'm considering buying another board just so i can have more of the rubber condoms, haha.

Well shit that sounds kinda interesting, makes me want to get one, and for less than $20 it seems worth it. Quick now someone tell me why I don't need it!

[abrahamstechnology]

Hmm, a rubber dome-mechanical hybrid seems like a feasible alternative to Topre. I know that some foam-and-foil keyboards had something similar in the past, but it really was rather pointless, since foam-and-foils have to bottom out anyway.

[ZedTheMan]

I've thought that too. The problem with these domes is that they are very restrictive with what keycap profile they can use without feeling like shite, and even when they do work well, you had better like them heavy. It is catastrophically tactile, I'd say moreso than buckling spring or alps, though it is more spread out and starts at the top. They need high profile keycaps with a lot of height and room between the slider stem and the actual keycap plastic. That is why the keycaps on the original board are so thin and so high relative to the base of the keycap mount. Otherwise the dome becomes jammed or feels scratchy and unpleasant. SA R3 uniform is the only profile that I have tried that it works great with besides the base keycaps, though admittedly my profile selection is not that wide. Others who have tried more vigorous testing on reddit have said that only the SA R3 works well enough to make it good as well.

But I think that for the price these are worth trying in anyone's collection who might be interested, though, fair warning, the seller raises their prices as more people buy them. They are kinda assholes like that.

[lkjl]

Packard Bell keyboard w/ white alps. Think it comes with those thick doubleshots, based on the dot homing bumps & odd fonts used for the '[',']' keys. I'm not an expert though.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Packar ... 3177135672

[mcmaxmcmc]

Packard Bell keyboard w/ white alps. Think it comes with those thick doubleshots, based on the dot homing bumps & odd fonts used for the '[',']' keys. I'm not an expert though.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Packar ... 3177135672

I was going to bid on that ;-; oh well

[lkjl]

Packard Bell keyboard w/ white alps. Think it comes with those thick doubleshots, based on the dot homing bumps & odd fonts used for the '[',']' keys. I'm not an expert though.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Packar ... 3177135672

I was going to bid on that ;-; oh well

Yeah sorry...the price blew up, and I see there are 28 watchers on that listing now.

[Bass]

Just a quick warning to potential buyers in case anyone sees this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Model-M-In ... 2465987383

Granted, I am not expecting anyone to buy this at asking price due to the crack, but this seller's description is still misleading. I actually bought this Industrial M from its previous owner in another auction, and it got damaged during shipping due to very skimpy packaging (I talked about this incident a few weeks ago in this thread actually). I was able to return it and get a refund, but it looks like it was then sold to this seller in another auction for much less than their current asking price:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-INDUSTRIAL ... 2574886977

The crack was a result of the shipping damage in transit to me, but here's the real issue: The current seller is listing the board as "Cleaned and restored", when it infact needs a bolt mod. The shipping damage was not limited to just the crack, but also the rivets: Many of them fell out when the board arrived to me, and some of the larger keys were getting stuck. In most cases this only happened occasionally, but one of the keys (numpad 0) was consistently getting stuck, so the current seller should definitely know about it if all the keys were really tested. In any case, I am wondering if there is anything else I can do on my end to prevent this seller from getting away with misleading potential buyers?

[xxhellfirexx]

The crack was a result of the shipping damage in transit to me, but here's the real issue: The current seller is listing the board as "Cleaned and restored", when it infact needs a bolt mod. The shipping damage was not limited to just the crack, but also the rivets: Many of them fell out when the board arrived to me, and some of the larger keys were getting stuck. In most cases this only happened occasionally, but one of the keys (numpad 0) was consistently getting stuck, so the current seller should definitely know about it if all the keys were really tested. In any case, I am wondering if there is anything else I can do on my end to prevent this seller from getting away with misleading potential buyers?

From the seller's description, it says:

CONDITION:
Refurbished, normal wear and tear on case including a small hairline crack in the upper right hand corner, and shallow scratches/scruffs - Otherwise looks great and feels amazing
Tested, all keys work, LEDs work.

Anyone who purchases this will be able to get a refund as the description is clearly incorrect. As for reporting listings, I did not have much luck with that in the past. I have even seen listings where the seller took images from another existing eBay listing and got away with a high auction price.

[Elrick]

I have even seen listings where the seller took images from another existing eBay listing and got away with a high auction price.

Welcome to Flebay, it's their normal behaviour to ignore any suspect posting but leaving it 100% up to the Buyer to report it.

That is why I only go through Paypal (full refund) when needing to report anything dubious and rotten. That way you can even leave some negative feedback, to warn others of this particular seller.

Good to see Flebay going back to it's roots, the Wild-West in purchasing anything .

[ZedTheMan]

I have even seen listings where the seller took images from another existing eBay listing and got away with a high auction price.

Welcome to Flebay, it's their normal behaviour to ignore any suspect posting but leaving it 100% up to the Buyer to report it.

That is why I only go through Paypal (full refund) when needing to report anything dubious and rotten. That way you can even leave some negative feedback, to warn others of this particular seller.

Good to see Flebay going back to it's roots, the Wild-West in purchasing anything .

On an off topic note, I've always wondered why you call it Flebay rather than Fleabay?

Sure, it breaks up "ebay" with the a, but saying it out loud sounds more right to me, while Flebay seems like it should be pronounced "Fleh-bay".

It bothers me more than it should.

[Muirium]

Amusing. Honestly, I’ve never read Elrick’s variably informed diatribes and thought of anything other than “Flea Bay.” Which I presume to lie somewhere in coastal Tasmania.

[//gainsborough]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Northg ... SwHTlbv6ra

Well this is interesting, for sure.

[ekeppel]

That's a pretty rare pre-omnikey Northgate, but unfortunately not the even more sought after 555, which would have blue Alps.

[//gainsborough]

That's a pretty rare pre-omnikey Northgate, but unfortunately not the even more sought after 555, which would have blue Alps.

Most baffling to me is that the switches aren't alps. I actually am not sure what they are.

Edit: it's a northgate branded monterey k103? Looks just like the board in Chyros' video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOLfgKiv4O0

[ekeppel]

I think an omron switch of some sort was one of the other possible switches in the 555, so it could be something similar.

Nice find, and a rare board nonetheless.

[ekeppel]

I'm on my phone so I can't see the detail but what makes you think they aren't alps, btw? If it's lack of a logo, the blue Alps of that era were only marked on the back and had to be desoldered to see the logo. I'm not sure but some old white Alps may be the same way.

[//gainsborough]

It doesn't look like an alps switch to me:



Matt gave me this link, and I think it's this thing: wiki/Omron_Alps-style_switch

[Polecat]

Definitely a Monterey K103. And non necessarily pre-Omnikey. Just this morning I dug out a pile of old computer magazines, and one of them had a keyboard comparison. The Omnikey/102 was one of the five or six models featured, and they mentioned that if you didn't want to shell out $99 for the 102 they had cheaper models available in 84 and 101 key layouts (not the Omnikey/101). This K103 may have been the 101 key version, but there was also a Northgate-branded Liteon SK-0002 available at some point (which I have an example of). The article was from early in the Northgate history, as it featured a gold label 102.

It's also possible that this was a keyboard that came with a Northgate PC, instead of being sold separately in a computer store.

I'll agree that those aren't Alps switches, and that the Omron is a likely suspect.

That's a pretty rare pre-omnikey Northgate, but unfortunately not the even more sought after 555, which would have blue Alps.

Most baffling to me is that the switches aren't alps. I actually am not sure what they are.

Edit: it's a northgate branded monterey k103? Looks just like the board in Chyros' video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOLfgKiv4O0

[E3E]

It's really starting to seem like these Taiwanese brands shared a common OEM. The thought really occurred to me after finding an NTC-branded controller in a Chicony.

[Polecat]

Quote from that same article (in the review of the Chicony KB-5381):

"Chicony America Inc. is an OEM and is better known as a supplier of computer parts to other OEMs."

The magazine is PCResource, March 1989. The other Northgate models are listed as "C/T 101" and "C/T 84".

The Chicony was chosen as the "best value" of the models reviewed.

It's really starting to seem like these Taiwanese brands shared a common OEM. The thought really occurred to me after finding an NTC-branded controller in a Chicony.

[zrrion]

If no one wants it I could grab it but I suspect someone will be after the brown alps. After you're done harvesting I would love to buy the unit itself (and the carry case) so that I can repair mine.

[kbdfr]

[…] On an off topic note, I've always wondered why you call it Flebay rather than Fleabay?

Sure, it breaks up "ebay" with the a, but saying it out loud sounds more right to me, while Flebay seems like it should be pronounced "Fleh-bay".

It bothers me more than it should.

Language matters are nothing one should not be bothered about.
Welcome on board

Amusing. Honestly, I’ve never read Elrick’s variably informed diatribes and thought of anything other than “Flea Bay.” Which I presume to lie somewhere in coastal Tasmania.

I have to correct you concerning the location of Flea Bay: it is situated in New Zealand:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C5%8Dha ... ne_Reserve
Other than that, I can find no fault in your post

[Chyros]

That thing above is definitely a Northgate-badged Monterey K103 and the switches are definitely Omron Alps-style. As Gains already mentioned, I have the exact same board minus the NG badge.

The switches aren't bad, but even if you don't like it, it's an excellent chassis and you can transplant Alps into them.

[adamcobabe]

HAL, open the pod bay doors... HAL.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HAL-Communicat ... 2685624296