The Ohio lot: story time & photos

User avatar
ohaimark
Kingpin

12 Jul 2016, 04:03

I drove over 400 miles to pick up some keyboards from Columbus, OH. Am I crazy? Probably.

My father and I have been there before; he wanted to attend a sporting event. Our GPS, an old Tom Tom with a sassy female British voice, led us down some... Interesting back roads. Marky Moe's, a trashy looking restaurant, and a "hillbilly drive in theater" are perhaps the best memories I had from the trip. Unfortunately, we missed the chance to snag a photo.

The restaurant was only funny because we were bored to death. Who names a restaurant something like that anyways? The drive in, however, is comedic gold. I had to see it again. Had to. I whipped out the good old Tom and followed her nagging directions to see if the edifice was still erect. I wasn't disappointed.

Image

Your eyes aren't deceiving you. That is a massive projection screen jerry rigged onto the side of a semi truck trailer. :lol:

The rest of my drive wasn't notable. My arrival, on the other hand, was. The surplus location's lot was jam packed with old vehicles, several of which had advertisements for strip clubs on their sides. When the loading bay door rolled up, I knew I was in for a good time. The gentleman who greeted me was quite clearly three things:

1) nerdy as can be
2) eccentric, based on the straw hat he was wearing indoors
3) high as a goddamn kite

He wasn't my contact for the pickup, though. I was greeted moments later by a movie-star-handsome rebellious looking guy with camouflage fatigues and a mohawk. Looked like he should be driving a muscle car overflowing with hot women. I loaded up the 'boards and talked him into letting me tour the rest of the warehouse, which was chock full of random goodies. I literally had to climb over a forklift, a golf cart, floor cleaning machines, and office chairs to reach one portion of the shelving stacks. There were few keyboards of interest, but "nerdy" followed me around and chatted about his background in picking. He was told by "handsome" to make sure I didn't slip and die or anything. Heh.

There were a few nicer cars inside amongst the rubble. Like a Cadillac and a Porsche. Oh, and there was a Ferrari. A yellow Ferrari, surrounded by random shit.

Image

Speaking of cars, I want to give a shout out to mine. It's a 1994 Subaru Legacy L sedan, FWD only. 266,000 miles and still going strong (knock on wood). The hood is wrinkly because it popped up and smacked the windshield on the highway one time. Don't worry -- it's safe now.

Image

Back to keyboards. I found an AAK + TK and a random Cherry keyboard from what I assume was a mass spectrometer. Needless to say, I took those two home with me. Pictures and notes follow:

Image

The M15! After some cleaning she works fine and looks great. Ohaimark owns a sexy Lexmark -- almost a tongue twister. A treasure for my collection, for sure.

Image

A working OG Kinesis.

Image

NCR G81-3077 with special OG dyesubs. She's done some sunbathing.

Image

Image

Cherry G80-0505 -- note the orange doubleshots, odd layout, mix of doubleshot/pad print keycaps, MX Lock switch, and gigantorific F row profile. Pretty cool.

Image

AEK II with Salmon Alps and special, large font keycaps. ;)

Image

AAK + TK, mini cable attached, banana edition.

Image

KB-7001 with Alps clones. Meh.


~~ The M15 is mine. I have people in line for the NCR, but the rest will go up in a small silent auction. ~~
Last edited by ohaimark on 13 Jul 2016, 23:52, edited 1 time in total.

terrycherry

12 Jul 2016, 05:29

Oh great found and story. alps.tw has one Unikey KB-7001(FCCID LIAKB-7000) but it have the (Clicky)Alps SKBM White(base FD logo)
What clone you have?

User avatar
pyrelink

12 Jul 2016, 07:03

Hah, great story, and nice write up. Quite enjoyed that. Love the Subie by the way. I had an Outback that I got rid of last year after the headgasket went for the third time, clocking in at 239,000 miles.

Great keyboard finds too. M15 looks great!

Engicoder

12 Jul 2016, 13:48

Sounds like a great trip and you were well rewarded for you effort. Probably worth it for the time with your dad even if you had come up empty.

Looks like some of the legends have worn off the G80-0505. Assuming those keys are not double shot?

User avatar
shreebles
Finally 60%

12 Jul 2016, 14:29

Looking forward to reading this later tonight!

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

12 Jul 2016, 15:19

Great tour and great haul! Thanks for sharing the story, makes the whole thing sooo much more interesting. Congrats on the M15 and the OG Kinesis, real nice.

User avatar
ohaimark
Kingpin

12 Jul 2016, 15:40

@terry - I have no idea. There's no Alps logo on the shell, so I assumed clones.

@engi - I didn't drive down with my dad this time. The G80 has a mix of pad prints, doubleshots, and a single dyesub. So yes, you're right.

@the rest of you - Thanks!

User avatar
E3E

12 Jul 2016, 18:29

Always hitting those great finds hard, but you certainly have to sacrifice to get good deals. 400 mile drives aren't exactly a walk in the park.

Congrats, these are, for the most part, incredible finds.

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

12 Jul 2016, 19:09

E3E wrote: Always hitting those great finds hard, but you certainly have to sacrifice to get good deals. 400 mile drives aren't exactly a walk in the park.
That's for sure, the distances for you guys are slightly larger. At 400 miles I'd be in another country. That Ferrari looks like a Testarossa BTW, that's 1980's Miami Vice action right there. Crazy stuff.

User avatar
cookie

12 Jul 2016, 19:10

A roadtrip with dad and vintage keyboards!
Can't get any better than that :D

Engicoder

12 Jul 2016, 21:13

ohaimark wrote: The G80 has a mix of pad prints, doubleshots, and a single dyesub. So yes, you're right
I am going to guess that the "Print on-off" is the dye-sub. Yes?

User avatar
ohaimark
Kingpin

12 Jul 2016, 21:42

Yep.

User avatar
photekq
Cherry Picker

12 Jul 2016, 21:56

Nah, that should be pad print just like all Cherry windowed keys. I guess it just wasn't used as much as some of the rest.

User avatar
ohaimark
Kingpin

12 Jul 2016, 21:58

Guess I didn't examine it closely enough.

User avatar
shreebles
Finally 60%

12 Jul 2016, 23:29

Really great haul and a fun read!
So amazing, surreal to find those cars there. That perfect looking yellow Ferrari, standing there for seemingly no reason at all.
Glad to see you can at least give those keyboards a proper purpose now :)

User avatar
ramnes
ПБТ НАВСЕГДА

13 Jul 2016, 02:10

But did you get the Ferrari?

User avatar
ohaimark
Kingpin

13 Jul 2016, 02:11

AHAHAHAHA. HA. No.

User avatar
ohaimark
Kingpin

13 Jul 2016, 03:33

Remember how I said the F row of the 0505 was massive? I figured an illustration would do you all some good.

Has this profile even been seen before?

Here it is behind a dyesub F row key from the NCR:
Attachments
HULK SMASH
HULK SMASH
DSC01502.jpg (309.26 KiB) Viewed 14215 times

User avatar
photekq
Cherry Picker

13 Jul 2016, 05:56

That's called, quite literally, F-profile. The usual profile for the f-row is the same as the num row, which is E-profile. Cherry used F-profile on their really old and obscure boards like this one.

User avatar
kbdfr
The Tiproman

13 Jul 2016, 06:52

photekq is, as always, right :D
You can also find F-profile keys on more modern non-Cherry branded boards like the Alcatel MMK.
Spoiler:
F-profile keys on Alcatel MMK.jpg
F-profile keys on Alcatel MMK.jpg (207.35 KiB) Viewed 13874 times
Last edited by kbdfr on 25 Jul 2016, 06:32, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
shreebles
Finally 60%

13 Jul 2016, 11:57

Also called F-yourself-profile. not true

User avatar
jerue

13 Jul 2016, 23:04

Thanks for sharing, those are some great photos!

I'm probably the most excited to see that Ferrari...rarer than the M15 you picked up!

User avatar
vivalarevolución
formerly prdlm2009

14 Jul 2016, 13:51

I've probably been to that drive in. Looks familiar. And about as American as anything can be.

User avatar
Khers

14 Jul 2016, 13:55

jerue wrote: [...]I'm probably the most excited to see that Ferrari...rarer than the M15 you picked up!
Testarossas are pretty, and I happen to have a weakness for yellow Ferraris, so I agree, that's what I got most excited about too :D

User avatar
DanielT
Un petit village gaulois d'Armorique…

14 Jul 2016, 14:23

I like the Subaru :D I have a sweet spot for rat look cars

User avatar
Khers

14 Jul 2016, 22:33

Subarus should be blue, wear yellow 555 stickers and gold wheels and be driven skidded by a bloke called Colin. RIP.

User avatar
ohaimark
Kingpin

16 Jul 2016, 03:52

Well, if I stop spending the big $$$s on keyboards I can start ricing out my ride. Big ass spoiler and everything. But... Well...

Keyboards.

User avatar
alh84001
v.001

16 Jul 2016, 10:26

Testarossa, to me, is one of the most beautiful Ferraris, and, together with Lotus Esprit, is the quintessential 80s supercar. I wonder if you could have packed all of your haul in it :)

User avatar
ideus

23 Jul 2016, 22:49

First time I see a worn off dye subbed key, look at those NCR's bottom row keys, wow!

User avatar
ohaimark
Kingpin

23 Jul 2016, 23:05

ideus wrote: First time I see a worn off dye subbed key, look at those NCR's bottom row keys, wow!
The "wear" you're seeing isn't there. Mild fading from time in the sun is definitely there, though.

Post Reply

Return to “Gallery”