More Keyboards

Sometime in December I stopped by the flea market where I'd found the previous stash of vintage keyboards. Turns out I missed quite a few. All but one of the seven keyboards pictured above are mechanical, and I decided to take a chance on the non-mechanical (third down on the right) as it looked unique. I've since sold it, as well as two or three others for $30-40 each. While not anywhere near as valuable as some of the previous pickups, I'm still making profit. The jewels of this lot are the two DELLs, which are easily $50+ a piece. I've already sold one, though I don't remember for how much. 

I think I've just about cleaned that place out when it comes to valuable vintage keyboards. I might look into some of the other non-mechanicals that are left but I'm trying to avoid bigger items like this if the margins aren't high enough as I'm not going to have the space for them all. I've still got six boards left to sell. If anyone's interested, I'm willing to negotiate on prices. You can find them at ebay.com/usr/portableplatypus

Vintage Keyboard Flea Market Haul

It's hard to imagine old electronics being worth anything what with them being obsolete and all, but certain items can bring in a staggering amount of cash. Keyboard bundled with modern day PCs are good enough to get the job done so most aren't aware of the wide array of options available to them. Most vintage keyboards are referred to as "mechanical" because each key has a mechanical switch of its own responsible for its input. There are a variety of different switches, most of which are no longer produced. The infamous IBM Model M uses what's known as a buckling spring, and is probably the noisiest of them all, but extremely comfortable and lasts for years, and individual springs can be easily replaced. Keyboards bundled with today's computers use membrane and/or rubber dome to detect key presses. These don't last nearly as long and lack the distinct tactile feeling of a good mechanical keyboard. Once you try one, there's no going back.