Holy mother of pearl. 25000 for an 026

[Connor Krukosky]

The two bids where actually me pushing my bid up worrying that there 
would be a snipe at the end but there was not...
No-one else wanted it, it was luckily only about and hour from me.
I have been slowly working on it, it now feeds and registers a card 
correctly but my main problem is dirty relay contacts it seems.
I have zero experience as-well... The 024 and 026 were introduced 48 
years before I was born so I honestly am tackling a new beast heh.
But I have been slowly making progress :)
Really they are complicated in their mechanics, the only overwhelming 
thing with the electronics are the sheer number of wires, especially to 
that keyboard!
For the keys I am going to try and 3D print semi close replacements 
until I am lucky enough to find original keys...
I wish those looking for an 029 luck, they seem to be quite rare in 
comparison to the 026 as I have previously said.
The only reasoning I have found for this is because IBM seem to have 
sold off the rest of their inventory of 024/026 Keypunches and parts to 
a company called MAI which kept them going well after they were intended...
Mine had a service booklet that says it had Service coverage affective 
in 1970 for the US Army. This was 6 years after the 029 was released in 
1964 and 21 years after the 026 was introduced!
Not to mention I think I have seen a service log entry into the early 
80s (I have absolutely tons of these service logs)!!
I do although have the desk for an 029... Likely will never find the 
guts but oh well it makes a cool desk until then :)
I got that for free from a set of the desks, the rest were trashed that 
one was actually nice, but they used a bunch of trashed 029's to barely 
get one working so it wasn't put to waste I suppose.
I at-least stopped the good desk from hitting the trash.

-Connork

On 6/6/2015 2:39 AM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
> On the one hand the 25K is ridiculously excessive; on the other I'm surprised you were able to obtain one for so little, even in poor condition, and there was so little bidding.
>
> Replacing the missing keycaps may be difficult, but it otherwise looks quite recoverable.
>
>
> On 2015-Jun-05, at 6:21 PM, Connor Krukosky wrote:
>
>> That has been posted up for a LONG time and will likely NEVER sell at that price or at any offer since this guy seems to think its made of gold.
>> It's less rare than an 029 seemingly anyway. The 026's seem to have had a lot more of them run for a longer time, meaning more survived to see the light of day again...
>> Its in better condition than the one I got, but I got mine for only 9 dollars!!
>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-26-Keypunch-Punch-Card-/141603779673
>> It may be worth a couple of hundred to the right person, but I can't ever see that thing selling anywhere close to that figure...
>>
>> -Connor K
>>
>> On 6/5/2015 8:38 PM, jwsmobile wrote:
>>> This seems excessive, to say the least.
>>>
>>> RARE-VINTAGE-IBM-26-INTERPRETING-CARD-PUNCH-OWN-A-PIECE-OF-HISTORY
>>>
>>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/161725243156
>>>
>>> but it's rare.