Found a 1990s keyboard catalog in my dad's garage

I was cleaning out my dad's garage last weekend and found an old computer parts catalog from 1994. The thing that surprised me was a Cherry G80-3000 keyboard listed for $180 back then. That's like $380 in today's money. Makes my $120 custom build seem like a bargain. The switches were listed as 'MX Black' with no mention of any other options besides blue or brown. Funny how we complain about switch prices now when people were paying way more for a basic board 30 years ago. Has anyone else come across old pricing for vintage keyboards that made you rethink modern costs?

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aaron1971mo ago

Wait, so browns didn't even exist yet in 1994? That's wild, I always thought they were one of the original MX colors. But yeah, you're probably right, the catalog just had blacks and maybe linear or tactile clears or something. It's crazy to me that people were dropping almost $400 on a basic keyboard back then, especially when you think about how much less choice there was. Now we can get a solid mechanical board with hotswap and RGB for like $60, but back then you either paid the premium for Cherry or used some mushy rubber dome. Makes me wonder what kind of profit margins they had on those things, must have been insane.

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faithj101mo ago

Actually, you might be mixing up Cherry's switch history a bit. Blacks and blues were the original MX switches, but browns didn't come out until the early 2000s if I remember right. The '94 catalog probably just had blacks and maybe clears as the tactile option. Still wild how that board cost a fortune back then.

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