Buying a new replacement keyboard from ebay

[vinuneuro]

Anyone have experience buying new keyboards from ebay? There are a decent number selling the current gen NMB keyboards (T410, T410s, etc). What I'd like to avoid is buying from a seller that's selling ones that were quality rejects at the NMB factory. There are two labels at the bottom of thinkpad keyboards. One is a Lenovo label. The smaller square one has initials on it. Anyone know what it's significance is? There's a US seller selling them without the smaller label, and while I'd prefer to buy locally, that concerns me.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/89/4035.jpg/

[krayzie]

From personal experience buying a few keyboard replacements for my T43, the eBay ones from Hong Kong / China either NMB or Chinoy (never seen Alps other than new systems), is that they usually don't last (after a few weeks a key or two will start to get sticky and unresponsive).

However if I buy from the local computer store near my office at a higher price the keyboards will work perfectly and the typing feel seems better too! So I asked the store sales dude why the variations. He said he gets his stock from ordering with Lenovo / IBM sales channel locally and he gets a volume discount. He suspects the ones from eBay China could either be factory rejects or refurbished items from the warranty channel.

Here's the kicker, if you call IBM Parts the agent will tell you that the part could be refurbished and they have no control over that LOL!

[rkawakami]

The smaller square one has initials on it. Anyone know what it's significance is?

If you are referring to the label to the right of the Trackpoint assembly, then that looks like a quality assurance (QA) or quality control (QC) sticker. The initials would typically be the operator/technician that performed whatever check was required. Sort of like the old "Checked by Inspector 42" slips of paper that were tossed inside the package of your new item.