Wanted refurbished 48k rubber keys ZX

[Zxoldboy]

Folks

Where is the best place to buy a refurbished 48k rubber key ZX (UK)?

Thanks

[patters]

Retroleum? You might have to enquire, sometimes he has ones that aren't yet listed and still need soak testing etc.
Edit - hmm perhaps he tends to sell bare motherboards mostly.
Rudedogtetros perhaps?

[XoRRoX]

You might try in these Facebook groups:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sinclairsales/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SinclairForSaleBuy/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SinclarForSale/

[R-Tape]

I haven't bought or had repairs done for a few years now, but when I do I go to Mutant Caterpillar. Here's their Spectrum page (the issue 1 is so expensive because they are rare). The normal speccy is £199 which is a lot more than they used to be, but they are all more expensive these days. You can at least rely on the fact that you'll receive a working machine for the price, unlike the risk of 'tested but must be working' that you find on ebay (which often means 'turned on and didn't work'!

And welcome [mention]Zxoldboy[/mention]

[akeley]

Ebay is actually not so bad, if you're buying from sellers with good reputation (especially from selling similar items).
For example, this one looks pretty good: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284383115054
It's been recapped, has a new keyboard membrane and at 110 GBP is not too dear.

Of course, as with all the old micros, nobody can guarantee that the thing won't stop working the next day after you bought it...it's just how it is in this game
But, all of my gear, which I bought ~2 years ago and mostly from random sellers is still going on, so I wouldn't worry too much.

[Morkin]

I haven't bought or had repairs done for a few years now, but when I do I go to Mutant Caterpillar. Here's their Spectrum page (the issue 1 is so expensive because they are rare). The normal speccy is £199 which is a lot more than they used to be, but they are all more expensive these days. You can at least rely on the fact that you'll receive a working machine for the price, unlike the risk of 'tested but must be working' that you find on ebay (which often means 'turned on and didn't work'!

And welcome [mention]Zxoldboy[/mention]

Yes, another thumbs up here for Mutant Caterpillar, everything they've done for me before has been great value for money (normally I'd add "and not broken", but I know I'd just be jinxing myself!).

If your brain or bank manager starts telling you not to spend lots of money on retro items, quietly remind it that you used to pay around £175 for a 48k Speccy back in the day, which is the equivalent of over £500 nowadays (probably). So as fully working machines are rarer now, you're getting it extremely cheap..

[Sol_HSA]

Based on my random ebay searches over the years, there's always some rubber key speccys for sale. Whether they're in working condition I do not know, but hey, there must be a reason why youtube is full of speccy fixing videos.

What surprises me is that spectrum plus models are much more rarely for sale. As I understand it, there were quite few of those made, too.

[Zxoldboy]

Thanks everyone for the useful information. I will check out all the links you have sent to find the right ZX for myself.