[drive buzzes] [PC beeps]

- [Clint] Oh yes.

Look at that.

Greetings, and welcome to another LGR unboxing

of something delightfully new old stock.

And this right here

is something I have never seen before

complete in the box like this, still sealed up.

This is gonna be really special.

This is an IBM ThinkPad 380ED,

Model 26356AU,

which is a laptop notebook computer introduced in 1997.

Sold through 1998 before being withdrawn from the market,

but yeah, you can see this one's actually put together

on November 17th, 1997.

And yeah, it's still in the box after all this time.

How in the world did this happen?

Well, this is all thanks to the generosity

of an LGR patron named Matt Hrushka.

He got in touch on the Patreon page for LGR

and said, hey, I got this thing,

it looks amazing, but I haven't opened it yet.

Would you like the honor of opening it up on your channel?

And I'm like, [chuckles] are you kidding?

But yeah, I'm just going to read over this letter here.

"Greetings from Santa Barbara," he says.

"I'm a bit of an IBM collector

and amazingly came across this one a little bit ago.

I had gone back and forth on just storing it untouched

or cracking it open and enjoying it.

Decided that it's just too good of a find

to sit on a shelf," I agree.

So he'd like as many people to share

in the unboxing as possible,

with requests being to leave stickers

and film intact if possible,

but I can open it up and install some software.

And also, "Please install 'Doom' on it."

A special copy is included inside.

This right here. Look at that registered copy of "Doom."

Yeah. Aw yeah, there we go.

So this is the mail-ordered registered copy of "Doom."

Version 1.666. [chuckles in evil]

And I do have a copy of this myself,

but awesome to have his on here.

So this will be the first thing we're gonna install on here,

but of course, I'm also expecting...

I mean, just all sorts of cool things,

because it's got Windows 95

and whatever IBM decided to install on there.

Thing is, I don't know if this is actually going to work.

Of course, there's only one way to find out:

opening it up and plugging it in and turning it on,

so we're gonna go ahead and do that in just a second.

But I do expect that, you know,

maybe the batteries might not be going.

There's the CMOS battery and, of course,

the laptop battery itself.

So who knows? We'll see.

If you'd like to go ahead and skip straight to the unboxing,

go right here to this timecode in the video.

That's when the actual unboxing will start.

But real briefly, though,

I just wanted to go over the specs of this thing

so you know what it is we're getting into.

So this this is a printout from IBM's website, October 1998.

It had been withdrawn from the market by that point.

But yeah, Pentium MMX 166 CPU, fantastic.

A CD-ROM and a floppy drive both integrated into the unit.

That was one of the big selling points of this.

Before that you had to swap them out for the most part.

And this version being the 6AU model,

it's got a 3-gigabyte hard disk

and a 12.1-inch TFT color display.

And of course,

a NeoMagic MagicGraph 128ZV SVGA accelerator.

That should be awesome.

And 16 megs of memory installed.

Among all the other things on here. So, anyway.

And another thing I always try

to figure out with these things

is what it would've cost brand new,

because the fact that it was sitting there...

This one, apparently, was just in an office

for like 23, 24 years or whatever,

unopened, but bought brand new at some point.

So how much did they spend to just never use it?

Well, here is the original IBM price list

I found from the announcement.

So this is from 1997.

This is this model right here, the 26356AU.

$5,199! [laughs]

Imagine spending that much

and then just never using the thing.

Now, this is the original suggested list price

from IBM themselves to their business partners.

So, of course, the street price was always lower.

So this is an article from CNET

announcing the same series of 380s, the ED and such.

So they talk about the one with the 150 megahertz,

2-gig hard drive, na-na-na, costing $3,899.

Of course, this is the ED with a 3-gig drive,

so it was definitely more than $3,899.

If I had to guess, maybe around $4,000,

maybe a little more than that

for this particular model brand new.

But, of course, the street price.

There were always discounts when you got them

actually in a store or from an IBM business partner,

either in person or ordered.

So you can see one here that is this particular one. $3,649.

And this was a little bit later.

I think this was the end of 1997

or the beginning of 1998.

I'm gonna say 4,000 bucks is probably what it cost.

So yeah, that's enough ogling the cardboard-encased glory.

It is just paper, after all, we're looking at,

and it's the contents,

all the electronical goodness, that counts.

So let's go ahead and open this up as carefully as possible

and try to keep these things intact.

Yeah, let's just unbox a brand-new IBM ThinkPad.

[smooth jazz music]

[voiceless, respectful unboxing]

All right, security seal is broken.

And it looks like these cardboard flaps just kinda come out.

Ooh.

Ooh!

Hoo-hoo! [laughs in new old stock]

Ah.

Ho-ho!

It is hard not to just go crazy here.

So straight away we get a Quick Setup Guide

with that style of artwork IBM was using

in the late '90s there.

"Quick Setup Guide provides you

with information on how to set up your computer quickly."

Well gosh, I would hope so.

Oh, look at that!

Just numbers and pictures.

Basically just put the battery in, plug it in, turn it on.

Good times.

And around back we got some other things here.

Yeah, there's the startup thing if there's no OS installed.

Hopefully we won't see that.

"Operating system screen. You can start computer operation."

Look at that. Japanese versions of Windows 3.1 and OS/2.

Okay, let me move my camera here

so we can get a little better view of this.

Oh yes. [laughs]

This is really neat to see all of these

in their original distribution,

instead of just loose.

So accessories. Look at these.

Got a new lithium-ion battery there.

Who knows if that'll still hold a charge?

Course, the AC adapter.

And a nipple. Oh, a couple nipples, mm.

These are worth their weight in gold nowadays.

You used to be able to find these so easily.

Now, to get this particular style of TrackPoint nub,

it can be rather difficult, the rounded ones

with the fuzzy, kind of sandpapery texture.

Anyway.

Like, you can still get 'em.

They're just not as easy to find on their own anymore.

And here we go. Ooh.

A substantial portion of paperwork. Mmm.

[chuckles] "PUBG."

"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" Group?

"Tips for using tour IBM ThinkPad comfortably and safely."

Uh...

Yeah, don't use it inside of a volcano,

don't drop it off a cliff, that kinda stuff.

And lift this out of the way.

Ooh.

Yeah!

Software, I'm assuming. More documentation.

Oh-ho-ho. And the ThinkPad.

Ooh, that came right outta there,

so that glue has deteriorated.

It's kinda nice, actually.

I like not having to cut it apart

or tear it open or anything.

Yeah. Look at all this stuff.

Let's see what we got here, man.

A little booklet thingy.

"International service information."

It's just phone numbers

for all the IBM places around the world, okay.

And got some stickers. "Need Help?"

Wow. [laughs] Four of 'em!

If you really need help, just stick 'em all over the office.

Ooh, a special offer inside.

A special offer in the form of registering.

Did you get anything for registration? Looks like you did.

"For completing and returning the attached thingy,

IBM will send you a nameplate

you can place in the cover indentation

to personalize your IBM computer."

Now that's cool. Look at that!

A custom nameplate on a ThinkPad?

Did anybody do that? Let me know in the comments.

Oh man, and all kinds of ads. [laughs] Sure.

CompuServe, of course.

Premier protection for IBM whatever.

Artisoft CoSession Remote?

"Access your PC from anywhere at any time."

[laughs] AOL 3.0. 50 free hours!

Yeah, I remember these diner ads.

Ooh. Never seen this exact little brochure/pamphlet thingy.

It's a little larger than the ones I got in the mail.

And some license agreement stuff.

Oh, a bunch more license agreement stuff.

Well, yeah. IBM.

"Hints and tips for using a PC card," indeed. PCMCIA.

Neat.

"Read me first." Hmm.

"Thanks for purchasing an IBM ThinkPad." You're welcome!

I totally purchased this.

"The Recovery CD..."

Okay, that's awesome too. I'm gonna image that.

That can be rather hard to find,

some of these ThinkPad recovery things.

You find a lot of the drivers and software on their own,

but having the original media or even copies of it is...

Yeah.

What do we got here? "Additional information."

CardWorks, CardSoft, CardWizard,

a lot of the PC card programs.

Cool.

"Personal carrying cases for ThinkPad."

These are kinda hard to find too.

I've been trying to find one for my 380XD.

Haven't yet found one. Not the originals, anyway.

Look at these things.

With the cool leather ThinkPad badge and everything.

Here's a full overview, just a list of all of 'em,

in case anybody's curious.

Looks like the most expensive one

is the Executive Leather one, $280 U.S.

And now, of course,

the star of the show.

I mean, it's all the star,

but this is like the star among stars.

Oh, man. This is crazy. [laughs]

Just seeing one of these that hasn't been touched? Ah!

They're always in such...

Not always, but they're usually in pretty terrible shape

because of the materials that they used on the outside.

They get all gouged up and scratched up and they fall apart,

and it's weird seeing one still in the plastic.

The IBM styrofoam.

Ooh, what is this? "Important, read before removing."

I suppose we will. "Before breaking the seal..."

And license stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well.

I accept everything in 1997's agreements.

Now, can we keep this intact? [laughs]

I have my doubts. This is a pretty big sticker.