When your second version of the Smart Keyboard designed by Apple for the first generation of the iPad Pro 12.9 looks like mine, you know it’s time to move on to No. 3.

Not to mention the fact the used-to-seem-like magic connection between the smooth keys and the type showing up on all the things on my iPad had moved from working intermittently to not at all.

A trip to Best Buy, where help from their Geek Squad putting up our latest living room flat screen had led me to joining their Tech Club, led to an exchange with a server that was satisfying for politeness but came up empty nevertheless.

Apple doesn’t make keyboard from my generation iPad Pro 12.9 anymore. Neither do any of the other keyboard makers that chain carries, in-store or online. No. I do not want to spend the money to upgrade to the latest generation of iPad Pro, thank you.

The worker stationed outside the Apple store taking names and needs to sort out customers before anyone could even enter the premises told me maybe possibly could-be a new old keyboard lied inside on their dusty old shelves if I’d like to sign up and wait a couple hours. But he was pretty sure it didn’t exist in stock. So, yeah, no. Besides, I knew they they’d given me version No. 2 for free on a store warranty two-plus years ago with the caveat that anything else would be on me.

So I went home and my dear wife Karen and I looked to Amazon, a site on which she is somewhat a wizard.

I found a reconditioned Apple Smart Keyboard for my first generation iPad Pro with a price tag of $159. That’s too much, Bob!

Then I saw this neat little model from a company by the name of Asurion.

It went for $62. Heck, for that price, I even sprung for an extended protection plan of $10, figuring if it died at two years, I’d get my money back to spend again on Amazon.

Well, it’s not as tech savvy as the Apple model, which powered itself by sucking up through the iPad’s battery pack and attached for its connective things via magnets.

But I don’t mind going back to charging it was cords and pushing the Bluetooth button in the control center. Heck, the snap-in hardware structure seems strong, too.

Let’s see how long the keys withstand the pounding of my stumpy little fingers!