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Unhacking the wallet

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iri:

--- Quote from: bueller on Fri, 23 January 2015, 04:49:47 ---
--- Quote from: iri on Fri, 23 January 2015, 04:47:43 ---
--- Quote from: tbc on Fri, 23 January 2015, 04:43:34 ---at the end of the day, you'll find a highly correlation between regrettable purchases and 'just because' reasons.

--- End quote ---
you never know if buying a keyboard with the desirable seemingly-perfect switch will be regrettable or not.

--- End quote ---

Most of those problems can be solved with a switch tester these days though, at least with MX. Most people should be able to narrow it down to one or two switches based off a couple of minutes with the tester. Topre is a whole other story though and it can be pricey to try them out, one of the main reasons I haven't gone down that path.

--- End quote ---
a tester will show you 20% of truth.

katushkin:
Believe me man, any figure you can pluck out of the air and say you've spent on keyboards isn't mad. A lot of people on here have probably been and gone past five figures spent on boards, judging by their collections, and others who haven't been in to the hobby for quite as long, still may have spent stupid amounts of money on one board (I'm up to about £600 including shipping on one now), but we do all understand.

I have always been terrible with money too, it got to a point where I had to borrow money from parents and cash in some bonds I had because I was unable to get out of my overdraft every month, not just because of keyboards, but because I just bought everything impulsively. This year I have come into some money which is going on a house, and I know if I don't sort my life out, then I am going to get to a point where my house gets repossessed. Which is definitely not something I want to happen.

Budgeting is very important. I am starting up various accounts this year so I can plan my budget. One savings account for each thing I want, and I will put about £100 in each at the start of the month so I don't spend it, and then when I get to a milestone, or when I want to get something, I just take it out of the relevant savings account, rather than just taking it straight out of my current account.

The way I see it now, is that if I keep going for these artisan sales and raffles, I'm just going to end up with caps that I don't do anything with. Or I'm going to end up disappointed. And I would feel pretty bad if I was to hoard something, or be given/sold something just to then trade or sell them off.

So my three projects this year are:


* Get the MX Blacks on my KC108 swapped out for MX Greys (**** linear switches)
* Buy myself a topre board. Probably not a HHKB
* Get a real custom built GON TKL to put my Cherry Replica set on
And then that's it. Not much to ask :P

whentheclouds:
the best way to save money is by jumping straight to the end game, at least in my opinion. if you're a noob like i am, do your due diligence, read as much as you can about the various aspects of a board, visualize your dream keyboard and start working on it, whilst skipping all the small incremental jumps in the middle. my keyboard 'journey' will be merely Filco Majestouch 2 Brown -> Duck Octagon, so about $700-$800 including all the components i'll need for the Octagon.

not to say you'll discover your preferences right away, but the more you understand, the easier it will be to find them. i did recognize early on that my keyboard will be a 75% with standard profile aluminum case, with GMK caps. eventually i also realized i wasn't longer into artisan caps and colorful LEDs as i had been previously. switches are the most difficult component to 'finalize', but i had the fortune of testing blacks and reds on my friend's keyboards and i found blacks to be the smoothest, if somewhat heavy and unsuitable for extended periods of time, so i decided on 55g springs for my dream build. all of these choices can be made with a decent understanding of the hobby. not that i care what people do with their money, but, say, if it took you 3 Cherry boards to discover that Topre is your one true switch, or it took you 3 SP and/or WASD sets to realize that the only keycaps you can tolerate are thick, delicious and juicy German-made GMK sets.. that's a lot of money you could have saved if you had invested some more time into finding out what you like best

same concept can be applied to other hobbies: if you fancy a $2k watch, don't spend too much time or money finding lookalikes, just save up for the one you want. you'll probably not feel the same satisfaction as owning the real deal anyway, why bother? i'm aware that it can be more about the journey than the destination, but if money is short, you should really cut down the distance traveled and save on gas. my 2 gallons

iri:
i want to get into this impulsive buying thing. just to see what it is.

Signature:
As a high school student I can't spend much on keyboards so therefore I help friends sell theirs. Some of my Korean friends are selling rare keyboards and by helping to find a buyer for them I feel like I have somehow interacted with the keyboard in some sort of way, and tbh is probably the closest I will come to one of those 1k+ keyboards. I'm just glad I got the opportunity to help friends and build new contacts by selling them.  :))

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