Survey responses have slowed to a trickle, so I figured I'd share the results that have come in so far:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-62V2WSLX/Main conclusions I'm drawing are:
- powder coating seems fine but a significant contingent would love to see anodizing added also
- best anodizing color to offer would be gray
- people don't seem to care too much whether it comes from China or the USA, though a fair number appreciate trying to get it done here in the US if possible
I'm also concerned that a decent contingent of non-USA buyers said that the $50 or so shipping cost might be a deal-breaker, since the general feedback seems to be that USPS Priority is the best option and that tends to be around $50 for a 4-pound box to most overseas destinations. I don't think there is much I can do about this one, unfortunately. I was also shocked by how much these cost to ship abroad.
Good news is that 85 people have responded so far. If we hit anything close to these numbers, I can at least say that the project will be possible from a financial perspective (anything below 25 or so and the unit price is so high as to be prohibitive).
So here is my plan, based on the above: wait the one more week or so for the USA shop's new fancy mill to be online and running and get those updated samples with larger bumpon recesses from him to account for the unusually thick powder coat layer on the wrinkle coat. I'm also going to have him make a second ample to test anodizing with the new higher-grade aluminum. If the anodizing doesn't work out, I may end up ordering some anodized ones from my China shop and the powder ones from here in the USA (price works out to be roughly the same, so long as we are above a quantity of 25 for each finish). In ano works out and the final powder samples come back satisfactory, I'll get both from the USA shop.
So my goal would be to offer these options: gray anodized, Space Station white (powder), and Enigma Black (powder, wrinkle). I'll keep poking along, trying to nudge things as fast as I can.