GB looks to be starting fulfillment, got a shipping notification from Divinikey

The first 2024 fruit of the garden - a tobasco pepper.

my vacuum collection helps keep my house clean.

I have not bought a keyboard in at least a couple of years, and I have at least half a dozen "favorites" which I really do like but don't use. I am spoilt by the 122 key layout and whenever I use anything smaller I feel deprived.

Rotating one of them in for a week or 2 every few months just reinforces this, and I have several late-1980s boards (Alps (mostly blue or orange/salmon), Monterey, Space Invaders (black), and even Acer) that I would use much more often except for the fact that they frustrate me in just 1 way - that stupid 1U "Backspace" key! Considerable cursing has made it clear that I almost always hit the left side of the 2U ....

If and when I drop down to a small desk, I already have a couple of nice TKL boards that I have transplanted Alps into.

For most of a decade I have been using 122-key terminal Model Fs - modded to [very near] ANSI configuration, and it just feels "right" - everything else now seems like a plastic toy. My laptop is something that I use rarely and just accept it as one of the frustrations of not being in my usual den ....

Oh yes, about the vacuum cleaners - probably 15-20 years ago we needed a new one, and my ex-, who MUST relentlessly research EVERY purchase discovered that there were 2 competing forums (fora?), like GH and DT? But no, there was considerably more acrimony between them. What did we end up with? I don't remember, even though I did the majority of the vacuuming. I think it was yellow and black, and it worked quite well!

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I don't know if this will change, or matters. Keyboards sit somewhere between tradition art and the luxury items you listed. Kit cars are maybe the closest approximation?

I think the closest parallel would be New Supercars/Hypercars. Even cars like the Porsche 911. It isn't bought by people who want to drive the cars. They are being bought by people who park them in a display garage, trailer them to car shows/events, and then trailer them home. People are specing their cars in such a way that when they sell it, it will be desirable for the next buyer, rather than their dream spec car.

I don't disagree on the "specing for resale comment" but I think comparing keyboards to hypercars is off the mark. Hypercars aren't made by a hobbyist with some CAD experience in their free time. Ferrari doesn't solicit buyer feedback in a discord. You don't need to buy 4 Norbauer boards before you're invited to buy "the premium model". This community is more grassroots than any car manufacture could dream of being. Even on the most premium end of keyboards, there's plenty of community-minded engagement.