Thank you all.
I've received some amazing messages of support and I can't thank the community enough. I've put all my keyboard stuff on hold for this project and am really glad you all appreciate the work I'm doing. I don't mean to get too personal here, but the past 5/6 years have been a big struggle for me, in general. Please don't see this as some sort of plea for anything; I just want to give you some context for what brought me to the community and do the group buy.
My life was good. Despite my parents divorcing at 16, I made it into and graduated from a competitive college (Macalester) and left with a fiancée. I moved across the country to Portland, got married at 22, bought my first house at 24, had kids at 25 and 28. Things were going well until my kid's mom decided being married to me wasn't what she wanted anymore. I did my best to save the marriage, but it didn't work out. I went through a divorce 5 years ago (I'm 36 now) and was asked to leave my home on Christmas while celebrating with my wife and girls. We were separated for six months and I thought my ex was moving in to the home to work on our relationship, but she just wanted the house, apparently. That's life, though. I didn't want to be a guest in my own home, so I left, went through mental breakdown, and almost lost my job on top of it all.
It destroyed me, both emotionally and financially. I sold my home at a big loss - lost all my equity, went through a year-long divorce, lived in a 750sq ft. apartment for a year (with kids), supported my kids financially, and had to rebuild my life. I'm still in debt and living month-to-month and renting a place, but I'm paying my debts down, doubled my income in 3 years, have an awesome girlfriend, get my kids 1/3rd the time, gave up smoking weed recently (like last week!), and am continuing to make progress on my life. That doesn't make this time of year any easier on me, though, as you can imagine...
Finding the community on /r/mechanicalkeyboards and geek hack gave me something to enjoy again. The hobby is a really cool one and has gotten me interested in something healthy and not destructive. After getting burned by to the tune of $250 last year on Ivan's buy, this group buy was my way of trying to give back to the community and restore faith in the group buy process. That's why I set the prices so low and did my best to see this come to fruition.
I can't thank everyone enough. Despite shipping 150 sets being a bit stressful, every time I ship out, I feel that much better. I can't wait to feel the accomplishment of finishing this group buy. Thank you all for participating and giving me something to feel good about. It means the world to me. I'll keep shipping and posting. Let's finish off 2016 on the positive, OK?
Thanks again for all your support. You all rock!
Best wishes to all,
Matthew AKA MaNiFeX