[IC] Laser GMK - 80's & Cyberpunk (LIVE)

[Corgi Butts]

Legended ergodox keys are lame. Who actually uses keybinds that correspond to the "standard" set of ergodox legends?

I'd be much more interested in SA oblivion if the ergodox set didn't have legends.

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

That keyset really tied the desk together, did it not?

[DanB]

Two questions
-What keyboards do you plan to put this on?
-How many sets / what sets are you getting?

Myself, I hope I will find a purple case for this. Probably picking up x2 base kits + novelties.

Putting it on a red brass OTD koala

Plan to get Base, novs, hiragana

[joelfong]

This set looks awesome, MiTo.

Any chance the Ergodox kit will get legends?

I am studying the possibility of offering ErgoBlanck and ErgoPlanck kits.

Laser's looking good!

Have you considered adding essential Planck keys in the Base Kit and removing it from the ErgoPlank Kit instead? Because to cover the default layout with correct legends, you just need a few more keys.

R2 Tab, R3 Esc and R4 Enter are the 3 essential 1u keys for default Planck coverage. The additional R2 Tab will also help with some 40% layouts.

Less essential is R4 Shift (there's already an R4 Fn and R4 Hack key which can be used in its place), and R3 ' " in mod colours. 

You would also need to add 2 x 1u R4C keys and 1 x 2u R4C key in the Spacebar Kit.

Doing this would result in a considerably cheaper option for Planck/Preonic users as all they need to get is Base + Spacebars.

This does mean the Base Kit and Spacebar Kit may go up slightly in price, but the resulting Ergodox kit will be reduced by a fair bit too. Of course you can leave your planned ErgoBlank kit in for people who desire blank mods.

Just some of my thoughts after Nautilus' less than desirable options for Planck/Preonic users.

[autobot]

did an pixel arts in preparation for this sweet sweet set:

HHKB:

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60%:

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69-Key ISO:

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TKL:

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Awesome, can you do TKL Norbauer? Purple case with the accents, and Pink case with no accents?

[skitty]

Legended ergodox keys are lame. Who actually uses keybinds that correspond to the "standard" set of ergodox legends?

I'd be much more interested in SA oblivion if the ergodox set didn't have legends.

I don't care at all if the legends don't match what the key is programmed to. A bunch of blanks just looks odd to me if the entire set isn't blank.

Granite and Nautilus Ergodox sets sold fairly well so there's a good amount of people that like keys with legends.

[amnesia0287]

Legended ergodox keys are lame. Who actually uses keybinds that correspond to the "standard" set of ergodox legends?

I'd be much more interested in SA oblivion if the ergodox set didn't have legends.

I don't care at all if the legends don't match what the key is programmed to. A bunch of blanks just looks odd to me if the entire set isn't blank.

Granite and Nautilus Ergodox sets sold fairly well so there's a good amount of people that like keys with legends.

The differences here are:

GMK Custom Color MOQ is higher.
The SA Oblivion Ergodox mods are just gibberish and are actually common keys between multiple sets (for example many of the 1u keys like orange XOR are in the Assembly kit AND the ergodox kit others are in the macros.asm kit, etc) This lets them optimize production to make a bunch of different sets at once and produce the colors in batches. It also means they work regardless of your layout. A correctly labeled GMK set would have no such benefits.

Granite is dyesub and is irrelevant, sure ergodox kits sell at $30, but no GMK ergodox kit will ever be $30. Nautilus ONLY sold with legends, so you can't really quantify if the people who bought it actually prefer legends or not, just that they are willing to still buy them regardless.

Blank ergodox also makes it cleaner looking to use paired with the alternate alphas since there is 0 chance MULTIPLE ergodox kits would ever hit moq.

[heavyheaded]

Legended ergodox keys are lame. Who actually uses keybinds that correspond to the "standard" set of ergodox legends?

I'd be much more interested in SA oblivion if the ergodox set didn't have legends.

I don't care at all if the legends don't match what the key is programmed to. A bunch of blanks just looks odd to me if the entire set isn't blank.

Granite and Nautilus Ergodox sets sold fairly well so there's a good amount of people that like keys with legends.

The differences here are:

GMK Custom Color MOQ is higher.
The SA Oblivion Ergodox mods are just gibberish and are actually common keys between multiple sets (for example many of the 1u keys like orange XOR are in the Assembly kit AND the ergodox kit others are in the macros.asm kit, etc) This lets them optimize production to make a bunch of different sets at once and produce the colors in batches. It also means they work regardless of your layout. A correctly labeled GMK set would have no such benefits.

Granite is dyesub and is irrelevant, sure ergodox kits sell at $30, but no GMK ergodox kit will ever be $30. Nautilus ONLY sold with legends, so you can't really quantify if the people who bought it actually prefer legends or not, just that they are willing to still buy them regardless.

Blank ergodox also makes it cleaner looking to use paired with the alternate alphas since there is 0 chance MULTIPLE ergodox kits would ever hit moq.

I would buy the ergodox kit only if it was legended.

[amnesia0287]

Legended ergodox keys are lame. Who actually uses keybinds that correspond to the "standard" set of ergodox legends?

I'd be much more interested in SA oblivion if the ergodox set didn't have legends.

I don't care at all if the legends don't match what the key is programmed to. A bunch of blanks just looks odd to me if the entire set isn't blank.

Granite and Nautilus Ergodox sets sold fairly well so there's a good amount of people that like keys with legends.

The differences here are:

GMK Custom Color MOQ is higher.
The SA Oblivion Ergodox mods are just gibberish and are actually common keys between multiple sets (for example many of the 1u keys like orange XOR are in the Assembly kit AND the ergodox kit others are in the macros.asm kit, etc) This lets them optimize production to make a bunch of different sets at once and produce the colors in batches. It also means they work regardless of your layout. A correctly labeled GMK set would have no such benefits.

Granite is dyesub and is irrelevant, sure ergodox kits sell at $30, but no GMK ergodox kit will ever be $30. Nautilus ONLY sold with legends, so you can't really quantify if the people who bought it actually prefer legends or not, just that they are willing to still buy them regardless.

Blank ergodox also makes it cleaner looking to use paired with the alternate alphas since there is 0 chance MULTIPLE ergodox kits would ever hit moq.

I would buy the ergodox kit only if it was legended.

Perhaps, but you are just 1 person. The part you don't seem to be considering is how much cheaper blanks actually would be. So while the almighty heavyheaded might pass on such a set, if it were to sell without legends, there is still a chance the blanks would sell more simply by costing less.

I have no OPINION in this matter at all. If you want to compare hard facts, yuri blank ergodox attach rate was 13.3%. Nautilus legended ergodox attach rate was 8.8%. Sure Nautilus sold a few more kit, but given it also sold nearly twice as many base kits, its small lead (167 vs 124) in terms of ergodox that doesn't really indicate any bias one way or another.

[PiMaxC]

Love it

[kolashnikov]

Legended ergodox keys are lame. Who actually uses keybinds that correspond to the "standard" set of ergodox legends?

I'd be much more interested in SA oblivion if the ergodox set didn't have legends.

I don't care at all if the legends don't match what the key is programmed to. A bunch of blanks just looks odd to me if the entire set isn't blank.

Granite and Nautilus Ergodox sets sold fairly well so there's a good amount of people that like keys with legends.

The differences here are:

GMK Custom Color MOQ is higher.
The SA Oblivion Ergodox mods are just gibberish and are actually common keys between multiple sets (for example many of the 1u keys like orange XOR are in the Assembly kit AND the ergodox kit others are in the macros.asm kit, etc) This lets them optimize production to make a bunch of different sets at once and produce the colors in batches. It also means they work regardless of your layout. A correctly labeled GMK set would have no such benefits.

Granite is dyesub and is irrelevant, sure ergodox kits sell at $30, but no GMK ergodox kit will ever be $30. Nautilus ONLY sold with legends, so you can't really quantify if the people who bought it actually prefer legends or not, just that they are willing to still buy them regardless.

Blank ergodox also makes it cleaner looking to use paired with the alternate alphas since there is 0 chance MULTIPLE ergodox kits would ever hit moq.

I would buy the ergodox kit only if it was legended.

I would only buy the ergodox kit if it DOESN'T have legends. With a board that is so readily and widely customized, it makes more sense (to me) to have blank keys than to potentially provide keys with the wrong legends/profile.

[Dominathan]

Legended ergodox keys are lame. Who actually uses keybinds that correspond to the "standard" set of ergodox legends?

I'd be much more interested in SA oblivion if the ergodox set didn't have legends.

I don't care at all if the legends don't match what the key is programmed to. A bunch of blanks just looks odd to me if the entire set isn't blank.

Granite and Nautilus Ergodox sets sold fairly well so there's a good amount of people that like keys with legends.

The differences here are:

GMK Custom Color MOQ is higher.
The SA Oblivion Ergodox mods are just gibberish and are actually common keys between multiple sets (for example many of the 1u keys like orange XOR are in the Assembly kit AND the ergodox kit others are in the macros.asm kit, etc) This lets them optimize production to make a bunch of different sets at once and produce the colors in batches. It also means they work regardless of your layout. A correctly labeled GMK set would have no such benefits.

Granite is dyesub and is irrelevant, sure ergodox kits sell at $30, but no GMK ergodox kit will ever be $30. Nautilus ONLY sold with legends, so you can't really quantify if the people who bought it actually prefer legends or not, just that they are willing to still buy them regardless.

Blank ergodox also makes it cleaner looking to use paired with the alternate alphas since there is 0 chance MULTIPLE ergodox kits would ever hit moq.

I would buy the ergodox kit only if it was legended.

I would only buy the ergodox kit if it DOESN'T have legends. With a board that is so readily and widely customized, it makes more sense (to me) to have blank keys than to potentially provide keys with the wrong legends/profile.

I've hated that most GMK ergo kits don't have legends.  I happily bought the legended ergo in Godspeed SA, and I love them.  I got unlegended GMK with carbon, and it drove me crazy.

We should look at the Godspeed attach rate, since it has both.  Also, we should look at sets that were launched after the second ergo infinity came out. New ergo owners could have skewed the numbers.

[TastyNico]

I would actually love to see the R4 Space Invaders caps that were included in the first IC! http://i.imgur.com/hCluwyx.jpg
It would add such a nice touch to <60% boards.

[pixelpusher]

Hypocritical post here.  Would be nice to have a bit of silence on the 18 page long thread until we have an actual update.

[nightdriver]

tfw you're at a weezer concert but you can't stop thinking about GMK Laser

[panzermuffin]

Im down for base, novelties and norde kits. Finally an ISO GMK set!

[darthzero]

Im down for base, novelties and norde kits. Finally an ISO GMK set!

Finally

[smgt]

If this gets made I will buy base, novelties, euro and ergoplanck. Maybe hiragana set if I got my spending pants on.

[forevermadrigal]

If this gets made I will buy base, novelties, euro and ergoplanck. Maybe hiragana set if I got my spending pants on.

It's gonna happen, it's just a matter of when

[avid]

If this gets made I will buy base, novelties, euro and ergoplanck. Maybe hiragana set if I got my spending pants on.

It's gonna happen, it's just a matter of when

Mito said Q4, so im hopeful it will be after the SA Oblivion. 1 oct seems reasonable.

[Miotch92]

words cannot express my excitement for lazer....

[panzermuffin]

As I understand it, the GB will be through massdrop? How is the MoQ for the kits with GMK through Massdrop? Getting an euro kit is pretty much the make or brake for me.

[Oblotzky]

As I understand it, the GB will be through massdrop? How is the MoQ for the kits with GMK through Massdrop? Getting an euro kit is pretty much the make or brake for me.

MOQ for Base will be 250 units due to custom colors. Side-kits are usually 100 units on MD, but GMK also tends to agree to do less e.g. on International kits, they're probably cool with that due to 1500+ base units selling. For Laser, I suspect we will see 2500 units for base

[JohanAR]

Awesome looking set. Feels a bit wasteful having to buy an Ergodox kit to build a Planck/Preonic/Nyquist, especially since the base kit is so generous with R4 1u modifiers. Personally I'd like to see the following Ortho kit:

R3 1u: Esc, Enter, Ctrl
R4 1u: Shift (x2)
R4c 1u: 2x blanks of each color
R4c 2u: 2x bright purple (i.e. the regular space bar color)

With those keys you'd be able to cover a lot of different layouts using only 13 extra keys and without having to resort to using a lot of blanks along the sides

[panzermuffin]

As I understand it, the GB will be through massdrop? How is the MoQ for the kits with GMK through Massdrop? Getting an euro kit is pretty much the make or brake for me.

MOQ for Base will be 250 units due to custom colors. Side-kits are usually 100 units on MD, but GMK also tends to agree to do less e.g. on International kits, they're probably cool with that due to 1500+ base units selling. For Laser, I suspect we will see 2500 units for base

Absolutely awesome! Instant buy!

[elfick]

Awesome looking set. Feels a bit wasteful having to buy an Ergodox kit to build a Planck/Preonic/Nyquist, especially since the base kit is so generous with R4 1u modifiers. Personally I'd like to see the following Ortho kit:

R3 1u: Esc, Enter, Ctrl
R4 1u: Shift (x2)
R4c 1u: 2x blanks of each color
R4c 2u: 2x bright purple (i.e. the regular space bar color)

With those keys you'd be able to cover a lot of different layouts using only 13 extra keys and without having to resort to using a lot of blanks along the sides

I'll second this. The IC has run so long that I've probabaly flip-flopped but I've come to realize I don't really like blanks unless the entire set is blank. I'd really like to have legend-ed mods with legend-ed alphas and I'll use the wrong legend if I must but would (obviously) prefer the correct legend. I fully understand the historic reasons for GMK kit decisions but I suspect that Laser will sell enough that you can probably push through a dedicated Planck or Planck/Preonic set with legends.

That said, if Hiragana drops, I'll be getting the blank set to go with that.

[ye_cole]

Has Mito commented on doing novelties with the japanese alphas as well?

I'm talking about the orange WASD. I'd like to get novelties, base, and gajin/hiragana alphas, but want the WASD to also be orange. (gajin has more votes ATM).

[SuperVan]

Hi mito, I can't wait any more. Pls...

[MiTo]

Small update, a batch of color samples arrived last week and this is the most accurate photo I could arrange, with the equipment I currently have. I'm hoping to visit a friend this weekend, his mother is a professional photographer and I think she'll be able to help us with proper macro shots. The following keycaps are the hot pink and midgnight modifiers, GMK is working on more samples featuring the rest of colors, etc. I also shot a secondary photo with some of the confirmed colors for the arcade characters and WASD/HJKL/etc (gasoline accents). I wasn't happy with the color of the alphas and cyan on the alphas legends/ghost therefore it's being adjusted as well. Same for the lime green.

If I could describe these two colors (hot pink and midnight) using words, I'd say that the hot pink is very bright almost redish, it's an ultra pink unicorn magenta. As for the midnight in my perception it's a dark purple blueish color of some sort, very elegant and kinda mysterious.





Overall the project and collaborations are progressing at very good pace, all parts are integrated and engaged. I never thought that an old high school friend of mine would join us and illustrate, his work is superb and I'm very satisfied. Because of that, I re connected with some of my old real life friends such as Erica, Lucas and Yuri. Turns out they find our hobby super interesting! Working on this project have been very fun and challenging, all aspects considered so far this is by far the most enjoyable one. That said, thanks a lot for the patience, excitement and of course the support, it wouldn't be possible without you all. Keep in touch for the incoming updates!

[jnav]

Hey Mito, after seeing the physical samples of the pink and reading your description, how accurate do you think this rendering that autobot produced looks in combination with the Norbatouch pink TKL case?

[jnav]

Here's a another photo of the case for reference.
 Screen Shot 2017-09-13 at 8.12.59 PM.png

[merintil]

Honestly, I didn't think my hype levels could get any stronger, but after seeing some of the illustrations on the Laser GMK page...

I had such a huge flashback to when I watched movies like Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell... and damn it, I can't wait to get on board with this GB!

[pab]

Are we 100% on that this will be sold in NA via Massdrop? Is there any alternative for NA people?

After Massdrop's power play with the Whitefox drop on Kickstarter, I can't in good consciousness purchase from Massdrop.

[Vigrith]

100%. Massdrop will handle everything, there's no chance there'll be any redistribution apart from the Asian proxy, if you wanna buy through them instead but obviously the money's going to MD anyway.

[Oblotzky]

Are we 100% on that this will be sold in NA via Massdrop? Is there any alternative for NA people?

After Massdrop's power play with the Whitefox drop on Kickstarter, I can't in good consciousness purchase from Massdrop.

I'll come off as a fanboy here but.. I wanna hear MD's response to this first. We don't know what the paperwork signed by IC exactly says. I have a contract with MD as well for Oblivion and it clearly outlines where the rights of the design lie.

[Corgi Butts]

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Hot damn that looks great!

[fouras]

Small update, a batch of color samples arrived last week and this is the most accurate photo I could arrange, with the equipment I currently have. I'm hoping to visit a friend this weekend, his mother is a professional photographer and I think she'll be able to help us with proper macro shots. The following keycaps are the hot pink and midgnight modifiers, GMK is working on more samples featuring the rest of colors, etc. I also shot a secondary photo with some of the confirmed colors for the arcade characters and WASD/HJKL/etc (gasoline accents). I wasn't happy with the color of the alphas and cyan on the alphas legends/ghost therefore it's being adjusted as well. Same for the lime green.

If I could describe these two colors (hot pink and midnight) using words, I'd say that the hot pink is very bright almost redish, it's an ultra pink unicorn magenta. As for the midnight in my perception it's a dark purple blueish color of some sort, very elegant and kinda mysterious.

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Maybe it's the picture, but the mod color seems less purple than it does in the renders. I'll be a little disappointed if that's the case.

[autobot]

Small update, a batch of color samples arrived last week and this is the most accurate photo I could arrange, with the equipment I currently have. I'm hoping to visit a friend this weekend, his mother is a professional photographer and I think she'll be able to help us with proper macro shots. The following keycaps are the hot pink and midgnight modifiers, GMK is working on more samples featuring the rest of colors, etc. I also shot a secondary photo with some of the confirmed colors for the arcade characters and WASD/HJKL/etc (gasoline accents). I wasn't happy with the color of the alphas and cyan on the alphas legends/ghost therefore it's being adjusted as well. Same for the lime green.

If I could describe these two colors (hot pink and midnight) using words, I'd say that the hot pink is very bright almost redish, it's an ultra pink unicorn magenta. As for the midnight in my perception it's a dark purple blueish color of some sort, very elegant and kinda mysterious.

Show Image

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Maybe it's the picture, but the mod color seems less purple than it does in the renders. I'll be a little disappointed if that's the case.

Show Image

This is my observation of the purple as well. Perhaps the picture doesn't capture the color correctly? I hope that's the case. Otherwise, the color needs be adjusted.

[Vigrith]

That "deep midnight blue/purple" ESC is part of the modifiers, not the alphas - the modifiers have always been midnight blue to me, what's purple is the alphas, of which there are no samples yet as per Mito's assertion.

Maybe you guys perceive the modifiers as purple too though, in which case we're just seeing differently. In Fouras' "montage" it does look very different, I agree.

[MiTo]

Small update, a batch of color samples arrived last week and this is the most accurate photo I could arrange, with the equipment I currently have. I'm hoping to visit a friend this weekend, his mother is a professional photographer and I think she'll be able to help us with proper macro shots. The following keycaps are the hot pink and midgnight modifiers, GMK is working on more samples featuring the rest of colors, etc. I also shot a secondary photo with some of the confirmed colors for the arcade characters and WASD/HJKL/etc (gasoline accents). I wasn't happy with the color of the alphas and cyan on the alphas legends/ghost therefore it's being adjusted as well. Same for the lime green.

If I could describe these two colors (hot pink and midnight) using words, I'd say that the hot pink is very bright almost redish, it's an ultra pink unicorn magenta. As for the midnight in my perception it's a dark purple blueish color of some sort, very elegant and kinda mysterious.

Show Image

Show Image

Maybe it's the picture, but the mod color seems less purple than it does in the renders. I'll be a little disappointed if that's the case.

Show Image

This is my observation of the purple as well. Perhaps the picture doesn't capture the color correctly? I hope that's the case. Otherwise, the color needs be adjusted.

The photo I posted with the Esc keycaps represent the pink well. On the other hand, I don't think the same degree of accuracy was achieved for the the midnight color - looking at my picture (albeit grainy) it looks like a dull dark blue, like the ink of a Bic office pen, which is not the case in real life let alone in the renders. The color doesn't look very good in the picture but it sure does in real life. It's safe to say that GMK arrived at this color by blueing purple resin instead of purpleing what was originally a blue. In real life, the midnight doesn't look like a shade of blue like displayed in my mediocre picture, it's more like a dark purple, with some shade of blue to it. It's significantly purple, the tone is much more pronounced on the keycap than blue. I'm hoping to access the photographer's equipment this Sunday, so I can perhaps offer more accurate pictures.

[rehael]

Let's wait for better photos which may come after this weekend. Because from the photos I see, that if the keycaps were shot on a white paper as a background, then the white balance is waaaay of, which skews all the colours. And as such any comparison to renders is void.

[MiTo]

Hey Mito, after seeing the physical samples of the pink and reading your description, how accurate do you think this rendering that autobot produced looks in combination with the Norbatouch pink TKL case?
(Attachment Link)

Here's a another photo of the case for reference.
(Attachment Link) (Attachment Link)

Looking at the actual photo of the case, I think it looks kind of a bubblegum pink (maybe I'm wrong) while the Laser color is more like a hot pink. It doesn't seem to be a 100% match, more like a 70% match, to be honest with you, but I think overall the case would combine very well with the keyset. Mostly because I believe that bubblegum pink represents the 80's decade and since this is the conceptual background of the keyset then it would make sense and match. Comparing the two colors, I believe that a case shading to a less vibrant pink could potentially frame hot pink and purple keycaps nicely, I would enjoy that personally. Bonus if this Norbauer case was translucent acrylic with injection marks, instead of metal, like a cassette Walkman tape.

That said, if any user wants to physically see these samples, in order to match your creations with the keycap set, just let me know and I can ship you some. I think I have enough samples to cover everyone who would be interested.

[jnav]

 
Would love to get a sample. Let me know how we go about doing that. Thanks.

[madindehead]

I would love a sample too if that's possible.

[panzermuffin]

Are we 100% on that this will be sold in NA via Massdrop? Is there any alternative for NA people?

After Massdrop's power play with the Whitefox drop on Kickstarter, I can't in good consciousness purchase from Massdrop.

I'll come off as a fanboy here but.. I wanna hear MD's response to this first. We don't know what the paperwork signed by IC exactly says. I have a contract with MD as well for Oblivion and it clearly outlines where the rights of the design lie.

The thing is, that MD obviously has some bad practices all around. Planck anyone? SA Goodspeed chinese proxy? Payment ****ups? I mean Ill buy GMK Laser regardless because this set is everything I nerd about (Keyset with GitS novelties? QUE.). But I think I'd buy it with much more confidence and without that knot in my belly if it was sold by someone else. Maybe for future projects.

On topic: Samples are awesome. Please take my money already.

[HotRoderX]

Not to be a jerk but if Massdrop didn't host the buy or another reasonably sized company. I would completely pass I not just going to fork over 100-200 dollars to someone and hope I get my product in 6months or less.

[Jalkan]

I would love a sample if that's still possible.

[Oblotzky]

I would love a sample if that's still possible.

It never was, only MiTo received a couple caps from GMK for inspection 

[Jalkan]

I would love a sample if that's still possible.

It never was, only MiTo received a couple caps from GMK for inspection 

That said, if any user wants to physically see these samples, in order to match your creations with the keycap set, just let me know and I can ship you some. I think I have enough samples to cover everyone who would be interested.

Am I misunderstanding this?

[Oblotzky]

I would love a sample if that's still possible.

It never was, only MiTo received a couple caps from GMK for inspection 

That said, if any user wants to physically see these samples, in order to match your creations with the keycap set, just let me know and I can ship you some. I think I have enough samples to cover everyone who would be interested.

Am I misunderstanding this?

Oh damn, I missed that post. Color me surprised! Usually you only receive 2 caps per color from GMK

[mintyfruits]

I understand some peoples' frustration with Massdrop; however, I've never had any issues with them. So speaking from personal experience, I think MD is the way to go. :/ Sets that run on MD seem to frequently sell more, too (which has to be a big plus). Regardless, I wish that there was a better platform that allowed for everyone to get good value and high sell-through.