[IC] SA Blanks (Signature Plastics) - GB Opening.

[fireworm]

More

Dusting this off, after a few months of thinking (and getting caught up in designing a 'real' kit, with not much success.)

Results from the last IC:
White, Gray, and Black were practically tied. 

Pink beat out the other colors by a vote.

I'm picking black, because I said so.     If all goes well (or if you whine enough), I'll expand to other colors.

Only a few folks wanted ISO enter and 2u vertical.  So, I will not offer ISO enter, or numpad blanks.

I also realized that selling sets is probably better for most folks, so I'll opt for that instead.

More

WHAT:

An interest check for buying some more blanks, similar to /u/scud80 group buy on reddit. 

I don't really like group buys, since missing out is terrible, logistics when the delivery comes are insane, and paying, then waiting months is super annoying.  SO! I'd probably bulk buy (one color to start?), and set up a store. Keeping a running stock and letting folks purchase at their whims, seems way easier.

Some colors are TBD, but I took the popular ones from the group buy, since it seemed they are, well, popular.

WHY:
I was pretty happy buying a bunch of SA blanks, but like most of YOU (I guess?), I want Mods to match.  A friend wanted Black SA Mods, but for the life of me, I couldn't find them anywhere, even in China.

The prices and lack of choice on pmk leads me to believe that I could fill in a gap, as I think SP really only wants to deal with larger customers (group buys), not selling singles / tens of caps.

HOW:
Fill out the form and show me there is enough interest, and push me in the right direction for initial supply. If there's "enough" (over say 100 folks), I'll buy accordingly, and become a lovely vendor.  If not, well, thanks for your time.

I'd purchase a bulk order from SP, create a store in the mean time, then, on delivery, open for business. I'd be shipping out of California, so CA sales tax would apply, and would offer international shipping (at apparently, disastrously high prices )

Anyway ask any questions you may have below.

[Puddsy]

the link to your form is dead

[fireworm]

Whoops, fixed the form link.

[gutsack]

Submitted!

[UsualSuspectXXX]

Hey. I'm definitely interested in a full (100%) set of sculpted blank blacks + some accent colors (green, orange, purple, blue, red, etc.)

... But I will not be filling out your IC form because you have too many required questions. I really don't feel like sitting down and calculating how much I'd be willing to pay PER key. That's just nonsense. I expect that you'd try to get the best bulk price you can and whatever input we have on price will have little to nothing to do with the final price.

[gutsack]

... But I will not be filling out your IC form because you have too many required questions. I really don't feel like sitting down and calculating how much I'd be willing to pay PER key. That's just nonsense. I expect that you'd try to get the best bulk price you can and whatever input we have on price will have little to nothing to do with the final price.

I filled out the form but I do agree there are too many questions and they’re too tricky to answer. I basically went for whatever I thought was reasonable but it’s asking a lot for people to answer that many questions.

[OracleKev]

Depends on what gets offered and price, this would be really helpful.  Often you need just few more keys to cover that other layout.
No more scavenging through Grab Bags or relying on cumbersome trades.

I'd like to see more priority on blank alphas (incl. 1.5u for \ in alpha color) and hard to get mod keys like 1.75u 2.25u SHIFTs and 2u BS.  I would actually pay good money for these (assuming it's significantly less than what SP charges - a single inventory key for $10)
It seems bottom row keys, Caps Lock / Enter are relatively easy to get since they are present in many kits (i.e. Novelty, Control/Func variety, etc.)

[fireworm]

Re: Too many questions & pricing questions:
Selling blanks is kinda hard, since many people have many different layouts.  As I mentioned, this is unlikely to be a Group Buy, since many keys need to be purchased.  I anticipate buying way more than the IC shows market for EDIT: to meet you guys at a reasonable price, which is why I ask how much per cap.  It sets up if we need a MOQ of 75 or 250 for one 2.25u cap.  Is there an easier way to ask this?  Trying to figure out what set people want (preonic? planck? wkl? 60%? 65%?) And if prices are reasonable?  Hmm, maybe I'll switch to "short answer" and process it like a human...

EDIT: Updated the form.  Should be simpler.

[ullr]

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=90680.0

There was a lot of interest in this kit but the OP apparently lost interest. Personally I have been wanting a full set of SA blanks for a long time. In the right black, yellow, red, white, pink, or green.

[Raqem]

I put some of this info in the form, but some of the questions on the second page won't capture all of this.

I participated in /u/scud80's group buy on reddit to buy a few things for my own use. Based on the numbers he provided, my order was 34% of the size of the average order, so my order was pretty small. I pretty much ordered a few extras for SA Pulse and a set of Grand Budapest blanks for an Ortho board. I also bought a few extra caps if they were cheap enough.

From that perspective, my goal was to target reasonably priced (to me) caps, and I was willing to pay slightly more depending on the row profile and the color.

1u

• $0.32 - I bought a bunch at this price
• $0.38 - I will still buy a few at this price
• $0.49 - It really needs to be R1 or R2/R4 and a snowflakey color for me to consider it at all

1.25u

• $0.67 - I bought a bunch at this price
• > $0.67 - It would need to be a snowflake

1.5u

• $2.92 - I bought a couple of caps at this price for a snowflakey build

1.75u / 2.25u / 2.75u

• None of these hit my price point for picking them up

2u

• $0.83 - I bought these just for fun
• $1.18 - Price is alright
• $1.76 - I bought the bare minimum of what I needed at this price

For the 1.5u caps that I bought for $2.92 each, I wouldn't have done that multiple times for other keycap sizes (e.g. if there were also 1.75u and 2.25u caps for that price).

I'm guessing you would do at least one more targeted IC prior to making any sort of purchase? That is, ask the community if they would specifically buy X caps for Y price? I don't remember how much /u/scud80 made public, but it would probably be useful to ask him for the numbers regarding cost and timelines.

Good luck!

[fireworm]

Yep, That's what I'm aiming for with this IC: What colors do you even want?  Are folks interested in lots of different colors, or can they settle on a few?  SP doesn't care; all colors are the same price...  Sounds like your suggestion is to buy fewer of those snowflake colors, but ask folks to spend more for them, right?  e.g., Black Mods are $1.50 each, Pink Mods are $2.50 each (as an example).

If there is enough interest, sure.  So far, no snowflake color is coming out ahead though.

And you aren't alone with 'cheap as possible' pricing; which is why I'm trying to poll it. 

[fireworm]

Bump for the update.

[suicidal_orange]

Are there any homing keys?  If you can't see where to put your fingers they would help )

I'm also wondering why there are 8 extra keys in the alpha kit.  I assume you were thinking of 65/75% boards but these need extra R3's at the bottom which aren't going to be covered by any mod kit, so you'd need to buy an extra kit to cover them.  75% boards would need the F row and that kit has the side columns covered already as R2=R4 upsidedown; this looks to be the only kit with 'arrows' so 65% users will have to buy it too - that means the 8 keys are redundant and everyone can save money (I'm happy to be told I'm missing something here!)

[fireworm]

Are there any homing keys?  If you can't see where to put your fingers they would help )

I'm also wondering why there are 8 extra keys in the alpha kit.  I assume you were thinking of 65/75% boards but these need extra R3's at the bottom which aren't going to be covered by any mod kit, so you'd need to buy an extra kit to cover them.  75% boards would need the F row and that kit has the side columns covered already as R2=R4 upsidedown; this looks to be the only kit with 'arrows' so 65% users will have to buy it too - that means the 8 keys are redundant and everyone can save money (I'm happy to be told I'm missing something here!)

Yes, I'll probably make a Deep Dish kit.

Mainly, the extra keys in Alphas was to help with ISO folks / split shift (before I added them to that set), or other weirdness 'just in case'.  Thanks for the feedback; kits aren't final.

And I'll think about what to do for 65%...

[suicidal_orange]

You could do with the kits being final before doing forms.  Personally I would like to do a 60% with split enter and a strange R2 bottom row and I think I'd need alphas, two standard mods and a 40% kit (with the reduced alpha kit the deep dish would give the extra R3 for ISO) but if you go changing kits that could change.

I think you should include 6.25 and 7u spacebars too - they are big/expensive so the MoQ should be low anyway.

[fireworm]

You could do with the kits being final before doing forms.  Personally I would like to do a 60% with split enter and a strange R2 bottom row and I think I'd need alphas, two standard mods and a 40% kit (with the reduced alpha kit the deep dish would give the extra R3 for ISO) but if you go changing kits that could change.

I think you should include 6.25 and 7u spacebars too - they are big/expensive so the MoQ should be low anyway.

True.

I think I'll only add new kits, and remove the extra Alphas.  Nothing that drastic.  I feel like 'normal' folks are going for 60% / TKL + w/ split space, or Ortho.

Updated to have some spacebars, 65% kit, and deep dish.

[suicidal_orange]

Hate to say it but I don't think the 65% kit works - generally 65% boards have 3x1.25u left mods and either 2x1.5 or 3x1u next to the arrows, so neither WK or WKL kits will cover them.  Unless they buy the homing kit and don't use ISO when conveniently there are 3 R3 caps going spare...  Very clever if intentional

[fireworm]

Hate to say it but I don't think the 65% kit works - generally 65% boards have 3x1.25u left mods and either 2x1.5 or 3x1u next to the arrows, so neither WK or WKL kits will cover them.  Unless they buy the homing kit and don't use ISO when conveniently there are 3 R3 caps going spare...  Very clever if intentional

I very cleverest.

Rama Koyu is WKL, which is perfect.

But yea. I think I could offer an 1800 / 65 WK kit, since that has the same issue: 1.25,1.25,1.25 and 1.5,1.5. Unless I'm mistaken?

[fireworm]

Bump for some weekend visibility.

Added an ISO Enter.

You can always fill out the form with extras you'd buy.

[fireworm]

Alright, so I'm prepping for the GB.  (Targeting Dec 1, or Dec 8 ) 

I'm going to also allow for WFK Alphas (the same white as in SA Oblivion Hagoromo).

Otherwise, kits are mostly locked.

GB will run for 4 weeks.  Invoices will be sent when ALL kits you ordered meet MOQ.  You will have 1 week to pay.

Working on pricing. 

MOQs are:

WK, 40's, Spacebars, ISO Enter: 15
Alphas: 50 (for each NN and WFK).
All others: 25

Any other feedback?

[RETURNISO]

Any chance of offering LED windowed as well? 1u`s? i don't mind the high price 

[fireworm]

Any chance of offering LED windowed as well? 1u`s? i don't mind the high price 

Actually hadn't thought about it.

Probably in a future buy.

[RETURNISO]

Any chance of offering LED windowed as well? 1u`s? i don't mind the high price 

Actually hadn't thought about it.

Probably in a future buy.

Cool, I would kill for NN or WFK led windowed 1u`s , anyway gonna pick something up when you kickoff the GB

[fatpolomanjr]

I plan to pick up some nn split spacebars from this. I'm happy to see the WFK alphas, and look forward to a split spacebar WFK kit in a future group buy.

[fireworm]

TEST Order Form - Removed

Made the final form, above, but took out the shipping part for now, so it's a test. 

Please let me know if anything is missing, confusing, or weird.

[fireworm]

Thanks random person(s) for testing the order form!

I decided that I'll set up a Shopify site, since it was easy to do, and will take some load off me sending invoices (for the low, low price of $29 / month).

I don't have proxies lined up for International buyers, so my recommendation is for those buyers is to use the Google Form, and 'hope someone shows up.' 

Additionally, the Google Form is probably better if you are prone to changing your mind...

Anyway! Tidying things up, and we will get this on the road within the week!