Did any1 purchase a Korean 356 b4?

[Laggy-gaga]

Be curious coz my friend told me that u need to be introduced by a member of OTD so u can have the authority to get one.

reference link:
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[zefrer]

Whoa are those PCB mounted cherry blues? Is that a first (for blues)?

Where's the buy now button?

[itlnstln]

I think I just used my "Oh" face.

[calavera]

they did a group buy on them, there's the regular 356, and the latest one was the 356 mini. You get all the parts for it and have to build it yourself. That involves soldering stuff on the board as well as the switches..etc. They're hard to come by though and will cost more than 300 bucks. You provide your own switches and key caps if I'm not mistaken.

[kriminal]

like OMG!

[Brian8bit]

What's the manufacturer web address?

[squarebox]

SEXY!!!
Geekhack should do a MO for these!!!
Anyone speaks korean?

[laden3]

they did a group buy on them, there's the regular 356, and the latest one was the 356 mini. You get all the parts for it and have to build it yourself. That involves soldering stuff on the board as well as the switches..etc. They're hard to come by though and will cost more than 300 bucks. You provide your own switches and key caps if I'm not mistaken.

That means $300 for a case, a pcb and a controller?

[calavera]

That means $300 for a case, a pcb and a controller?

And some stabilizers, metal plates for pcb/switches, rubber ring gaskets and what not. The case is full aluminium if I'm not mistaken and everything was custom built..so think of the tooling costs. But I'm not 100% sure on the manufacturing aspect and I haven't looked into it. But I don't think this was meant for the average enthusiast anyways.

[Sam]

That means $300 for a case, a pcb and a controller?

If it was $300 for those three items, it may sound like a lot, but it's not.  Making custom cases is very expensive.  Any of the items when mass-produced are very cheap per item.  When doing a small run, they're very expensive, and for the case a hefty one-time tooling charge is likely involved.  My company designs and manufacturers electronics and even small items typically cost tens of thousands of dollars for a small initial run.  So if they were able to do an initial run of let's say 100, then $300 x 100 = $30,000.  Very reasonable I'd say.

[Sam]

Be curious coz my friend told me that u need to be introduced by a member of OTD so u can have the authority to get one.

Do you know off-hand how to join OTD and if they accept non-Koreans?  I live in Korea, but I'm not Korean and my pidgin Korean is pretty bad, so it's very difficult for me to carry on in most conversations unless they're at a very basic level.

[calavera]

just for future reference, the group buy is over. And I don't know how you'd register on that website as they ask for a social security number that only Korean citizens have. I know I did when I registered.

[keyboardlover]

$300+ for a keyboard you can only get from Korea? And it's not a Realforce 87U?
No thanks.

[Sam]

Even if that group buy is over, they might have some interesting group buys in the future.  I do have a Korean national ID number which allows me to register with sites and services which require the number.  Maybe I'll ask a Korean friend to help me sign up.

[kriminal]

just for future reference, the group buy is over. And I don't know how you'd register on that website as they ask for a social security number that only Korean citizens have. I know I did when I registered.

dang.. i would've coughed up $300 somehow...

[keyboardlover]

Even if that group buy is over, they might have some interesting group buys in the future.  I do have a Korean national ID number which allows me to register with sites and services which require the number.  Maybe I'll ask a Korean friend to help me sign up.

If possible, see what kind of price it might cost for a Realforce 87U group buy. That's a hot keyboard here.

[Sam]

I was introduced by a OTD member and immediately rejected for telling too many Kimchee and Kolorful Krazy Korean Keys jokes.

Well I love Kimchee.  Eat it most every day.  So maybe I'd fit right in, other than the lack of skills in communicating in Korean.

[zefrer]

I was introduced by a OTD member and immediately rejected for telling too many Kimchee and Kolorful Krazy Korean Keys jokes.

No surprise there

[sixty]

I have the authority, but I lack the money :lol:
I will be receiving a limkb sooner or later though.

356s are pretty rare by now and go from 350-500k won depending on the model. There is also the DKSaver which ranks in the same price range.
The original runs of the series were about 400.000 won (~360 USD) for just the base set. You only get the PCB, plate and case. You still need switches and keycaps and SMD soldering skills (The latest model uses a SMD controller and SMD diodes). Assembled ones range in the $450 range.

[sixty]

Here I go. After about a year of smooth talking and making connections I finally have a DK Saver coming to me this month. This one did not come easy and certainly not cheap. I will post impressions when it arrives.

[Hak Foo]

Even if that group buy is over, they might have some interesting group buys in the future.  I do have a Korean national ID number which allows me to register with sites and services which require the number.  Maybe I'll ask a Korean friend to help me sign up.

maybe there's a 'bogus but syntactically valid' number you can use to fill forms, like how in the US, a social security number in the format 8xx-xx-xxxx is not legit.

[calavera]

maybe there's a 'bogus but syntactically valid' number you can use to fill forms, like how in the US, a social security number in the format 8xx-xx-xxxx is not legit.

That'd be very difficult as it has to match to a Korean name. A Korean name consists of 2~3 (sometimes 4) chinese characters. And there are what..30,000+ chinese characters used in Korea. I'll tell you this, the first 6 digits are the birth date, the second group of digits start with either 1 or 2 depending on sex.

good luck with that lol

[Sam]

I'll tell you this, the first 6 digits are the birth date

Correct.

the second group of digits start with either 1 or 2 depending on sex.

Not on mine.  Being I'm a foreigner, my second group starts with the digit '5'.  Not sure what a '3', '4', or other digits mean though.  AFAIK, even though I'm a foreigner, I can still use any services which require an ID card.  Several years ago, a different ID card was issued, but with the increasing significance of using the ID card for online transactions, they changed it to be a similar format to Korean nationals' ID cards so online systems should be able to work with all.

Sixty,  looking forward to seeing a review of it in English!!

[Hak Foo]

afk to steal identities.

It seems amazing given in the US how everyone is paranoid about their social security number, such a valuable crediential is tossed around there.

My point wasn't that it worked as a real number, more that it lets you complete the form and maybe can be manually resolved later.  Many times, the form system only wants something in the box, even if it's nonsense.

[calavera]

I'm not sure how exactly the confirmation works but a bogus/random name and number never worked during registering. And it's really no big secret as far as the Korean number goes. It's more like common knowledge among Koreans. I'm Korean too btw.

[sixty]

Back in the day it was a simpe script check to verify that the KSSN is valid. Nowadays things are different. There are two government servers that actually confirm the name and SSN with their database records. This is for forums and other services like that.

Games and socially active stuff (like videosharing sites) take things a step further and require you to do SMS verification with the phone that is registered to your SSN. Even if you are a Korean living outside of Korea there is usually nothing you can do to verify any modern game account without actually being in Korea and having a cellphone registered to your SSN.

For a little fee there is also a service to do a reverse search on your SSN and see where it has been used to reduce risks of your identity being stolen.