Attention, everyone in this Group Buy.
This is in information update.There has been a lot of guessing and speculating on the status of this Group Buy. I've communicated directly with Melissa at Signature Plastics and asked her for the actual status of where we are right now.
On 8/6/2012 I wired to Signature Plastics $10,025.00 USD of the approximately $10,400.00 USD that I have collected and continue to collect.
On 8/15/2012 9:38 PM Melissa informed me that production on the keycaps will begin when payment has bee made in full for the order. The current unpaid balance on the order is approximately $44K USD.
If you look at the list of caps and sets that 7bit posts regularly you'll see that there are a lot of caps that have not been ordered yet.
Above are the known facts. Everything following is my opinion or what I understand to be likely to be true based on my observations.
The group buy seems to be going fine, but because it is such a massive buy, it's going to take a long time to come to completion. Just look at the number of sets and options available. How long does it take just to read the entire wiki describing the sets available? How long does it take Signature Plastics to make a single blue and yellow "Geek Hack" cap?
This buy is not for putting a set of caps on your keyboard for work next Monday morning. This buy is to give us a set or two, depending on what we order, of custom, one of a kind key caps for our most awesome keyboards. You aren't going to throw these caps on a cheap mechanical keyboard. You're going to put them on your favorite, most expensive high end mechanical keyboard and you're going to want to show it off. At least I know that's that I'm going to do with my RETRO/STDRGBYSYM set. That was my favorite set, but the others are equally awesome and unique.
Yeah, it's going to take several months just to finish taking orders and collecting money to pay Signature Plastics, then it's going to take SP probably two to four months to manufacture them. I'm guessing about that figure based on the estimated 45 days for a small group buy. This buy is massive, so it's going to take a long time, but these sets will definitely be worth waiting for. Just order the caps you like and then be patient. Don't check the mailbox every day, you'll notice when they show up. You know the saying about the "watched pot."