[techkeys.us]THEY'RE HERE!!! Br/Ba Keycaps and Crystal Keys - Order in Post #3

[kmiller8]

O god, I just bought so many of those

[danielucf]

Order placed. Did we ever find out if translucent keys like this can be double shot either as the text or with solid text inside it?

Also we need a gratuitous picture of a huge pile of these keys, maybe even in zip lock baggies.

[esoomenona]

.

[Sifo]

They're from SP, so close to Cherry profile.

[danielucf]

What profile will these be in? Have we discussed this before...? 

Crystals are available in all rows, Br/Ba caps are top row profile.

I meant Cherry or OEM or etc.?

SP profile which is similar to cherry but not exact.

[i3oilermaker]

Order placed. Did we ever find out if translucent keys like this can be double shot either as the text or with solid text inside it?

Also we need a gratuitous picture of a huge pile of these keys, maybe even in zip lock baggies.

Ask and you shall receive

[Sifo]

^ lol daaaaaaaaaaaamn. That doesn't look like a lot though, I better order soon with the popularity of these..

[YoungMichael88]

Order placed. 32 new caps. Outch.

[Lorem-Ipsum]

Just got emailed to their availability.

I just went and ordered everything.  But I need some clarification when I select R1, R2, R3, and R4 will it mean I will get 4 Crystals for each selection or only one?

Yes you are dealing with someone who has just finished Night Shift and am more than slightly retarded, if that's possible for me.......

I placed orders for all of them just in case of missing out on anything.  Good one i3oiler......love your gear.

I'm under the impression that you just get one for each selection. As the Br Ba keys are $4 for the pair I would guess the crystal caps are $1 each.

I'm going to wait until there is a clear answer to press the Checkout button.

[i3oilermaker]

^ lol daaaaaaaaaaaamn. That doesn't look like a lot though, I better order soon with the popularity of these..

Its a bad angle...

[i3oilermaker]

Wow that still looks small in the pic...trust me there are plenty

[tsangan]

the price right now is group buy price?.......

[danielucf]

That 500 or 1000 keys?

[rowdy]

Wow that still looks small in the pic...trust me there are plenty

Not around here it's not!!

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Wow that still looks small in the pic...trust me there are plenty

Not around here it's not!!

This might be true...

[neeb]

the price right now is group buy price?.......

[i3oilermaker]

Yes - are $1 keys out too pricey?

[Lorem-Ipsum]

Yes - are $1 keys out too pricey?

IMO maybe slightly, but I'm working out the cost with an exchange rate + delivery + potential customs charges so I'll have to wait for a US person to confirm.

[tsangan]

Can we can a scanned copy of the invoice?

Yes that price looks too expensive for what I think you ordered. I'm assuming you ordered enough for the mass amount of interest there is here AND you most likely ordered more to sell after the "GB" prices is over

[neeb]

Yes - are $1 keys out too pricey?

I'm not sure about those but $4 for the 2 Br Ba keys seems like there's room for profit on your end. I've never purchased bulk custom keys but from the general pricing quotes I've gotten from SP out of curiosity, it does seem like they're a little marked up. Maybe I'm overestimating the amount you purchased? Idk lol

[danielucf]

Yes - are $1 keys out too pricey?

Is that the group buy price? The quote I got from SP today was 500 1x keys $.51 a piece, 750 $.45 a piece, and 1000 $.41 a piece. Granted that was for double shots, solo color keys *shrug*

[rowdy]

Sp has translucent coloured caps for $1.25 ea, but knowing Geekhack even if these were $2 they would sell out pretty soon.

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Yes - are $1 keys out too pricey?

I think the price is fine.  Seems fair to me...

[justin one]

Just ordered the 2 key BrBa set!

[danielucf]

Yes - are $1 keys out too pricey?

I think the price is fine.  Seems fair to me...

I understand the price seems fair, but the reason we ran it through techkeys was because it was agreed we would have group buy prices for a week, and then the price could go up so techkeys could make some profit.

[neeb]

Yes - are $1 keys out too pricey?

Is that the group buy price? The quote I got from SP today was 500 1x keys $.51 a piece, 750 $.45 a piece, and 1000 $.41 a piece. Granted that was for double shots, solo color keys *shrug*

That's what I'm seeing as well

[tsangan]

Yes - are $1 keys out too pricey?

I think the price is fine.  Seems fair to me...

fair vs real price is 2 different things, the prices he has on techkeys is fair is that the real group buy price as promised is 2 whole different stories

[neeb]

Even calculating in the legend fees, it seems like there's a decent amount of room for profit with the current pricing on techkeys

[tsangan]

a invoice will solve everything, Melissa always includes one when the package is shipped out

[i3oilermaker]

They are not invoice prices.  There is a small markup. 

I will be making a profit on these keys but not much.  I have costs to maintain my site and business.

I'm sorry if anyone feels my prices are unreasonable or that I deceived anyone.

[danielucf]

For the meth keys there should be no legend fee since they are blanks, for the Br and Ba keys it all depends how many were ordered. If we just have the totals for each key type ordered it isn't hard to figure it out.

[i3oilermaker]

In addition this was not a true group buy because I order significantly more keys than there was demand.

I might get stuck with a lot of extras and felt it reasonable to increase the price a little to offset that risk.

[tsangan]

I have do admit I was not following 100% of this thread the entire time but I was under the impression for the last 3-4 weeks that for the first week it will be 100% group buy price, especially since with the GB the rest of your inventory for this order is ordered at a even lower price tier

[neeb]

They are not invoice prices.  There is a small markup. 

I will be making a profit on these keys but not much.  I have costs to maintain my site and business.

I'm sorry if anyone feels my prices are unreasonable or that I deceived anyone.

Imo, it would have been much better if you had said that to begin with. I'm not really bothered by that and from some recent GB threads I've seen, it doesn't seem uncommon for people to take a small "fee" for their time packaging everything up and sending it etc etc.

The problem here, in my opinion, is that instead of doing a normal groupbuy, you offered to "make things easier" by managing the keys and running them through your site store, when honestly it seems like you kind of used this as an opportunity to take the reigns on an awesome key idea with high geekhack interest and use it for personal gain on your store.

Also, I have to call a little BS on this whole "costs to maintain my website and business" because 1- anyone decently competent in html could write your site in about 5 minutes (no offense, the site looks good I'm only saying that the scripts are extremely basic), and hosting costs are what, maybe $10/month? and 2- really not our concern or our problem in this case.

That's just my 2 cents and I apologize if this comes off as aggressive/blunt/etc, I genuinely mean no disrespect; I'm only trying to be honest.

[tsangan]

who's idea was it to use your site to make it easier? I don't think it was one of us, please don't play victim as you have to order more and get stuck with it, this was not our idea, we would have been fine by a regular GB

[danielucf]

It looks like easily 500 to 1000 of the function row was ordered which means a profit of 49-55-59 cents per key when selling at $1 a piece. If all keys sell that is a profit of $245 or $412.50 or $590 depending on the tier purchased.

[ekw808]

So this groupbuy would have been cheaper if Batmann, and CLIB handled the group buy instead of your bringing in your business?

[i3oilermaker]

I'll fix this - put the pitchforks away.

I'm sorry I did not intend to gauge or deceive anyone.  Give me a little time.

[neeb]

Will there by prototypes of all keys available for viewing before ordering? That's kind of what I've been waiting for...

This is going to work more like a sale than a GB.  I am going to front the cost (and the risk) and all keys will be available on techkeys.us at group buy prices for a limited time.

So to answer your question, you will get to see the final product before deciding if you want to buy.

Please Read
I am going to place the order with SP tomorrow and allow for plenty of leftovers.  The keys being made are going to be the Br and Ba as well as top row and bottom row (arrow keys) translucent blue keys.  The Ge and H key have been tabled for now.

There will be no formal group buy, the keys will be listed on techkeys.us when they arrive at the typical GB price (TBD).  After one week the price will go up to help hedge the risk of me buying lots of extras.  If you don't want to miss this window of buying at cost, sign up for product notifications at http://www.techkeys.us/contact-us.php This process will eliminate the need to manage a thread, respond to 100's of PMs, send 100's of invoices, break legs to pay, and have you out the cash for 3-4 weeks.  Instead when the keys arrive, you buy and they ship next day.

[neeb]

I'll fix this - put the pitchforks away.

I'm sorry I did not intend to gauge or deceive anyone.  Give me a little time.

Sounds good man

[i3oilermaker]

This is what I will to.

The thread collected 91 sets of Br Ba Keys.  I will lower the GB price to the SP cost @ 150 which is $1.11 + legend fee of .30 x 2 for the set = $2.62
The crystals I will lower the cost to SP cost @ 500 for R1 (.52), 100 for R2 and R3 (.93), and 250 for R3 (.62)

Before you as, if you already ordered, expect a refund, but give me a little time since I have to re-calc all the orders.

This is my screw up - I will make it right.  There is no excuse other than I was trying to make a little extra to hedge my bets.  I re-invest ALL my profits from techkeys into more keys.  That is fact.  Eventually I would like to make some money, but for now I am just trying to keep the good stuff coming.

I just hope I'm not sitting on a mountain of meth keys when this is over

[WhiteFireDragon]

They are not invoice prices.  There is a small markup. 

I will be making a profit on these keys but not much.  I have costs to maintain my site and business.

I'm sorry if anyone feels my prices are unreasonable or that I deceived anyone.

The markup wasn't mentioned from the very beginning. A markup is not "group buy price", which was all that was listed. You basically took this idea from Batmann and he did all the work in the IC, and ran it at your own store. If you feel like you needed the markup to run and maintain your business, then come up with other cap ideas for that. But this GB could hae been ran like a real group buy, without your site.

With all this said, I do believe price is fair, but that's not the point. It's the principle and business ethics. Reminds me of Ragnarock. Regardless, I still ordered $61 worth of caps + shipping.

EDIT: my response was typed while you were typing your last post. Thanks for making it right, but still need to address the fact that you're not arbitrarily setting the SP price tier. There could have been more orders based on the IC thread because people might not have expressed interest since you mentioned it'll be GB price for everyone.

[neeb]

This is what I will to.

The thread collected 91 sets of Br Ba Keys.  I will lower the GB price to the SP cost @ 150 which is $1.11 + legend fee of .30 x 2 for the set = $2.62
The crystals I will lower the cost to SP cost @ 500 for R1 (.52), 100 for R2 and R3 (.93), and 250 for R3 (.62)

Before you as, if you already ordered, expect a refund, but give me a little time since I have to re-calc all the orders.

This is my screw up - I will make it right.  There is no excuse other than I was trying to make a little extra to hedge my bets.  I re-invest ALL my profits from techkeys into more keys.  That is fact.  Eventually I would like to make some money, but for now I am just trying to keep the good stuff coming.

I just hope I'm not sitting on a mountain of meth keys when this is over

Wasn't that "Official Interest Tally" pretty much thrown out of the window once it was determined that you would order plenty (pretty early in the thread iirc) and anyone who wanted to buy them "at cost" could do so from your site?

[kmiller8]

This is what I will to.
...
Before you as, if you already ordered, expect a refund, but give me a little time since I have to re-calc all the orders.
...

Instead of refunding me, could you give me more keys (within what I've paid ofc) 

[Halverson]

Well, with the new GB prices, I officially will buy a lot more caps now.

[danielucf]

Depending on how the prices pan out I'll be ordering more keys as well.

[WhiteFireDragon]

This is what I will to.
...
Before you as, if you already ordered, expect a refund, but give me a little time since I have to re-calc all the orders.
...

Instead of refunding me, could you give me more keys (within what I've paid ofc) 

If possible, I'd like more keys too instead of refunding everything. I ordered different non Br/Ba keys in there too.

[Halverson]

Depending on how the prices pan out I'll be ordering more keys as well.

i3oiler posted that a few posts above!

"The thread collected 91 sets of Br Ba Keys.  I will lower the GB price to the SP cost @ 150 which is $1.11 + legend fee of .30 x 2 for the set = $2.62
The crystals I will lower the cost to SP cost @ 500 for R1 (.52), 100 for R2 and R3 (.93), and 250 for R3 (.62)"

Im guessing the second R3 is R4.

[tsangan]

This is what I will to.

The thread collected 91 sets of Br Ba Keys.  I will lower the GB price to the SP cost @ 150 which is $1.11 + legend fee of .30 x 2 for the set = $2.62
The crystals I will lower the cost to SP cost @ 500 for R1 (.52), 100 for R2 and R3 (.93), and 250 for R3 (.62)

Before you as, if you already ordered, expect a refund, but give me a little time since I have to re-calc all the orders.

This is my screw up - I will make it right.  There is no excuse other than I was trying to make a little extra to hedge my bets.  I re-invest ALL my profits from techkeys into more keys.  That is fact.  Eventually I would like to make some money, but for now I am just trying to keep the good stuff coming.

I just hope I'm not sitting on a mountain of meth keys when this is over

You never let the GB to be fully flourish, we ALL know a interest check vs a actual order in the orders will be more, what's to say I don't order another 159 sets?

Since you cut the GB way short to order it on your own and got YOURSELF a lower price tier while ALL of us is stuck at the 150 price tier mark?

[i3oilermaker]

Needless to say, after the Hazard GB I will not take this approach.

I'm not looking for any pity, but PayPal is charging me for these refunds.  I though this was a good idea...it was not.