RainDrop - Blue & White Key Cap Set (SHIPPED)

[aggiejy]

Status: 100% Shipped.
All orders are now shipped. There are no leftovers, sorry. I hope the postal gods are kind.  Be sure to take pictures and post!



View Full Event Log

PHOTOS
Sorry for the poor quality... hopefully will replace with some good ones later if some group buy participates post them.  Obviously the pics with white mods have red alphas... I just haven't sorted two sets of alphas for pics.  But they are the same other than color.

Misc Photos:


Box/Sorting:

More

Yay, a day early!


Lots of sorting to do...


First sorting technique

Various Methods

3D Concept Renderings

More

Post delivery edit: Be really nailed them!  Line thickness and font aside (which we knew was off), they look spot on for renders!
I had these concepts done by the AMAZINGLY talented kaporkle.  If you run a group buy in the future, get in touch with him.  He has *very* reasonable prices and is a nice guy all around.  (FYI, I'm paying for these out of my own pocket... they will not be taken from the Group Buy proceeds.)

INTRODUCTION
Like many of you, I've wanted a blue key set since I first saw the original Red Alert set.  I expected someone to jump in with a group buy eventually, but so far that hasn't happened.  Having run a successful group buy a year and a half ago, I didn't expect to go through all that again… but I *really* want these!   Hopefully some of you guys do too.  Unlike some group buys, we're starting out with high-tier fixed prices and high hopes.  (see next post for more details)

THE GOODS

• ABS Plastic
• Two-Shot Injection Molded (double shot)
• DCS Profile (common)
• WYSE Font
• Produced by Signature Plastics
• Colors
  
  • White (WFK)
  • Blue (BFP)
• 7bit and New Custom Legends (the Valentine set can give you an example of some legends)

ALPHA SET

UPDATE: The alpha set above is what was sold, but additional keys have since been added. (see here for more details)

Update: Both Mod sets will also include a Geek Hack key in the color of the mods.

BLUE MODIFIER SET


WHITE MODIFIER SET


NUMBER PAD SET


BLUE TSANGAN SET


WHITE TSANGAN SET


ISO SET


PRICING

• Alphas - $25
• Mods - $42 (In blue or white)
• Tsangan - $20 (In blue or white)
• Num Pad - $20
• ISO - $15

All pricing is USD and includes ALL FEES and extra costs.  What you see is what you pay, plus shipping.


SHIPPING

• US - $7 (USPS Priority)
• NON-US - $17 (USPS 1st Class International)

You'll should be pleased to know that I've arranged for Techkeys.us to pack and ship all orders. MANY thanks to i3oilermaker for that, he's been awesome in helping set this up. And he's quite the professional with his experience handling fulfillment.
Update: As much as I was hoping to have Techkeys.us do this, ends up we didn't have the order quantity to pay for sorting at SP, so I'll be doing the sorting and shipping to keep things in the green.  But don't worry, I'll limit my beer intake during the process.


TIME FRAME
Deadline: March 15th 18th, 2013 8am
Deadline: Passed


Payments will be collected as orders are placed, and we'll place the order with Signature Plastics soon after the deadline.
Expected keycap delivery:May-June, depending on SP lead-time. Will update after order is placed. (Update: SP says ~5 weeks when the order was placed. Note that I also have to sort and ship out after that.)


ORDER PROCESS
In an effort to streamline ordering/payment/fulfillment, all ordering will be done using PayPal.  Fill your cart with whichever sets you wish to order and checkout. 

(Old) RainDrop™ Order Form
Signup to receive major announcements for RainDrop™ Group Buy via email.

[aggiejy]

GROUP BUY PHILOSOPHY & TRANSPARENCY STATEMENT
There are a few different ways to run a group buy and none are perfect. I find that most are needlessly long.  (HUGE bravo to Matt3o's DSA Retro!) We could have a whole other discussion about the merits of interest checks, pricing tiers, order period length, etc… but my #1 goal is to get this started *and* finished quickly and efficiently.  To that end, I've chosen to do this a bit differently. 

Low upfront prices.  Simplified ordering.  Foolproof payments.  Professional fulfillment.  No extra fees.

I'm taking a slight gamble on the fact that we'll have enough interest to make this break even, but feel confident enough to try.  I can appreciate that some would have run this differently, but the beauty of running a group buy is that you're running a group buy.

While there are no rules regarding how group buys are run, I want to make my interests clear.  Though I've chosen to run this group buy a bit differently, this is in fact non-profit.  (Though, personally I don't have a problem with people making a reasonable profit on a group buy... whatever leads to more group buys!)

In the interest of transparency, the following expenses are included in the prices:

• PayPal: 3.9%
• Fulfillment: 3% (paid to TechKeys.us, who I picked to pack/ship)
• Sorting: $0.05 per key (paid to Signature Plastics)
• It turns out that sorting from SP would be $800+, which we don't have. So I'll be sorting myself. JOY!   Since I'm sorting, I'll ship too.

These are additional expenses:

• Custom Legends: $315
• Signature Plastics Shipping: $85

If after the deadline:

• We have a loss:
  
  • If it's minor (< $1k or so) I'll probably just pay it.
  • If it's major, then we'll either extend the deadline (unlikely), beg some vendors, negotiate with beautiful Melissa, or similar things.
  • Worst case, I'll issue refunds.
• We have a profit: In (rough) order, any profit would...
  
  • cover all unpaid expenses and shipping shortages
  • purchase spare kits for damage/etc
  • add surprise goodies to orders (we added geekhack keys and alpha keys!)
  • buy your friendly group buy leader a couple sets (though, this isn't a priority)
  • donation to a good cause

Post-Order Recap

The final order (including vendor sets) was placed Wednesday, March 20th.  Set volumes are as follows:

Alpha:            162
Blue Mods:        130
White Mods:       65
Blue Tsangan:     56
White Tsangan:    35
ISO:              10
Numpad:           79

Total Collected (including shipping)
Collected from customers (after Paypal fees): $14,370.77
Collected from vendors: $1,442.82
$15,813.59

Total Signature Plastics Cost
Includes key caps, legends, and shipping
-$14,327.79

Estimated Shipping
Based on $7 (US), $17 (INTL) estimation
-$1,331

------------------------------

Profit/Loss:

$154.80

Edit after final shipping: Well... shipping was more than expected, packing materials added up, etc.  It was certainly an overall loss, but nothing to gripe about too much.  However, I'm officially retired from running group buys, as mandated by my wife.

------------------------------

Interesting country breakdown:
US: 45%
South Korea: 30%
Other: 25%

Big turn out from our friends in Korea!

[aggiejy]

News and Announcements

Monday, May 13th, 2013
All orders were shipped!

Saturday, May 11th, 2013
Packing complete.  Orders held for shipping to allow time for address verification.

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013
Sorting complete. Packing has begun.

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013
Order delivered from Signature Plastics!  Sorting has begun.

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013
Order shipped from Signature Plastics.  Should arrive in the Republic of Texas Wednesday, May 1st.  Inspection and sorting to begin immediately upon receipt.

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013
Order finalized and paid with Signature Plastics.  Production wait begins.
Also, the alpha set was expanded. See here.

Monday, March 18th, 2013
Stopped taking orders.  Preparing order from Signature Plastics.

Thursday, March 14th, 2013
Deadline will be extended to Monday the 18th, 8am CST. (I'm traveling Friday, so order can't be placed until Monday anyway.)

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
We will be adding the somewhat standard style "GEEK HACK" key to mod sets.  It will be in the same color as the mod set you order. 

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013
While these are not sliding prices (like some group buys), I did make a price correct to the Tsangan kits from $25 to $20.  While volume on those isn't huge, the price was out of proportion with some of the other sets and there aren't too many extras I can add to those sets in the end to bring it in line.

Thursday, February 21st, 2013
Group buy began taking orders.

[Sai]

Beautiful this is. 
( will comment more later, i only have "beautiful this is" right now in my mind  )

[jil_jil32]

Oh... :3

[Sifo]

Holy fjsldj this set is beautiful.

[jabar]

oh no really... I'm broke as it is

[The_Beast]

Not the win8 logo

[Sai]

Not the win8 logo

yep. that one !

[DavinDidIt]

Awesome presentation, and incredible looking keycaps! 

[okooko]

5c per key is about $5 for a base n mods
hmm

Now i need a blue/white kb for this magic to shine`

[aggiejy]

5c per key is about $5 for a base n mods
hmm

Now i need a blue/white kb for this magic to shine`

Keep in mind that the costs are already included in the price though, but yes... they do charge a LOT to sort.

[aggiejy]

Not the win8 logo

Get with the times.   But real men shouldn't have a windows logo on their keyboard anyway.

[DrugER]

ordered and paid.

thx 4 good gb

[WhiteFireDragon]

Wow no beating around the bush with "making stuff together" and interest checks. I love it...

[fydo]

These look great! Good job.

Quick question about the modifiers. Will there be only one of each type as indicated in the preview images?
i.e. If I want two tux modifiers, will I need to buy 2x Mod kits?

Thanks in advance!

[Elrick]

Wow no beating around the bush with "making stuff together" and interest checks. I love it...

Truly amazing.  Love the setup, the Matt3o inspired buy in window with images/ prices ------ absolutely beautiful.

Because the deadline is on March 15th there's still heaps of time yet to buy in.

[aggiejy]

Quick question about the modifiers. Will there be only one of each type as indicated in the preview images?
i.e. If I want two tux modifiers, will I need to buy 2x Mod kits?

That is correct.  What you see is what you get. So you could use one of the two raindrop 1.25x keys on one side, or buy a second modifier set if you really want two.  But honestly, I'd imagine there will be plenty of users with tux keys they don't want/need.  Might be smarter to just hit up classifieds afterwards.

...Because the deadline is on March 15th there's still heaps of time yet to buy in.

That way people have TWO paydays if they're running tight on funds.   I was actually planning to do 2 weeks instead of 3, but I'll be on vacation the week before, so figured might as well wait.

[dirge]

Please consider adding in the following keys to support people from the UK

[2,"] [3,£] [',@] [#,~] and if possible but we never use it [`¬¦]

It's always been the brickwall between me and ordering.

[Leslieann]

Any chance of a WoB Alpha set? WoB looks YUMMY!

[aggiejy]

Any chance of a WoB Alpha set? WoB looks YUMMY!

Not in this group buy, but I'd be all for someone doing a followup to fill in the blanks.

[Batmann]

Pretty nice set but I'm still puzzled,
the timing is kinda awkward imo: payment deadline will be almost the same than Klaxon and DSA retro... not to mention LZ-GH which already blew some wallets
for this exact reason I'm out, not that I can't live with it but it is what it is

[webs0r]

Oh... awesome. Ordered.

[Matt3o]

oh wow I started a trend... or to quote Automan tv serie...

[aggiejy]

oh wow I started a trend... or to quote Automan tv serie...

Two great minds think alike. I've had the start of that order page done for about a month now as a few people can attest.  Just been a bit lazy getting it started.  What you did with your GB is amazing though... the main reason I went all cowboy up in this ***** with the fixed prices out of the gate was to avoid all the interest checks/tier BS.  But in hindsight, with your web app, it's not so bad.   Regardless, I'd be tickled if every group buy moved to some kind of a add-to-cart order form.  Just because it's a group buy doesn't mean it should be hard to order!

[aggiejy]

Pretty nice set but I'm still puzzled,
the timing is kinda awkward imo: payment deadline will be almost the same than Klaxon and DSA retro... not to mention LZ-GH which already blew some wallets
for this exact reason I'm out, not that I can't live with it but it is what it is

Yeah, sorry about that.  This is a group buy I've been preparing for a month or so and am late getting it started.  It originally was going to be a 2 week order window, but I extended it because of a vacation.  Just happened to end near others I guess.  But like the others, I'm sure extra sets of this will be resold by vendors and such if you desire it later.

[Larken]

I actually prefer these speed buys by a long shot (if you can really call it as such - considering 'fast' is about 3-4 months lead time after payment). Only in geekhack is waiting more than a year for anything to get going the norm.

Love the look of the set, love the prices, and how shipping is going to be handled by a vendor. Only reason why I'm out is because I already have too many sets of keycaps coming in.

But the set does look really sweet, so I guess I'll be tossing back and forth until the deadline is nearer. Wonderful work on the set and process in any case.

[jdcarpe]

Ordered and paid! That was so easy; I love it! Your form works great. Really nice job on that one!

[metalliqaz]

Looks great.

[thegunner100]

Damn... wish there were something like this for topre

[jdcarpe]

Damn... wish there were something like this for topre

Or anything other than a few solid colors, you mean, right?

Topre users get no keycap love, other than Clacks. I feel for you guys. That's another reason I never used my Topre boards and ended up selling them.

[thegunner100]

Damn... wish there were something like this for topre

Or anything other than a few solid colors, you mean, right?

Topre users get no keycap love, other than Clacks. I feel for you guys. That's another reason I never used my Topre boards and ended up selling them.

Haha yeah pretty much, I'd like to have anything other than just a few solid colors. I don't even have any topre clacks either.

[danielucf]

I'd rather have cheaper prices if we hit higher tiers than more goodies. Is that going to be an option? Tsangans and mod sets can get pretty cheap in the higher quantities, or is that where you've baked in the new legend fees and other expenses instead of spread across all sets?

Even still, one alpha, two mods, two tsangans, and a numpad for $179 before shipping seems kinda pricey. Also no insight into number sold? Not comforting in my opinion on a group buy. Maybe I'm a conspiracy nut but transparency goes a long way.

[jdcarpe]

I'd rather have cheaper prices if we hit higher tiers than more goodies. Is that going to be an option? Tsangans and mod sets can get pretty cheap in the higher quantities, or is that where you've baked in the new legend fees and other expenses instead of spread across all sets?

Even still, one alpha, two mods, two tsangans, and a numpad for $179 before shipping seems kinda pricey. Also no insight into number sold? Not comforting in my opinion on a group buy. Maybe I'm a conspiracy nut but transparency goes a long way.

It's all there in the 2nd post in the thread. He basically sums it up when he says the beauty of running a group buy is that YOU'RE running the group buy.

[metalliqaz]

Basically I'm looking at this like I'm just buying it from techkeys.  So many GBs going on lately, I'm just worn out.  Frankly I welcome it right now.

[i3oilermaker]

Basically I'm looking at this like I'm just buying it from techkeys.  So many GBs going on lately, I'm just worn out.  Frankly I welcome it right now.

In a way yes, but this is being run as a non-profit buy.  I do like the philosophy, and think it will be a success.

[phx]

woah....
this, this is beautiful

[danielucf]

Basically I'm looking at this like I'm just buying it from techkeys.  So many GBs going on lately, I'm just worn out.  Frankly I welcome it right now.

In a way yes, but this is being run as a non-profit buy.  I do like the philosophy, and think it will be a success.

Alright non profit is all well and good but if we don't know how many are being ordered how can we crunch the numbers to verify?

Also why do I have to receive more than I want instead of cheaper prices in the case of higher tiers being hit?

The transparency statement also doesn't make everything clear. A lot of what is being done can't be calculated until final numbers are known, yet money collection is already taking place......

[i3oilermaker]

Basically I'm looking at this like I'm just buying it from techkeys.  So many GBs going on lately, I'm just worn out.  Frankly I welcome it right now.

In a way yes, but this is being run as a non-profit buy.  I do like the philosophy, and think it will be a success.

Alright non profit is all well and good but if we don't know how many are being ordered how can we crunch the numbers to verify?

Also why do I have to receive more than I want instead of cheaper prices in the case of higher tiers being hit?

The transparency statement also doesn't make everything clear. A lot of what is being done can't be calculated until final numbers are known, yet money collection is already taking place......

If you don't like it then don't do it.

[phetto]

The most important thing when comes to ISO users is that the enter key has the normal legend on it, or else it looks like crap. I sold my valentine set just for that reason..

Other then that, it looks ballin!!

[tauburn]

damn it. was there no thread in the interest check for this? i never would have bought RA 2.0 if i'd seen this was coming akhjuflakjsdhflkajdhflaksjdfhlaskdgfopqwiugrwpervgfspdfovgh

[RougeR]

Please consider adding in the following keys to support people from the UK

[2,"] [3,£] [',@] [#,~] and if possible but we never use it [`¬¦]

It's always been the brickwall between me and ordering.

ive ended up just moving to ansi for now, may swap back.

[aggiejy]

Basically I'm looking at this like I'm just buying it from techkeys.  So many GBs going on lately, I'm just worn out.  Frankly I welcome it right now.

In a way yes, but this is being run as a non-profit buy.  I do like the philosophy, and think it will be a success.

Alright non profit is all well and good but if we don't know how many are being ordered how can we crunch the numbers to verify?

Also why do I have to receive more than I want instead of cheaper prices in the case of higher tiers being hit?

The transparency statement also doesn't make everything clear. A lot of what is being done can't be calculated until final numbers are known, yet money collection is already taking place......

Regarding transparency, I'll post set order counts and expenses and everything at the end. Everyone can verify I'm doing what I said I'd do.

As far as WHAT I'm doing, I don't expect everyone will appreciate it, but I'm happy with the overall balance and simplicity. Participating is optional and my goal isn't to set records for the biggest or absolute cheapest... It's to be one of the fastest, simplest, and smoothest. (If PayPal continues to cooperate.!)

[SmallFry]

When it rains, it POURS!

[jcrouse]

In the mod packs shouldn't there be two windows keys for a standard bottom row or is this not normal?

John

[adigaforever]

I... I... I... I really can't afford this :\ too bad :\
It looks great!

[aggiejy]

In the mod packs shouldn't there be two windows keys for a standard bottom row or is this not normal?

John

This is not normal. What you see is what you get.

[Acetrak]

aggiejy aka DaRainMaker putting it down like a str8 BAU55

[tjcaustin]

I do believe I'm in, too.

[CPTBadAss]

I'll be in after payday. This set is sooooo hot ^_^