Can anyone prove the validity of these click clacks?

[Sifo]

Sighsifofriend?

[rowdy]

Friend or fo(e) - friend.  Something.  This is going too off topic, sorry

[katushkin]

OP isn't perpetuating the inflation all that much. Bearing in mind that one single colour MX clack went for over $300 on eBay the other day....

I say fair play to you for going through all the trouble of verifying them, and then not asking too ridiculous a price for them.

If you have any of them left, I will buy one

[Dihedral]

Sure, inflation can be toxic. But this guy brought his a long time ago, prices have now inflated, and he's well within his rights to resell them. Supply / Demand. It's how markets function, and anyone who is so bothered by this would do well to look at cheaper options from other makers. Krytone et. al. make really nice, original caps at very reasonable prices, and it's not impossible to get in on the sales.

[SpAmRaY]

OP isn't perpetuating the inflation all that much. Bearing in mind that one single colour MX clack went for over $300 on eBay the other day....

I say fair play to you for going through all the trouble of verifying them, and then not asking too ridiculous a price for them.

If you have any of them left, I will buy one

eBay clack prices are out of control.

OP could just put these on eBay and see what happens.

[katushkin]

eBay clack prices are out of control.

OP could just put these on eBay and see what happens.

The fact that he hasn't shows he is a decent enough guy IMO.

[Dihedral]

OP isn't perpetuating the inflation all that much. Bearing in mind that one single colour MX clack went for over $300 on eBay the other day....

I say fair play to you for going through all the trouble of verifying them, and then not asking too ridiculous a price for them.

If you have any of them left, I will buy one

eBay clack prices are out of control.

OP could just put these on eBay and see what happens.

he'd probably get 200 dollars apiece.

[Puddsy]

looks fine to me

if you bought them from EK, they're not fake, and i get the impression that you did exactly that

[dustinhxc]

Oh yeah, thats good you got photos from EK direct! They also had the sharp bacon wavey like edge. That was what I was suspicious of. Nice man. 

[Lu_e]

They looked fine to me... thinking they were an early batch as well. CF is not free of defects, I think many can tell you that.

"Bacon wavy edge" ha

ps them some diiiirty used clacks! http://i.imgur.com/uRR4tBm.jpg

[Demesnenyx]

They looked fine to me... thinking they were an early batch as well. CF is not free of defects, I think many can tell you that.

"Bacon wavy edge" ha

ps them some diiiirty used clacks! http://i.imgur.com/uRR4tBm.jpg

I think I put them on WASD when I first bought them (not the smartest spot either ahaha). Never use them anymore though.
EDIT: Cleaned a bit: http://imgur.com/rd1CR47

To everyone posting about prices or if I'm selling, I'm going to wait and see how much I need around July/August.

(If I do sell, Sifo has dibs on first sale as promised though.)

[rowdy]

I would also politely reiterate my request

And who knows, by July/August I might be able to offer the asking price for one of them!

[KHAANNN]

If I were you, I wouldn't clean them too much, you might damage / break the authenticity

Let the buyer do whatever s/he wants with them

[C5Allroad]

The underside looks funky to me lol



Or are they all different in how he polishes them before sending them out?

[HoffmanMyster]

More

I've been emailing EK support to see if I could get more help proving that they're real and this is probably the best I can do. I did PM clickclack, but he probably gets questions like this all the time/super busy.

I hope this clears things up.


Hi xxxxxxx,

I've pulled out two keycaps from that batch and taken some high resolution photos for you. They are attached.

Your order was from one of the first two sales we had and the blemishes on the bottom of your caps are consistent with caps the Clack Factory was making at the time. You'll also notice a slight color difference between the two caps. Small color inconsistencies were more prevalent in CF caps at the time too.

Also, many CF designs made very recently have scratches or scrapes on the bottom. This is due to touch-up that is done with sand paper. Why you might ask? It's because the molds for the base keycap and switch stem mount were never changed/upgraded since molds have to be calibrated for each keycap material. Without careful calibration, the resulting keycaps would be too tight or too lose. Unless someone makes artisan keycaps they probably wouldn't understand how hard it is to get a good fit...over, and over again! I get it of course -- a lot of people assume that because CF keycaps have such a high market value, they must be cosmetically flawless from every angle to the extent that they put everyone else to shame, but this flawed detail is a reality of CF caps and is something that Clickclack conceded to in order to make the volume of keys that he did in the little free time he had -- he assumed no one would see that part of the keycap while they were using it. However, this shouldn't reflect on him as an artist who cuts corners. Those skilled in the art will know that producing keycaps in the variety and consistency he has is an extraordinary feat.

For your reference this blue was called EK Blue by Clickclack. They were a special request by us, along with the EK yellow that were sold at the same time.

http://imgur.com/thTxoSk
http://imgur.com/GYz6ldM

Best regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxxx


After this email, I asked if there was any way that they could also include some kind of proof that these clacks are theirs and not mine because people might think I just crafted another batch and took more pictures. (Also commented on excellent customer service, was not expecting to get this much help.) (I asked if I could reference the email and he said yes/I could use his name as well, but I didn't feel right doing it so I'm still replacing it with x's.)


Hi xxxxxxx,

You're welcome. You can use my name, no problem there.

I've put these photos on the EK server. This should be proof enough.

https://elitekeyboards.com/external/cf_blu_00.jpg
https://elitekeyboards.com/external/cf_blu_01.jpg

You might also recognize the background texture of these pics from a recent CF sale:

http://elitekeyboards.com/proddata/images/th/cf_5c_bra_top1000_th0x0.jpg

Best regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxx


TO recap it all, these are mine:
http://imgur.com/WrWzS6b
http://imgur.com/KyEFK6j

And here is the receipt from EK:
http://imgur.com/PUeLtKh

Could you have your contact at EK send that same email to a trusted, neutral third party here on geekhack to validate?

[SpAmRaY]

More

I've been emailing EK support to see if I could get more help proving that they're real and this is probably the best I can do. I did PM clickclack, but he probably gets questions like this all the time/super busy.

I hope this clears things up.


Hi xxxxxxx,

I've pulled out two keycaps from that batch and taken some high resolution photos for you. They are attached.

Your order was from one of the first two sales we had and the blemishes on the bottom of your caps are consistent with caps the Clack Factory was making at the time. You'll also notice a slight color difference between the two caps. Small color inconsistencies were more prevalent in CF caps at the time too.

Also, many CF designs made very recently have scratches or scrapes on the bottom. This is due to touch-up that is done with sand paper. Why you might ask? It's because the molds for the base keycap and switch stem mount were never changed/upgraded since molds have to be calibrated for each keycap material. Without careful calibration, the resulting keycaps would be too tight or too lose. Unless someone makes artisan keycaps they probably wouldn't understand how hard it is to get a good fit...over, and over again! I get it of course -- a lot of people assume that because CF keycaps have such a high market value, they must be cosmetically flawless from every angle to the extent that they put everyone else to shame, but this flawed detail is a reality of CF caps and is something that Clickclack conceded to in order to make the volume of keys that he did in the little free time he had -- he assumed no one would see that part of the keycap while they were using it. However, this shouldn't reflect on him as an artist who cuts corners. Those skilled in the art will know that producing keycaps in the variety and consistency he has is an extraordinary feat.

For your reference this blue was called EK Blue by Clickclack. They were a special request by us, along with the EK yellow that were sold at the same time.

http://imgur.com/thTxoSk
http://imgur.com/GYz6ldM

Best regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxxx


After this email, I asked if there was any way that they could also include some kind of proof that these clacks are theirs and not mine because people might think I just crafted another batch and took more pictures. (Also commented on excellent customer service, was not expecting to get this much help.) (I asked if I could reference the email and he said yes/I could use his name as well, but I didn't feel right doing it so I'm still replacing it with x's.)


Hi xxxxxxx,

You're welcome. You can use my name, no problem there.

I've put these photos on the EK server. This should be proof enough.

https://elitekeyboards.com/external/cf_blu_00.jpg
https://elitekeyboards.com/external/cf_blu_01.jpg

You might also recognize the background texture of these pics from a recent CF sale:

http://elitekeyboards.com/proddata/images/th/cf_5c_bra_top1000_th0x0.jpg

Best regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxx


TO recap it all, these are mine:
http://imgur.com/WrWzS6b
http://imgur.com/KyEFK6j

And here is the receipt from EK:
http://imgur.com/PUeLtKh

Could you have your contact at EK send that same email to a trusted, neutral third party here on geekhack to validate?

I emailed EK referencing this thread and Brian said these are legitimate.

[heedpantsnow]

More

I've been emailing EK support to see if I could get more help proving that they're real and this is probably the best I can do. I did PM clickclack, but he probably gets questions like this all the time/super busy.

I hope this clears things up.


Hi xxxxxxx,

I've pulled out two keycaps from that batch and taken some high resolution photos for you. They are attached.

Your order was from one of the first two sales we had and the blemishes on the bottom of your caps are consistent with caps the Clack Factory was making at the time. You'll also notice a slight color difference between the two caps. Small color inconsistencies were more prevalent in CF caps at the time too.

Also, many CF designs made very recently have scratches or scrapes on the bottom. This is due to touch-up that is done with sand paper. Why you might ask? It's because the molds for the base keycap and switch stem mount were never changed/upgraded since molds have to be calibrated for each keycap material. Without careful calibration, the resulting keycaps would be too tight or too lose. Unless someone makes artisan keycaps they probably wouldn't understand how hard it is to get a good fit...over, and over again! I get it of course -- a lot of people assume that because CF keycaps have such a high market value, they must be cosmetically flawless from every angle to the extent that they put everyone else to shame, but this flawed detail is a reality of CF caps and is something that Clickclack conceded to in order to make the volume of keys that he did in the little free time he had -- he assumed no one would see that part of the keycap while they were using it. However, this shouldn't reflect on him as an artist who cuts corners. Those skilled in the art will know that producing keycaps in the variety and consistency he has is an extraordinary feat.

For your reference this blue was called EK Blue by Clickclack. They were a special request by us, along with the EK yellow that were sold at the same time.

http://imgur.com/thTxoSk
http://imgur.com/GYz6ldM

Best regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxxx


After this email, I asked if there was any way that they could also include some kind of proof that these clacks are theirs and not mine because people might think I just crafted another batch and took more pictures. (Also commented on excellent customer service, was not expecting to get this much help.) (I asked if I could reference the email and he said yes/I could use his name as well, but I didn't feel right doing it so I'm still replacing it with x's.)


Hi xxxxxxx,

You're welcome. You can use my name, no problem there.

I've put these photos on the EK server. This should be proof enough.

https://elitekeyboards.com/external/cf_blu_00.jpg
https://elitekeyboards.com/external/cf_blu_01.jpg

You might also recognize the background texture of these pics from a recent CF sale:

http://elitekeyboards.com/proddata/images/th/cf_5c_bra_top1000_th0x0.jpg

Best regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxx


TO recap it all, these are mine:
http://imgur.com/WrWzS6b
http://imgur.com/KyEFK6j

And here is the receipt from EK:
http://imgur.com/PUeLtKh

Could you have your contact at EK send that same email to a trusted, neutral third party here on geekhack to validate?

I emailed EK referencing this thread and Brian said these are legitimate.

Well you can't really get much more senior or trusted than Ray

[HoffmanMyster]

Could you have your contact at EK send that same email to a trusted, neutral third party here on geekhack to validate?

I emailed EK referencing this thread and Brian said these are legitimate.

Well alright then.  Thanks, Ray.

The reason I was asking, for reference, is that there was a limit of 2 keycaps per customer, so it seemed odd that he purchased 4.

[SpAmRaY]

Could you have your contact at EK send that same email to a trusted, neutral third party here on geekhack to validate?

I emailed EK referencing this thread and Brian said these are legitimate.

Well alright then.  Thanks, Ray.

The reason I was asking, for reference, is that there was a limit of 2 keycaps per customer, so it seemed odd that he purchased 4.

Show Image

And that was my question to Brian who said it was a simple matter of orders slipping through the system in the early days.

[HoffmanMyster]

I emailed EK referencing this thread and Brian said these are legitimate.

Well alright then.  Thanks, Ray.

The reason I was asking, for reference, is that there was a limit of 2 keycaps per customer, so it seemed odd that he purchased 4.

And that was my question to Brian who said it was a simple matter of orders slipping through the system in the early days.

   Roger that.