Good morning everyone!
My apologies for the delay in response, as I know people have literally been dying for an update, haha. I've been working constantly on
SKIDATA+ behind the scenes, and wanted to iron out a few more details before making an announcement. I wanted to make sure things have been confirmed before making any big announcements.
Extras: The bad news is, the GB period for
SKIDATA+ has already ended a while ago (and with that, the discounted GB pricing has also ended as well), so I'm sorry that I won't be able to add on any more orders; however, the good news is, there WILL be
SKIDATA+ extras available.
There are still more details to iron out on these, so stay tuned for more information, but I am happy to share that 1) it will most likely be sold through Zeal PC, 2) I am arranging for the first wave of extras to be shipped out together with the GB orders. Once again, these are being proxied to radio_killah (GMK RGBYK, generous member of our community who offered to help us save a lot of money on import duty and taxes), and I will be personally flying to the US (on my own dime) to help pack and sort out the orders.
Stay tuned, I'll make sure to reply to all PMs and make an announcement here once the extras are ready to go. It should be as simple as ordering on Zeal PC, as well as telling me your previous Order# if you already have a GB order, to combine them. This is extra work for me, but I'll figure it out, so we can ensure a speedy delivery for all the orders.
Artisans: I also wanted to give an update on these! Bingecaps (now Hunger Work Studio) has finished making our artisans, but is currently working on some dank-ass prints or artworks for our artisans to be included in. This is very exciting, and I look forward to seeing them!
KatzenKinder Capworks is also working on artisan caps for us, and
SKIDATA+ will be most likely getting the first batch of his next generation caps. That is all I can say, and we are blessed to have the support and generosity of these two cap makers.
Shipping costs: Bad news, USPS increased their pricing for both domestic and international shipping. This has been completely unexpected and may have caught a few GB runners off guard. Unfortunately, Billnye (GMK Bluegaloo, another awesome member of our community) did not account for this and charged people for the previous USPS shipping rates, so if anyone happens to be in the Bluegaloo GB, I strongly urge you to support him and donate to cover the extra shipping costs incurred, as it is a trivial amount for you, but ends up to be quite a lot of money when you scale it up to ~500 orders. I'm only wanting to bring awareness of the shipping issue, and hope that we can come together as a community and make sure that we take care of our generous GB leaders who have already dedicated so much time and effort into organizing something amazing for their fellow keyboard enthusiasts.
The good news is,
SKIDATA+ was priced with a very small safety net (inb4 people scream huge profits, for the record,
SKIDATA+ does not have a profit margin, but does have a slight "safety net" for situations like these) to account for rainy weather situations such as customs fees, customs processing fees, and other unexpected changes such as this USPS price increase for both domestic and international shipments.
What this means for
SKIDATA+ is that the extras that will be offered will have to have a slight price increase for shipping, but I will not be asking people to donate any funds for the pre-existing GB orders, as I do not believe we will have a problem with it. If I do, I will let you guys know, but I don't think it'll be a problem. I want to stress that I am a one man operation (as is the case with most community GB leaders), supported by various members of the community, and not a business, so I do not have rainy-weather funds or insurance to cover for situations like these if it is too much to handle, thankfully for this situation, it is not.
Free gift: Also wanted to give an update on this! I am currently working on including a VERY COOL™
SKIDATA+ free gift/keycap to be included with GB orders as a thank you for participating. I cannot announce what it will be yet, but it's quite cool, and I'm sure all keyboard enthusiasts will appreciate it.
Hopefully this helps answer some questions, and a reminder that I will always be here to answer questions. Feel free to PM me if you have anything you would like to discuss related to the GB, and I will hopefully post another update soon when I have more information on our production times.
Thanks everyone again for your support, and thank you for your patience.