Floating idea of a keyboard lottery

[berserkfan]

Floating idea of a keyboard lottery

I am interested in finding a new home for my huge keyboard collection, most of which have been modded to become more usable.

Some of my stuff will sell out fast. I have accumulated 39 inquiries for just four keyboards even when I said I’m not able to sell yet. Not saying which ones, but you can guess from my list https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=78531.msg2001809#msg2001809. Even if everyone lowballs, there will still be a highest lowball after 2 weeks. [BTW to avoid violating rules on selling, I have generally not replied to buy inquiries for these keyboards.]

What concerns me most are my M-122s and Model F XTs. I’ve put in time and effort to make them usable, and they are indeed far more usable and enjoyable than the stock ones. I am also concerned about my jailhoused keyboards, because I really want to promote this switch mod. I have learned so much from geekhack, deskauthority, and <beep-censored by mods>ster. My jailhouse mod is my one major contribution to keyboard knowledge.

The only way for everyone to experience my modded switches, is to put my keyboards into the hands of different people and hope some will visit keyboard events. I want everyone to try my modded switches, because that’s the only way to create a market and get crowdsourced production going. You’ve seen Zealio, now I want Gutzo. (Yes, I know it rhymes with Matzo, laugh all you want.)

I am thinking about having a lottery two or three weeks into my moving sale, when it becomes apparent that certain models have no buying interest. I might open my moving sale to Redditors, but I will open the lottery only to geekhackers and deskauthoritarians with over 50 posts. If you’re so antisocial that you can’t make 50 posts, you will never show up at any keyboard event.

I will allow you to choose your favorite switch type, and a second choice of switch type, but no more. Everything I have is classified into Model M switch, Model F switch, Jailhoused Switch, Clears/ Ergo Clears Switch and Linear (green alps or Cherry MX black) switches, so just choose your two most preferred switch types when paying me for a lottery ticket. I will put a board with that switch type randomly into your box.

Lottery is not free. It is $58 a ticket – the price of a 5kg economy box shipping from Singapore to anywhere in the world. This shipping is non-negotiable. I’m not going to sell cheaper lottery tickets to Southeast Asians. SEA residents could have offered $25price+$32 for 5kg shipping for any keyboard during the buy phase, and wound up paying less than $58.

$58 shipped for a USB modded Model M-122 or a jailhouse modded Poker or whatever didn’t sell earlier, is still cheaper than buying a single bag of Cherry MX switches from Zeal and shipping it CONUS. No combining lottery places with your friend for combined $58 shipping. That is really asking too much.

I am happy to put freebies inside to fill the 5kg weight, but by this point I suspect most legit buyers will have claimed my freebie keyboard kits and old unfinished projects, so you will probably wind up with random Cherry springs, dirty unsold switches, Cherry G80 PCBs, etc.

$58 is probably a high enough barrier to entry that I don’t wind up overselling lottery tickets. In the event that I can’t supply what everyone wants, I’ll just refund anyone who seems less likely to enjoy the stuff. So tell me something about yourself when you pay for the lottery ticket. Whoever that says “I love hiding in the basement with my HHKB” will probably be the first person booted from the lottery. [I’ll also boot TP4tissue from the lottery by default, since I can’t take money from people with diminished mental capacity  ]

Comments welcome. I'll probably log in again at the end of the week.

[codywanks]

I think it's a great idea, however I believe most people have their sights set firmly on 1-2 items in particular and wouldn't be interested in anything else.

Personally, I would join for $58 if the goods were divided into categories and we were allowed to name our choices, for example:

First choice - A random Model F keyboard from OP's list
Second choice - A random Jailhouse modded keyboard
Third choice - A random Model M keyboard

...which IINM is roughly how those artisan keycap lotteries work.

I just don't want to end up with something I absolutely won't use, e.g. Ergo clear.

[3K]

I barely have an overview about what is even available, but I like suprises and would probably join for some B/S goodies! 

[codywanks]

I barely have an overview about what is even available, but I like suprises and would probably join for some B/S goodies! 

you'll have to follow the link(s) in the first post to get a clearer picture

but most of the stuff he has is awesome 

[3K]

I barely have an overview about what is even available, but I like suprises and would probably join for some B/S goodies! 

you'll have to follow the link(s) in the first post to get a clearer picture

but most of the stuff he has is awesome 

Wow, this is the biggest Model harem I ever saw listed.

[berserkfan]

Hey Guys

Thanks for your input. I still haven’t decided what to do about a lottery. There are too many unknowns. EG haven’t decided whether to list on Reddit, because I really don’t want my work to leave the community but also don’t want to wind up with crap prices or unsold stuff.

I just pulled a monster load of boards from storage, and my kb collection is 3x the size of the list I made earlier. Just that a significant number are really ‘project kits’, basically unfinished projects like deriveted Model Ms, desoldered Deck keyboard, etc. I have done a lot of work already so really hope there is someone interested in doing the rest.

Dear friends, my problem is this. How do I create the proper incentives for people to take up my old projects?

If I give them away for the cost of shipping, it’s not good economics. I paid plenty good money for these things, and I did plenty of work already. It is particularly ridiculous for the Filcos.

If I want to get paid, it doesn’t seem right either. Not to mention, cost of the item + shipping will be too high for most projects to get sold.

If I offer projects free to anyone who goes for the 5kg economy shipping weight box, that works only for genuine enthusiasts. My ideal scenario is to sell 1 Model M and give 1 Model M project to the same person. Because he would have to pay for a 5kg box anyway, if I am able to include 2 in the same shipment it is good value for the buyer. That way he can get one bolt modded M and one deriveted M for him to experiment bolt modding on.

However I can’t just do this unconditionally for my projects. Some will be more popular than others. I have two desoldered Filcos, and they will be way more popular than my various ortholinear POS keyboard projects. But from my POV, Filco is useless. I have no interest in Filco other than to get as much money as I can for my Filco follies. I am a lot more keen to encourage people to try out ortholinear layouts – and I have six project boards for that. Selling these would be very hard, but simply giving them away in 5kg boxes is not wise because people who didn’t pay money for these boards will not value them and at least put in some time to try out ortholinear layouts.

Everything I did was to improve usability, so I don’t have particularly fancy aesthetics that people would pay for. I have many M-122s simply because I like keyboards with many keys. (Am currently using a pair of Access-IS keypads that give me 160 keys in total.) I have only a handful of keyboards with compact layouts that people want. So selling, or giving away, is all a challenge.

BTW lottery is just an idea now. Not sure where to take this idea.