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 for-sale-f55/cherry-white-on-black-ansi ... 12857.html. 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 :p ]
Comments welcome. I'll probably log in again at the end of the week.
