deskthority

The goal of this group buy is to produce a round of full-size and SSK-size replacement badges for IBM Model M keyboards to run alongside Lot_Lizard's Model MF Group Buy. If you are participating in both group buys, you can opt to combine shipping such that your badges will be included with your MF order. In other words, lot_lizard will be acting as a shipping proxy for your badge order. Note, these are the same badges that that WCass developed and Seebart previously ran the group buy for.

Pictures:
Full-Size Badge Installed:

SSK Badge Installed:

Pictures by snuci, more can be found here.

For the last round of this group buy, pricing came out to be ~$1.50/ea; however, pricing will vary based on the number of orders and current fabrication costs. As such, this quote is subject to change.

I will be managing communication, ordering, payment and shipping for this round; however, I am not responsible for the quality of the badges in question. Updates will be provided in this thread.

Current Status: The Group Buy has Closed. All orders have been shipped (or are with lot_lizard). We have 35 full-size badges and 70 SSK badges leftover. The going rate is $2.00/ea (as compared to the $1.50/ea GB price) but this is somewhat negotiable. CONUS customers can expect to pay $3 for shipping and international customers can expect to pay no more than $10 for shipping. PM me if you're interested!

GB Participants: FAQs:
How will I be billed for this group buy?
When we are ready to place the order with the vendor, you will receive an invoice via PayPal.

When will the prices be finalized for this Group Buy?
Prices will be finalized once the initial ordering phase is finished.

When will I get a quote for shipping?
Your shipping quote will be included in your invoice.

Where will these items ship from?
I will be shipping them from Illinois, in the USA.

Why is this GB being ran separately from lot_lizard's?
Aside from wanting to give the community more options, we think separating the group buy is a safer option for legality-related reasons. More details can be found here.

Gold-on-purple IBM badges with mouse bites, from a fab with free shipping and only one price break for volume (that we don't get benefits of)? I don't mean to be rude, but what's the point of a group buy if I could pay just as much by ordering them myself?

Ratfink wrote: ↑Gold-on-purple IBM badges with mouse bites, from a fab with free shipping and only one price break for volume (that we don't get benefits of)? I don't mean to be rude, but what's the point of a group buy if I could pay just as much by ordering them myself?

Ours will be silver-on-black and without mouse-bites since we are planning to go through PCBWay. There will be a volume discount by going through us that translates directly to you.

You could order it through OSHPark yourself but would be limited to gold-on-purple. That's your call

So you're just using the pricing of OSH Park then. That wasn't very clear from the OP, so thanks for the clarification. I must complain about the choice to use PCBWay though; their PM spam here on Deskthority left a bad taste in my mouth (and got them banned).

Placed my order.
Thank you for the GB.

Ratfink wrote: ↑So you're just using the pricing of OSH Park then. That wasn't very clear from the OP, so thanks for the clarification. I must complain about the choice to use PCBWay though; their PM spam here on Deskthority left a bad taste in my mouth (and got them banned).

Hmm, I was not aware of this. I am still trying to get caught up with this GB since I have just stepped up to run it.

Seebart mentioned another option, PCBWin, here. We might consider looking into it as well.

I'm super interested as I still have my four NOS full-size industrial shells (top+bottom) badly in need of badges since forever (got them years and years ago) plus a some regular Ms which would look great with these... but...

Paypal locked me out of my account and it's a complete SNAFU: I cannot reset my PayPal account because it's tied to an old cellphone number I don't have anymore.

Could someone order six full-size silver-on-black badges for me with their command and then re-ship them to me to Belgium?

I already did participate in group buy and bought some stuff here but it was a long time ago.

(I'll be gone on vacation from the 13th to the 20th with no real internet access but I'm really interested by this group buy)

PM very welcome if you can help

Order placed. Thanks for doing this.

Edit: wait, where is the shipping from?

If from USA, then I would like to change my shipping address to my US proxy one. Looking forward to your reply. Thanks.

ba7777 wrote: ↑Order placed. Thanks for doing this.

Edit: wait, where is the shipping from?

If from USA, then I would like to change my shipping address to my US proxy one. Looking forward to your reply. Thanks.

Shipping is from the US, just go ahead and place another order with your US proxy address and I'll delete the one from before.

Wingpad wrote: ↑

ba7777 wrote: ↑Order placed. Thanks for doing this.

Edit: wait, where is the shipping from?

If from USA, then I would like to change my shipping address to my US proxy one. Looking forward to your reply. Thanks.

Shipping is from the US, just go ahead and place another order with your US proxy address and I'll delete the one from before.

Done.

D'oh. I ordered 100 of these a while ago, meant to sell them, and then somehow misplaced them. Then I decided that the Hall Effect boards were a better use of my time. I'll start selling some off when I find them again. I'm glad /someone/ is doing this! If I find them in the next week or so I'll send some off to my Secret Santa recipient.

I had a very good experience with PCBway and would order from them again. In fact, it's very easy to do so - just tell them to re-produce order G36990. "Aimee" should know all about it.

I'm sorry to read about the forum spamming they did. But, reading it, this just seems like Chinese business practices. It's a decently sized company, I can imagine the COO saying "Forums are important! Everyone create an account and participate, now!". Can't blame them for trying. The cultural differences are real.

Ordered a 4-pack. It'll give these new not-exactly-IBM-kosher boards their own calling card.

Joined.

Got a few of each, but would also be more than happy to buy quite a few more if any help to reach MOQ is needed.

Thanks for doing this.

Can you release your order number for the SSK badges so we can purchase them in bulk ourselves?

Ordered 4 each

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I've joined too. Yep, i did the CAD work but never got one (other than keeping one of the OshPark prototypes).

As XMIT said, i think aggressive marketing is just the Chinese way. I ordered membranes from one Chinese company a few years ago; both that company and the salesperson (who moved to another company) are still sending me emails invitations to "check out excellent price and service for membrane switch or other electronic products". PCBWay may have spammed the forum, but i can't think of the last time i got email marketing from them. Their prices are good and quality is decent. I've used them two or three times.

wcass wrote: ↑I've joined too. Yep, i did the CAD work but never got one (other than keeping one of the OshPark prototypes).

That's a little ironic that you would join this GB. For anyone that does not know wcass actually made the technical side of our first GB happen with his gerber file that worked very well.

Anyone that is in doubt here is what PCBway produced with wcass's file:
More here:

group-buys-f50/oshpark-replacement-badg ... 4-150.html

wcass wrote: ↑I've joined too. Yep, i did the CAD work but never got one (other than keeping one of the OshPark prototypes).

wcass, if you need the SSK version, PM me your address and I'll send you a few. You shouldn't have to buy these with the work you did on them.

snuci wrote: ↑

wcass wrote: ↑I've joined too. Yep, i did the CAD work but never got one (other than keeping one of the OshPark prototypes).

wcass, if you need the SSK version, PM me your address and I'll send you a few. You shouldn't have to buy these with the work you did on them.

Yeah, I would rather send him freebies. At this point we might have a few extras as well.

Thanks for all the support so far, guys! We're currently at:
Full-Size: 64
SSK-Size: 71

just ordered
Now I need a phosphorglow case in pink for my F SSK

I finally put in my order after buying additional indy cases with that Unicomp discount! Thanks a lot for running this group buy, Wingpad.

SSK size? I'm in!

removed.

The current numbers are:

Full-size: 103
SSK-size: 100

This means we've met MOQ on both fronts

Wingpad wrote: ↑The current numbers are:

Full-size: 103
SSK-size: 100

This means we've met MOQ on both fronts

Awesome! Looking forward to these!

Just put an Order in for 8 of each format. Full-sized and SSK.

Hope the finish will be as good as the previous one done earlier, here on DT.

Elrick wrote: ↑Hope the finish will be as good as the previous one done earlier, here on DT.

They should be because we're going through the same vendor, hopefully that means the quality won't change.

Just as a heads up, everyone, I'll be closing this group buy after the 4th of December. If you want to order some of these badges, the clock is ticking!

@Wingpad, have you confirmed the orders?

POTV wrote: ↑@Wingpad, have you confirmed the orders?

I have not yet confirmed the orders with the vendor but, in the past, it's been a "tell them to make another x badges" sort of thing.

As far as confirming the orders with individuals goes, I have not done that yet either. That will be part of the next phase, as I begin sending out invoices for this Group Buy... if I don't receive a payment after three days or so then I'll assume the buyer is no longer interested. If we end up falling short of the MOQ due to cancelled orders, I might briefly re-open this GB to try to make up the difference or, otherwise, make up the difference out of my pocket if it is small. We can always sell a few leftovers later.

Looking forward to next phase