Truly don't want to be a party pooper but this is going to be a nightmare in every single possible way, please take a lot more stuff into consideration and try to make as easy of a form as you can. you will thank yourself. My main gripes are as follow :
Right now you offer to ship but you don't give any company to calculate the shipping with, so potentially you'll have to run around DHL, Hermes, UPS, etc to ship. You do not want that lol. Also ... packing material ??? have you taken this into account ?
Nobody know what's available, we all saw those French, Danish and Swedish boxes. But I can guarantee you people are going to change their mind depending on what might be available once you check through the stock. You don't want to deal with people paying once, changing their minds, refunding them and making them pay again. Pay once everything is set in stone
I read that you will post your name, address and stuff but I honestly don't think money is the problem, a paypal chargeback does the job well and quick. On the other hand, handling 5000 boards only on the weekends is going to take months of hard work. You're going to get burnt out really quickly.
Have you thought of what you'll do with the leftovers ?
I also want to mention how a member that registered 2 months ago with 70 posts, half of them in this very thread, is running potentially the biggest GB this site has seen (7bit had his shit down and he still very clearly is having trouble with this Rounds). And asking to be paid BEFORE you go there. This is sketch on so many levels.
I really want to join but I feel like I'm going to fund something that is bound to fail, I'm putting my name on the sheet but please clear things out.
P.S. : you might want to get in talk with the designer of this, if you actual intend to go on with this GB
Your points are legit but one thing i want to make more then clear.
I never asked for money.
I said i go on mondey check the goods and document everything, post it here and every contributer decides if he wants to preoceed.
Your list of things and how you were planning them had "collecting money" before "checking the goods" :
Lastly everyone in this thread is an adult with a functional brain. I made it more then clear that i am not going to run to anywhere to ask for shipping prices or other fees. I made it more then clear that i provide only storage for atleast 6 month and that i am willing to spend my weekends sorting keyboards.
You made it clear, but you didn't provide any ressources for us to fill in the blanks. What carrier do you want to get the keyboards shipped out with ? DHL ? Hermes ? UPS ? like I said, if you say "calculate your own shipping, I will be using DHL", it's much easier than to end up with 30 shipments in multiple carriers because people found cheaper shipping here than there.
Truly don't want to be a party pooper but this is going to be a nightmare in every single possible way, please take a lot more stuff into consideration and try to make as easy of a form as you can. you will thank yourself. My main gripes are as follow :
Right now you offer to ship but you don't give any company to calculate the shipping with, so potentially you'll have to run around DHL, Hermes, UPS, etc to ship. You do not want that lol. Also ... packing material ??? have you taken this into account ?
Nobody know what's available, we all saw those French, Danish and Swedish boxes. But I can guarantee you people are going to change their mind depending on what might be available once you check through the stock. You don't want to deal with people paying once, changing their minds, refunding them and making them pay again. Pay once everything is set in stone
I read that you will post your name, address and stuff but I honestly don't think money is the problem, a paypal chargeback does the job well and quick. On the other hand, handling 5000 boards only on the weekends is going to take months of hard work. You're going to get burnt out really quickly.
Have you thought of what you'll do with the leftovers ?
I also want to mention how a member that registered 2 months ago with 70 posts, half of them in this very thread, is running potentially the biggest GB this site has seen (7bit had his shit down and he still very clearly is having trouble with this Rounds). And asking to be paid BEFORE you go there. This is sketch on so many levels.
I really want to join but I feel like I'm going to fund something that is bound to fail, I'm putting my name on the sheet but please clear things out.
P.S. : you might want to get in talk with the designer of this, if you actual intend to go on with this GB
Your points are legit but one thing i want to make more then clear.
I never asked for money.
I said i go on mondey check the goods and document everything, post it here and every contributer decides if he wants to preoceed.
Your list of things and how you were planning them had "collecting money" before "checking the goods" :
Lastly everyone in this thread is an adult with a functional brain. I made it more then clear that i am not going to run to anywhere to ask for shipping prices or other fees. I made it more then clear that i provide only storage for atleast 6 month and that i am willing to spend my weekends sorting keyboards.
You made it clear, but you didn't provide any ressources for us to fill in the blanks. What carrier do you want to get the keyboards shipped out with ? DHL ? Hermes ? UPS ? like I said, if you say "calculate your own shipping, I will be using DHL", it's much easier than to end up with 30 shipments in multiple carriers because people found cheaper shipping here than there.
I am not responsible for any shipment, I said that and made that clear. I won't do the work for everyone, that would be stupid. If you can't Google and organize any reasonable shipping method and the money for that on your own, don't chip in anything.
All I offer ppl is my storage and time.
I won't put my self in a disadvantage possition.
And I am well aware of all the risks I am taking.
Literally everyone could pull his money back and I would be the stupid one.
Anyway I don't have to defend my self.
If you don't want to chip in don't do it.
But it would be a shame if we lost this opportunity.
Lastly I welcome anyone to help me but no-one is taking any step. Up until now I am the only one who is willing to take the necessary steps.
I don't have to be the leading position.
I asked many times for other members to help me out and visit the seller together.
Noone acts but everyone is happy that 1 person is acting.
I didn't ask for money, I am spending my precious time for you guys.
I am literally in my bachelor thesis right now and can't really afford it but I'm still doing this.
Please someone else do it for me.
Come forth!
All I get from your posts is bad vibes.
Provide a solution to the problems you point out or just be quite.
It is not helping anyone. And it's ruining the time and effort I am putting into this.
I am not responsible for any shipment, I said that and made that clear. I won't do the work for everyone, that would be stupid. If you can't Google and organize any reasonable shipping method and the money for that on your own, don't chip in anything.
All I offer ppl is my storage and time.
By this, do you mean that you will require people to arrange for packages to be collected from your storage location, or will you be handling sending stuff out by people's chosen shipping method?
I am not responsible for any shipment, I said that and made that clear. I won't do the work for everyone, that would be stupid. If you can't Google and organize any reasonable shipping method and the money for that on your own, don't chip in anything.
All I offer ppl is my storage and time.
By this, do you mean that you will require people to arrange for packages to be collected from your storage location, or will you be handling sending stuff out by people's chosen shipping method?
I don't need any help, but would be welcome.
Not helping me will cost more time, helping me will cost less time.
Every one hast to take these parameters into account.
I will handle the packaging and sorting of the keyboards, Lalaland said he will visit me one weekend and get his keyboards. I am sure he will help me with other things aswell. If lalaland visits me 10% of the order would be already done. i got around 10% for my self.
Doing the packaging for european contributors is an easy task aswell.
The big problem is usa and australia. Someone chipped in 1000 dollars blindly and i reached out to him. Please i am already doing all the hard work, organize yourselfs and build groups and search for shipping methods.
I reached my keyboard inventory limit this weekend and have literally nowhere else to put things, apologies for being unable to do more.
5000 keyboards is a lot of keyboards. The seller says these are on 12 pallets? That is 416 keyboards per pallet. These pallets will have to be at least 2m tall to accommodate anything close to that. These will need to be transported by tractor trailer and loaded with a forklift.
In terms of pricing and time to sell, I'd look to the Pingmasters for a good reference. Those sold for something like 40 USD a pop, and were around for several years, until they weren't.
I've got a decent amount of experience shipping vintage drum kits around the world so I thought I could provide some useful information to those not sure about shipping big, heavy boxes. I've done some rough numbers on how easy it'd be to ship how many keyboards and how, etc.. I came up with this for being a cost break point. This should at least hold true for shipping in Europe at least but should work for any standard courier service.
20 keyboards should fit into a standard dimension 50 cm packing box. A box 50 cm x 50 cm will allow for two boxed keyboards per layer. Allowing for 5 cm keyboard depth, a packing box 50 cm x 50 cm and then 60 cm deep will comfortably hold 20 keyboards, with space enough for packing materials like bubble wrap or brown paper. Taking the assumed weight of 1.75 kg per board and round it up, even using the weight of 40 kg for a box of those dimensions, Germany to U.K. is only just £60 via TNT courier. I propose this cost + £5 for packaging materials as a template for my fellow Brits partaking.
These box dimensions and weight is a good guide for anyone shipping via standard couriers. Boxes bigger and/or heavier tend to tip over into freight territory. Prices can shoot up sharp from there. If anyone finds a better weight/size combination, please post it but I think for the courier cost, amount of boards per shipment and how realistic the box dimensions are works for this and should serve us well moving forward with this endeavour.
I think Myoth's concerns valid and worth consideration but as inozenz has said, we're all adults here; let's do our homework, use PayPal *with fees* and temper our expectations. I know we have a long road to go yet but I'd like to thank you inozenz for having the initiative, willingness and kindness to push this forward. I appreciate it.
You made it clear, but you didn't provide any ressources for us to fill in the blanks. What carrier do you want to get the keyboards shipped out with ? DHL ? Hermes ? UPS ? like I said, if you say "calculate your own shipping, I will be using DHL", it's much easier than to end up with 30 shipments in multiple carriers because people found cheaper shipping here than there.
I am not responsible for any shipment, I said that and made that clear. I won't do the work for everyone, that would be stupid. If you can't Google and organize any reasonable shipping method and the money for that on your own, don't chip in anything.
All I get from your posts is bad vibes.
Provide a solution to the problems you point out or just be quite.
It is not helping anyone. And it's ruining the time and effort I am putting into this.
I'm literally trying to help, I suggested that you go ahead with a single carrier or it's going to be an absolute clusterfuck for you to handle dozens of shipments here and there, in different offices, with different pricings, etc. Pick one, and tell everyone to get their quotes from there. Simple as. It will make for a simple and effortless back and forth.
I will try to offer France proxying, but for now shipping seems really complicated and I don't really want to offer a service that's going to make for a bumpy ride for anyone that relies on me.
I did some math though, assuming 50x25x5 and 2kg per keyboard box, shipping would be 190€ for 20 boards, add the cost of the boards and you end up at roughly 210€, so I could offer keyboards at 10€ a piece. It becomes much more expensive if I double the amount of boards (25€ per) and less interesting if I half it (13€ per). With DHL.
I won't do the work for everyone, that would be stupid. If you can't Google and organize any reasonable shipping method and the money for that on your own, don't chip in anything.
People who are there in person would still have to pack each package, and print and stick the shipping label on it. And then be there for when the parcel company comes and picks them up.
Therefore, I think it would be easiest for everyone if that was handled by you, or you together with another member who lives close by and that you/we choose a limited number of shipment companies to use, to minimise the number of pickups that would need to be made at your barn.
But in no way does anyone expect you to guarantee anything with your money.
If you would be the "sender" with the shipping company and an insured package gets damaged in transit then you would need to be the one filing the insurance claim though. But those cases would be exceptions, if any happen at all, and people would expect them to take their time.
I won't do the work for everyone, that would be stupid. If you can't Google and organize any reasonable shipping method and the money for that on your own, don't chip in anything.
People who are there in person would still have to pack each package, and print and stick the shipping label on it. And then be there for when the parcel company comes and picks them up.
Therefore, I think it would be easiest for everyone if that was handled by you, or you together with another member who lives close by and that you/we choose a limited number of shipment companies to use, to minimise the number of pickups that would need to be made at your barn.
But in no way does anyone expect you to guarantee anything with your money.
If you would be the "sender" with the shipping company and an insured package gets damaged in transit then you would need to be the one filing the insurance claim though. But those cases would be exceptions, if any happen at all, and people would expect them to take their time.
It's nice and all but someone who buys 400keyboards and is living in US can not use dhl or ups or other comercial logistics.
These ppl need to find small logistic businesses who can handle their needs.
One member in france already found a really good solution with a business, which is directly operating from france. He gets 1 pallet of keyboards for arround 215€. this is perfect. and exactly this kind of work i am expecting from us and australian citizens.
I will not choose a single shipping company for you guys. everyone should have the chance to choose the best option for himself and the cheapest obviously.
I am not a dictator, i believe in the right that every one is free to choose for himself. If someone from australia tells me yo my 10 keyboards are best shipped with ups and another from US tells me hey i could arrange little space in a shipping container, they would be willing to ship 2 pallets for 300 dollars. What kind of person would i be to tell them to pick dhl only, makes no sense.
This is not ur ordinary group buy, this is not a usual situiation we are dealing with. This is happening really fast.
Yes, there is a lot of work.
Take every single box out count and sort them, then create the packages for the contributors.
Luckily i already own around 10% of the share and around 10% by lalaland who will come to my place.
then there is my girlfriend who wants to help with 50€. what i am trying to say is that a good püortion of the work is done easily and quickly, but then there is a little chaos that needs to be organized.
Our adventurers enter a FORBIDDING storage space, crammed full of ANCIENT KEYBOARD TREASURE. They turn to look around them and are OVERCOME by the sheer scale of their task ahead. Keyboard boxes surround them from floor to ceiling, like the walls of a maze. They draw deep breaths and begin to peek inside.
Sadly there are only around 2100 keyboards.
When I arrived I had my suspicions, but we got good news as well.
There are 3 different keyboards with various layouts.
Maybe I have missed one but we'll see.
The seller was kind enough to give me each of the keyboards, so that I can take them home. Below are the imgur links and dimensions as well as weight.
Hope this helps with organizing shipping more accurately.
I have to negotiate the price again, since we have fewer boards now.
I'll talk to him again tomorrow.
Well, I don't think I'd be interested in any of the MEI T-15s. I'd definitely go for one of each of the linear and clicky.
Someone made an earlier comment about fees listed in the spreadsheet. I live in the US, so even if the keyboards are $0 a piece, I know that they'd cost between $40 and $60 to ship, that's why I said I'd put down $70.
Maybe put all this stuff up in an invite-only auction on ebay? International shipping would be handled by them.
Maybe put all this stuff up in an invite-only auction on ebay? International shipping would be handled by them.
I was hoping for a US distributor to pick up a batch. I’d happily pay a price that covers the board, international shipping, US shipping, and the distributor’s time, but it’s not worth the hassle for anyone for me to put in my paltry wishes at this time.
Maybe put all this stuff up in an invite-only auction on ebay? International shipping would be handled by them.
I was hoping for a US distributor to pick up a batch. I’d happily pay a price that covers the board, international shipping, US shipping, and the distributor’s time, but it’s not worth the hassle for anyone for me to put in my paltry wishes at this time.
Join the Discord server. There are already plans being made for central US and eastern US.
Join the Discord server. There are already plans being made for central US and eastern US.
That newfangled thing all the youths are using to share tentacle porn and to replace IRC? I’ve been looking for a good reason to try it out and this might be it!
That newfangled thing all the youths are using to share tentacle porn and to replace IRC?
Pretty much. It's IRC for dummies that's easier to access use on a phone.
I think a lot of people just use it as an alternative to a group text that also works as VOIP.
IRC is hard to use on phones? my experience with it was pretty hassle free from what I remember.
I might just be a fool who assumed it was difficult. IRC is probably straightforward, but I've never tried it.
I first used Discord because the Teamspeak server my friends and I used to squat in was replaced with a clan Discord so we just made our own. Very convenient as a replacement for a grouptext too especially if not everyone has the same type of phone. Many people just started using it because Skype was pretty bad.
I probably need to give IRC a try, but I don't know what kind of IRCs are out there.
Who ever is handling this or proxying orders for other users - these are some "terms" I came up with a while ago after having shipped out literally hundreds of things to users across the globe.
Some of it might sound a bit harsh or unfriendly but trust me there's good reasons for everything I put in there: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=20354
Who ever is handling this or proxying orders for other users - these are some "terms" I came up with a while ago after having shipped out literally hundreds of things to users across the globe.
Some of it might sound a bit harsh or unfriendly but trust me there's good reasons for everything I put in there: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=20354
Who ever is handling this or proxying orders for other users - these are some "terms" I came up with a while ago after having shipped out literally hundreds of things to users across the globe.
Some of it might sound a bit harsh or unfriendly but trust me there's good reasons for everything I put in there: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=20354
