Total Destruction Suggestions Requested

[hellothere]

Ship it to yourself and write "FRAGILE" all over the box.

Seriously it does seem weird that the seller cares what you do with the keyboard even after a refund due to their mistake. I've been able to keep many items that were shipped to me by mistake and there were no strings attached. I'd snap the case and PCB, harvest the switches and keycaps, then put them all in a pile and photograph it to make it appear "destroyed".

The keyboard was shipped in a thin cardboard keyboard box with 1.5 layers of (small bubble) bubble wrap and then stuffed into a plastic bag. I'm seriously impressed that DHL and the USPS didn't destroy it in the 3+ weeks they had it.

I think everyone who mentioned that the reason to destroy the keyboard is because the seller wants to guarantee that I don't make a profit is correct. Again, as I now don't own the keyboard anymore, I have to go by the owner's wishes and that wish is to destroy the thing.

[Palatino]

But wouldn’t the seller prefer it if (a) you didn’t make a profit plus (b) he did, by you selling it and passing the funds on to him? Not to mention (c) the avoidance of environmental waste and (d) a third party’s enjoyment of the keyboard? Also, I’m dubious as to whether you ‘don’t own the keyboard’ now. I happen to be seeing a lawyer friend tomorrow and will ask his opinion!

[Muirium]

My amateur lawyerly advice is you are not bound at all. He’s way beyond his rights to insist destruction.

[Findecanor]

But wouldn’t the seller prefer it if (a) you didn’t make a profit plus (b) he did, by you selling it and passing the funds on to him? Not to mention (c) the avoidance of environmental waste and (d) a third party’s enjoyment of the keyboard? Also, I’m dubious as to whether you ‘don’t own the keyboard’ now. I happen to be seeing a lawyer friend tomorrow and will ask his opinion!

This!

Might want to make the whole process as transparent as possible, to put the original seller at ease. An eBay auction should work, I think.

[Palatino]

Type OA2 Alps clones aren't bad switches. They're a twat to reassemble but type like a lighter White Alps. I'd vote give away; someone would love that board.

Ooh, never tried these. I’ve actually shunned them thinking them inferior to alps from some review somewhere. Got a board with them for sale/loan?

I do but it's currently in pieces... It's right at the back of the queue but still very much in the queue! It's an NTC and I quite like the large chassis. Caps aren't up to much. Problem is, I just sold all my boards with spare Alps caps to some guy on the internet without considering why I had the boards in the first place

You must be mistaken. That guy on the internet is selling, not buying, to reclaim actual living space and not be divorced. He can't have just bought a mahoosive shitload of boards from you - it just doesn't add up.

[Bjerrk]

Recently, a guy went batshit on an electric height-adjustable desk down by the garages adjacent to where I live.

I shouted to him out the window, asking what the hell he was doing. He was completely in a fit, smashing the thing, shouting that he was moving and had to get rid of it, and that the guy who had promised to buy it didn't show and now he wanted to make sure that NOONE could get it. 'Cos HE wasn't going to give ANYONE a free desk!

People are fucking weird.

[thefarside]

What if you paid him for the keyboard? You could keep it and sell it if it’s not worth keeping.

[hellothere]

What if you paid him for the keyboard? You could keep it and sell it if it’s not worth keeping.

Answered earlier in the thread. He wanted $70 for it. It's worth maybe $35.

[SK-8K]

Just keep it and don't respond to messages. That guy is a jerk.

[wobbled]

Take a different shit keyboard to the e-waste recycler
Have them give you a receipt for what you gave them
Show the dude on ebay your receipt.

[thefarside]

What if you paid him for the keyboard? You could keep it and sell it if it’s not worth keeping.

Answered earlier in the thread. He wanted $70 for it. It's worth maybe $35.

Sorry I missed that. Time to break out that sledge hammer then!

[pandrew]

If you consider it's immoral to keep it, and that's why you want to comply, then it's also immoral to destroy it just a little, so you can still salvage caps/switches.
However in my opinion it's also immoral to destroy a working keyboard.
In your case I would give it away. And if the seller doesn't like it, nobody cares. If he refunded through ebay, I think he probably can't undo it. You might care if you want to buy from him again, but then again, do you want to buy from someone who requested you destroy a keyboard?

Maybe put it up for sale only for the shipping cost here in the forum, and have a trustable person from the forum with a long history of activity pick the winner, using some randomizing service, (long activity history to make sure it's not a clone account of yours). It all being public, you can share with the seller all the conversation. Winner must post a picture once they receive the keyboard.

[Polecat]

The moral high road would be to send it back to the seller at your expense. Your conscience will be clear, and they'll most likely resell it to someone else, rather than it getting destroyed.

edit: ...and you should include a note saying you just couldn't destroy it.

[Rayndalf]

The moral high road would be to send it back to the seller at your expense. Your conscience will be clear, and they'll most likely resell it to someone else, rather than it getting destroyed.

edit: ...and you should include a note saying you just couldn't destroy it.

Seller sends wrong item and doesn't want so pay for it be sent back. So it's not worth anything to them.

Paying to send it back at your own expense doesn't make sense, you already paid for it to be sent to you.

So... wrap it in cling wrap, pour glue on the cling wrap and then take a picture of it in bath tub (without water). Maybe throw in some icecubes and wood chips.

Just make it look like you're an insane person.

[Muirium]

Just bide your time and see if the guy’s still mental enough to keep pestering you about it. Seems like an act of anger on his part, rather than anything to be reasoned with.

[kbdfr]

[…] as a condition for the refund, I have to destroy the keyboard and send him pics. […]

The way I see it, there’s been an agreement here.
No way one party fulfilled their part of it and then the other party can refuse to fulfill theirs.
Pacta sunt servanda, aren’t they?

[Mandarbmax]

Here's my response to mrprofessor. Using Spoiler tags, as it's a little off topic.

Spoiler:

inozenz's "group buy" for NIB Space Invader keyboards. As I have no need for 11 keyboards, I posted some on ebay. In my first auction, I had several people trolling my sale saying things like, "Don't charge more than what you paid!" and "Respect the group buy!" (I didn't have this problem in subsequent auctions, probably because more people from the group buy were selling off their keyboards. I even saw one yesterday.)

Spoiler:

Even though you have all the right to sell your stuff the way you want, it seems unfair to many members (including me). There were folks who didn't know about the GB and joined late. You could have just helped them.

I don't think I'm required to tell people there's a group buy. There's not a forum rule or anything. Arguably, inozenz should have asked a moderator/admin to move the thread into the Group Buy forum section when he started the group buy. However, there's no requirement for him to do that, either.

If you go to your local surplus store and find a box of 10 keyboards for $1 that are worth $100 a piece, are you required to sell each keyboard for 10 cents? How about all the people on this forum that say that they bought their Beamspring (for example) for $10? If you offer them $11, shouldn't they sell you the keyboard? Hey, they're making a profit! They should have to sell it!

All the Space Invader keyboards I've sold on ebay have had a starting price set to $50, which is a great price for a really good new mechanical keyboard. That allowed the market to set the value. I think the max I sold one for was $75. They were also available to ship internationally, except to one country I've had problems with -- and no, I'm not going to name the country, but it's not India.

As far as this particular community goes, I've had some nice people here send me stuff for free. I've reciprocated that on several occasions. I also don't post just sales threads -- although that also isn't a rule -- and I've tried to be helpful and share my limited knowledge. I've also updated and written a couple Wiki articles. I'm just mentioning this to show that I don't owe the forum anything and it doesn't owe me anything.

Just because what you did didn't violate any explicit rules doesn't mean that you don't suck. I personally think poorly of you because of this and will never sell anything to you or help you in any other way. Turning a profit off of Inozenz's free labor for the community is very shitty.

[hellothere]

I've obviously offended you, Mandarbmax. I'm sorry about that, but I don't understand why you're offended. Go ahead and PM me, if you'd like.

[thefarside]

Has this keyboard’s fate been decided?

[Mandarbmax]

I've obviously offended you, Mandarbmax. I'm sorry about that, but I don't understand why you're offended. Go ahead and PM me, if you'd like.

No, I think I was pretty clear. Inozenz charged less than the market rate for those boards for the benefit of the community. For you to derive personal profit from his hard work and generosity is bad.

Furthermore you charged more from the people you sold to than you had to which is also taking advantage of them.

It isn't complicated why I don't like rent seekers.

[hellothere]

Has this keyboard’s fate been decided?

Destruction. I think that's going to be the only way. Probably use the sledgehammer, as mentioned previously.

No, I think I was pretty clear. Inozenz charged less than the market rate for those boards for the benefit of the community. For you to derive personal profit from his hard work and generosity is bad.

I just don't understand that. There were lots of folks that bought way more keyboards than I did. Do you think those folks are going to hold onto dozens or hundreds of keyboards? Do you really think someone will list these keyboards on ebay or something with a buy-it-now of only $12 apiece (lower in Europe)?

Not trying to put words in your mouth, but to me it sounds like you really wanted all the folks in the group buy to be inozenz's business partners rather than customers. Inozenz didn't specify this. How could he even track when someone sold a keyboard? It'd be a full-time job going through all the auction websites, classified ads, etc. As I've said, I was not the first person to sell one of these keyboards. Logically, this should mean that everyone who has sold one of these keyboards for more than $12 sucks, right?

I just feel like I've satisfied all of inozenz's requirements and requests. I also tipped him on at least one, if not two or three, occasions. I also paid for his packing/shipping services (you might not have seen this offered, as it's way down in the thread). Also, when the "group buy" started, I said that I only wanted two keyboards. Inozenz bumped me up to 11.

Just to put a bow on this, these weren't inozenz's keyboards. Both other people and I paid for the keyboards. Inozenz wouldn't have any stock to sell if we didn't put down the cash.

Again, I'm sorry that you feel bad about my actions. I still don't feel as though I did anything wrong. I'm happy that you took some time to write about how you feel, though.

[thefarside]

Has this keyboard’s fate been decided?

Destruction. I think that's going to be the only way. Probably use the sledgehammer, as mentioned previously.

If possible it would be cool to see that in a slo-mo video.

[hellothere]

Well, probably not a video, but at least pics.

I would love to get fire involved, but that's hazardous to your health.

[thefarside]

Well, probably not a video, but at least pics.

I would love to get fire involved, but that's hazardous to your health.

You wouldn’t want to near the fumes but if you had a fire pit outside it would probably be fine.

[Tha_Pig]

No point in destroying something that's still good. How about selling it and sending him the money, so he at least recovers some of his investment.

[kbdfr]

No point in destroying something that's still good. How about selling it and sending him the money, so he at least recovers some of his investment.

Of course destroying something that’s still good should be avoided, but as hellothere agreed to destroying the keyboard and sending the seller pics as a condition for the refund he should aks first if the seller would agree to that.
How about sending the seller a link to this thread?

[SK-8K]

That seller is a psychopath. Screw any agreements. Tell him to pound sand.

[kbdfr]

That seller is a psychopath. Screw any agreements. Tell him to pound sand.

In other words: first enter into a contract, wait for your contract partner to fullfill heir part and then declare the contract void because the other side is nuts for having proposed such a stupid contract.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/moral-compass

[SK-8K]

There is nothing in the Ebay TOS that says you have to destroy items if the item was not as described. The only exception to that is counterfeit items.
Destroying out-of-production 90s computer tech to satisfy someone's narcissism isn't moral.

[kbdfr]

I think I'll go the (for me) not usual way of simply stop arguing