Still lingering on this topic. I don’t understand how people are throwing money at group buys, or hell, even running group buys. Maybe I’m overreacting. But aren’t we looking at 1/3 or more of the entire US work force out of work. There’s no way the average person can come back from that debt in any short amount of time. IDK, I need a drink. Pretty sure $1200 isn’t going to help anyone out.
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As they say, different strokes for different folks. Maybe not changing their behavior gives them comfort. Whatever it is, we can decide whether to let opinions and actions of others become a source of stress.
Try shrugging. It’s a magical body gesture that helps you in situations like this. I’m now a power shrugger. 
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isn’t it just strange to have your reddit or instagram feed with reports of overwhelmed hospitals, people dying, huge layoffs, business closing, and then “hey, good news, my keycap group buy lands tomorrow. Make sure to join early for a discount”? Where’s that shrug emoji? found it 
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Absolutely, I’m right there with ya on that one. There’s a few I’m interested in this month (I’ve always wanted a sick dcs set and that space65 looks pretty sweet) but I’m def gonna hold off for a while and see how this all shakes out.
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I say its a very surreal experience right now. I imagine it won’t hit home until someone I directly know is diagnosed.
Having said that, I have a stable job that isn’t affected by the situation, so I’m still looking for a Realforce R2 RGB. Nothing else I can really do besides practicing proper social distancing.
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I figure just wait until stuff starts piling up and maybe people will figure it out. Like every GB that happens right now for a manu in countries that aren’t trying to hide the situation from the world is just adding delay and queue time, and we’re gonna start seeing that pop up when people begin to go “wait, I paid for a GMK GB a year ago/SP GB 2-3yrs ago”. Though that’s nothing new to anyone that bought Hyperfuse I guess.
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I mean you’re not wrong to have those thoughts, but it seems to me like you’re focusing too much on the situation & tripping yourself out over it. It is a horrible situation for sure, but I always take the news (especially anything that comes over social media) with a huge grain of salt. My mother is a nurse at a major hospital here in Pgh., PA & they were so slow last night her & a few other nurses managed to watch the whole Tiger King doc. in between taking care of the few patients they got. So while I do believe that COVID-19 is out there & we do need to be extra careful as society to keep it from spreading to those most vulnerable. I also believe a lot of what the news says is fear mongering at its worst & this is far from the end of the world.
Also don’t forget some of those people pushing GBs right are counting on those products to make money & eat themselves. It’s a complicated situation for sure & we’re all gonna have to eat some shit over the fallout, but we can’t just stop everything till it blows over. Personally I find a bit of relief & solace in the fact that we can still partake in our hobby during times like this. It might take awhile & we might have a bunch of “new normals” after this, but life goes on man. Shit already hit fan so you might as well try to find some sense of comfort & normalcy when you can, instead of worrying about what you can’t control anyways. At least that’s the way I’m looking at this mess now.
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Good, I hope it stays slow for your mom’s sake. Meanwhile, over here in the Detroit area, things are a dumpster fire and my wife, who works in an area hospital, would really like to trade places.
Now is not a good time to get sick, depending on your location. The system is hanging by a thread and medical staff here are getting crushed.
I’m a pretty pragmatic guy, I do what I can and cross my fingers, but there’s a lot of potential exposure to this virus in my household because she and I have “essential” jobs and deal with the public.
Tiger King is probably the craziest documentary I’ve ever seen. I’ll throw that in. I keep bugging my wife to watch it, but so far she hasn’t. It’s driving me nuts because I really want to talk about it with her. It’ll get your mind off your worries for a while, absolutely. And then you’ll really want to buy the two country albums or at least blast “Here Kitty Kitty” on your Bluetooth speakers for your dog’s amusement and your wife and children’s bewilderment, but that’s just me, I digress.
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Hey there fellow Detroiter. Stay safe over there. I can’t believe how crazy its gotten here. I’ve got infected friends and family that have basically been turned away at hospitals due to lack of space/supplies and told to basically come back when they’re pretty sure they’re about to suffocate and die.
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Rough, hopefully it slows down a bit for her. My mom did say they had a decent influx of patients when the quarantine started, but things have slowed way down since then at West Penn. Not sure about the other hospitals near me, but we definitely seem to be hit less hard than other areas.
We’re kinda in the same situation, my mom refuses to stop over at all right now & gets pissed when we go to her place because of exposure risk. Hopefully that little bit of extra immunity we’ve built up from being around a hospital worker a lot helps us out here!
I’m also still working, I’ve been helping a buddy of mine with a flip house & since my actual is job is shut down right now we’ve just kept rolling on it. Just us two though, we’re waiting for the quarantine to lift before getting anybody else over here. Anyways you guys stay as safe as you can!
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Stop going over to your mom’s place!
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my little sister works in a nursing home and they just confirmed 8 cases of corona. luckily she only works on the weekend so hoping she can minimize exposure and stay healthy. I have a friend in Tennessee and someone on his wife’s side of the family was in the hospital for corona. Started getting better, things were looking good and was released from the hospital. Got home, started having seizers. 10 minutes later was dead. I’m fortunate that I can work 100% from home and have only gone out for groceries, but not everyone is so lucky. Stay safe and healthy. If buying some keyboard shit brings comfort, then by all means, place an order. Keyboards has offered me some distraction from this mess.
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You’re not wrong, but she keeps doing stuff she shouldn’t be by herself making me go over there LOL! Last time I was talking to her she was talking about vacuuming under all the furniture & she got some super heavy pieces!
Yeah, this thing is suck. My brother is an EMT and has already been quarantined once for potential exposures. All hands on deck now, so he’s almost definitely going to get it at some point. Got an aunt working in a hospital up north and my wife’s Aunt is a nurse in upstate New York.
Been playing with keyboards a bit again to take my mind off things and also because it put the whole starting a family this year thing on hold.
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I’ve definitely slowed my roll on joining recent GBs. I’m conserving cash for lots of reasons.
I’ve been trying to limit myself to 1 GMK set a month which is ridiculously hard. Also, not joining GBs now means my future self—6+ months from now—won’t be receiving stuff in the mail which is kind of a weird concept.
I’m still receiving keysets etc almost weekly because 6-12 months ago, the economy was looking awesome!
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Wish I could say the same. I’ve admittedly joined more GBs this last couple months than I ever have. Just too many good things coming out. I’ve got a well paid position with no risk of layoff so I felt the need to join these GBs that I would later regret not joining, when I started seeing them appear on r/MK and r/MM for 3 times or more the price.
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I have to say that COVID-19 has had the OPPOSITE effect of what I would have assumed.
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Groupbuys continue to sell out, almost nothing is failing - no change from before COVID-19.
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Mechmarket is on fire, especially for high-end $1000+ boards. I would have thought people would be conserving money. Perhaps it is the stimulus money, or the desire to get what you want before things get worse, or people feel that things will recover more quickly than initially thought.
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Even MORE interest checks and group buys are happening. I thought there would be fewer, but this one makes sense to me in hindsight. Everyone has more time to work on their ideas while they are locked at home.
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Suddenly standard Chinese parts that used to be readily available have gone up in value. A used Tofu used to sell for at $20 below retail. Now I see them selling on Mechmarket for retail or higher.
Maybe it is because keyboard hobbyists skew younger? 81% of deaths in the US were over 65.
Perhaps people are feeling more optimistic because some of the below information that is coming out?
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The latest CDC mortality number is .26% or a little more than twice as bad the flu.
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40% of US counties have had no COVID deaths.
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Below 25 years old the fatality rate of COVID-19 is 0.00008%, or roughly one in 1.25 million.
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For those below 55 the fatality rate is currently around 0.0022%, or one in 45,000.
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Cases are going up as States open up and testing continues to ramp up, but deaths continue to go down (I suspect death rate is scarier to folks than number of cases)
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Yeah it’s been insane how many IC’s have been popping up.
Supply/demand on luxury goods still seems iffy, especially outside the keeb world. Just on the gaming side, try buying any kind of SFFPC parts, racing/flight sim gear, or a VR setup and you’re SOL. Having so many people stuck at home has definitely been very good for certain markets.
Even our company is currently experiencing a large surge in revenue due to the fact that we manufacture N95 media.
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My personal purchasing has definitely started slow, but in this last month it definitely went higher than most months on average. Being cooped up inside is making people stir crazy and people are resorting to some classic retail therapy.
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All sorts of supply chains have been disrupted - I was looking to for a foot bath for a Mother’s Day gift and googled “best foot bath” and all of the top rated models were sold out everywhere, probably because they are all made in and ship from China.
It is kind of surreal and also gives you idea of what things would be like if a real trade war ever broke out with China (the tariffs we have today are small potatoes on a small subset of imports).