What did you get in the mail today? (Part 2)

Exactly, light but still a bit of ‘meat’ at the very top to not accidentally press the key.
This is delicious.

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Do you remember your first keyboard group buy? I remember being in the hobby and thinking, “who would ever join a group buy?” But then it was the pandemic and instock things were out of stock and the whole hobby felt like a group buy. So I joined the group buy for the PC KL-90 in early 2021. It was my first group buy for anything keyboard-related. It was also my first non-metal board and my first 75% and my first board with an encoder (it actually has two!).

Well here it is. I got almost all of it today - I just need the PCB, encorders, and some feet that should be on the way separately. It’s been a ridiculous process, but I’m grateful to the people who helped get all the pieces to me - DDS, Barrett Creative, and vendors and individuals in the discord who shared their experiences, providing the only reliable updates on the project. I’ll still build the board when I have all the parts. And I bet I will like it, but the sour taste - left by the designer who tried to act as US vendor and abandoned the project and his “friend” who didn’t end up helping as much as lecturing us for asking questions - will be with me for a while.

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Glad to see you got the board in the end though! Trust me, the taste is that much more sour when not only do you get lectured for ask where you $500 went, but never get nothing in the end on top of it! :rofl: :money_mouth_face:

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I always wondered what happened to that Barrett guy because recently I remember thinking about the KL-90 and saying “I wonder why I don’t see this board anymore”, and this would explain it lol.

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2021? Oh sweet summer child.

I actually don’t remember my first group buy :blush:

I only remember the ones that failed and that I lost money on, lol.

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lol, the way group buys ran early on is still my favorite.

  • Random person on forum has idea.
  • A bunch of people send money to random person through different means.
  • Either we do or don’t get the product
  • Chaos ensues
  • Person goes on to run more group buys or falls off the map completely, which leads to lengthy forum threads about how that person was a scammer.

I guess it’s similar to today except replace random person with an online shop. I just liked knowing I was getting personally flicked off if things went poorly in the old days.

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There are things I miss about the old days, and things I don’t, ha.

In terms of switches, there was a certain charm to DMing some guy named “hbheroinbob” in search of silents that didn’t suck - but I also like all the easily-accessible choices we have these days.

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Haha or “BunnyLake” for OG hyperfuse. I was watching that GH thread when it first started in early 2015. Just check back on it now… 120 pages long and comments as recently as this year. 10 drama filled years that GB provided.

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My first GB was for some ePBT caps (using Gateron blanks I believe). These are still the best feeling PBT keycaps I own, even though the space bar isn’t great. I think that was in 2015. Scratch that it was 2016

My first keyboard group buy was the next year and it was a Norbatouch

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One day I’ll be able to say “back in my day…” in this hobby.

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F8… :upside_down_face:

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Hahaha I had to relook that up. Had a wave of memories come back. What a wild ride.

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Today I got a beige Classic-TKL and some yellow Silk Awaken switches; I goofed and got too few, I need like 20 more :stuck_out_tongue:

I think my first actual GB was SA 1965 in late 2016. It took about a year, colors changed after it started, and the finals looked kinda like the renders. It’s a nice set I’m still looking to find the right board for. Something big, silver, and with a gapless layout, I think.

Longest GB was MT3 Susuwatari, IIRC about two full years - I thought that was long, but to actually get physical stuff after waiting 4 or more years - what an adventure, ha

In all my years making iffy keyboard purchases, would you believe the first time I got burned was by Rama when he did his thing, and right after that (or right after me becoming aware of Rama’s thing) by Vala Supply when they did theirs late last year. All those people I DMed, emailed, and communicated with by proxy came through sooner or later.

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I’ve had a lot of misadventures but I’m too dumb to be scared off by it.

A lot of people forget that the first Rama board took years to get shipped. It was an early headache in the group buy scene. Followed by the closing up of Jchan’s store not too long after units were delivered. I was there for it.

Unfortunately I was also there for Exclusive’s fuck up with the E8-V1. Then there was the Lynx50, and the Weaven R2 boards, and the Hubble65. Lots of keycaps undelivered from Vala and Loobedswitches. Got scammed once on mechmarket too. That was my bad because the payment wasn’t PayPal and I forgot to have them DM me.

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I got burned on Weaven R2. Even Exent by Rama was a QC nightmare just like M65-A.

Jchan was a sad story. I reached out to him around 2019 and his mother (sister? I’m hazy) was dying from brain cancer and the whole family had to help take care of her. He never really recovered from that.

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More resin (what else is new??? :upside_down_face:) Got a Peppercorn Fugu from Nightcaps & a BSOD Sunken Furball from Gothcaps!

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XVX Iridescent Nephrite Jade Cherry Profile PBT Keycaps - Full Set (186-Keys) Translucent Keycaps

So these arrived in the mail.

A kind of clone or spinoff of KKB Retro Mixed Lights. They seem to be brighter and cheerier than their inspiration, much as in the on-line photos.

They feel very smooth and glossy. Even fresh GMK feels textured and matte as compared with these. They are not porous, and will probably become oily.

You can feel the legends, which must protrude very slightly above the keycap blank itself. You find this also on some of the more inexpensive CX SA / AF SA-style keycaps.

As you can see in the above image, they come nicely-packed in multi-layered storage trays inside a themed box. It is pretty easy to add or remove trays, and file away this box. Below are some more images.

You can see that the legends are pretty sharp, and the keycap colours are consistent. For $58 CAD, which this often retails at, I am not complaining. They don’t do much with LED lighting, so I wouldn’t use them for that purpose.

Here is where they are at present:

The build is the new Tiger Lite. This one uses stock KBDFans stabilizers, lubed. It is built very flexy. The switches are MX2A Browns from Geon, lubed with 3203, using 57.5 G 14mm Geon springs.

Overall, the Geon springs at this weight are light, but stiff. It is not lighter at the top than at the actuation point, at least subjectively. So you are likely to almost bottom-out.

With these keycaps and the mostly-hollow build, the sound is actually fairly consistent and pleasant.

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The cloudy matte white look on those keycaps kinda remind me of Mahjong tiles.

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Apparently Acer was going to make a mechanical keyboard at some point in time using KTT as their OEM…

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ouuu wow Acer branding on a switch lol.

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