DCS Red Alert R2 | 30 May - 15 Jun 2012

Ordering closed, keycaps SHIPPED!
Okay, so after much anticipation and hubbub, I present to everyone, Red Alert Round 2! Generally participants of previous group buys can skip most of this, as not much other than prices and shipping have changed. As these keys come in much higher quantities, bubble mailers are not an option. There is no problem for those ordering up to 3 base sets in a small flat rate box, but if you buy several expect your shipping rate to increase for a larger flat rate box. Generally the small box can fit about 300 1x keys. If you have more than that, then you will need a bigger box. Be sure to remember that modifier keys can be equivalent to several 1x keys, so factor that in when ordering the modifier add on kits. Those sizes have been listed in the kits below, at the bottom of their info.

Red Alert Base Set:
88 Doubleshot keys in RBV on WFK (No longer including Center Stemmed Stepped Caps Lock as it is impossible, the GEEK HACK Esc key is still included)

It will be similar to this, but without the custom legends at this time. Standard WYSE SP font. We may use the original legends shown in the picture above if permission from Uranium over at OCN/KBD is obtained.

Here are a few other pictures of the original set to give you a better idea. We will not be doing the numrow of white on red keys or the special keys though.

<- Photo credit to Inlikeflynn, DanGWang and the other proud owners of the original set.

Anticipated demand is over 200 sets. Please keep that in mind when looking at the price tiers. I am likely to keep it open until we hit that range unless momentum doesn't get close. At an absolute minimum we will be over 100. I will buy up to that if necessary.

In addition, I am offering several compatibility kits for use with various keyboards aside from the basic 87 key set. How this works is that you buy the 87 key set, and then choose which, if any, add on kits you want to suit your needs. That way the people just looking for the base set, which is what this group buy was originally limited to, don't have to pay more for keys they don't need. The kits start off expensive, and to avoid confusion they have been limited to only those kits most likely to succeed. Any kits that get less than 15 takers will be dropped. I expect to see a minimum of 50 for the modifier, Tsangan, and 104 kits, and at least 25 for the ISO kit. That puts everything in an affordable price range.

Each base kit is the equivalent of about 100 1x keys.

Modifier Add On Kits

Okay so this kit is one of the cornerstones why people love Red Alert. It consists of modifier and other perimeter keys in accent colors. It is going to come in both red on grey and white on red. Color codes are RBV on GAL for the grey and WFK on RBV for the red set.

Here are rough mockup images of the kits. They contain 33 keys.

The arrows will be normal arrows. The image above from inlikeflynn's WTT ad also shows what the actual red on grey modifiers look like.

Spacebar is modern 6.25x and the bottom row mods are 1.25x the rest range between 2x (shift) and 1x (esc keys.) If you are using this to calculate space requirements and you aren't sure, I estimated it at about 45 keys. Feel free to round up to 50 though, I did so with the base sets (to 100) and that was about right after considering the bags and the inefficiency in their placement.

Tsangan's Combatibility Kit- Comes in 3 colors, make sure you pick the right one!

Makes the 87 kit compatible with winkeyless keyboards such as Phantom, Dox, Cherry G80-3000, DKSaver, 356CL, Choc Mini, and many more! Ask Tsangan for clarification if you are unsure. This is being offered all 3 colors, (red on white, red on grey, and white on red) and now includes an extra 1x windows key and 1x Fn key (for KellyBear)

Contains 13 keys

<- This picture plus a Win key and a Fn key, all 1x

Ignore the colors of course, but that gives a good idea of what you get:

2 Alt (1.5x)
2 Ctrl (1.5x)
These are just the bottom row in 1.5x size

2 "Star" 1x keys that fit row 4

2 Diamond/Meta/Super (1x keys) <- This will go between the Alt and Control and is a 1x size key, with a diamond legend.

1 1x Win key

1 1x Fn key

1 Stepped CapsLocks
Same size as the capslock but it's stepped. It is off center stem.

1 1800 Shift (1.75x)
This is a short shift in 1.75x size for the right shift so you can fit another 1x key beside it

1 Spacebar (7x)
Just longer then your average spacebar, this one would be 7x size and its center stem.

Equivalent to about 20 1x keys


The 104 Kit
The 17 keys that make up the tenkey and its surrounding keys. Basically making this set compatible with full size ANSI keyboards. I may add the couple extra keys for 0 and 00 option if there is enough interest. At this point it is only being offered in red on white. I am pretty firm on keeping at least this one that way.

Equivalent to about 20 1x keys

The ISO Kit (UPDATED TO INCLUDE COMPATIBILITY WITH ALL 3 COLORS)
The following picture but with a blank JRET. ISO people please step up and get in on this or else its really spendy per key. As the quantities for this are traditionally low, rather than offer 3 different ISO kits or have people miss out, the ISO kit is being expanded to offer all 3 colors of the short shift and JRET that would limit ISO users from having complete matching sets if they desired colored modifiers. Thus, this set is now 8 keys:

3 blank JRET keys, in WFK, RBV, and GAL

3 short shift keys, in WFK, RBV, and GAL, with their corresponding legends, RBV, WFK, and RBV

1 |\ 1x key in RBV on WFK

1 #~ 1x key in RBV on WFK

<- Does not show the majority of the keys in this set, but does show some of them.

Equivalent to about 10-15 1x keys

Rules and Notes

Payment by Paypal only, do not order if you do not have a verified account yet, and get one if you want these.

Country must be specified with your order, US, CAN or whatever country you're in, in fact don't forget anything in the sample order PM. I only listed the essentials.

I have rounded the prices to provide a streamlined ordering process, and include any markup I need in compensation for my time. The sorting and all cutting/legend/misc costs (about $1500-2000) have also been included in the prices. The shipping prices have been lowered to essentially my cost for shipping, instead of being marked up. I have made these adjustments in light of recent feedback with the way I run these group buys, so I hope the streamlined process works better for everyone. The only extra costs that will be added to your order price are the Paypal fees, which are listed near the bottom.

No trolls allowed. (Except for happy rainbows) >.>

I might be ordering extras, how many depends on our total orders and quantity discounts, but they are quite expensive to invest in. Whatever extra sets I do buy will be marked up a reasonable amount. If we hit somewhere past the "Magic Number" for the next discount, do not expect me to give that discount to everyone and buy the extras that make it cheaper, because if you do the math its easily over $1000 for me to do it. Simply stated, the magic number doesn't exist, and doesn't help anyone but me if I decide to order more and not share the discount. There has been plenty of vehement discussion on this, and I will not go through it all again here. I will not cut off orders preemptively to try and screw people out of a discount, orders close when they close. If anything, I will only extend the deadline to meet the next discount. I think everyone here knows by now that this whole gig runs on mutual respect and amicability between everyone. I've built a pretty decent reputation here and I don't intend to betray that.

Traditionally I have been offering a full refund to those who have lost packages. As I am trying to get tracking/delivery confirmation set up for this group buy, that will no longer be the case if it shows as delivered. If it shows as lost in the mail, I would like to split the loss 50/50 as these are relatively expensive sets, but we can work that out. I believe if I have tracking/delivery confirmation I can file a claim with USPS and get the value back up to a certain amount, (I think $75-$100) in which case I will refund as much as possible of your order.

Missing keys will happen, though they are relatively rare (only 25 missing/defective keys out of about 15,000 in the last round.) Those missing keys SP will replace, and I will cover shipping to you with a bubble mailer. Any exchanges we cover shipping our way.

Instructions

1. Specify which keys you want in both a response to this thread and a PM. I am tallying orders from PMs, not from responses to this thread. The only difference between your reply and PM is that you include your Paypal email and your shipping address this timein the PM. I will be sending the Paypal invoice to this email. When you get that email, please pay immediately. The thread response is just to keep the thread bumped and let everyone know how how awesome you are by buying 15 sets. The PM should also include which country you are in, US or Canada etc.
Please put Red Alert somewhere in the PM title. I am running concurrent group buys at the moment, so this is very important. You can edit your order as many times as you want up until orders close and invoices start going out. In fact you can edit your order after orders close, but after that point discounts no longer change. The reason being that it is likely that I have already started sending invoices and will not be resending new invoices if prices change. Just be sure to send another pm and indicate somewhere in it that you want to change an order and it isn't a new one.

2. Check for your name in the list of confirmed orders in the OP. Expect it to be updated generally within 48 hours, if you don't see it, I haven't gotten your order yet and you need to resend your PM. If I didn't add you to the list it may be because YOU DID IT WRONG. So double check you shiz and make sure it's correct before resending! I will try my best to respond back to clear up any confusion as soon as possible, but I will not be checking the thread's replies for orders that haven't sent me PMs, so don't count on that. Note: Ragnorock is an intentional misspell of Ragnarok, make sure you sent it to the right person.

3. Wait for the orders to close, and when they do, expect an email from me asking for payment. I'm going to be calculating everyone's individual cost via a very cool Excel doc I've whipped up and it's kinda what my major is so there shouldn't be any errors. Nevertheless, if you do the math based upon the final count in the OP and calculate your cost to be different, then respond ASAP to clear it up. When you pay the invoice, your shipping address will probably be sent to me by Paypal, but I will be shipping to the address in your PM over what is in Paypal. This circumvents the issue with outdated Paypal addresses.

4. Wait for keycaps to show up. I will be providing updates in new posts as my work progresses so keep an eye on the thread.

5.

??

6. Man your battlestations?

Pricing

Bold = current price

Red Alert (Price lowered by $1 for just the GEEK HACK Esc Key, due to the impossible stepped caps being removed)
25 keysets $87.00
50 keysets $75.00
75 keysets $64.00
100 keysets $57.00
150 keysets $52.00
200 keysets $48.00 <- Target Price
250 keysets $46.00
500 keysets $43.00

Modifiers (Keep in mind there will be 2 of these, and 3 Tsangan kits, and they do not share a discount)
15 keysets $75.00
25 keysets $53.00
50 keysets $37.00
75 keysets $30.00
100 keysets $27.00<- Target Price (Red made it, grey didn't)
150 keysets $24.00
200 keysets $23.00
250 keysets $22.00
500 keysets $20.00

Tsangan (Updated to 13 key set, price increased by $1/tier)
15 keysets $36.00
25 keysets $26.00
50 keysets $17.00 <- Target Price (White made it past 50, red and grey didn't)
75 keysets $14.00
100 keysets $13.00
150 keysets $11.50

104
15 keysets $30.00
25 keysets $22.00
50 keysets $16.00<- Target Price
75 keysets $14.00
100 keysets $12.00
150 keysets $11.00
200 keysets $10.00

ISO 15 keysets $20.00
25 keysets $15.00 <- Target Price
50 keysets $11.00
75 keysets $10.00
100 keysets $9.00


Quantity discounts are not shared between keysets. For example, the Tsangan keysets ordered do not count toward the 104 sets ordered, the combined count does not matter. However, within the set, the discount does come from the sum of those ordering. It is not "You must buy 50 sets yourself to get the discount."


Shipping + Handling

Note, these prices do not include tracking, which may increase the cost a small amount if I decide to offer it.

US Options:
Small Flat Rate box

$5.50 A medium or large flat rate box that may be necessary if you order a large quantity of keys. Up to 3 base sets.

Medium Flat Rate box

$11.50 More than 3 base sets

Canada Options:

Small Flat Rate box

Canada didn't go up in price so its still $13.00.

Medium Flat Rate box

$33.00 More than 3 base sets

International:

Small Flat Rate box

$17.00

Medium Flat Rate box

$55.00 (comes with insurance)

All of these will ship in the Priority flat rate boxes, which is what these rates are based off of. Multiple boxes and potentially insurance may be required for large orders. I will work with those buyers to ensure fair shipping. You do not need to tell me what shipping you need, I will determine that based on your order. I went to the post office yesterday and all domestic orders will be receiving delivery confirmation, while it is looking like international orders can't. Though I will try. Larger international orders will have insurance either way though, so even if the order is lost, you get your money back.

Extra large orders will be custom quoted via PM.

Paypal fees:

2.9% + $0.30 (3.9% + $0.30 for international) and is calculated in the invoicing. If you must gift it, arrangements must be made via PM.

Sample order PM:

1x Red Alert

1x Red Modifier

1x Grey Modifier

1x Tsangan White

1x Tsangan Red

1x Tsangan Grey

1x 104

1x ISO

Country: US

Email: [email protected] ([email protected])

^Be sure it is your paypal email!

Address:
Frank Miller
234 S Doom St
Apt 666
Los Angeles, CA 123456
France

REMEMBER, for your own privacy, do not include your address or email in your post within the thread, but DO include it in your PM! The post within the thread is unofficial and only serves to show the community how popular the group buy is. Don't be a derp!

Order counter:

Red Alert- 173
Red Modifier- 115
Grey Modifier- 78
Tsangan White- 57
Tsangan Red- 42
Tsangan Grey- 41
104- 41
ISO- 16

Do not forget any of the info in that sample order, I need all of it!

Planned order close date: June 15th
Estimated ship date: July 9-15th
ETA to your door: End of July- Early September
I may be convinced to hold it open a couple extra days to hit the next price break if we haven't hit 200 yet etc. We won't know till we get there.

Confirmed order list:
Ragnorock
Bavman
MagicMeatball
Szinn
Ovoxo
Sorok
mayhemw1ns
Choi Young Gyoo
Boost
Jdcarpe
WorldExclusive
AKIMbO
Ekw808
Jrockroll
i3oilermaker
GaryOwen
Dmbr
DanGWanG
Wraul
Kaen
Jcrouse
Gus.s
Monja
FourtyFoxes
DeathAdder
Feng
Njvz
Nask
Korn1009
Kim Minchul
Lightsout714
KellyBear
Rainb1ood
Grogbeard
Footofchaos
Paudash
Megnin
Jil_Jil32
Bellaisa
Fstop
Hoggy
Penoulum
Distilled
Chaosstep
Slavfot
Startac
Jinhan108
Separus
KylJoy
Laggy-Gaga
Icelove
Asoria
Pasph
Daxxjapxx
Longweight
Mr.Bean
Oyecomova
Palmyre
Abuseyoudna
Vrapan
Munchikin
BababooeyHTJ
Febriz
WRXChris
Net2522
Yuiop
Jonnybastard
Hugoboss
MarkPharaoh
Nightmare
Leeku
Remmeh
Chamdoo
Snooter
Naberius
Kaiserreich
Dsjbirch
Elrobo
Emptyk
Mark0331
Hirsti
Demik
Myramond
nntnam
Ithyobong
Leehleeh
Kain0079
SirClickAlot
Changdrew
ProjectD
Leen
Glissant
Hoochi
TheBackgammon
1391401
Bnp70kr
KoolAidMan
All The Fire
Dewawere
Keros88
Prava
DanielUCF
M_Enanos
Jpm804
Lootbag


101 buyers!

Cheers!
Dave out.