The SurpriseBox Worldwide Trip 2

[tentator]

yeah me too..

[hoggy]

Sorry for the delay.

Some nice keycaps - cherry trackpoint set, and an sph repair kit.


Fujitsu Peerless. It would have been nice to leave this for others to try, but I needed the space in the box to double box everything.


Some pool balls, Sorry for taking both, but again I ran out of space. I'll put them to good use if I can.



Arranging the courier for the next recipient now.

[photekq]

Fujitsu Peerless? I think that's an MTek104 with monterey blues

[jacobolus]

Many of the MTek wiki/Monterey_K104 keyboards I’ve seen pictured are white Alps, but I think those might always have "fat" arrow legends, for instance:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311549897413?orig_cvip=true

(picture showing a switch: http://i.imgur.com/zL5TItS.jpg )

So I’d agree that the one from hoggy’s picture is likely SMK switches. If someone else wants one with SMK switches, there’s one currently on US ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/172131979108

The MTek K104 isn’t the sturdiest keyboard ever, but it’s a noticeably nicer case than e.g. the Chicony KB-5181.

[hoggy]

I am suitably ashamed. Serves me right for making assumptions and not even pulling a cap. Please accept my apology.

[jacobolus]

How do you like it? I really enjoy clicky SMK switches. For me, they seem sort of like the perfected version of the Cherry MX blue concept. That is, reasonably loud plasticky sounding click, relatively light force at actuation, click point about halfway through the stroke. But the click is much crisper, and the rest of the keypress is overall smoother.

[Scarpia]

What's the status of the recipient list? I would love a chance to sneak my name in there somewhere, if at all possible.

[Halvar]

Two months later: hoggy, where's the box?

[hoggy]

Good question. According to my tracking information, it's with flopix, at least I hope it is.

[hoggy]

It still needs to go to JotaCe (Portugal) and chzel (Greece).

It seems like a good time to add people to the list, I've no objection to Scarpia being added - but to be fair, I've already seen the box, I think those still on the list ( & Mr Interface) should have more of a say.

[Halvar]

@flopix, could you report in? I don't care too much about delays, but for this box to get lost would be really sad.

[JotaCe]

I talked to hoggy about not being able (or safe) to receive the box directly from him due to restrictive customs regulations (Isle of Man is a no no around here).
From my understanding, it went to flopix instead.
Since I ended up not respecting the order, I can be removed from the list (or offer my spot to Scarpia instead).
What do you say Mr. Interface?

[Muirium]

You probably need to PM him. I don't think he keeps a close eye on this thread.

[hoggy]

JotaCe, could we tempt you to stay on this list?

[flopix]

Reporting in Got the box on time and will try to ship it sometime next week. I'm really sad for missing a pool ball for my trackball oh well...

[Muirium]

Something tells me there's a lot more pool balls out there than trackballs.

[chzel]

I talked to hoggy about not being able (or safe) to receive the box directly from him due to restrictive customs regulations (Isle of Man is a no no around here).
From my understanding, it went to flopix instead.
Since I ended up not respecting the order, I can be removed from the list (or offer my spot to Scarpia instead).

I believe that you really shouldn't be removed, you did nothing wrong. Either flopix can send it to you, or I can. Out of curiosity, what's the issue with Isle of Man?

Wow.. Big list....

If the transfer speed is the same as the first one, we'll be finished around 2016

Turns out this was an accurate prediction!

[Muirium]

Mann's not technically part of the UK, so it's even more kinda sorta not in Europe. There be Dragons, clearly!

[chzel]

Think I get it...
It's like an almost adult child, a little bit independent, but not really, and without most of the benefits.

Protocol 3 of the UK's Act of Accession to the Treaty of Rome included the Isle of Man within the EU's customs area, allowing for the trade for Manx goods without tariffs throughout the EU.

In theory there shouldn't be any problem with customs, but apparently there is.

[JotaCe]

I was checking the local customs regulations and the Isle of Man (as well as some other territories) fall outside the "regular" European Union.
Problem is, lately they have been increasing all the customs checks for packages outside the territory and since there's no receipt for surprise box, the most likely outcome would be for it to become lost or forgotten around there. And even if I had a receipt, I would have to pay VAT and import taxes. Hence why I asked hoggy to skip me on the list and ship somewhere safer.

From chzel or flopix there is no issue (and from chzel I know this for a fact since the keyboard I'm writing this on was bought from him ) and I can ship everywhere with no problems at all.

[jacobolus]

There was a problem short before closing the box again. Someone heard plastic parts rustling in bags, and instantly there was chaos instead of order (little bit of a spoiler, so a warning if you do not want to see one bag of 50 other bags of the box):

Spoiler:

I somehow missed this pic back in October. Pretty good summary of Deskthority, IMO. A crop could make a fitting header image (a crop from the full-size original would be better quality), albeit unfortunately cutting off some of the cuter parts of the picture:

Spoiler:

AfZxKAl-crop.jpg (120.65 KiB) Viewed 5393 times

[alh84001]

I don't know if the surprise box is going home as soon as it leaves the UK, but if it's going to make another round in Europe, then maybe it could take a trip to Sweden on the way? I know I'm too late (wait, has this thing been going since 2014?) and that I'm a pretty new addition to DT, but I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't at least ask....?

I can only quote Scarpia here, as all he said holds for me too. Except obviously changing Croatia for Sweden

I will have to check international shipping rates from Croatia to different countries, but I will take a car to France for a week at the end of June (passing through Slovenia and Italy), and to Germany for two weeks in the middle of July (passing through Slovenia and Austria), so if anyone thinks it could help and it is still an option to be added, we can take that into account as well.

[flopix]

So guys, who's the next on the list? OP states The Netherlands for some reason...

[chzel]

It's either me or JotaCe, either way is fine by me!

[flopix]

It's either me or JotaCe, either way is fine by me!

I'll check with the post if I can ship to Isle of Man. DPD doesn't ship there and I'm too poor for fedex

[Muirium]

It's already there / been there, right? Far ask remember this is about receiving from that mad wee isle.

[flopix]

It's already there / been there, right? Far ask remember this is about receiving from that mad wee isle.

Typo Either PT or GR are OK for me (zone 2 for the post). I'll have to bring it under 10KG though. Otherwise I'll have to sell my soul to get it shipped :/

[hoggy]

It's either me or JotaCe, either way is fine by me!

I'll check with the post if I can ship to Isle of Man. DPD doesn't ship there and I'm too poor for fedex

You should have seen the quote I got for shipping to Greece. I'm glad the courier dropped the service before I could recover from the shock...

[flopix]

Shipping from PT to GR seems a bit cheaper so I'll send it this week to JotaCe

[flopix]

So, the box has left BE on horseback I assume. There's a small referendum-related surprise inside a surprise inside the surprise box (oh, the meta!). The box will likely arrive to destination this week if Ronaldo manages to finally score in this championship

I'll post some photos with the stuff I took out one of these days