Fragile space invaders keyboards?

[keyboard Kultist]

Recently I've had some odd experiences with clicky space invaders keyboards. One arrived with a great number of key caps off, some switchs non functional, two switchs were actually broken, and two of the key caps had bits broken off and the bits were to be found attached to the switch housing.

The second came yesterday, several key caps were off but all were still usable. The left and up keys on the cursor pad don't work though.

In both cases the sellers had good ratings and were quite good about the situation. Both had used copious amounts of bubble wrap, plenty I'd think to protect the boards.

Is this a common issue for these boards or did I just have a streak of bad luck?

[hellothere]

I have a grand total of ONE NMB keyboard with 725s, so take this with a grain of salt.

The contacts are extremely fragile, so if a keycap fell off during shipping and took the Space Invader "face" (slider) off, I'd virtually guarantee that the switch is damaged.

One annoying feature about my keyboard, at least, is that the switches have four pins. I do have a desoldering gun, but it's going to be a pain desoldering over 400 pins. One really bad thing about my keyboard, at least, is it looks like the switches have little tabs on their sides, so they lock into the mounting plate. And they're in too tight for toothpicks. I have to use two plastic spudgers. That's getting really annoying, really fast.

[keyboard Kultist]

Thanks for the response. I may do a little experimenting on the one that's in worse shape.

[xxhellfirexx]

I didn't have any problems after I got my NMB keyboard. It was packed with bubble wrap that looks like this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32749372188.html

[keyboard Kultist]

Thanks for the reply. The two I got recently had lots of bubble wrap but it doesn't look as good as that.

[keyboard Kultist]

I may have answered my own question. Today I decided that I would look at one of the space invaders boards that is nonfunctional. Picking up the box it was in, I found the bottom of the box wasn't secure and the board slid diagonally to the floor along the long axis. On picking it up I found several more keys and key caps damaged in exactly the same way as previously described. This was caused by nothing more than a rather sharp longitudinal *bump*.

I suppose the moral of this story is to always insist on double boxing with good bubble wrap for these boards.

I hope everyone is having a good 2021.