EXT65 SE Auction complete & AEBoards update

by Eric Song
First off, thanks to everyone who has followed us so far in this journey. The EXT65 is still my daily board (and with the choices I have available, it's still up there), but don't take my word for it. I've been in touch with people who have purchased the EXT65 and heard how much they love it. So when the time came to figure out what to do with the extras, I wanted to do something really exciting and interesting.
If you are reading this and wondering what the hell I'm talking about, here's the page you should visit for context: https://www.aeboards.com/ext65-specced-edition

We've had a few people join the auction, 23 to be exact... with a few familiar names as well. I've already packed and they're ready to be sent out tomorrow, so these Specced Editions will find a brand new home and hopefully we be loved by someone as much as we love this board.

People love stats... so let's share some!

The average auction for

  • EXT65 SE#52 (Holy Pandas) was $812USD.
  • EXT65 SE#53 (Linears) was $712USD.
  • EXT65 SE#54 (Ergo Clears) was $652USD.

and they sold for

  • EXT65 SE#52 (Holy Pandas) was $1234USD.
  • EXT65 SE#53 (Linears) was $1000USD*
  • EXT65 SE#54 (Ergo Clears) was $884USD.
Note: SE#53 was tied at $1000, so I had to choose by timestamp

    So what now? Well the plans for EXT65 aren't over. Whilst we aren't quite ready to do a round 2 just yet, as we have another board already in the works (more on that at a later date), we realised that there was a lot of demand but the pricing but the price was out of reach for some.

    Since you've probably read this far, I'll do a bit more storytime.

    After fulfilling both the Aegis (GB style) and EXT65 (ready for purchase) projects, we had built some design pillars to be our north star, a guide for us to follow and help us make decisions. Those pillars were: functional elegance, experience and ergonomics.

    As we were finishing up the EXT65, we matured as a team, and with that, there's always evolution and changes. We grew the team with an extra member - who has helped immensely with running the community shop - but also have helped running their own buy (known as the Austere). 

    I believe we are at a point in AEboards that we revised and redefined ourselves, our designs, and further push our skills - and we can only do that with support of our fans. As we started working on our new project, I saw a need to change ergonomics (which started to be a loaded and vague term) to usability. The shift to usability is an effort to better describe what we're designing, who we are designing for, and why we are designing.

     

    What does this mean in the AEBoards pipeline?*

    *No promises on timeline

     

    We're working on getting more affordable EXT65's into the market. This board is great, and I do want more people using this style of board. We'll be releasing revised PCB for the EXT65 (which is backwards compatible with EXT65), and this will add additional layout support, underglow RGB, through-hole LED and VIA support. These features should make the EXT65 more approachable, and still have that premium feel. I hope to make the PCBs affordable to most of the audience who wanted an EXT65, but couldn't afford one.

    To join the EXT65 PCB revision, we will release opensource files for a plastic case you can cut yourself. That means, no matter where you are, you could make your own case by contacting a local laser cutter near you. We may even stock pre-cut cases for you to buy on the Keyboard Treehouse, if there is demand for it.

    The team is having a little downtime, as you can imagine. I (aeryxz) will be at the LA meet, which coincidentally somehow aligned with my honeymoon ;). I'm bringing some of Keyboard Treehouse stuff for sale: Invyr's UHMWPE stems, Christo-111 lube, stickers, and my locally roasted coffee beans. Bring your EXT65 to the meet and I'll give you some free stuff (while I still have stuff!)
    SolidSnake, Xelus, and Ryan- will be at Sydney meet, and there will be Keyboard Treehouse stuff for sale at the vendor desks...and both the Sydney and LA meet will have AE x RAMA caps as prizes. These are the last stock of caps!
    And that's a wrap. Thanks for everyone who followed, supported and gave us feedback on the EXT65. It was a great project to work on, we did some pretty cool and innovative things, and it paid off. Be seeing you.

     

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