did this turn out to be a lucrative business for you?

I would hope so

Customer service and product quality are awfully high.

It's been good, but not as lucrative as this thread might suggest.

Good sides:

1. Got out of credit card debt (I wasn't that far in, but this is the biggest positive for me, I feel great about it)

2. Paid the remaining money I owed on the laser (a few hundred bucks for some upgrades), and bought insurance for it.

3. Started a small business and optimized shipping/got set up with Shopify (wouldn't have done this otherwise, VERY glad I did).

3. N900 paid for itself.

4. Made a bunch of people happy while making something useful for myself. (rare opportunity! I feel good offering better and more personal service than Nokia or some random eBay vendor)

Downsides:

1. Lots of time invested -- more than I care to admit, but I'm obsessive about making sure everyone is happy.

2. Hard to see where to go from here if I wanted to try to make a living this way (though again, the extra money is just so helpful right now, I've been living in debt and uninsured for too long).


Those are some pretty awesome returns, and some small downsides. I'm grateful for all the orders, support, and good will from T.M.O and hope to keep supplying stands and interesting accessories to everyone as they come up. I'm also hoping that I can, in some small way, reward/encourage other people (like the USB OTG hackers, and the NeoPwn folks) who are doing useful stuff with the N900.

Still waiting for the stylii I ordered to come in from China. Once they arrive, I'll announce my next product...

Hey Fake. Glad I got to benefit from your entrepreneurship. If you make a travel stand I'll definitely be on the lookout. The acrylic stand won't stand the wear and tear of multiple assemblies / disassemblies. I had to go on a trip for the past 2 weeks and with multiple layovers had to assemble / disassemble my stand a couple of times and I see a crack starting to form so that will now be my stationary stand and I'll use the wooden one for travel. I would definitely be keen on a travel specific stand that's very durable. Maybe you can just laser-cut one out of aluminum. ;-)

Thanks again for an awesome product.

@fake: How many stands did u sell btw ? =D
I do really like my 2 wooden stands too

geohsia, you're right, the acrylic stand is meant to be assembled and used, not to be disassembled multiple times.

I have a few different travel stands that I'm prototyping, but they're all suffering from not being durable enough. To find a material that is both laserable and that will survive in a wallet is rather tough. Most of my ideas so far have broken after a week or so of abuse in pockets -- (I put them in my back pocket, my desk chair is metal -- also drop them on the floor and assemble/disassemble them dozens of times).

Contact me via email if the crack in your stand renders it unusable.

Unless you go with a flexible material I think you're doomed to it breaking unless you go metal and even then it might bend. My criteria is maybe less stringent. I am only concerned about the item being able to assemble / disassemble over time. To me flexible means it will bend and lose structural integrity over time. I prefer rigid. Maybe that means the wood stand is good enough for me.

Thanks for the offer to help me replace my stand(if that's what you're implying), but its a user issue and I wouldn't even think of asking you to replace it because of something I did. If I break it I'd be happy to buy another one.

If you're taking suggestions...

the only thing I am concerned about is on the thin sliver of wood on the back piece. If you extended the width of the back piece to make that little piece wider I think it'll make it much more durable over time and less likely to break.

Another idea is that I have an Oakley microfiber sunglasses bag which fits perfectly the N900(basically a small rectangular sack). If you design the pieces so that when flat they can piece together to form roughly the rectangle silhouette of the N900 you can put a zipper compartment on the bag where the pieces lie flat. When the N900 is in basically the pieces add just barely any thickness. You don't have to worry about it breaking in your back pocket because if it does your N900 is toast too.

I'm not saying they're good ideas. I'm just sayin... ;-) BTW, don't feel like you need to respond to these. I like making up stupid ideas every once in a while. BTW, if you do decide to make a metal one. I think the side pieces are one notch away from being a bottle opener. Just sayin...

fake - I read through this whole thread last night and i have to give you major props. This is one heck of an undertaking and these stands seem great! Ironically, I built a stand slightly similar for my phone when I got it, though it was out of legos. I had tossed around the idea of making some and selling them similar to what you're doing. Now I'm not so sure I want to. I don't want to step on your feet. You've done a lot of work and to see how much it's helped you is great.

Anyways - I just had to give you props for this. I wish I'd seen this thread earlier, I practically live in Excel and could've helped you with that.

-Gizmo

Man, I thought I was the only one who read this thread front to back. Thanks, Gizmo.

FYI to everyone: Fargo is flooding at the moment. I'll do my best to keep the store up and running, but if things get bad, I'll shut down for the duration.

Mine arrived today and they are indeed very nice, thanks!

I decided to test my recently purchased light tent with them: