[time-nuts] Thunderbolt Group Buy, part 1

Tom Van Baak tvb at LeapSecond.com
Mon May 5 09:55:21 UTC 2008


BACKGROUND:

About a year ago, when surplus Thunderbolt GPS receivers
first appeared on eBay, several of us pursued the idea of
a time-nuts group buy. We kept it fairly quiet at the time
while we probed the source, verified actual performance,
and negotiated quantity & pricing.

Recall that the first Thunderbolts on eBay fetched prices
on the order of $300 (I know, I bought the first one).
Later the price floated down to the $200 level. Even this
price seemed like a good deal for such a name-brand GPSDO.
These almost new unused Thunderbolts are quite nice; with
performance much better than shown on Trimble's web site.

Last year about 50 of you put in "pre-orders" for a total
of about 80 units. With that leverage we negotiated a
deal with the original California supplier.

THE DEAL:

I'm very pleased to announce that TAPR is going to stock
these Thunderbolts for us and handle ordering and payment
issues. Note that TAPR is non-profit and our time-nuts
list has a non-commercial, amateur and hobby focus. So
you will get these Thunderbolts at cost.

The group price is just $115 each. You get a Trimble
Thunderbolt AND a nice universal AC input +5/+12/-12
volt DC power supply AND the mating 6-pin DC Molex
power connector AND a BNC-F antenna adapter.

I will advise you when the official TAPR.org Thunderbolt
ordering web page is ready.

For an example of what you will receive, see:
http://www.leapsecond.com/pages/tapr-tbolt/

ORDERING:

1) Those of you who "pre-ordered" last year will get
   email this week with instructions on how to submit
   payment for the Thunderbolt(s) you previously said
   you would like to buy.

2) Those of you newcomers to Time-Nuts should expect
   to wait until the first batch has been shipped and
   TAPR is ready for you. There should be enough for
   everyone; so don't panic.

Flat rate shipping will be about $9 (US), $23 (Canada),
or $37 (international). Same shipping for 1, 2, or 3
units per box, I'm told.

I hope you agree the wait was worth it. Whether it's
your first Thunderbolt or not -- this is an amazing deal
for any of us. A lot of work went into making it happen.

/tvb





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