Every once in a while, something happens to suggest that doing the right thing or just being nice hasn't completely gone by the wayside. I just had an example of this.
Background: I have a friend who is an IT manager. He has mentioned that he scrounges the electronics CONEX box at the local transfer station, and occasionally pulls SSD drives out of discarded computers. Two weeks ago, I was discarding a used electronic device so I poked through the boxes in the container. I didn't find any likely computer candidates for cannibalizing, but I did find a fairly nice-looking keyboard, which I brought home with me. I am consistently amazed by what people in my town throw away. This keyboard appears to be fully functional; all I could see wrong with it was a missing keycap for one of the two CTRL keys.
The brand is dasKEYBOARD. I had never heard of them but, when I looked them up, I learned that they are up-scale keyboards, selling for $99 to $159. The one I got seems to be a $129 model. I considered checking the dumpster box regularly, hoping to find a replacement keycap from some other keyboard that would fit, but then I decided to see if I could just buy the right keycap as a replacement from the manufacturer, since they are located in Texas, not Taiwan or China. So I contacted them, and with 24 hours I received a courteous e-mail saying that if I would provide a mailing address, they would send me the keycap -- no charge.
DONE! I responded with a mailing address, and the new keycap arrived in the mail on Wednesday.
I would never pay over $100 for a keyboard, but I can see how people who can afford it might do so. The keyboard has tactile ("clicky") mechanical keyswitches, and it's a joy to type on.
My deepest thanks to dasKEYBOARD for being nice folks.