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My end goal is still to build a bigger miner. The nice things about this project are it allows me to use parts I already have so it'll move quickly and cheaply, it does something people apparently want but can't really find on the existing market, and the entire communication and control system would port directly over to a larger board which makes design work for the next thing that much easier.
I think you should keep a whole lineup of products for all the tastes: stick miners, pods, blades and semi-jet turbines. Gekkoscience is starting to be synonym to quality, no wonder you start getting a lot of orders in for the pods.
Regarding the trade-in/$50 dichotomy, i think most peeps that send you a board will happily buy at least 1 pod per board, which would leave at least another pod free for someone else.
As i told you via pm, i think i can find several borked boards.