Jacob Alexander loves keyboards. He has over 600 in his collection and says he emigrated to the U.S. from Canada just because eBay shipping on his keyboard-related orders are cheaper here. He stores his impressive collection in the office of his small company, Input Club, where he and his fellow keyboard enthusiasts design beautiful keyboards that retail for a couple hundred dollars a pop. When not working his day job (completely unrelated to keyboards) or designing keyboards and keyboard switches, Alexander spends his free time carefully testing distance traveled and the feel of every kind of key switch ever made. Alexander is a proud nerd, which is why he’s the perfect subject of the first episode of Show Me Your Nerd, a new series from Gizmodo about passionate people who don’t simply amass museum-worthy collections of things. These collectors are always doing something extraordinary. You’ll meet Jacob, who makes and collects keyboards by the hundreds, and Marc who repairs antique computers for the Silicon Valley elite. There’s a woman who owns every View-Master every made (and most of the disks that go in them) another who probably appreciates those little covers that come on umbrellas more than most people. Over the next eight episodes you’ll meet them, and many, many more. Episodes will appear here and (shortly) on Facebook Watch every two weeks. We’re also already hard at work on season two, so if you’ve got your own incredible collection, then do us a favor and show us your nerd.
