good key blank assortment?

[tacedeous]

so im going back and forth on how to fill my key blank inventory...

Ive found a few good assortments...

http://www.keymart.com/key_assortments.htm
"PBA-180 Jet House, Padlock, Domestic & Foreign Auto Asst.- includes 66 of the most popular blanks (1,300 total) $595.80 "

and

http://www.lvsales.com/keytower.htm
"Mini Key Assortment:
This assortment, which fits mini tower (sold separately), has 1640 total residential and automotive Key Blanks - 10 each of 144 different Residential & Automotive Key Blanks plus 50 each of four top moving blanks. These high volume keys (SC1, KW1, KW10, M1) are placed in the bulk bins at the bottom of the tower for easy access. Great for your mini key tower or peg board hooks!
# 293-00-8x $587.52"
THE ABOVE ARE ILCO KEYS BTW

Also i found this site which has a few and by far the best selection, although they dont offer a kit with a bigger range, in terms of different blanks:
http://www.mysecuritypro.com/assortments.aspx

what do you guys think? buy piece by piece or go the assortment route... what did you guys do?

THANKS IN ADVANCE!
awsome little community you guys got here

[straightpick]

For what purpose are you going to use the keyblanks for? Are you going to duplicate keys or just decorate a wall with them? There is no better way to sink a ton of money in dead stock than keyblanks. The problem with "assortments" is that they are not region specific. The blanks are determined by what is "popular" throughout the country. These "popular" blanks, however, may never be seen where you live.

When I first started out in the business many years ago, I also purchased some of these assortments. Still have 95% of them unused. Why, because those keyways were not in use in my area. Locks such as Corbin, Russwin, Sargent and Yale have dozens and dozens of keyways that you may never use. I have blanks for Clinton, Norwalk, Chantell, Lockwood, Elgin, Hubert, etc. that I have never used.

The best approach I can give you is to try to find out what your area has in the area of locks and stock those blanks. A safe bet would be to stock Kwikset, Titan, Schlage C and E, Yale 8, Y11, Y13, most of the Master Lock blanks, Chicago CG16 and CG22, IN8 and American padlock blanks. These blanks are used everywhere for door locks, padlocks and utility and cam locks. You can then add to them as you find a need.

Regarding automobile keyblanks, remember that many late model cars now use transponder keyblanks that need to be programmed with special equipment. Automotive locksmithing is its own special field. This may be an even bigger hole to sink money into if you don't have the customer base to support it as the parts and keyblanks change continuously. As an example, I got a flyer with keyblanks that have the remote control built into the keyhead. My cost - $87.50 each! How would you like to miscut one of those!

I hope I haven't discouraged you too much. I would start with the basic blanks I have stated and go from there. Just don't want you to waste money on blanks that you may never use.

[tacedeous]

wow thanks for the great reply! this is why i made this post, in my experiance "package deals" usually arnt very good many uneeded extras... also its hard to find out exactly whats included, maybe this is why lockpicks.com, our sponser, and on hell of a great company, doesent do packages or assortments... so i guess ill look for a small package with obviously needed blanks, lets see if i can find one, ill post results...as for the automotive side of locksmithing i think ill keep that to all non transpondered blanks, honestly my focus will be on the commercial side of things at least thats what i hope... theres alot of business in automotive i know, but ive read alot about the headaches... thanks again

[jpb06080]

to start off i'd stock sc1, sc4, ar1, kw1, kw10, wr3, y1, y2. In terms of cam/cabinet/master, id get in8, cg1, cg16, y11, and most of the masters. It really depends on what you want. You could probably get away with just stocking kw10, sc4 and y2. You can always grind a key to fit, and kwikset is compatible with arrow, weiser and falcon to name a few. Sargent LN would also be a good idea. LN is the grand master blank for the L series of sargent, so it will work on all sargent L keyways. Hope this helps.