I want to start this post by thanking the community for its support and kind words over the last year. Y’all have been amazing.
I only have a handful of adapters left. I do not plan on ordering any more. Some of you know this, but the manufacturer has decided to bypass me and sell the adapters directly. No, I am not going to link to their listing, but it’s out there. You won’t get the IO bracket included, but they are selling it at a price that just makes it unrealistic for me to keep going. After the cost of the adapter, the shipping materials, 3D printing the IO bracket, and Etsy’s fees, the amount I would make isn’t worth the time involved in doing all of those things and taking 1 or 2 adapters to the post office every now and then.
The manufacturer sells all variety of adapters, and I’m sure they don’t have to put in nearly the amount of effort I do for each sale, and they are making more from each sale.
A few people have asked me to share details of my experience. I won’t name the manufacturer here, but I did name them in my earlier posts when I was sharing what I was doing when first trying to make the adapter a reality.
It’s kind of funny. I searched my email to find out when I first reached out to the manufacturer and it turns out it was exactly one year ago as of my writing this.
Hello.
I hope that I have contacted the correct company for this query.
It appears your company designs and sells a variety of adapters, including M.2 to OcuLink.
There were several email exchanges, and I 3D-printed some mock-ups to make sure I had the size and dimensions right. When I say that I “designed” the adapter, I wasn’t behind the electrical design. I basically sent the 3D models to the manufacturer and paid $400 for them to produce the first small batch of adapters.
None of them worked.
I did email them again with some basic recommendations around solving the issue, and they did end up sending me a single revised adapter. It had tin connectors, but it worked.
The next decision was trying to determine how many adapters I could sell. I did not even think about a contract with the manufacturer. I really didn’t think they would be interested in a custom adapter for a relatively niche laptop, so I took a chance and ordered 50 adapters. There was anxiety around this decision. I was already hundreds of dollars in the hole and was about to go deeper based on a single working prototype and a best guess about how many people would actually buy one.
I received the adapters in early November and the testing went well. I started selling them and the first batch went out November 25. Turns out there was more than enough demand for the 50 adapters and I ended up ordering 100 more a little over a month later.
I forget when I first heard about the manufacturer’s own listing, but initially I wasn’t too concerned. Sure, I was a little mad, but what they pictured in the listing was the non-functional original version. Shortly after, my sales definitely dropped off. I’m not sure if it was the competition, a tapped out market, or both. I actually ordered one of the adapters from the manufacturer’s listing and confirmed that it is indeed the revised, working version of the adapter. An adapter that they wouldn’t even have if it wasn’t for my time, ability to test (they didn’t have a Framework 16), and money. At this point, I was more than just a little mad. Partly at myself for not at least trying to get a non-compete contract from the manufacturer. Hopefully others can benefit from that lesson.
Going forward, if you want to use one of the standard OCuLink docks out there while still being able to add an extra M.2 SSD, my adapter is the best choice. I would appreciate purchases while I still have them to sell, and you do get the 3D-printed IO bracket included (you don’t when ordered direct from the manufacturer). Otherwise, I would recommend Filip’s adapter (hopefully he continues selling them later this year) or waiting for the official Framework OCuLink Dev Kit. I already have Filip’s adapter myself and will be doing some testing soon, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the Dev Kit. I’m not going anywhere. 
Thanks again everyone!