Hi, my name is Manuel. I have loved everything related with peripherals since I was a kid. Now that I am older and have my own money I can spend it as my mom says on “nonsenses”. I love keyboards and I have owned differente types of them, however I never had the time or money to be buying and trying different switches, stabs, cases… Now that I am looking forward to build my very own custom keyboard (ck) I am realizing of some stuff that really makes me feel uneasy.
While surfing through the reddit, some of the well known keyboard websites I realised that building your ck is very very expensive. Because of that I went straight to aliexpress, bought myself a hotswap keyboard which had a case that I liked. Looked for some switches, I bought Silent Tactile TOMs, and a set of keycaps of PBT, which as far I know is the best between PBT and ABS, the most common plastics keycaps are made of. Also I bought a coiled cable that costed me only 5$, compared to other sites where the price of a simple coiled cable are more than 20$. And a foam.
I build a “custom keyboard” for only 53$, which leads me to lots of questions. Why simple 60% whiteout cases from etsy or kbd, and similar shops sell them for nearly 50 or 60$. Yes, there are better materials, but is it not overpriced? Why sets of keycaps you could buy in aliexpress for 20$ less are sold way pricier in these shops, I am aware of dropshippers but it is way overpriced and sadly and surprisingly very concurred by people looking to buy their custom keyboard.
Is the keyboard market way overpriced? I see pcb plates listing for 60$ and I do not see a very critical difference. The only thing I am okay on spending money are switches and stabs, but why I should spend nearly a 100$ on a wooden case? Or 60$ on “artisan keycap” which is probably dropshipped or made for less than 5$? Why is etsy so used if there are lots of dropshippers? Even shops as kbd and someothers sell way overpriced keycaps sets that I do not think are very different to the ones I could buy on aliexpress?.
Am I too pinchpenny? Are there heavy arguments of why I should spend lots of money on a simple case? Or even on a set of keycaps?. A build as Wooting 60HE could be done with the plate and the same switches, and maybe using some config firmware programs?
If anyone is wondering about the keyboard I built, here it is…
They are expensive because the buyers accepted it without questioning. “Limited quantity” was the excuse for outrageous price. “Niche hobby” is the other excuse. Spending $200 on a basic gmk base kit keycap is a thing even though they shine after like a few months and look terrible. And then you actually have most people joking about how expensive things are to normalize the behavior when in fact most people should question how things can be sold for cheaper.
You read my mind, I feel like manufacturers and business are mocking of us. Because it is a “niche hobby” or a “weird hobby” the price tags are ridiculous. And I find a piece of aluminum with just a couple holes for screws be price tagged for 90$ a scam, or not only metal cases, even “branded” translucent cases may be sold for a 120$ just because of the hype, when you could go to aliexpress and buy that exact case for 100$ less. Thx for sharing your opinion btw :) it is good to know that I am not crazy.
could you tho? have you tried buying both and comparing them? i would bet more than the cost of both that they would NOT be the same case.
I’ve tried cherries (red, brown, etc), and then Akkos- instantly fell in love with Akkos, they sound much cleaner and whatnot for just a slight increase in price. I’ve seen some aliexpress shit that’s great, I’ve seen TikTok shop keycaps that are pretty good looking but horrible in some places.
I think the thing here is that has to be accepted is that “budget-mid range” is $100-300, because that’s what the “average” costs- a full keeb + mods + keycaps (even GMK!) can go for a solid $200-300- but you realize, these people don’t have economy of scale to play with, they’re pricing high because gamers pay big bucks (Razer, Logitech, they all have very expensive models in that price range), there’s also the warehouse fees, etc, that need to be paid.
There’s simply no way to reduce costs other than having more people join the hobby.
The problem is that the dropshipping and getting same product cheaper arguments don’t really work in the keyboard hobby, as it is just too niche. Most keyboards, except for a few mass produced ‘custom’ boards (I.E. gmk67) are sold directly through a few sellers (or in the case of qwertykeys and a few other larger-ish keeb companies, a few for each region) with the manufacturer shipping it directly to them. You just can’t find the exact same case for cheaper off aliexpress unless the company is trying to sell more to the chinese market, or if something is very, very wrong.
Currently the hobby is far to niche for low costs to be available for more premium boards, as far too few people buy those boards for costs to be lowered via scale, so the hobby is essentially in a loop of “people get introduced” -> “those people think prices are crazy” -> “about half start the hobby” all while prices still remain crazy as the amount of people in the hobby is slowly rising.
You’re saying this in a post about a guy that build a mechanical keyboard for $53. I’m not sure what you are complaining about. Are you being forced to by expensive things? You can get really nice keyboards for less than $100 now. I’m really not sure what you are complaining about.
Etsy isn’t a great benchmark for manufactured goods like keyboards, but if you get a chance to I encourage you to find a local keyboard meetup and see/hold those boards in hand. The quality and refinement is actually quite notable.
Stuff is worth how much people will pay for it, especially based on exclusivity or aesthetics. The VALUE of the object may not be equivalent with what people pay for it, but that’s just how economy works, supply and demand. Same as how people will pay $600+ for a GMK Darling set, but it’s not “worth” $600 because it originally retailed at idk $200, but it increased in price because there was 0 new supply but demand continues to increase. The new ABS darling set just sold out in 3 days at $105, which should show you how high the demand is for that kind of set. My preference is to get something that is high-quality AND has nice aesthetics, but I will personally sacrifice aesthetics for function based on budget.
My board is a pretty damn solid one- Akko Cream Blue Pro, basic lubing + modding, Softle Keyboard, and a set of keycaps for $200~.
Many of these things are difficult to make cheaper. No economy of scale, human wages, etc. It can take maybe an hour to solder the keycaps for a human, that’s easily $20+, then there’s things like their insurance, etc, and then the parts as well, then profits. $100 is very reasonable.
no economy of scale? We have probably hundreds of 75% keyboards out there that looks basically the same with a different badge slapped on the bottom of it. Do we need 100 GB for each of those? Or can we just all go do what Keychron did and improve upon it?
Does lube really cost $12 for a tiny bottle? How is it that no one has ever sold a giant lube bottle yet for people who have like 12 keyboards. These small things that no one questioned is kinda baffling.
Here are the barriers of entry for people who want a mech keyboard : price too high, too much information for them to look up, GB is over, no pre-assembled keyboard. If average people were told the in-stock keyboard costs $100 instead of $250-300, yeah they wouldn’t mind buying it over a corsair K95, given that they don’t have to read 10 pages worth of instructions on lubing switches, tuning stabs, etc.