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…
This is what a lot of people don’t understand about sites like Temu, Alliexpress, and Shiene. These places are basically a direct from factory sort of deal. Which is why you can get things so cheap.
From my limited knowledge on the topic:
Normally a company/person has something they want to make and then they pay for the shipping (the big crate that sits on a boat), the manufacturing, retail space, and then even the storage. Manufacturing is usually done in china. All this gets factored into the cost of the product with also a hefty mark up.
From what I understand its similar to the way Amazon works. And how anyone can become a store and sell shit on their site.
These chinese sellers are owned by big corporations that can buy in massive bulk. They maybe even own the manufacturing plant and may already have extra storage. So these costs were already paid for. So for them getting out excess product. Just helps them offset costs and make a little bit more.
Some other nefarious things is that since copyright is hard to enforce in china. These manufacturers can make products that are for known brands and also then release basically identical knock offs. Since its all coming from the same place anyways.