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$? Why is etsy so used if there are lots of dropshippers? Even shops as kbd and someothers sell way overpriced keycaps sets that I do not think are very different to the ones I could buy on aliexpress?.
Am I too pinchpenny? Are there heavy arguments of why I should spend lots of money on a simple case? Or even on a set of keycaps?. A build as Wooting 60HE could be done with the plate and the same switches, and maybe using some config firmware programs?
If anyone is wondering about the keyboard I built, here it is…
To make matters simple, yes keyboard accessories and components are definitely overpriced for what they are. The thing is that it’s completely understandable. It’s a very niche market with very little demand. When you manufacture large quantities the cost goes down and vice versa. So you end up paying a lot more than it seems you should be paying.
There are however some companies that considering the low amount of sales they are projecting (see previous argument) institute big markups to justify getting in the trouble of selling/manufacturing. This is the case with coiled cables which is a niche within the niche of the keyboard hobby. I know a lot of people who hate them and they literally serve no purpose.
In terms of keycaps, manufacturers like GMK produce less to drive demand up to artificially raise the prices. They are also a bit of a brand name in the hobby garnering enthusiasts who swear by them and will pay whatever. That said, comparing your AliExpress keycaps to the medium price range is impossible. Paying 60-80$ for a good quality set is worth it. I just got a 21kb set for 60$ for example. It’s a night and day difference compared to the AliExpress stuff.
As for the wooting60HE, the module’s price is 155$ (without switches or keycaps or the case) because the whole reason behind wooting dominating it’s competitors is the PCB and it’s software. Everything else is dirt cheap. But the pcb alone outperforms every gaming keyboard on the planet so it’s to be expected.