Well I fell down the custom keyboard world.
- Thread starter davetherave2
- Start date
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What do you think the cause is.
It does appear that a few shops seem to have some stock of keycaps that used to be harder to get. PT stock seems to be pretty good.
GMK became instock, they've caught up basically and people who use to flip them don't have a market anymore. Also there's too many boards now, seems like everyone with an idea can make a board and its just too many. Plus Mechanical keyboards are a luxury item, in a time like this it's the last thing people will buy.
Thought it had gone quiet round here..
I put the Zoom TKL together but I'm waiting for Keycaps before it's complete. First full build so was an interesting experience doing stabs for the first time.
I've been holding out for the Qk80 round 2 but the Cycle7 definitely had me interested. As did the Mode envoy.
Just held myself back a little is all.
I put the Zoom TKL together but I'm waiting for Keycaps before it's complete. First full build so was an interesting experience doing stabs for the first time.
I've been holding out for the Qk80 round 2 but the Cycle7 definitely had me interested. As did the Mode envoy.
Just held myself back a little is all.
Also interesting you say this. I've noticed a LOT of flash sales and 2 for 3 on GMK bits etc.. recently.
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It all got very saturated very quickly and it's exactly like @Jay85 said - as soon as GMK caught up with the group buys and items were in stock, there was a lot less demand on the mechmarket.
During 2020 I sold GMK Olive for way more than it should have been worth - but equally spent way too much on an M60-A from Rama.
It's good that it's more affordable now, no-one should be spending 250+ on keycaps.
During 2020 I sold GMK Olive for way more than it should have been worth - but equally spent way too much on an M60-A from Rama.
It's good that it's more affordable now, no-one should be spending 250+ on keycaps.
Yup, vendors are struggling to sell or have too much inventory to clear. I know some are struggling for space to keep everything or simply have too much cash tied up in stock. It's been tempting but like some of you i've dialled it back abit on buying keyboard stuff and just using it now rather than collecting it lol.
Some people are complaining cos they cant flip GMK sets to offset the cost of buying another set, its mad... it's what the community wanted to have in stock GMK but now the same community is moaning cos they can't sell and flip stuff.
Go figure...
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I grabbed a second set of GMK Modo 2 for 80 quid the other week from the mechmarket to replace the original GMK Modern Dolch I'd been using since about 2019.
I reckon you'd be able to find GMK Dolch for a similar price. I'm still trying to find GMK Rouge, doesn't seem like anyone has any spares and it seems to be holding it's value still.
Soldato
I was looking at this Nuphy too. Looks reasonably good. I definitely prefer my Nuphy Halo 65 to all of my other keyboards.
youtu.be
This Keyboard comes with EVERYTHING - Nuphy Field75
Help get your team organized and on the same page with Miro: https://miro.com/yt/improved-workflows/Nuphy is back with another unique keyboard, the Field75! ...
youtu.be
It’s out of stock. Lol.
Mind you, seeing a GMK Skeleton set on their site for $15 is absurd.
Just gonna wait patiently for PT to drop prices or put up an absurd offer on keycaps. If you watch his streams, he sometimes does offers and discount codes while he's streaming and its only valid for the duration of the stream.
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The market has certainly cooled off and maybe we have gone from one extreme to the other in the "second hand market" where we now have plenty of options in stock and with GMK now pushing out like 4 sets a week it seems they are finally catching up on all those backlogged sets.
So all those speculative flippers are now finding market conditions have changed and having to take a loss if they can't hold onto stock and wait it out.
The number of deals that have been on over the past few months have been insane and I suspect we may see this continue in the short term while vendors look to shore up finances and not get into the kinds of strife that certain vendors have gone through recently.
But from my perspective I have been a busy bee sorting out some new keyboard builds and on top of that getting a few more artisans added to the collection.
Metakey Tenet 70
Hades switches (lubed)
Alu Plate
pbtfans Rim (temp set until I get either GMK Terror Below or GMK Orange Boi)
Artisans
Della Key Mecha series
Raykey Soda Nero
Now just waiting for some plates to get cerakoted and then I can finally build my CW's and my last Matrix 3.0 - hopefully in time for the J-02 and Magic 3 to arrive in late September/October time.
Still debating on the Cycle7 at the minute for myself as it seems a fantastic little board for the money and a great "starter" board into the more custom realm compared to the keychrons and the GMMK's of the world. It is certainly a board that is seemingly punch way above it's price point by all accounts.
So all those speculative flippers are now finding market conditions have changed and having to take a loss if they can't hold onto stock and wait it out.
The number of deals that have been on over the past few months have been insane and I suspect we may see this continue in the short term while vendors look to shore up finances and not get into the kinds of strife that certain vendors have gone through recently.
But from my perspective I have been a busy bee sorting out some new keyboard builds and on top of that getting a few more artisans added to the collection.
Metakey Tenet 70
Hades switches (lubed)
Alu Plate
pbtfans Rim (temp set until I get either GMK Terror Below or GMK Orange Boi)
Artisans
Della Key Mecha series
Raykey Soda Nero
Now just waiting for some plates to get cerakoted and then I can finally build my CW's and my last Matrix 3.0 - hopefully in time for the J-02 and Magic 3 to arrive in late September/October time.
Still debating on the Cycle7 at the minute for myself as it seems a fantastic little board for the money and a great "starter" board into the more custom realm compared to the keychrons and the GMMK's of the world. It is certainly a board that is seemingly punch way above it's price point by all accounts.
Nice keyboards there... I'm going to go for a Cycle 7 too just can't decide on colour. I think I'll end up with Jasper but keep looking at Rock too. Will probably put MTNU Susu on it when that arrives. I have an orange Zoom 75 on the way too and keep hanging my nose over Nuclear Data. I let the GB run out to avoid diving in but it's now back on pre order.....
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Definitely not a boring set! GMK BoW looks good on so many different boards, I'd rather GMK BoW than Dots.
Got the ZoomTKL finished off. Definitely some lessons learned here, with it being my first full build.
Now I have it finished off, I'm actually really happy with the glass back and really pleased I grabbed all white keycaps for it.
Between the caps, plate and foam, it's got a nice marbled sound. I just need to improve the stabs a little.
I apologise for the Phone pics.
Meletrix ZoomTKL (wireless hotswap)
Cool Grey
Navy gradient glass mirror
PC Plate
L+F Oil Kings
GMK BoW Caps
Now I have it finished off, I'm actually really happy with the glass back and really pleased I grabbed all white keycaps for it.
Between the caps, plate and foam, it's got a nice marbled sound. I just need to improve the stabs a little.
I apologise for the Phone pics.
Meletrix ZoomTKL (wireless hotswap)
Cool Grey
Navy gradient glass mirror
PC Plate
L+F Oil Kings
GMK BoW Caps
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I like the fact that Mech keyboards are becoming democratised/mainstream. Especially since personally I can't really get on with ANSI outside of gaming, and premium ISO layouts aren't that common. Love them or hate them, Keychron, AKKO, GMMK and even budget brands like CIY and YMDK are putting out usable products that you can tinker with, personalise and drastically improve. And for me that's the most fun- taking something that's cheap and flawed (or even horrible) and seeing how far you can take it. My favourite board at the moment is Keychron Q1 Gen 1, which I bought for £70 and was a pingy mess. After strategic dampening and a cardboard mod, now the sound sends tingles up my spine when I type on it. I just built a Wooden YMDK Melody96 for the wife and it came out so nicely after mods that I've ordered another today for myself.
Despite this mainstream effect though, I'm confident that the true premium board industry can coexist for those that want the "out of the box" experience.
Meanwhile I've been experimenting with camp Linear. I've always preferred tactiles although I might be coming around..... I like a heavy switch, so I tried 150g springs in some Gateron KS-9 Blacks. At least I know what "stupidly heavy" feels like now- my fingers were knackered after ten keypresses
80g seems to be the sweet spot for me. Hand lubed, the Blacks feel even better than Oil Kings.
Despite this mainstream effect though, I'm confident that the true premium board industry can coexist for those that want the "out of the box" experience.
Meanwhile I've been experimenting with camp Linear. I've always preferred tactiles although I might be coming around..... I like a heavy switch, so I tried 150g springs in some Gateron KS-9 Blacks. At least I know what "stupidly heavy" feels like now- my fingers were knackered after ten keypresses
80g seems to be the sweet spot for me. Hand lubed, the Blacks feel even better than Oil Kings.
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I think that's about as close as I'm gonna get without spending silly money on keycaps...
I like the fact that Mech keyboards are becoming democratised/mainstream. Especially since personally I can't really get on with ANSI outside of gaming, and premium ISO layouts aren't that common. Love them or hate them, Keychron, AKKO, GMMK and even budget brands like CIY and YMDK are putting out usable products that you can tinker with, personalise and drastically improve.
On that note, and at risk of polluting this thread with some extreme cheapness and noob level keyboard modding, I recently needed a smaller keyboard to act for dedicated Steam Deck use capable of being stuffed in a small laptop bag with the deck, and being a complete keyboard noob I went for a Prime deal on a Magegee Sky81, one of the cheapest on there £30 and as basic as they go, it didn't need to be fancy for SD use, just small and cheap. As it happened when the keyboard arrived it had sticking space bar and enter key, which I complained about to the seller and he straight up sent me a replacement and told me I could keep the first one.
I since did some research and almost immediately sussed the sticking was down to the stabilisers. So a small punnet of Krytox 205g0 later, and some grease I already had, I fixed the first board and lubed everything on both boards. And then went and got some better keycaps for one of them with double shot tops so they can make use of the otherwise redundant backlight these keyboards come with. I even became mildly addicted to "Thocc" youtube videos for a while, but had to catch myself to remind me that these keyboards are just for occasionally Steam Deck use, so I don't need to go mad, and my noob modding thus far has achieved a reasonable Thocc quotient to my ears anyway.
Anyway, two mechanical keyboards for effectively 15 quid each, one I can permanently keep in my Deck bag, and one to keep next to the sofa when it is docked.