Drop Mech Keys Meetup Recap - Thanks for Visiting!
As you may have seen, we just hosted our first meetup in quite a while here at Drop HQ (Corsair HQ, but they seem to like us enough :) )! It was a blast to get to meet so many enthusiasts local to the bay area—it had been 10 years since I was last hanging out with keyboard nerds in the bay, at KeyCon 2014. We had a great time hosting everyone at the offices, checking out all the very nice boards y'all brought, and sharing some of our own projects/spaces! I knew it would be fun to host in the Game Room when I first saw it in person, but seeing it come to fruition was still so cool. Alright, I'll stop blabbering on now. xD Picture time! (Oh, real quick - there will be more of these! Stay tuned for more info and to catch the next one!)
May 15, 2024
Q: $[insert price] for ABS? No way I’m paying for that. A: [...] These keycaps are not only thick, and have doubleshot legends (meaning that the legends will be sharp and will never fade) but have an excellent quality control, legend consistency and are fantastic for long typing sessions. These is what people are paying for when they get these keycaps and why many of us these are our preferred choice when building a board.
Is it worth it? If you can't justify it then don't buy it.
You do what makes you happy, which is exactly what you said. GMK and other expensive keyboard stuff make people happy, that's literally all that matters.
PBT is only better if certain requirements are reached, and in most cases, this doesn't happen. Most PBT keycaps are dyesub, which means that legends aren't as sharp as doubleshot ones, texture plays a huge deal with keycaps and it's not the first time that I've heard that somebody doesn't like PBT because it feels like sand paper to their fingertips. This is why BSP keycaps are for some people the only PBT up to their standards, and those sets cost more than GMK ones, and still no doubleshot. On top of that, many PBT manufacturers have issues with long keycaps, as PBT has a higher melting point and many shifts and spacebars wouldn't be up to GMK's standards.
Finally, this is a custom made set, it hasn't been made before, and it won't be mass produced. Think about it like a tailored made set. It's the same with XDA, MT3, and SP SA and DSA or any custom keyboard. Once the drop ends, Massdrop will place an order to GMK and they'll put these caps on their schedule, make them up to Massdrop's requirements, do the QC, and ship a bulk order to Massdrop, which then will ship them to every customer.
Some people can't tell or don't care for the difference between shitty headsets and good headphones, it's all about what's worth it to you. People don't need to justify their purchases to you and you don't need to sell your opinions to them. It's really simple.
Speaking of cars, Citroëns have an added value for many people in my hometown because there's a PSA factory close to where I live, the same happens for me and GMK. They have an instrinsect added value for many, included me.
Core: Pok3r, Anne Pro, Nemo, Tokyo60, M60-A, Tina, Duck Viper, Zeal60, X60, E6-V2, ALF X2, Whitefox, TADA68, Magicforce 68, M65-A, Leopold FC660M, Percent Canøe, Zephyr, Uniqey C70, Drevo 84, Duck Octagon, Zephyr, Masterkeys Pro S, K-Type, Massdrop ALT, Massdrop CTRL, Ducky One TKL, Percent Skøg, TX-CP, Leopold FC980M, Cherry G80-1813, Kira, RS96, or Duck Lightsaver.
Q: Is this keyset fully compatible with the Mistel Barocco 60%, Filco Minila, or Filco Minila Air? Can you add a 3U and 4U spacebars to the spacebars kit? A: No, these keyboards use 3.00U, 3.25U, or 4.00U spacebars and that would require GMK to make new molds for just those three boards.
Just to name a few.
The only one thing I may fault my GMK sets for is the inherent tendency of the ABS material to lose texture over time, but again this is not due to the designer nor GMK - I understand they are using the best material and technology available. I have experienced this firsthand when I noticed the shine on my Carbon keycaps after using them heavily for almost two years. I've also bought quite a number of GMK keycap sets at mechmarket and a few of them had shine on some keys (that the seller failed to mention) so I had to return them back. Because of this experience, I have stopped using my GMK sets as daily drivers, but only use them occasionally, because I value them THAT much.
My daily driver now is the Danger Zone. It is a beautiful set. It is ABS, however it has no texture, so it will not develop shine because it already is shiny (lol). I wonder why this smooth texture is not as popular as it is. Is there any technical reason, or simply because people prefer a little bit of texture in their keycaps?
You can make an informed, adult decision to move on and don’t comment. Should you choose to comment and it’s not helpful, continue to justify your lame excuses, be darn well prepared to be called an “internet troll”.
OMG! I’m feeding it more...
These are not the key caps you’re looking for...move along.
Still, Serika's compatibility is quite big, and the examples I provide that are not covered by this set are just for the sake of clarity and not very popular amongst enthusiasts.
I think most new in the scene never plan on getting extra sets of keycaps until later, especially after they think that mech keyboards are something special or when they see a great looking set of keycaps. Then they see a whole gamut of keycaps and their price tags. One similar thing that comes to mind are DSLR cameras: good lenses cost more than the camera body. And of course you have cheap lenses too. Same focal lengths, different qualities.
So long story short, my fav set hands down are the SA keycaps. After having a feel of the smooth ABS and the awesome SA profile, I’m not looking back. Everything about SP’s SA keycaps are outstanding, the feel, the quality, the sound. Yes, they more costly than most except GMK, they are worth every cent. I most definitely wouldnt make this statement if I had never took the plunge. So I guess you have to go see it for yourself.
Also, I seem to have accidentally started a rather venomous comment thread. Oops.
I'm just here to voice some concerns. I think these drops are designed to take advantage of people who just want decent quality keycaps. Feel free to continue defending this, but I've said all I needed to say.
Personally I know the limit I would be willing to shell out on a single set of keycaps. Getting your dream keycaps that tick all the boxes is a long long journey.
Sorry, but that's absolutely not true.
The costs aren't that much higher, considering the number of keycaps included on a base kit. If we go price per keycap, a GMK set is cheaper than XDA. Serika base kit @ 1000 units is $120, a very successful set such as XDA Godspeed covering the same layouts would be Alphas $46, modifiers $30, Tsangan $28, Calculus $16, ISO kit $8. That's right, around the same pricing, granted that splitting kits adds some extra costs, so some would say it's not a fair comparisson.
An enjoyPBT equivalent of these set would cost around $110, it's slightly cheaper but those aren't doubleshots. An SA Maxkeys set would be more expensive, MT3 would be slightly around the same pricepoint and the only contender left is JTK, which is indeed cheaper than GMK, but with a trade off: thinner keycaps, legend inconsistencies and less options for keycap sizes and legends.
Not exactly. One mold will only work for plastics with the same shrink rate (and maybe not even then). For certain, different shrink rates = different molds needed for quality parts.
In that case... fine. I don't know enough about plastic manufacturing to comment intelligently on that. But somehow I suspect that you don't either.
As far as I understand, high-quality plastic manufacturing is just expensive. Nobody complains that Lego sets north of $100 are overpriced because you can buy an "equivalent" Mega Blocks set for $30.
I would say not being able to split up the kit is my biggest hurdle of jumping in on GMK sets, as an ortho and 60% user, I do not need the Tsangan/calculus/iso etc. And I would confidently say over half of the mech keycap buying userbase are TKL or less.
I get that it is easier to have anything in 1 kit (or is it for profit reasons? I cannot say) but an alpha base + mods + etc (numpad/iso/etc) would be more attractive to the price conscious. Getting base+40 for an ortho board is $200 after taxes and shipping, comparing to the recent SA pulse drop where base+ortho kit comes out to less than $100 after taxes and shipping.
In the end the only people that comes out even in these GMK drops are the ones using full size boards that can use majority of the base set. But the only winners here are GMK that sold keys to customers that would not bought those kits if the kit was split.
I am sure GMK has done their research and know that they'll make more money this way because people love their stuff and will buy it at all costs, but we shouldn't argue their pricing scheme is for the customers.
do people actually buy a separate set of function row/numpad that doesn't match their main board? why not just buy the core set to cover all if they need it for the numpad?
Anyways my point isn't if it could be sold in mechmarket, the point is not splitting the kit is not a pro-consumer move and we as consumers should not consider it a benefit to us.
personally I consider it a pro-consumer move because of the number of keys for a low price and the ability to fill any future boards I may have even if I go with a different layout than usual
I wouldn't call $120 + $60 for 40s a low price, again refer back to the SA pulse drop, alpha+mods/orthos would be less than $100, it would be cheap for people that gets all the keys for a full size keyboard, but not for anyone else. I much rather to get what I want without having to pay for all the extra keys. I am sure the extra keys are cheaper than getting a numpad kit on a per key basis. But if you don't use them how could that extra cost be a pro for you?