Greetings everyone! We’re excited to pull back the curtain and reveal the premium membership program we’ve been working on the past few months as well as give a little insight into how we came up with it.
Initially we started by thinking about how other websites give back and improve the experience for their most dedicated users, as well as the various pros and cons in comparison to how our site works. Free expedited shipping makes sense if you’re placing multiple orders per month or even weekly from somewhere like Amazon. Or alternatively, monthly subscription boxes work well if you have lower-value consumable items that need to be replaced routinely like razor blades or cosmetics. We tossed around a lot of ideas, but coming up with something that made sense for keycaps- which are purchased infrequently and have a high value- was a slightly more challenging task.
After looking at the past 4 years of our keycap sales, we found that typical keyboard enthusiasts bought three sets of keycaps from Drop per year. Using that as our jumping off point, we started working on a program that would be advantageous for this group and allow them to utilize its perks immediately while continuing to offer value throughout the whole year. Additionally, we want to offer something that is of value to both our newer users looking to dive deeper, and to our most devoted keycap buyers. Since we all know the ideal ratio for keycap sets to keyboards is roughly 5 to 1, it makes the most sense to offer a program focusing on making the keycaps more affordable.
The core of Keycap Club consists of a monthly coupon that can be applied to any order of artisan keycaps and/or keycap sets on Drop.com that totals $100 or more. You will initially be given a coupon with a randomized value between $20 and $100. Let me temper expectations here a little and be transparent that the odds tilt towards the $20 coupon, but there is certainly a decent chance of getting a higher amount. 30 days after the coupon has been granted, it will expire and a new one will be issued with a new randomized value. This means that over the year you’ll have the chance to use a total of 12 coupons with a minimum potential savings of $240, but you would only need to use 3 of them to come out ahead.
To help decide how you want to use that coupon or not, we are continually working to improve our forecasting system in order to provide a rough calendar of incoming keycap launches as well as our efforts to expand an ever growing collection of in stock keycaps.
In addition to the monthly coupon system, we’re going to be introducing a monthly artisan/novelty keycap draw for rare, unique, and valuable keycaps. All Drop Keycap Club members will be automatically entered into the monthly draws, and winners will be selected and announced on the last day of each month. See this talk post for more information about the monthly draws and the types of prizes that will be available.
We’re also adding on-site badging for all Drop Keycap Club members which will initially be mostly for aesthetics, but will evolve over time to give you access to future exclusive product launches and events.
And lastly, Keycap Club members will get a chance to provide user reviews for new unreleased products. Those selected will receive the item before it goes live and is available to anyone else and in turn you’ll provide a first look review for the community. Any items reviewed are yours to keep and enjoy. This will not be limited to only keycap launches so you may get picked to talk about a pair of headphones, or even a full keyboard! Read more about the program at this post.
In terms of the cost, the program will be $69 for a one-year membership. However, a $20 off coupon will be available at the launch of the program making it just $49 for your initial year.
We plan to continually expand the offerings and perks of the Drop Keycap Club and are excited to make adjustments to suit the needs of the community. One example is that we’ll be providing a special perk for our most long-serving massdrop keyboard members in the near future as a thank you for all the contributions they have made to our site and to the community as a whole. We want to build something that’s great for everyone and that means we need feedback both positive and negative, so if you have an idea that you think we should add, or alternatively if you’re excited about what’s in the works here, then please leave us a comment and let us know.
FAQ
What are the odds with the coupons?
70% of a $20 coupon, 15% of a $30 coupon, 10% of a $40 coupon, 4% of a $50 coupon and 1% of a $100 coupon.
How will I know if there will be keycaps I want to buy over the next 12 months?
We are working on providing more transparency into our keycap set planning so that you can make as informed a decision as possible.
Once I sign up, where can I see my coupon value?
You can login and check the value of your coupon on the Keycap Club Members page any time.
Can I cancel get a refund once I sign up? No, there will be no refunds once you sign up. After signing up, yes youmay cancel the subscription to prevent it autorenewing at the end of the 12 months.
Can I stack my monthly coupon with my Drop rewards points?
Yes, you can.
Where/how do I sign up?
The Drop Keycap Club program is planned to launch in late September, at which point you can add the membership to your cart like a normal item and check out as usual.
Can I use my Drop rewards points on the membership price?
Unfortunately not, but we will be issuing a coupon code for $20 off as mentioned above and you will also receive Drop reward points from checking out.
Where can I see a list of the keycaps currently for sale?Right here: https://drop.com/mechanical-keyboards/drops/?sc=keycaps
How much is it?$69 a year but for the first year it will be $49 after using the discount code. For 12 months. Total. Like, $4 a month. 4 dollars and 8 cents.
Where can I see upcoming keycap sets? For now you can check them out here: https://drop.com/talk/94288/the-keycap-roadmap?discussion=true
You make a decent point, I think. If you randomly get a 100USD coupon, you'll feel the bite harder if there aren't any keycaps you like.
That said, one _could_ buy a GMK set for 100USD cheaper, then turn around and sell it to someone else.
nazzy123That's true, one could buy a set with reselling in mind, but I think that´s is not the point here. We buy keycaps set because we like building keyboards or customizing our own. Sure, must be someone that think at Drop as a provider but I belive that is not the reality for the majority of their users, at least in the MK scene.
And you said it, a 100 usd coupon will bite huge if you can't spend it on a set you like and being limited to something you are not entirely happy with. Now, if those coupons are 3 or 4 month long, that could be something else. There is more chance to find a set you like in a 3-4 month period than in just one month, and take in account that some of us can´t spend 100 usd every month in keycaps, so for me this seems more reasonable.
Drop runs promotion all the time, such as a special coupon of MT3 BOGO for all users. Club member can't stack coupon codes. I am afraid I have not seen the real attractive benefit yet.
Not a great start. Half the keycap sets im trying to apply my $20 coupon code to wont even work. I keep getting "discount code isn’t valid for the items in your cart". I thought the coupon code will work with any keycap set over $100?
I see them working on it now. Looks like a glitch where the expiration date was activating prematurely for some reason. Should be good to go here pretty soon.
I like this, but like please have better shipping options. I'd be much more inclined to shop on this site if I didn't have to wait over 2 weeks for something to make it across the US. Most of my international shipments make it faster than that.
hi, just recently got the membership, but for me to pay 69 dollars next year, youd have to provide a list of releases in order for us to plan on getting the subscription, please make it happen!
I've just read: "EXCLUSIVE ACCESS TO PRODUCT LAUNCHES
Be the first to order keycap sets from your favorite brands, ..."
Fine by me!
..., specifically curated for and only available to Drop Keycap Club members.
A big F You and my middle finger to you, you're overestimating yourself a lot!
MakamiI was confused at first, but I see where you read that. Let me post the full text. The tl;dr is first in line privilege on big things, and then separately, some items made for members.
Early Access to Product Launches
For some of the extra exciting product launches, we will set aside some number of units to be available as a private sale for our DKC members so that they have the first chance of getting something they want. After a certain amount of time or units sold, we will add any remaining early access inventory to the public sale.
Exclusive Access to Members Only Products
These are exclusive items which will only be made available to DKC members and will not be opened up to the broader community. They will be more focused on limited runs of novelties, deskmats, and artisans which you can only get by being a part of the Drop Keycap Club.
I'm not sure if that addresses your concern, but the blurb version makes it sound much more exclusive to the larger community than it is. There's not going to be a gated community on big GMK or SP releases or anything. It would be with something like the HD6xx launch for example, where we know there will be a sell out and so we might set aside some units.
It would help me make my decision to buy the subscription if there is a tentative list of keycap sets that would go on sale in the coming year. The current keycap sets are either already been bought by me or not interesting enough.
AlexPkI see you have put up a post on the keycap sets that could probably go on sale in 2021. You may want to update this post (or at least the answer to question #2 under FAQs) with a link to it for people coming across this for the first time.
oh god more relentless capitalism. "the odds for a better one are decent" ?! that's 30% you'll get more than 20$ off. While I do appreciate the fact that you're trying to save people money, let's do some quick math. most of the sets on drop's keycap page are 120-180$ for the base kit (Assuming people don't buy modifiers). If everyone signing up for this keycap club mess is in fact buying 3 of these kits every year, then they're already spending 360-540$ in total. Now with this coupon casino bs, they have a 70% chance of getting a 20$ coupon and the chance of getting a coupon high enough to make up for paying for the keycap club is literally 1% so you make money in 99% of the instances where someone signs up for this club.
TL-DR; don't sign up, there's a 1% chance you actually save money. (literally!)
Ah okay, so you are giving a $20 discount on the membership for the first year. The post reads like you are making the first $20 off keycap discount available straight away upon purchase of the sub, and that is what makes it $49 for the first year. Appreciate the clarification and I see the 3 set value in the first year.
Ben_NZGlad to have sorted it out. You're not the only one that misinterpreted that info, we will work to clarify it on the final keycap club page. Thanks!
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