Another week, another post

I'm currently waiting for my new 65g spring black switch MX Mini with a transparent housing (and red in the middle).

Probably another two weeks until I get it. As for my first paypal purchase, still haven't received anything although the

USPS tracking says that it was sent on Jun.23, 2012, to Malaysia.

Some news at KBDMania.

1. Definetly the demand for blue dyesub PBT keycaps and those thick PBT keycaps directly purchased from Taobao

are down. It's taking longer for someone to sell. Probably due to its higher costs compared to the group buy

(about USD 20 more expensive) and people are looking for the two tone dyesub PBT keycaps(which are still

very high on demand)

2. New group buy for the dark grey dyesub thick PBT keycaps is under way (Until Jul.4, 2012). Roughly about

100 sets were ordered, just about 1/4 of the original two tone group buy.

3. Lots of events this week.

1) Auction for charity

2) Bluetooth ear phones

3) Other keboard related items (I didn't count all)

Hope everybody has another good week!! As for me, I'll be heading for my summer vacation in two weeks!!

Limmy 2012-07-09 19:56

Will we see price drop on the thick dye subs? I think so. Pretty much every enthusiast who is willing to shell out big bucks have tried them by now. Moreover the caps provide little value as collector's item. Therefore, I am guessing there is going to be less demand at the current prices bringing the prices down. I think new comers' reservation prices for nice caps are generally lower than that of enthusiasts as they don't really understand the differences of nice caps, plus comparison of the high prices of caps with the current prices of keyboards wouldn't make a lot of sense to them. For instance, at the current prices of key caps, they could purchase mid-range keyboard instead of purchasing a nice PBT caps.

Reference points of prices for key caps are generally high for keyboard enthusiasts(non-noobs), moderate for new mechanical keyboard owners, and very low for non-owners. Purchasing decisions are linked to the respective reference points for consumers and I think the speed of transition of new mech keyboard user to enthusiasts is slow so that the speed of increase in demand is going to be slow, however the increase in supply is at a moderate speed(faster than the increase in demand). Moreover, the more they get to know about the keyboards, they tend to value vintage caps more than the current production.

I feel that unless the manufacturers come up with new design / new font preferably Cherry replica / improved feel / additional keys for winkeyless layouts and etc, they are going to have hard time selling the PBT caps at the current prices. Just changing the colors are not going to be successful in attracting more demands.

However, there are several factors that we might not see the price drop. RMB(Chinese yuan) is getting stronger. Cost of production may be too high for the factories to drop prices, yet if most of the production cost went into molds or machines it is certainly possible the prices are going to be reduced because once they have the molds/machines at hand additional cost of production matters more than the cost already occured(sunk cost).