Found this Ali Express listing for a number of GMK sets, including Retrocast, which is still in process of production. I know this discussion is old hat to some, but what does the keebtalk community think of purchasing sets from vendors like this? what do you think of new people or people without the means to afford the real GMK sets buying them?
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My concern wouldn’t be for anyone buying them as they should reasonably have an idea that they are getting counterfeits. I’m more concerned about p2p sales here and places like r/mm where these will be used as fraud tools.
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yeah you might be able to scam some newbs with these, but one look at the R on all of those keysets and you’ll see plain as day its no GMK
I want to know where they got that color palette for GMK WIld lol. Way off, though it does look nice.
Great question! If you’re new to the hobby, you should go all in. GMK keycaps are legendary and a huge influence across every niche in the community. You’re missing out.
But, those without the means … then no judgement. I’m not sure what any of this stuff really costs to make, only what people are willing to pay for it.
However, this is inexcusable. Full stop. 
https://craftingkeyboards.com/collections/keycaps/products/dots-keycap-set
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Like these sets, GMK rippers are wack
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Hell, it looks like they have a GMK Amethyst rip and it’s still in GB, lol. What were they thinking on the Arctic set!
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As someone who always thought the real GMK sets were too expensive, this is a nice alternative. Sure, it won’t feel (or maybe sound) like the real thing, but for a newbie in the hobby, it’s probably a no brainer.
I’ve personally never owned a GMK set (so feel free to disregard my opinion), but I’m tempted to buy one of these fake sets out of curiosity to see how they compare against my cheapo YMDK set.
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The retro cast set looks pretty good
it looks like they pulled the renders from the gb page honestly… very tempted though. retrocast by christmas…?
reverse dye-sub pbt counterfeit dots? I’ll bet these are of a fine high quality that demands that pricing.
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Caps conterfeit are not legaly bad, but …
Designers put a lot of effort into these and duplicating their work (even sometimes reusing their images) is moraly BAD.
We all see cheap crap things make in China these days in our lifes, do we keep them ?
Probably no, those are considered commodities that we put in the trash as soon as we don’t like them or that they don’t work anymore.
I recently do what my grand-parents were doing a long time ago: buy quality (and expensive) stuff that I REALLY want and intend to keep a lifetime.
Buy less, buy better.
In the end it is the responsability of buyers to make the good choices.
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The number of GMK sales that these actually impact is probably very small. If you can afford GMK, you know what you are buying and why you are buying it. I can’t imagine anyone saying “Gee I was going to order GMK DMG, but I might as well save $100 and buy these knock-offs.”
Besides, GMK refuses to work with PBT. If you don’t like ABS then these are a good option.
I admit that it stinks for the designer, but imitation is the greatest form of flattery 
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Agreed that this does not impact GMK sales.
Also, yes, beeing copied is a good indication for the designer that he/she did something good and be perceived as rewarding.
But imagine a long future were all GMK(and other reputable caps providers) demand is met, then these copies could become problematic for their sales and the designer.
Also some new people in the hobby could be tricked in thinking that they bought the real deal…
I’d say this is my big problem with these knock off sets. Although I don’t see something like that flying even at r/mm. I’d hope someone would call it out if one of these sets were posted as a GMK set. As far as them existing, I’m not a fan of it, but it’s from China & there is nothing much that can be done about it unfortunately.
Flattery doesn’t pay the bills, I’m afraid. If the designer deserves their cut of a GMK set then at the very least they deserve their cut off these rushed knockoffs.
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I have always sort of been an advocate of knock-offs. Take purses for example. You can buy a $400 purse or get a knock-off for $40 that is 90% as good as the $400 purse.
It is Democratizing and allows access to fashionable goods to folks who otherwise could never afford it. Same for keycaps - the 15 year old getting into the hobby might never have enough money for a GMK set but still wants their board to look nice. Knock offs are perfect.
The elite folk who can afford $130-250 on GMK can still feel superior that they have the real thing.
Obviously, the benefits of knock-offs do not apply to things like airplane parts and prescription drugs, etc., but for fashion luxury items like keycaps I’ve always applauded the copy cats.
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I think pharma actually has a reasonable model here for describing what I think you’d like to see; the creator has exclusive rights for a period of time, then anybody else can reproduce it freely at any price point they want.
I just want the designer to get paid, I really don’t think this is elitism. I’m sure there are some folks who might get hung up on that particular thing but I don’t think anybody here was dipping into that at all.
EDIT:
I think it’s reasonable to applaud folks like ePBT or Infinikey or whatever who are trying to make solid products at low cost, but personally I really do draw the line at applauding things that primarily hurt the designer themselves who are only going to recoup their labor investment in designing the set and bringing it to market by actually being part of the transaction. At the very least the knockoffs could wait until after the set has sold and shipped to not interfere with that.
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This is actually pretty big brained! We are getting to the point where the hobby is big enough to start thinking about things like this.
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I hate to see that sort of things, i really hate that… People fake everything, it’s pathetic 