I have an interest in spurring a conversation about getting GMK blanks made.
I’ve gotten into split orthos with almost all 1u, so my interest is mostly in 1u key caps, plus maybe a few 1.25u or 1.5u for some accent keys. But I’m interested in hearing any and all perspectives, not just those from people interested in orthos.
I have some questions, and I’d appreciate any and all constructive perspectives. I’m only a few months into the hobby, so some questions might feel silly. Bear with me. I’m trying to decide how serious to get about this interest.
Did anyone participate in the GMK blanks GB that happened last year? What ended up being the price for different sizes at different quantities?
To increase the chance of getting volume buy-in and getting the blank caps produced, does it make sense to be offered in kits, like base, ortho, ergo? I’m thinking that might make it more likely for people to get in on it.
It seems like there is a lot of marketing involved with getting keycaps produced, which is understandable if people are trying to build brands and so forth. But these would be blank sets. Do you think renders would be needed to pique peoples’ interest?
I’d think so. The number of “kits” you sell will help determine the total number of keycaps (color/size) that will need to be produced. It’s kind of like if I told you I had two dozen doughnuts, you’d know immediately that I had 24 total. Or how the DZ60RGB is a 60%, but can come with 63 or 64 keys depending on what left shift you go with.
Yes! Don’t cheap out. IMO, great renders are a gold standard these days.
I was in on the big blank buy, overall it was a good experience. It was a mammoth task to undertake for everyone involved, with an epic amount of cap sorting and shipping. I was looking to get 1.5u’s for my Boardwalk and 1u blank mods for my Planck in stock colours that’d match with my existing alphas.
The main issue with the buy from my perspective was that with so many options (rows, sizes, and colours), it was very hard to get anywhere near MOQ on most options. So near the end, a lot of people bailed out or switched to different colours. This would cause prices to increase for everyone else, so then another would bail, and so on and so on.
@scud80 was the runner and can maybe shed more insight.
I think it would have been easier/better in retrospect to have designated specific kits and maybe a limited number of popular colours. I imagine that @scud80 was very glad it was finally over and has zero plans to do anything like it again.
I think I’d want the theme to be “flexible basics” so I’d be looking at supporting common neutral colors that would be easy to mix and match with a good number of existing and upcoming sets.
Possible colors that could meet that criteria for me:
CR
N9
CC
CP
WS1
U9
L9
As a buyer, the first scenario definitely provides more flexibility. Personally I’d probably go nuts with alpha and ergo kits and mix/match them! I even might end up spending more money because I’d want so many options.
On the other hand, I wonder if it might be easier to meet MOQ by requiring larger base kits.
I am interested in ergo modifiers. Mainly 1.5u for boardwalk, but would be willing to support blank ergo kits. Some boardwalk layouts need a bottom row r4 1.5u. I usually have blockers on my cases, but I know some people need them.
It may also be worth reaching out to MKUltra.click about ergo blanks. There was some talk about it in his discord channel, and he may be willing to help reach moq.
I have. They don’t have the same texture as gmk caps (smoother), but other than that they’re a bang for your buck. I had the black set and they’re a perfect colour match for GMK CR, straight bars and same thickness iirc.
If only they had 40s support…
Filled
