I thought this might be an interesting topic given that most people who browse Keeb Talk probably own a bunch of boards.
I’ll start this off:
My ordered, but not yet received, end game keyboard (hahahaha, isn’t that how we justify the latest purchase?) is going to be a Mode Sonnet. This is going to be my main everyday board. It will be beautiful, have perfect tactile responsiveness, and clack, thock, and pop.
My second keyboard, a Keychron Q1 Pro, is my quiet board, for meetings and shared spaces. It also lets me change up the keycaps, and when I go back to the Sonnet it will feel new again. That jolt of newness will keep me from buying a fourth board, right?
The third keyboard, a Monsgeek M1W, is the tinkering board, the one to test mods, assemble and disassemble.
Now that I think of it I may need a fourth board to solder switches.
I used to make justifications like that, but came to the realization that this is my favorite hobby & there is no need to justify it. I love building & collecting keyboards, why would I not have a bunch of them? I feel like as long as you are spending responsibly you shouldn’t need to justify it to yourself or anyone else.
For me it started for similar reasons. I need a nice endgame TKL for the house. Oh, but I also need a nice quiet TKL for the office. Oh, but what if one of my keyboards breaks and I need a spare? Maybe I need a HHKB for travel.
And then you watch VODS for some of the popular content creators, and think… well what if I want one of those.
And then it just becomes a collection. At the end of the day it is a hobby not dissimilar to watch collecting, or guitar collecting.
More than one keyboard is easy, but I find the most struggle for myself is that I find it difficult to have more than one keyboard for a specific use case. I’m someone who typically has a “golidlocks” zone where I look for specific combos for usecases and then I’m satisfied with that one until the curiosity for something else comes up.
For this it usually ends up being one main keyboard for home and an alternative, and then a single work keyboard. Right now its my Mode Sonnet with Durock Blue Lotus switches as the main keyboard and then a Freebird TKL with Ergo Clears as my alternative. The work keyboard is a Q5 purchased by my work with my own switches and caps in it (JWICK T1 and NicePBT British Racing Green), but I want to get a QK100 for myself at some point.
My justification is somewhere along the lines of: life is short, might as well enjoy the little things that I can since I work hard and can afford to treat myself (+ no kids. Haha)
There’s really no way to justify having a bunch of keyboards, so I don’t try. Almost everyone who works at a computer could justify one good keyboard, but when you get to multiples, it’s purely a hobby and well beyond any practical considerations.
My only self-imposed rules are to only buy new boards when the layout or features are substantially different than what I already own, and of course, never go beyond my designated keyboard/hobby budget.
I think that as long as you’re enjoying your boards sustainably, don’t worry too much. Additionally, it helps to engage in the social aspect of things – it’s more fun when you get to exchange or loan keyboards around and have a chance to try out new builds and expressions that way
Many Discord servers exist out there, whether it is vendor, influencer, or local community discords. I do highly suggest seeing if your local community has a server or Facebook group or similar. Posts will often be put out for local meetups if you’re interested in that.
