Keyboard Enthusiast Trendsetting & Trends

I’ve personally picked up a couple sets of GMK Penumbra for 110 shipped CONUS, and I got a minivan case for 100 and a tina for 100, I don’t like brass thick plates so I can’t give you a specific example of a good deal on those, but if you search mechmarket for what you want and check in every so often, its generally been my experience that many things can be had for reasonable sums.

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now that’s a name I havent heard in a long time

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exactly, sets like penumbra and monkey from the good ol days now sell on r/mm for quite cheap (90-130 shipped CONUS), if people are looking to try GMK but don’t want to spend a lot, those sets, as well as GMK plum, and certain Dolch runs, seems to be undervalued substantially compared to more recent sets like striker or handarbeit, or even camping.

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I have no evidence to back this up, but I think the second market pricing has stabilized after going through the roof last year.

My gut tells me there are so many group buys, like several GMK sets every week, and many more boards - and this is providing competition to the second hand market.

Last year was slow on group buys because of COVID.

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Too bad beam springs and 4704s are in the multi thousands

Beam springs have no competition…

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Nifty 50’s with gradient keycaps in a HKKB layout. I finally get a chance to try two things I never thought I would. Neat.

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I just got my kit yesterday! Now only to find several hours to solder 64 LEDs, lol.

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So low front height is the new fad now? It seems that the new members of the community are obsessed with “thocc” and not having to use a wrist wrest. I enjoy makers pushing the envelope with design and features, but I really hate when the mob piles into the bandwagon.

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Is low front a fad? I haven’t noticed this.

I picked up a KBD8x recently and really like how low the front height is. It made me much more apparent of the feel. I have been trying to pay more attention to these types of details now. I need to get a fancy ruler in MM so I can measure all my boards. I need to know my limit!

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I guess? From an ergonomic perspective wrist rests aren’t exactly ideal for most people; in fact, being able to hold your hands such that there’s no “breaking” (angling) of your wrist while you’re typing is generally best for most people and a wrist rest (or at least the kind that tend to be considered aesthetically preferable in this hobby) usually acts against that (a good exception to this is stuff like that baguette wrist rest which holds the wrist above the top of the keys rather than flush with the top of the board).

Of course, if we’re really getting into ergonomics folks should probably also be decreasing typing angles, going flat, or even going negative angle depending on their desk configuration…

Oh I’m not opposed to a low front or considerations for ergonomics, but rather the comments of “it has a 20mm front height…hard pass” that I’m seeing increasingly in discord, reddit, and shudder, stream chats. It’s more of the reductive dismissal of things based on a hotword/topic from people who have little experience on the matter. It’s a symptom of a larger problem that originates in the rapid growth of this hobby, but not one that I we really need to get into (cuz it will just make me sound old and crotchety, lol).

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Oh wow, that seems a bit ridiculous yeah

Imo that wrist wrest isn’t even high enough for that, I’ve had it on my desk for years (literally five now) and when I actually type I don’t wrest on it. I find it nice for when I have one hand on the mouse and one sitting like at the ready to hit like cad hotkeys or escape etc

man, my modern M0110 with SA caps on it is like 5 inches off the desk. But it still works for me. I have an adjustable height desk, however :slight_smile:

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I actually have a hard time typing on that one because the angle is so steep

GMK Alchemy just failed to make MOQ.

Hopefully this is a sign that we have reached a peak for concurrently running GMK sets.

New trend == keycap sanity.

Doubt it, but one can dream.

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I think it would hit MOQ if the leed time was 6months.

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That’s a phrase it seems like I haven’t heard in a long time

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I wonder if it failed due to lack of market exposure. That’s my thinking. Aside from the IC, I don’t ever remember it actually launching. I couldn’t even tell you who the primary vendor was

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