The quest for the biggest scoop - Keycaps profile

Some MT3 sets are also available at the US site of Amazon.com Europeans can order there and EU VAT will be pre-charged by Amazon. Doing so will avoid any additional import tax and administration costs by the authorities, respectively the transporter.

If you buy something outside the EU, it is always wise to check whether the seller offers one-stop-shop EU VAT pre-charging to avoid hefty administration costs.

Unfortunately, many small shop sellers outside the EU are still unaware of this service which is often handled by the better logistics companies. To the EU buyers it makes a huge price difference and it 100% influences my personal buying decisions.

PS: This is also the reason why I recommended you Aliexpress AFSA right off the bat, as I saw you were living in Greece. Aliexpress also pre-charges EU VAT.

Neither would I focus too much on PBT. I did the same when starting out in this hobby, but it limits your options, especially for sculptured sets. Moreover, AFSA is made out of a PBT-ABS mix and feels nice. Domikey and Maxkey ABS SA sets are also available through Aliexpress. However, SA cups are less deep.

3 Likes

I’m living in Sweden so I know about the hazel of getting stuff from outside, but if you really want something…

But I was talking about aftermarket/second hand, it’s a viable option in this hobby, especially if you want to keep your costs down or want something special that was never a in-stock item.

1 Like

The homing kit is deep dish homing for the keys on the homing row, every MT3 has deep dish homing for F and J so that you know. CandyKeys sells MT3 in eu but they are quite expensive
https://candykeys.com/search/mt3

1 Like

Thanks once again for the tips.

@skepp The shape and depth of scoop of Serika Mt3 can be found in other Mt3 sets? I mean apart for the homing kit do they differ in any other way?

Where should I look for second hand/aftermarket sets?

Ye, the Homing kit makes A,S,D,K,L,: have the same deep dish as F&J have on all MT3.

And the best place for aftermarket is discord, I will give you some invites, but many countries have there own community discords.

If you want I can ask the one I sold my kits to if there are for sale/where they went.

1 Like

@skepp Thank you so much, mate! I am indebted by your kindness. If you could ask the one who sold you the kit, I would be grateful.

As far as Discord works, I am afraid I 've been turning into an old man -kind of I am- and I have not yet grasped how this whole thing runs. I do not even have a Discord account.

I know that feeling, but I would say like 80% of this hobby takes place on discord. :upside_down_face:

But I will check on the Serika.

2 Likes

You’re a real trooper! Thanks, man!

Good to know. Only, Discord is such a messy app…

Well, I thought so to, but it’s become better/it’s grown on me since I started using it in 2020.

But almost every vendor and designer have there own server there so it’s a great place to contact them/get info on projects and GBs and so on.

1 Like

Here’s a recent article on the MT3 profile:

It does talk a little about the scoop.

Personally, I think the article neglects the existence of more affordable profiles like AF SA / MG and CX SA. And also things like HSA.

Yes, MT3 is an alternative to harvesting Topre keycaps, but you can just buy AF SA. Which resembles Topre Hi-Pro and is like 1/3rd the cost of MT3.

The article also doesn’t state an advantage of MT3, which that you can purchase it in PBT and get pretty great sound, often. [At least on a board that isn’t foamed too heavily.] You can’t get AF SA / MG in PBT, probably not HSA, and it’s rare and expensive in SA-profile.

MT3 is a large, spherical scoop which will either work for you, or it won’t.

3 Likes

Yes, it’s written as if Drop is the only place to buy keycaps, so stuff they don’t sell doesn’t exist. I’m using AFSA/QXSA daily, while my MT3 sets sit in a box somewhere.

And I have PBT MT3 and PBT SA (which aren’t too expensive from PMK). I’m not personally a fan of the MT3 PBT caps - I think they look cheap.

2 Likes

Same here: I use SA & AFSA daily, and have MT3 stored away for reselling. I also have an Melgeek MDA PBT keyboard, but will soon change that to SA.

There’s an MG PBT?

1 Like

I am afraid I have already pulled the trigger and ordered the MT3 Serika from Drop. I saw the latest suggestions too late. I hope I won’t regret it.

2 Likes

This is a bit off-topic since it’s an entirely different kind of “scoop”, but I just discovered the “3D” keycaps by zk_phi, and guys I’m in love…

Anyone tried these?

1 Like

My fault; I meant saying Melgeek MDA PBT. I corrected it.

I realize I’m late to the party here, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of MTNU. It’s from Matt3o, the same guy who developed MT3, and it’s basically a Cherry-height version of MT3:

I grabbed an Extras pre-order of the WoB and have been absolutely loving it. It improves on basically everything I didn’t like about MT3 (my previous daily driver):

  • Shorter height is more comfortable for me to type on
  • Edges of the striking faces aren’t as sharp
  • Striking faces are a little larger
  • PBT instead of ABS

The only one currently available for Extras pre-order is MTNU 800, but there will definitely be more coming in the next year or two. I’m absolutely in love with my WoB set, and will definitely be picking up a more colorful set once one that fits my tastes comes along.

Here’s a blog post showing Susu, Beige, and WoB:

4 Likes

Ha, I missed that.

To say I’m a fan of MT3 (and MTNU) would be putting it lightly, but that article is a great DORPism :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s the thing though - Dorp just sells and markets the caps. I think they’re fantastic in both materials, if a bit overpriced when not on sale.

2 Likes

I’m still kind of hurt that I didn’t buy MT3 Skiidata at $39.

I think they used a lot of the extras they had leftover to build that novelty Skiidata keyboard they sold.

I guess I’ll have to wait for a big discount on DCX Skiidata.

1 Like