Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
Showing 1 of 53 conversations about:
YanboWu
8473
Collaborations
Mar 9, 2017
bookmark_border
Hey everyone, we totally hear everyone on this set - it is definitely a bit pricier than what we've come to expect.
After some discussion with @Oblotzky and the team here, we've decide to close down this round for now - until we figure out a better way to bring Metro to the community - either at a better price, in a different profile, or some combination of the above.
I want to thank the community and @Oblotzky - making these community designed sets bigger and better is what this is all about.
Mar 9, 2017
seemikehack
34
Mar 9, 2017
bookmark_border
YanboWuMy only gripe was the price, especially given that around half the set was blank; printing couldn't have cost as much as it seemed. The design was unique and interesting, I loved the purpose built sets (104, ortho, ErgoDox), PBT was a good choice, and while I would have preferred a full SA profile, I understand that extending the new printing process to every row may have been a bridge too far and would have been happy with SA R3, especially over DSA or G20. I'm really, really looking forward to what you come up with as time goes on.
Mar 9, 2017
Kallium
144
Mar 9, 2017
bookmark_border
YanboWuI thought the design was interesting but you're right to worry about the price. Signature Plastics needs to spread its development cost a little further than the first few sets. Chinese produced XDA caps in PBT would be fine, especially for ErgoDox or Ortholinear.
Mar 9, 2017
Kiiddo
96
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
YanboWuI really liked this design as well, but I also thought the cost was quite a bit too high. I don't understand what made the costs so high on this drop? I'm no expert on keycaps but as a consumer who was interested in this drop, it seemed way pricier than what it was worth, at least compared to other keycap drops. Especially considering half of the caps were blank as well. I'm glad Massdrop did the responsible thing and is going to look at re-tackling the cost issue on this drop.
Mar 10, 2017
mzipf
141
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
YanboWuCan we try G20 instead?
Mar 10, 2017
Geckt
709
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
seemikehackYes, I loved SA sets regardless of them being uniformed or fully sculpted sets.
But, I too felt it is demanding too much of an asking price as a premium too.
Mar 10, 2017
seemikehack
34
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
mzipfI wouldn't buy this or any set in G20, I personally think that profile is heinously ugly :)
Mar 10, 2017
NarcolepsyNick
96
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
YanboWuI can see why some people might not be to happy with the price, but I think said people might want to do a little more research on what this set has to offer and why some of the options were the way they were. The price is pretty standard being the same or lower than both "Ice Cap" and "Industrial." This being a R3 SA set I believe mostly has to do with that being the only option/way to actually make PBT SA, as both "Ice Cap" and "Industrial" are like this. Plus this set is using a new color dye-sub printing for Signature Plastics, I would be surprised if the price was lower than other SA sets. I think a big problem was that people saw blank key caps and assumed the price would be low as a result and seemed to ignore the other aspects of this set.
Mar 10, 2017
seemikehack
34
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
NarcolepsyNick(Full disclosure: I was one of the detractors based on price. I'm putting this little exploration out there for posterity.)
The Ice Cap ortho kit sells for at $65 straight from SP, i.e., not on a group buy, where quantities are guaranteed and discounts are a possibility. That works out to roughly $1 per key. Let's make a bunch of sweeping assumptions. If printing is such a big deal, we'll pretend that blanks are half price (though looking at prices for 10-piece SA blank sets on PMK, printing should cost next to nothing, but I'm sure there are other considerations there, mark-up not being the least of them). Based on these generalizations, this means that for the ortho kit in this drop, $15 goes to blanks and $65 goes to printed caps, working out to roughly $2 per printed cap. This is assuming all profit from the drop is going to SP and none to the designer; we could assume a price somewhat lower than $2 per cap if we factor for the designer's cut.
I'm not saying I wouldn't like to see a lower price, and it is certainly not cheaper than Ice Cap (it's as expensive as Industrial), but the more I think about this, the more I think I might be understanding about the price point.
Mar 10, 2017
Vigrith
4081
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
YanboWuDSA or XDA, @YanboWu - this screams short, uniform profile to me personally but I know Oblotzky is an SA fan!
Mar 10, 2017
mzipf
141
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
seemikehackIt's not beautiful but it's practical, uniform, and low profile.
Mar 10, 2017
Kallium
144
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
seemikehack"I'm not saying I wouldn't like to see a lower price, and it is certainly not cheaper than Ice Cap (it's as expensive as Industrial), but the more I think about this, the more I think I might be understanding about the price point."
Ultimately, the market bears what it will. In this case, and even with the promotion provided by Massdrop, the keyset apparently could not draw enough of the market. I'm very interested in this keyset and pattern but the price was about 15%-20% higher than I'm willing to go. Bring this in around $50-$65 for PBT Ortholinear in R3 SA, XDA, DSA, or any single row version of another profile and I'll buy.
Mar 10, 2017
Ephruz
15
Mar 10, 2017
bookmark_border
YanboWuI think it would be fine if more keycaps had this design on it. More tubes, more different colors between each tube, maybe a greyscale option, and it'd be amazing.
Mar 10, 2017
Rev.d
30
Mar 12, 2017
bookmark_border
YanboWu@Oblotzky: When you've brought this back, would it be possible to put a bit of attention into making the design more interesting for the 60% boards?
I didn't reach a decision on what I was going to go for before the drop got shut down, but I was torn between getting a (far less pretty) 60% layout for a keyboard that I know I'd be buying for this, and getting the (way cooler) ErgoDox set to use part-time on my current board.
Mar 12, 2017
View Full Discussion
Related Products