OP updated with recent status,
UPDATE: We heard back from gateron. Shipping prices were more than double compared to what we expected. 2000RMB, which translated to about 295USD - luckily we left room in the price per switch in our calculations to cover for this, so it won't change the price (even if it did, 295usd across 20k is about 0.0147~USD) - so price would be similar. We still aim for 0.35 per switch for the EU, I need to hear back from US proxy to calculate the price for the US market.
Gateron confirms that they can do our switch, and our Pantones. They offered to have samples to us by 29th of January if we could pay up front, and have the rest delivered right after the chinese new year. We can't front the money, so there won't be any samples. Gateron however says that it will be as smooth as Gateron yellows, which is comforting.
Our aim is to start the GB phase ASAP, we just need to confirm a US Proxy. I have reached out to Mike on Discord, but we have not heard back yet. I will keep you updated.
GB period will likely be from as soon as we confirm proxy, until the end of chinese new year (no reason to end it prior to this, since we won't get any progress during CNY anyway) - so it will be a couple of weeks for you to get your orders in - there will only be 1 run of this.
From the date of payment, Gateron says it takes about 15 days to manufacture the switches and have them sent out to us.
-- Price is calculated for the 20k MOQ, as we first strictly wanted to keep to 20k switches to make it more exclusive. Since we lifted the 20K limit, it means that any switch sold at higher than 20k will be a microscopical profit (we are talking few cents here), which depending on how many switches are sold, turns in to a few dollars. This means that there will be profit, but we can't predict against it. So, instead of the community going profit, we decided to leave this, however small, profit to the retailers mykeyboard.eu and US proxy for their support in this project. Our goal is still to stay strictly non-profit, and as a community, we feel this solution is still true to the non-profit spirit --