I have a Varmilo that comes with factory dye sub pbt that I paid extra for, and they look amazing (my favorite keycaps to date, still)
Do you mind sharing some photos of that keyboard? Did the custom dye-sub come from Varmilo? How much did it cost you?
Thanks for the post. I came into this scene when that Mito's set already got the reputation of being vaporware, and I thought people have bene very happy with his XDA sets, so I had no idea.
I don't have a good enough camera, but
it's this one. I paid about $150'ish shipped with dye sub pbt included (it's adds to the price). And yes, the dye sub is done by Varmilo and you can see it in above link. I also went with Gateron Red, which is cheaper, but the switches are much smoother. They also do custom layouts if you want to design your own set, you just send them an e-mail and ask them for the template, but it's pricey at $80.
Varmilo is my favorite keyboard out of the three I have in my signature by a pretty big margin. And Varmilo have the best stabilizers I've ever used, and it's not even close when it comes to cherry stabilizers, or costar. They make a great product.
You can also find the sets
sold solo here. You might be able to get them cheaper direct from Varmilo e-mail. I think it's like $40 direct, but shipping adds to it.They have a ton of color options and you can mix/match modifier colors.
Example of how clean their dye-sub looks (i wouldn't be surprised if they can do very light-weight fonts):
here is a great example of a properly done light weight font (kb is a feenix autore, believe the font is helvetica), but unsure of print method:
Having some samples before the GB will be a great way to prevent any possible problem with the actual run. It may give people some realistic expectations on what they could actually expect from the final set. In the other hand, renders may mislead people to expect something that it is not actually feasible, an unrealistic expectation that may cause a lot of frustration down the road. An aftermath no GB leader wants.
I agree with this. If you're going to be giving thousands of dollars for a product, the least they can do is print a few sample keys. Or at the very last, source the funds to get a sample print done. You don't need an entire set, just a letter to see how the quality is. Would be kind of dumb to give them the money, then get samples. What happens if you give them money for production, then they give samples that don't meet expectation set by your design? Or maybe they find out their equipment has trouble with thin characters, but they've only discovered it now, as it's their first time trying so thin, etc? You'll be stuck going through with compromises.
Also, have you thought about using a third party to handle the funds, like Massdrop? Will obviously cut into profits, but lots of scams with groupbuys were people go missing with active groupbuys. I wouldn't mind a slight increase in price for the insurance of a refund if things don't work out, or things fall through.
