All that kept the base kit to under 110 had high MOQ, striker Jamon minimal 9009. Cafe and phosphorus put novelties in the base, ok fine. Firefly has the base price at 120$. Eclipse never made the higher price drops.
Novelkeys prices off of 500 MOQ. Isn’t just them though, I bought sandstorm for Switchmod day 1 for 122$, and voyage (custom colors) from someone (cannonkeys?) for 123. So everyone can price the sets under 125 with the numpad.
Ultimately, some designers would rather save 2/3 of the buyers 5-8$ and charge +25 to the numpad users on a regular base (minimal was ~140 to me) which is their decision. It’s then on me to: 1) not buy those sets 2) buy numpads on mechmarket if they interest me (I often use 2 just because of work so I’ll grab an extra) 3) find an ISO friend who wants just those caps so I can keep my numbers
Yeah, I got nailed on 9009 as well. I mean, base $99 sounds good. And it's a nice base set for $99. Pink insert key, 2 coloured Enter keys to choose from. But the numpad costs $35. I would rather have had a $110 base price - it's not that much different than $99, and you get more keys for the buck.
9009 at base $99 is good on paper, but you want a numpad and one extra addition and you're at $166+
In contrast, Honeywell gives you good compatibility, a numpad, and an accent keys kit for $135. You could get special accent colour additions in the recent buy for about $20 more.
Anyway, I shoveled out a lot of money for 9009, so I hope they are good. Try some of that R5 goodness.