so,
wait.

Why put consumers through the group buy process at all if there was plans to buy out ALL kits from the very start? Especially for numbers lacking such as this, there is clearly capitol available to not have to use an outdated buying system.

GMK skeletor r2 did this, and the cheapest it got was extras pricing at 180. I’m glad to buy in for less.

Quote from: Kokaloo on Wed, 16 December 2020, 16:48:34

so,
wait.

Why put consumers through the group buy process at all if there was plans to buy out ALL kits from the very start? Especially for numbers lacking such as this, there is clearly capitol available to not have to use an outdated buying system.

So you prefer not being able to secure a set at a lower price? Todays purpose of keyset group buys is to

#1 Give you better pricing.
#2 Guarantees you to receive a unit, instead of hoping the vendors bought enough sets to satisfy demand for more than 2 minutes of them opening a FCFS stock sale.
#3 Be able to offer more kits, without a group buy, we vendors have no idea how much each kit is in demand, so it's impossible to prepare for #2, we'd just drop child kits and go for base kits as much as possible.

Group Buys are still in the interest of the community IMO.

1 is completely up to the vendor. I can't imagine prices become magically cheaper solely because epeople have to wait longer. Oco made the price for skeletor as NK made the price for this.
2 wouldn't be an issue if GMK was capable of meeting demand and vendors were willing to take just a little more risk to stock product, which could change in the future from all these rumors I'm hearing of GMK more than doubling their supply chain with the incoming machines.
3 makes sense, completely. Still, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth seeing kits get canceled a week into the buy.

For clarification, what I'm worried about is that no matter the capitol vendors have, no matter how large actual supply and demand is, I fear vendors get comfortable with this process and won't be willing to budge to change. Every month has been non stop growth and eventually consumers deserve a better, less risky practice to get them product.

1 is completely up to the vendor. I can't imagine prices become magically cheaper solely because epeople have to wait longer. Oco made the price for skeletor as NK made the price for this.
2 wouldn't be an issue if GMK was capable of meeting demand and vendors were willing to take just a little more risk to stock product, which could change in the future from all these rumors I'm hearing of GMK more than doubling their supply chain with the incoming machines.
3 makes sense, completely. Still, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth seeing kits get canceled a week into the buy.

For clarification, what I'm worried about is that no matter the capitol vendors have, no matter how large actual supply and demand is, I fear vendors get comfortable with this process and won't be willing to budge to change. Every month has been non stop growth and eventually consumers deserve a better, less risky practice to get them product.

1 - Yes it is completely up to the vendor, but our GB pricing is nowhere near the price needed to be a sustainable business.
2 - This is a huge problem with investing capital. When GMK gets better lead times, we can realistically invest capital to have a return within an appropriate amount of time. However we are still taking more risk to order large quantities of extras to hopefully become stock. To say were not willing to take a risk is not true at all.
3 - No real comment, but I dont really like cancelling any kits at all, and have bought out many kits to make them hit MOQ.

Our goal this year in 2020 was try to skip some of the GB process and just have in stock items. Unfortunately GMK lead times made that impossible (with other items we made that possible - PBT keycaps, tons of switches, deskpads, and more). Having capital tied up for that long really impacts our growth. Trust me, I would rather not do GB's and order things in stock, but thats not completely feasible. GBs actually create their own liability for vendors. If GMK went belly up, we would be on the hook for making refunds with the possibility of not getting a refund from GMK. I also understand thats a risk for the customer as well.

I think GB's are here to stay for a while too, because as Oblotzky said it is helpful for the community and the vendor. Offering better pricing for the community, while letting vendors hopefully get a little bit more capital to throw towards that order.

I'm relatively new to the hobby (less than 2 months in), and have a joined a lot of group buys lol.  I chalk it up to.. "this is the way..." as I can not justify paying the aftermarket prices.

just remembered i bought this but i never look at the novelkeys emails

we still in GMK lead time hell?

I didn't get any specific info on GMK Yuri yet, but all GMK sets are in general delayed (GMK Boneyard has been delayed to July for example). GMK Yuri was expected to ship somewhere in August - if we consider the 34 weeks on the first page. I expect GMK Yuri to ship around October.

If i get any info on that directly then i will definitely share it here as well.

I know I didn't need to worry colormatching process since it was a re-run color, but, where can I got latest info from maker?

Hello.

According to my info, GMK Yuri will (if everything goes well) be shipped late April to vendors. Afaik the delays are caused by disturbed supply chains (specifically resin).

Hey, is that gray modifier colour the same as Honeywell?

Yuri has no gray colors. Only dark blue, light blue and neon (red) orange.

Quote from: HungerMechanic on Sat, 04 June 2022, 12:12:14

Hey, is that gray modifier colour the same as Honeywell?

Yuri has no gray colors. Only dark blue, light blue and neon (red) orange.

Hah, it's been so long since I've seen it.

First time I ever saw Yuri, it was on a worn-in black Keycool84 with Gateron / Cherry Browns that probably cost less than GMK Yuri. Was a fairly smooth and really light keyboard, really validated the concept of Browns, actually.

Is SA yuri R2 in the works?

SA Yuri R2 is not in the works but i'll do definitely another round in the distant future.

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genuinely i think this is one of the best sets i own, this looks so good in person

one small problem though

More

i wasn't planning on using this key anyway but i would describe this as not ideal. i have other GMK sets with similar issues and they don't bother me at all, but this one is just particularly poorly placed. personally not enough for me to file a ticket about it.

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I think GMK is getting a little overwhelmed with all the orders lately & we're seeing that on the QC end. My set of GMK Bleached & GMK Dolch R5 both had keys with plastic bleed through on them. Both got replaced with just a support ticket so no big deal, but it is a little rough waiting so long for a set just for it to show up with a bum cap.

Quote from: Rob27shred on Fri, 10 June 2022, 13:53:57

Quote from: Puddsy on Fri, 10 June 2022, 13:22:38

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genuinely i think this is one of the best sets i own, this looks so good in person

one small problem though

More

i wasn't planning on using this key anyway but i would describe this as not ideal. i have other GMK sets with similar issues and they don't bother me at all, but this one is just particularly poorly placed. personally not enough for me to file a ticket about it.

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I think GMK is getting a little overwhelmed with all the orders lately & we're seeing that on the QC end. My set of GMK Bleached & GMK Dolch R5 both had keys with plastic bleed through on them. Both got replaced with just a support ticket so no big deal, but it is a little rough waiting so long for a set just for it to show up with a bum cap.

In fairness, I've had a few other recent GMK sets come through with no problems, so this is definitely a one-off issue. Some of my older GMK sets have issues like this (one of my caps on soware has a burnt stem, another has a defect  on the front side), so it's nothing new. I think the percentage of issue caps is the same, there are just more total caps going out, but that's total speculation.

I'll likely still pick up a second set of skydata with the cyrillic add on at extras time. I really like how this came out.

Yeah that makes sense the higher volume would cause more defects getting through while the QC is still keeping to it's standards. Also like you said it's nothing new & I've always been able to get any fubared caps replaced without issue so I'm not really complaining about it. I'm hoping to pick up a Skydata extra set myself, wish I would've joined the GB. Definitely came out great now people who got it are putting up pics!

Quote from: Rob27shred on Fri, 10 June 2022, 13:53:57

Quote from: Puddsy on Fri, 10 June 2022, 13:22:38

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genuinely i think this is one of the best sets i own, this looks so good in person

one small problem though

More

i wasn't planning on using this key anyway but i would describe this as not ideal. i have other GMK sets with similar issues and they don't bother me at all, but this one is just particularly poorly placed. personally not enough for me to file a ticket about it.

Show Image

I think GMK is getting a little overwhelmed with all the orders lately & we're seeing that on the QC end. My set of GMK Bleached & GMK Dolch R5 both had keys with plastic bleed through on them. Both got replaced with just a support ticket so no big deal, but it is a little rough waiting so long for a set just for it to show up with a bum cap.

Can that just be sanded off?

Not sure about Puddsy's cap, but with the ones I shown no it couldn't just be sanded as the legend color bled through on them. So the more I'd sand the more noticeable those spots would be.

Quote from: Puddsy on Fri, 10 June 2022, 13:22:38

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genuinely i think this is one of the best sets i own, this looks so good in person

one small problem though

More

i wasn't planning on using this key anyway but i would describe this as not ideal. i have other GMK sets with similar issues and they don't bother me at all, but this one is just particularly poorly placed. personally not enough for me to file a ticket about it.

Show Image

I think GMK is getting a little overwhelmed with all the orders lately & we're seeing that on the QC end. My set of GMK Bleached & GMK Dolch R5 both had keys with plastic bleed through on them. Both got replaced with just a support ticket so no big deal, but it is a little rough waiting so long for a set just for it to show up with a bum cap.

FWIW, this is an extrusion defect aptly called black specks (or "carbons", depending on industry) caused by degradation of the polymer during processing. That's why the speck on puddsy's cap is also black, rather than appearing as a bleed through of the legend color.

They're usually caused by running the machine too hot, or from material sitting in corners of the tooling for an extended time and degrading (either from improper cleaning or running too long between teardown). Whether we're seeing them from GMK trying to push the machines to meet production, new machines/crews starting up, or more simply from them just missing them during the QC process is unclear, but also doesn't really matter I guess.

And no, don't sand then off. Not only will you ruin the surface finish, but these are embedded particles and would require basically cutting a divot out of your caps to remove them. Definitely not worth it. Just contact them for a replacement.

Picked up an extra Skydata set and I have to say it looks amazing in person, especially under lighting. Didn't have any problems with black specks on my set.