geekhack
geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: reinerfox on Thu, 02 February 2012, 03:58:28
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The more I look at mechanical keyboards online the more I realized the prices for buying individual parts are often higher than a new keyboard.
eg. $40+ dollars for a full 104 set of keycaps
cherry switches runnning from $0.60(mouser) to $6.00(ebay) per a switch
and you could break those down and sell the spring, stem, cap, and base separately for more than they are worth all together
or instances of people buying just the keyboard shells for their own custom mods or cannibalizing more expensive keyboards
so some quick math for crazy ebayers.... buy a keyboard on sale with cherry switches for about $50-70 dollars, sell the keycaps for $40+, then sell the switches for any where of $60 - apparently $600+ (crazy ebay) (and how you sell them either broken down or whole) and maybe the keyboard shell for a random price which all equates to: low end -$70 initial cost + $40 + 60 = $30+ profit. OR -70 + 60 + 600 + extra = $590+ dollars from $70?
what????????
much weirdness, but I guess everyone needs parts
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With an understanding of how goods are manufactured and how small economies work, none of this seems particularly weird at all.
Manufacturers market to wholesalers, not consumers. You're going to pay more per switch to get 104 switches than some keyboard manufacturer ordering 1,040,000. Substantially so, even...and their discount is passed on to their customers. This leaves tons of opportunity for people to part things out.
We haven't even touched on labour cost at all yet.
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^ Exactly.
I guess the people buying small amounts of switches, even in groups of 104, have no choice but to buy them at whatever price they can get. Particularly seeing as how I'd wager its rarely something they're doing because it's necessary (i.e. replacing a couple of broken switches on a dropped keyboard). Its probably more likely that they're modding something (i.e. Ergo Clears, etc. etc.). Because the quality of mechanical keyboards on the whole are so good that they don't break (except for extreme circumstances), I guess there's not much of a need for a spare parts market. Thats half of the reason we all love them so much, and don't mind spending $100++ on something most people spend nothing on, is because they're (generally) an extremely high-quality product.
Think about it this way, if I'd bought a DAS Keyboard for my first keyboard instead of a Filco (which I almost did), I'd have ended up hating the shiny coating and tried to sell it prettymuch immediately. I know a lot of people are pretty skeptical about buying used electronics (myself included) and things like this often tend to depreciate heaps as soon as they come out of their box. If I'm only going to get $60 for the keyboard, why not sell the switches individually for 80c each or so and make ~$80 instead (plus what you can get for the keycaps)?
Personally I'm a hoarder, so I probably would have re-purposed, re-gifted or painted the DAS, rather than trying to sell it, but the above was more for an example. You get the idea, though.
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I once heard that you could not build a $25K car for $250,000 if you bought the parts and paid the mechanic to put them together.
Having bought and sold a bunch of stuff on ebay, I would say that if you are not making at least $5-10 per transaction, you are wasting your time.
Used keyboards are not always a bad deal, although there are plenty of lemons out there. Since the good ones should last for many years, buying one a few months or years old should not always be that much of a gamble. Be prepared that every third one will suck.
This from someone who just sold a 1996 Camry with 200K miles and bought a 2001 Camry with 150K miles ......
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curious.
on a 5$ cherry ebay switch
whats the cost of ebay fees
then whats the cost of paypal fees?
and yes i know i can google, but if someone knows off hand... (also any other fees i'm missing? i guess taxes too)
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Somewhere around $0.85
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• no one buys default keycaps
• the springs / switches that sell for $6 a peice aren't found in common keyboards
• the springs / switches that don't sell for $6 a peice aren't worth de soldering and selling, people like new parts, and you can't compete with the new part price.
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I can see you've never jacked cars for the parts.
+1 That's exactly what came to mind when reading OP's youthful curiosity.
If you know how to take cars apart, I believe you can get more money from selling parts than selling the whole car in one piece. There is nothing inconsistent about what you were talking about, OP. It is actually just how things are in general.
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I notice price inconsistencies every time I visit EliteKeyboards.