how do y'all foreigners get dem Korean customs?

[evilpacket]

The latest ligtsaver v3 GB starts on the 20th...(http://kbd4u.co.kr/) so this reminded me,
how do some of you get them Korean customs abroad? Especially the people with OTD boards, because from what I hear the unspoken rule over at OTD is that members should not aim to earn profit with their custom boards and that includes selling them to outsiders (foreigners that are living abroad) for profit. OTD boards are notorious for almost only circulating inside the community.

[hwood34]

just gotta either find one of few plugs in the community, or any of the ****load of non-koreans that have picked up kustoms. especially with the shape that the OTD community is in these days, I doubt anyone cares much anymore. Either way, as long as you have the money it's non particularly hard to get your hands on a kustom

[_BMW_M3_]

Become friends with Korean/Asian community members. It's the best way.

[Puddsy]

have a proxy or know a guy

[cicada]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

[tp4tissue]

Stupidity that's how.

If any of these board snobs has ever visited a machine shop, they'd know just how trivial it is to produce one of these..

Then go look at the price of aluminum.. cha ching..

hahahaha..

[jal]

1) Fly to Korea
2) Approach suspicious looking fellow with a lumpy trench coat in dark alley
3) Review keyboards tacked to trench coat; select board
4) Pay
5) Return home.

Well, how do *you* do it?

[HPE1000]

Stupidity that's how.

If any of these board snobs has ever visited a machine shop, they'd know just how trivial it is to produce one of these..

Then go look at the price of aluminum.. cha ching..

hahahaha..

You do know people aren't paying those prices just because it's an aluminum board right? You could make the exact same board with the exact same quality, remove the branding and it would sell for 300-500, probably less even, not 1.5k+. Also the price of aluminum isn't what makes custom boards expensive it is the milling and labor involved. Plus a lot of shops aren't even interested in doing orders unless the order size is large enough. And if you've seen people around here trying to find shops to do work you will also see that just because a shop can take the job, it doesn't mean their quality is up to par with what people are expecting.

I seem to remember most shops will only do the one off runs for prototypes or just one off keyboards if you are willing to pay like 700-1000+.

[happylacquer]

Nobody has mentioned gmarket yet?!

[tp4tissue]

Stupidity that's how.

If any of these board snobs has ever visited a machine shop, they'd know just how trivial it is to produce one of these..

Then go look at the price of aluminum.. cha ching..

hahahaha..

You do know people aren't paying those prices just because it's an aluminum board right? You could make the exact same board with the exact same quality, remove the branding and it would sell for 300-500, probably less even, not 1.5k+. Also the price of aluminum isn't what makes custom boards expensive it is the milling and labor involved. Plus a lot of shops aren't even interested in doing orders unless the order size is large enough. And if you've seen people around here trying to find shops to do work you will also see that just because a shop can take the job, it doesn't mean their quality is up to par with what people are expecting.

I seem to remember most shops will only do the one off runs for prototypes or just one off keyboards if you are willing to pay like 700-1000+.

I worked in an industrial machine shop.. You're being taken for a ride even @ $150..

[Puddsy]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

[jal]

I seem to remember most shops will only do the one off runs for prototypes or just one off keyboards if you are willing to pay like 700-1000+.

I worked in an industrial machine shop.. You're being taken for a ride even @ $150..

I think you both have a  point. "Everybody's a hero in aluminum" - it is easy to mill and way cheap. OTOH, setup costs are real, as are marginal costs.

If you're making 1000 cases, absolutely, that should be one hell of a case for $150 each in shop costs. And $700 setup costs for a one-off would crazy. Reality is somewhere in the middle.

My main complaint is that so many folks here don't know what good milling looks like. The surfaces on so many boards look like there wasn't even a finishing pass at all. Inside pockets where a tool change would have made the difference between nice and 'looks like a rough prototype'. Etc.

/me, still trying to get my new mill working well...

[evilpacket]

Nobody has mentioned gmarket yet?!

gmarket sells a lot of ****, but not custom boards 

[evilpacket]

1) Fly to Korea
2) Approach suspicious looking fellow with a lumpy trench coat in dark alley
3) Review keyboards tacked to trench coat; select board
4) Pay
5) Return home.

Well, how do *you* do it?

well *I* just go to the comment section on the GB page of kbdlab and tell 'em I'm in
or with the lightsaver v3 I'd wait until 6:30 pm monday for it to start on kbd4u

[happylacquer]

Nobody has mentioned gmarket yet?!

gmarket sells a lot of ****, but not custom boards 

I thought you could purchase thru korean eBay with them. well, if the sellers aren't there, and gmarket won't act as a shipping proxy, i guess it's not very useful then. i could have sworn they were proxy service too though, so you could get a board ordered and sent domestically

[evilpacket]

Nobody has mentioned gmarket yet?!

gmarket sells a lot of ****, but not custom boards 

I thought you could purchase thru korean eBay with them. well, if the sellers aren't there, and gmarket won't act as a shipping proxy, i guess it's not very useful then. i could have sworn they were proxy service too though, so you could get a board ordered and sent domestically

oh maybe you're right on that... i've never used gmarket like that because its more like amazon to a lot of Koreans
there are other shipping sites that ship domestic items to foreign countries for you though.

[pr0ximity]

Stupidity that's how.

If any of these board snobs has ever visited a machine shop, they'd know just how trivial it is to produce one of these..

Then go look at the price of aluminum.. cha ching..

hahahaha..

Design and production isn't free.

[cicada]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

yeah for the popular boards like 360c and 456gt, the price should be within the 1k range but for those boards that I mentioned above (and 356L), expect it to be a LOT more

[happylacquer]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

yeah for the popular boards like 360c and 456gt, the price should be within the 1k range but for those boards that I mentioned above (and 356L), expect it to be a LOT more

Jesus christ how much is a 356l?

[meiosis]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

yeah for the popular boards like 360c and 456gt, the price should be within the 1k range but for those boards that I mentioned above (and 356L), expect it to be a LOT more

Jesus christ how much is a 356l?

Considered to be one of the hardest to acquire keyboards so $4000+ but it is only for collection purposes, not notably "better" than anything else.

[happylacquer]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

yeah for the popular boards like 360c and 456gt, the price should be within the 1k range but for those boards that I mentioned above (and 356L), expect it to be a LOT more

Jesus christ how much is a 356l?

Considered to be one of the hardest to acquire keyboards so $4000+ but it is only for collection purposes, not notably "better" than anything else.

 
I thought the 356 game was like half a g.... not 4 of em

[meiosis]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

yeah for the popular boards like 360c and 456gt, the price should be within the 1k range but for those boards that I mentioned above (and 356L), expect it to be a LOT more

Jesus christ how much is a 356l?

Considered to be one of the hardest to acquire keyboards so $4000+ but it is only for collection purposes, not notably "better" than anything else.

 
I thought the 356 game was like half a g.... not 4 of em

It's a collectors game, demand creates the market, and owning one of the original custom keyboards is why OTD is much more valuable than anything coming in right now.

[happylacquer]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

yeah for the popular boards like 360c and 456gt, the price should be within the 1k range but for those boards that I mentioned above (and 356L), expect it to be a LOT more

Jesus christ how much is a 356l?

Considered to be one of the hardest to acquire keyboards so $4000+ but it is only for collection purposes, not notably "better" than anything else.

 
I thought the 356 game was like half a g.... not 4 of em

It's a collectors game, demand creates the market, and owning one of the original custom keyboards is why OTD is much more valuable than anything coming in right now.

Oh absolutely, but with their popularity i was thinking they were more common, not such a top of the line collectable!

[nmur]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

yeah for the popular boards like 360c and 456gt, the price should be within the 1k range but for those boards that I mentioned above (and 356L), expect it to be a LOT more

Jesus christ how much is a 356l?

Considered to be one of the hardest to acquire keyboards so $4000+ but it is only for collection purposes, not notably "better" than anything else.

 
I thought the 356 game was like half a g.... not 4 of em

It's a collectors game, demand creates the market, and owning one of the original custom keyboards is why OTD is much more valuable than anything coming in right now.

Oh absolutely, but with their popularity i was thinking they were more common, not such a top of the line collectable!

pretty good indication on the limited numbers of these boards here

https://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/the-korean-custom-keyboards-1-356-series-t255.html

[meiosis]

As far as I know people have been proxying OTD boards for a long time, I know that there are more than 20 356.2 in China, a quite handful of 356CL and maybe one 356CLS. Also Korean members have been trying to sell OTDs to foregners for CRAZY price (I'm talking about thousands of dollars or even TENS of thousands). Some of them just want to sell for the highest amount of money that they could possibly sell.

Chinese buyers have been willing to pay tons for 356CLs because they're legendary.

Korean members will sell to US members they don't know for an upmark yes, but usually nothing crazy like that.

yeah for the popular boards like 360c and 456gt, the price should be within the 1k range but for those boards that I mentioned above (and 356L), expect it to be a LOT more

Jesus christ how much is a 356l?

Considered to be one of the hardest to acquire keyboards so $4000+ but it is only for collection purposes, not notably "better" than anything else.

 
I thought the 356 game was like half a g.... not 4 of em

It's a collectors game, demand creates the market, and owning one of the original custom keyboards is why OTD is much more valuable than anything coming in right now.

Oh absolutely, but with their popularity i was thinking they were more common, not such a top of the line collectable!

It's a safe investment (very liquid hobby in general).

Have quite a few of them myself and could get rid of them within minutes.

[tp4tissue]

It's a safe investment (very liquid hobby in general).

Have quite a few of them myself and could get rid of them within minutes.

liquid @ a loss..

[evilpacket]

Stupidity that's how.

If any of these board snobs has ever visited a machine shop, they'd know just how trivial it is to produce one of these..

Then go look at the price of aluminum.. cha ching..

hahahaha..

Design and production isn't free.

agreed. OTD is a non-profit community.

Devs actually had to invest a lot of their own money into making these boards, the 300-400 dollar price tag was actually not even enough (at the time of the GB). I gotta say its a little disrespectful to deny the efforts people put into those boards, because it has some previously unseen innovations hidden inside OTD boards.