[GB] GMK Iconographic - CHECKING INTEREST FOR RERUN

[dimo]

truth, sucks to see sets like monarch show mono hiragana in their title renders and then not offer it. This set will be a serious let down without mono alt latin alphas

[P103]

sublegends are sh!t
people chose sub over mono are cun.ts and can **** off

Buyers prefer Latin Alphas. In order to preserve the weeb theme, sublegends are the safest choice.

or here is a crazy idea; normies can have their ****ty latin (mono or with sublegends) in the base, and add an alt alphas kit which is mono anything but latin

also @Lil maybe this set would do better as pbt (ie not gmk), there would be more kitting options and maybe more people would be interested if it was cheaper. i ****ing hate gmk, shiny ass overpriced garbage which cucks non-normie layouts.
imo this set would do well with somthing which doesnt rely on a "base kit" ie you chose an alphas kit and a mods kit separately. this way you cant alienate one group of people by trying to be true to the aesthetic in the base kit because there is no base kit.

You can't colour match that well with Pbt, also manus like ePbt has been bad in terms of quality and pricing. Gmk produce some of the best colours for keysets and their pricing has been fairly consistent throughout the years. For "non-normie" layouts you are always going to pay more, just look at some of the 40% kits running now.

[andreiborisov]

IMO, this set is gorgeous as it is, it just needs more advertisement and better timing.

P.S. Shine is good, embrace the shine, dude.

[ee]

praying every day for iconographic, also putting my hand in for mono katakana alt alphas

[dimo]

i wake up every morning with the image of my gray board with mono legend iconographic

[therealemanuelmartinez]

i wake up every morning with the image of my gray board with mono legend iconographic

From Lil:

A note on pricing:
Following deciding kit pricing in November, the dollar has fallen from .85 to .81 to the euro, which effectively means a loss of 6 euros per basekit on the old pricing versus then.
For this reason we were forced to increase US pricing in order to maintain the price in euros, which is the currency that GMK invoices us in for production; to avoid making a loss per kit at the current moq of 250.

I wonder if there could be another solution to this problem. At the moment the conversion rate from USD to Euro is $0.83... I'm not an expert but the rate is only likely to climb above $1 USD to (>$0.85) Euro if global markets begin to anticipate a recovery from the pandemic. We could expect an update by then. Not to mention, the recent Suez Canal... incident. I didn't want to bump this thread since the GB is currently postponed but I wanted to share my two cents. Hopefully there are others who would like to see this set come back to market just as much as I do.

[dimo]

HELLO

[andreiborisov]

This set is Silent Hills of keycaps

[dimo]

updates to follow

[andreiborisov]

At this point I’m down even for MiTo Katakana sub-legends, although I’d prefer if biip’s would be used

[mcmcmc]

please bring this back, loving this set.

[washwashtree]

please bring this back, loving this set.

NGL this set probably should stay dead. The colors clash so ****ing hard. The renders don't look that great and this set wouldn't look that great IRL. Probably should just stay here on Geekhack. I'm sure a minority of users like the look, but like, even if everyone who liked it bought it I still don't think it would be enough to hit MOQ. It's also getting harder and harder for sets to make it.

[dimo]

please bring this back, loving this set.

NGL this set probably should stay dead. The colors clash so ****ing hard. The renders don't look that great and this set wouldn't look that great IRL. Probably should just stay here on Geekhack. I'm sure a minority of users like the look, but like, even if everyone who liked it bought it I still don't think it would be enough to hit MOQ. It's also getting harder and harder for sets to make it.

horribly subjective

[lys.nordique]

please bring this back, loving this set.

NGL this set probably should stay dead. The colors clash so ****ing hard. The renders don't look that great and this set wouldn't look that great IRL. Probably should just stay here on Geekhack. I'm sure a minority of users like the look, but like, even if everyone who liked it bought it I still don't think it would be enough to hit MOQ. It's also getting harder and harder for sets to make it.

k

[andreiborisov]

please bring this back, loving this set.

NGL this set probably should stay dead. The colors clash so ****ing hard. The renders don't look that great and this set wouldn't look that great IRL. Probably should just stay here on Geekhack. I'm sure a minority of users like the look, but like, even if everyone who liked it bought it I still don't think it would be enough to hit MOQ. It's also getting harder and harder for sets to make it.

Firstly, and I can't believe I need to say this, you should never discourage anyone from making stuff by saying things like "should stay dead". No one benefits from this, what it leads to is that designers will less likely to try out new exciting ideas in the future, since failures are actively punished. You only arrive to the brilliant stuff through a ton of experimentation and making mistakes.

Secondly, if you provide criticism, please, provide it constructively. All you're saying right now is a baseless opinion. What colors are clashing? What's wrong with the renders by pikku-alu? You have no data to tell if it would hit the MOQ or not. The last statement is plane false, hitting the MOQ is easier and easier day by day due to growth of the community, which is why we see more and more unique, experimental designs.

[mr_foggy]

please bring it back.

[krugerlive]

colorway and style is perfect, this should come back at some point in some form

[dimo]

wheeeeere. such a great set

[andreiborisov]

Not trying to annoy anyone, but I still hope this will return someday

[Yama]

consider a rerun pls

[Lil]

Hi everyone, I've made an IC form for a rerun. Maybe nothing will come of it, but, If you are interested, please fill it out:
https://forms.gle/21jZXtkydAsM3FMq9

[ggggggg]

Filled. It's been years but this set is still seared into my eyes (in the very best way).

[rayy]

as a newer hobbyist, the colors and theme are to-die-for (if it's your thing).
last I could remember though, a lot of people have moved on from vaporwave aesthetics, heck- even the short lived "frutiger-aero" is already declining in popularity.
ill still be filling out the IC, for the off chance it gains traction & to pay respect to the online era. 

[DivinaPapaya]

Excited to see it being possibly rerun

[Daudod]

IC filled. I would love seeing this set again run

[Volien]

IC filled! Love this set!

[mr_foggy]

IC filled out. it would be nice to see some community driven set every once in a while.

[SwitchKeys]

bring it on!

[ingenyeur]

filled out IC

[MartinThePolarBear]

Just filled out the IC for the rerun

[CJKnero]

R2 would be amazing! 

[Lil]

There have been 60 responses so far... almost everyone prefers cherry profile as their first choice. With lower numbers it might be a possibility of running things with KKB - what do people think versus CYL GMK?

[MartinThePolarBear]

There have been 60 responses so far... almost everyone prefers cherry profile as their first choice. With lower numbers it might be a possibility of running things with KKB - what do people think versus CYL GMK?

I don't mind either

[Lil]

[Narcolepsy]

I'd prefer the set running with GMK, but I know that the current market with GMK has not been looking good with two sets already failed to meet MoQ and what I feel may be a few more sets on that way as well. I would take KKB as an alternative if needed.

[Trackpoint]

Same here: prefer GMK, but would still likely get it if switched to KKB. Probably should have been a question for the IC form.

[FoxandFoundry]

Please run with GMK.

[Trackpoint]

I'm actually curious how many GMK and KKB sets try to run and are cancelled in comparison to one another. These numbers are probably off, but looking at Keycaplendar in the past year (from March 2024 to now) they show 45 GMK sets and 16 KKB sets run. Those aren't all traditional GBs though, and include some where large vendors do a preorder. A handful of the GMK ones are just smaller add-on kits (although I'm not sure how that affects the odds of being canceled, def more niche though), and I dunno how CYL vs MTNU might affect things. This includes some GBs that are still ongoing, but several GMK ones have recently hit MOQ (e.g, Black & Gold, GMK Verdant Retro). Maybe some canceled ones aren't listed on Keycaplendar though, or I might be miscounting of course.

In that time period I only see two canceled GMK sets (Lilies of the Valley and Hippo). There are four canceled KKB sets during that same period (Buff Bride, Verdigris, Yōkai, and Henchmen). It does suggest that GMK sets have a significantly higher chance of succeeding, though I'm sure so much is set dependent. KKB I think makes lower MOQs possible? I'm not a designer so I'm not sure.

Someone like Dvorcol could do a way better analysis though.

[mr_foggy]

answered! no hard preference about the manu, as GMK is slowly raising their prices beyond reasonablesness I won't complain about a KKB alternative

[Lil]

No worries, i've listened to you and I will try my best to make it work

[Trackpoint]

answered! no hard preference about the manu, as GMK is slowly raising their prices beyond reasonablesness I won't complain about a KKB alternative

Makes me wonder about how much GMK basekit prices have changed, though I'm not about to figure that out. Especially tough when GB pages here don't say the prices and the vendor pages are lost to time. My very first GMK GB (Yeeti back in early 2021) actually had a more expensive basekit than the last GMK CYL set I got (Delta R2), and that doesn't even account for inflation so Delta was even cheaper. Probably depends the time frame of the comparison, and of course MOQ (Delta would have been even cheaper if more people had joined).

[mr_foggy]

answered! no hard preference about the manu, as GMK is slowly raising their prices beyond reasonablesness I won't complain about a KKB alternative

Makes me wonder about how much GMK basekit prices have changed, though I'm not about to figure that out. Especially tough when GB pages here don't say the prices and the vendor pages are lost to time. My very first GMK GB (Yeeti back in early 2021) actually had a more expensive basekit than the last GMK CYL set I got (Delta R2), and that doesn't even account for inflation so Delta was even cheaper. Probably depends the time frame of the comparison, and of course MOQ (Delta would have been even cheaper if more people had joined).

can speak for my side of the world: most basekits in GB were like 125-129 EUR in 2021, now we're above 150. taxes didn't change. delta was an isolated case (they tried to bring back price scaling by MOQ), but MOQ never really played a part in pricing for the end customer in these last few years (only increased margins for the vendor).

[dvorcol]

Makes me wonder about how much GMK basekit prices have changed, though I'm not about to figure that out. Especially tough when GB pages here don't say the prices and the vendor pages are lost to time.

You can find info on past GBs in KeycapLendar. The sales graphs usually show US pricing. Not every GB has a sales graph, but many do, especially if you look back a few years.

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

We had GBs with numpad in em for USD 110$ apiece from late 19 through 2022 and “MOQ only mattered for the vendor margins?” Not for several USA vendors.  Between Olivia R2 (110$ base) in 2019 and Mictlan in 2022 there were high MOQ sets with low prices. Gmk Mictlan had two base kits each with numpad in em for 99$ each at GB in mid 2022.

Yes, Kono had several sets with high MOQ and high prices; Shoko 2 and Rainy Day stand out. Novelkeys and Omni had significant savings, and had sets w giant orders (>10K base kits worldwide). Cannonkeys had sets in the 120s$, and they had higher prices before and after.

Tariff threat and weaker dollar will change the price here in the states and be another wrinkle, but higher MOQ lowered prices even without the price drop model from the 2010s.

[mr_foggy]

Between Olivia R2 (110$ base) in 2019 and Mictlan in 2022 there were high MOQ sets with low prices. Gmk Mictlan had two base kits each with numpad in em for 99$ each at GB in mid 2022.

olivia R2 in 2019 falls outside of the timeframe I mentioned, and mictlan was a peak of the hobby set. two isolated examples in regional pricing hardly make a standard rule
edit: and they also don't make a counter argument to GMK prices objectively steadily increasing. how many $99 (or $110) GMK GBs have we seen in the last 2 years?

[rayy]

No worries, i've listened to you and I will try my best to make it work

Any further progress, Mr. Iconographic?

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

2021 had…two gmk olive base kits at 99$, serika two base kits at 110$, metropolis midnight 110$, Dracula v2 had 3 concurrent base kits at 115, striker r2 at 110. I forget if 80082 was late 20’or early 21 but that was 99$x2 base kits.

Last two years, yes there’s cheap base kits, and they’re the ones w high MOQ (was it 3000?) I think it’s been like 2.5 years since Hineybeige was 99, so that doesn’t count. Black snail, Evil Dolch base was like 89$, BRG 2 all do tho.

2022 into 2023 had group buy sales fall off considerably-vendors began failing, extras were plentiful.

I think USA vendors had a stretch where they knew preorders were going to be big, they were gonna buy many extras, and the price was low. That begins before 2021 and extends after it Mictlan and Hineybeige.

[Lil]

Waiting to hear back, will update when i have further news