Anybody hear about MX switch prices going up 15%?

[jimmy919]

In the not-so-distant past, I dreamt about building a line of mechanical keyboards and trying to sell them in the US.  I made contacts with a number of trading companies/manufacturers in Taiwan and South Korea over this time, but nothing panned out.  Then, just yesterday, I got an e-mail from a Costar rep "checking in on me".  

They mentioned that starting in January, MX switches will be increasing in price by 15% and obtaining the switches would increase from 1-2 months to 6 months.  

Now, I'm not sure if this is affecting smaller runs through Costar, or if it's supposed to impact all Costar-related brands, or even the industry as a whole.  Has anybody else heard about this?  I can't tell if that means most boards will be seeing prices increase, or if we're going to see worse shortages like with Filco.

[8_INCH_FLOPPY]

That's right... Give in to your feelings of panic.  They are going to stop makeing MX switches very soon.  You know it in your heart to be true.  Stockpile as many Mechanic Cherry keyboards as you can.  Your running out of time.






Hopefully this panic causes a huge spike in demand, so much so that they have to open up new factories and produce more.  Then, when there is a massive surplus, I can get a few for really cheap.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

Hopefully this panic causes a huge spike in demand, so much so that they have to open up new factories and produce more.  Then, when there is a massive surplus, I can get a few for really cheap.

More likely it would drive up prices in the near term. Most companies are aware of and try to avoid the bullwhip effect in their supply chain.

(Which is going to happen to all of Costar's customers due to a greater lead time, of course. 4 extra months is a pretty substantial delay!)

[Phaedrus2129]

Cherry strikes me as a company that, once it starts doing something, by god is going to do it, no matter how the market changes or how stupid their plan becomes. Huge spike in demand of mechanical switches? Well, we already fired one dude so we must continue on with our plan of dismantling that division!


CONSISTENCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[muchadoaboutnothing]

If you have a highly desirable and profitable product and the market will tolerate higher prices, why not increase your profit margin? I doubt this is going to drive anyone out of business.

[jimmy919]

Ask Costar to "Talk Dirt" on their competition, specifically Leopold.

Hah, well I don't recall them talking bad about other companies, but they were certainly rude in their e-mails.  Definitely had that feeling of "We know we make popular keyboards and we don't really need your business."

If you have a highly desirable and profitable product and the market will tolerate higher prices, why not increase your profit margin?

Yeah, I figure that mechanical keyboard owners are not as sensitive to price increases as other keyboard customers.  Kind of like how a bottle of Cristal or Dom Perignon can sell so well.

[spolia optima]

My contact at Cherry just texted me that "all is according to plans", what the heck?

[muchadoaboutnothing]

You have to wonder if Cherry is just trying to mess with us. I'd be curious to know if there are any hits form their netblock on geekhack's IP logs.

I think they're doing this stuff on purpose.

[jimmy919]

I heard back from a contact that works with the manufacturer for Ducky keyboards and they confirmed the increase.  I guess a notice was sent out earlier in the year, so the 15% is more or less old news.

[RoboKrikit]

Don't worry, when Cherry goes out of business, Omron will be there to take up the slack.  Then we can sit back and enjoy our vintage Filcos.  Eventually the Japanese Omrons will be better, but because they feel different we'll complain about how they don't make them like they used to, kick back grumbling in our hoverchairs, and keep polishing on the Retr0d4rk (matte of course).

[clickclack]

Well now, that was rather impressive. =)
bravo, bravo