My first mechanical keyboard: Cherry MX Brown switches - in Europe?

[mSSM]

The first time I heard about mechanical switches was when I somehow stumbled over the Das Keyboard about a year ago, while searching for a new high quality keyboard to attach to my laptop. I was usually working on my Thinkpad X60s, which has an amazing keyboard. It's just a little to small for me, and when I am working at home I do not want to have the entire laptop standing too close. However, it really is a pleasure to type on it, and I had to throw my Cherry Evolution away, because it just felt wrong.

Since then I am occassionaly reading up on mechanical keyboards here on geekhack, and I was about to get myself a Filco from elitekeyboards.com, when suddenly they discontinued them. Now that they are replacing them with Leopolds, I read a few reviews and impressions on them here on the boards, and it seems as if the average opinion is that the Leopold keyboards are of slightly better quality than the Filcos, while having a similar price tag.

Sooo, after this long introduction, here is what I want:
I want to get myself my first mechanical keyboard. Since I am a student still, I do not want to invest too much money, and 100 Euro sounds reasonable to me.
I would love to get a tenkeyless with blank key caps (Otaku?), but it seems as if there are no major vendors in the whole of Europe... Maybe some Cherry keyboard is an alternative? After all, they produce the switches...!

So I have two questions:
1) Do you think there will be a vendor in Europe for the new Leopold keyboards as offered by elitekeyboards.com starting from next year on? Or is there any shop I could write to in regards to that?
2) Is there a cheaper albeit good alternative to fancy Filco or Leopold keyboards? It does not necessarily have to be blank and tenkeyless, if it costs 50 Euro...

[Findecanor]

The Keyboard Company in the UK has Filco Majestouch (not tenkeyless) in European layouts now, and will get Filco tenkeyless in European layouts in February. (read more)
They may have some keyboards in US layout in stock also. Btw, the Filco Zero does not use Cherry switches.

Cherry itself also makes keyboards, but very few Cherry-branded keyboards have N-key rollover like the gaming keyboards do. You can find both new G80-3000 for around 50 Euros or old G80-3000 and other types for less money on ebay.de . Be sure to check the Dating Cherry Keyboards Wiki to find out how to identify the types you are interested in.
[strike]If you are in Sweden, check Tradera quickly for a couple of Compaq keyboards with Cherry MX Browns that will end very soon.[/strike]

[mSSM]

I am located in Germany. And I am interested in a keyboard with a US layout, since I do most of my typing in English.

From that Wiki and searching the forums it seems as if it is all but impossible to get a Cherry with Brown switches in Europe. Now there is a bummer.

Seems to me that apart from getting a Filco from Keyboardco the only option I have is to import a Leopold, either from one of the Korean distributors or from Elitekeyboards, from next year onwards.

Well, that's a shame. :-(

[Broncosoozie]

I am located in Germany. And I am interested in a keyboard with a US layout, since I do most of my typing in English.

From that Wiki and searching the forums it seems as if it is all but impossible to get a Cherry with Brown switches in Europe. Now there is a bummer.

Seems to me that apart from getting a Filco from Keyboardco the only option I have is to import a Leopold, either from one of the Korean distributors or from Elitekeyboards, from next year onwards.

Well, that's a shame. :-(

http://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard_details.asp?PRODUCT=624

That's the brown from keyboardco, so definitely not impossible, but if you don't want the Filco, then yeah you may have to wait.

[vegaman]

It's worth checking ebay.de as well, someone might have imported one already. Or if you're lucky you'll find someone selling an older one that doesn't know what it's worth - could get one quite cheap that way.