Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pricing niche products

kevinlynagh.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 368 posts

Re: Pricing niche products

#21

Post by dancek »

equalunique wrote: post #6

It's disappointing how so much money is being poured into "mechanical keyboard kits" that simply re-create the old ANSI/ISO layouts that are rooted in old limitations from the days of the typewriter. Alternate layouts & ortholinear/ergonomic designs should be the forefront of the movement. All this focus on outdated designs makes the community "accessible" but also holds people back. The emergence of row-staggered 40…

Agreed. Modeling your own keyboard chassis is possible, and there's plenty of open source models to start from. If you have access to a 3d printer you get down to normal mechanical keyboard price range.

My own attempt is at https://github.com/dancek/dactyl-keyboard/tree/less-aggressi... . While I only have the left half built, I'd say that measuring fingers and tuning an ergonomic layout to your preferences works well. I don't expect to see a production keyboard as ergonomic. Ever.

N.b. the amount of work needed for this build is pretty ridiculous. There's a reason that keyboards are usually flat.

Re: Pricing niche products

#23

Post by C1sc0cat »

phaus wrote: post #2

I have a $600+ keyboard so I'm a part of this hobby. However, only a part of this can be explained by the expense of manufacturing at a small scale. The hobby fully embraces the drawbacks of the small scale and intentionally does nothing to try to improve it because the exclusivity drives prices up to an insane point. A typical group buy for a popular case sells out in minutes or days time after time. Clearly some of…

That reminds me I must get the adaptor for my vintage type M (IBM XT) brought /built.

I do have a soft spot for the Vt100

Re: Pricing niche products

#24

Post by flmontpetit »

ghaff wrote: post #8
phaus wrote: post #2

I have a $600+ keyboard so I'm a part of this hobby. However, only a part of this can be explained by the expense of manufacturing at a small scale. The hobby fully embraces the drawbacks of the small scale and intentionally does nothing to try to improve it because the exclusivity drives prices up to an insane point. A typical group buy for a popular case sells out in minutes or days time after time. Clearly some of…

>the diminishing returns show up hard and fast in this hobby. Of course that's true with lots of things. Cameras, audio equipment, video gear. Whenever I go into B&H Photo in NYC I'm always struck by how quickly the prices go up as you transition from pretty serviceable amateur gear to the pro stuff.

Seems less like diminishing returns and more like mass hysteria at this point. The only people I personally know of who are as detached from the rest of the market are those guys who collect Telecasters.

Re: Pricing niche products

#25

Post by C1sc0cat »

Dude2029 wrote: post #3

You always end up buying more than one, despite their extreme durability.

Its the Bike Number Rule:

The correct number of bikes to own is n+1 .While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1 , where n is the number of bikes currently owned.

Re: Pricing niche products

#26

Post by PhasmaFelis »

phaus wrote: post #2

I have a $600+ keyboard so I'm a part of this hobby. However, only a part of this can be explained by the expense of manufacturing at a small scale. The hobby fully embraces the drawbacks of the small scale and intentionally does nothing to try to improve it because the exclusivity drives prices up to an insane point. A typical group buy for a popular case sells out in minutes or days time after time. Clearly some of…

> There's nothing wrong with any of this

There isn't? Deliberately understocking so that some of your users miss out and the rest have to pay more seems like it's all bad for the users, even if it's making money for somebody.

Re: Pricing niche products

#27

Post by PeterStuer »

Why do exclusive wines fetch several hundred a bottle when in double blind tasting tests oenologists fail to differentiate them from 6€ supermarket wine?

Why does the same Malaysia made shirt go up in price 50x if it gets a top brand label attached a opposed to a cheap generic brand one?

Re: Pricing niche products

#30

Post by PhasmaFelis »

equalunique wrote: post #6

It's disappointing how so much money is being poured into "mechanical keyboard kits" that simply re-create the old ANSI/ISO layouts that are rooted in old limitations from the days of the typewriter. Alternate layouts & ortholinear/ergonomic designs should be the forefront of the movement. All this focus on outdated designs makes the community "accessible" but also holds people back. The emergence of row-staggered 40…

This sounds interesting, but I don't know what most of that means. Can you elaborate?
Post reply on HN