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Pricing niche products

kevinlynagh.com

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Re: Pricing niche products

#81

Post by Filligree »

kragen wrote: post #71
Filligree wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be concerned about that. Carbon fiber isn't much better than asbestos, and while both are fine if sealed in a wall, we're talking about a keyboard taking daily wear and tear with the fibers sealed under a thin layer of glue. A keyboard cannot possibly need the tensile strength, so why not just use plastic?

People break keyboards all the time. Reinforcing them with carbon fiber seems reasonable to me. You seem to be confusing carbon fiber, which is a mild irritant like fiberglass, with carbon nanotubes. It's goofy that the keyboard enthusiasts got taken in by the marketroid term “forged carbon”, though.

I have never once broken a keyboard. I can't imagine how I would -- sit on it? It's fixed on my desk.

If I did need a stronger keyboard, I'd rather have it reinforced with steel. That would have the extra benefit of keeping it in place.

Re: Pricing niche products

#82

Post by divbyzer0 »

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…

@phaus any improvement to your wrists with the Ergodox?

Re: Pricing niche products

#83

Post by flr03 »

PeterStuer wrote: post #27

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?

I doubt what you say about wine. Wine tasting is extremely complex and some experts might not be as near as good as they think they are. But an expensive aged Bordeaux will not taste like a cheap random 6€ supermarket bottle. Also, taste is just one criteria on the price, rarity plays a big part (some vineyards are small, some years the production is smaller), the wine ageing potential is another criteria etc.

Re: Pricing niche products

#84

Post by gnomewascool »

rmbryan wrote: post #67

I suspect a set of shill bidders may be at work here. Is there a way to guard against the seller inflating prices by bidding?

I think that for a Vickrey auction, the worst that a malicious seller could do, by injecting "false" bids, is (assuming the number of items sold is n), raise the price from the value of the n+1th bid to just under the value of the nth bid. (Otherwise they'd end up with unsold stock.)

Re: Pricing niche products

#85

Post by _jal »

reaperducer wrote: post #70

I wish there was a niche that involved making replacement keycaps for Macs that brought back the Apple logos on the Command keys.

The cease & desist letter would hit the advertiser's inbox before the first order.

Re: Pricing niche products

#86

Post by edoceo »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #65
dwoozle wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A vendor doesn’t have to offer the socially optimal package. Other vendors can fill in other gaps.

The GP said: > The hobby intentionally does nothing to try to improve [the drawbacks of the small scale] because the exclusivity drives prices up to an insane point. [...] There is nothing wrong with any of this. If it's still worth it for you, that's fine. Or if you figure that selling a few blinged-out "designer" models at ultra-premium prices helps support the main product, or if you don't care either way because…

Maybe downvotes cause the MK group thinks it's fine. Then you, with a cursory look at the group, state their happy place is "all bad" - and demonstrate a mis-understanding of the MK market forces - which had already been described.

Re: Pricing niche products

#87

Post by rhinoceraptor »

chinhodado wrote: post #64

A technical question, how was the Vickrey auction done to ensure that you can't just enter a bogus high price?

At my company we're doing something similar. Since the scale is a bit higher (several hundred items available) we're doing credit card holds to ensure buyers aren't doing this. If anyone backs out, it makes it a logistical nightmare to work out the new winners.

Of course, it also makes it a bit tricky if you want to edit your bid, since card holds can't be modified after the fact (except for hotels/restaurants).

It looks like in this case, the scale was small enough and the buyers/seller have enough trust not to make bogus bids.

Re: Pricing niche products

#88

Post by Filligree »

anonuser123456 wrote: post #63
C1sc0cat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there will be the unlucky (stupid) person that ends up with RSI at 35

There is no evidence for a causal relationship between keyboard usage and RSI.

It's more common among computer users, isn't it? Though that alone isn't enough to define a cure.

Re: Pricing niche products

#89

Post by w0utert »

nicolaslem wrote: post #45
iikoolpp wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whereas I own a £1 keyboard and I prefer it vastly more than any mechanical KB I had before.

At my first job I spent two years coding on a Hello Kitty keyboard. First meant as a joke for newcomers, I got so used to it that I didn't want to change it. I finally gave it up when I switched from a desktop workstation to a laptop.

Haha, that's a nice story :D

Not using a Hello Kitty keyboard at work, but a pretty old IBM one that came with the hand-me-down workstation. I think it has to be at least 20 years old and I would be surprised if it cost more than $20 when new. I've went through 4 computer upgrades that came with new keyboards since, but I hated all of them. This one works and doesn't give me RSI, so any change is a risk as far as I'm concerned ;-)

Re: Pricing niche products

#90

Post by pclark »

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 boards and caps are nothing compared to artisan keycaps.

i have traded countless things to acquire keycaps that would sell for $250+ each. one keycap! brobot caps are especially rare and i frequently see people buying them for $500 each

i actually think artisans make sense to be so expensive since there is a level of artistry and rarity that most boards do not have. some of the rare korean boards are super rare too though and easily sell for $1000.

(sent from a Lyn Whale with GMK Olivia!)

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