Why is it so cumbersome to order simple replacement parts?

Photo by Dan Cristian Pădureț: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-and-yellow-phone-modules-1476321/

What I expect from a manufacturer is that I can order spare parts for a certain period of time. Especially those that need to be replaced after a certain amount of time - think of nose-hair trimmer blades.

Yet I am constantly shocked how bad the situation is.

"Yes, we offer replacement blades. A blade costs 15€". While a completely new trimmer including a blade costs 17€. Not cool. I'm not going to get into the whole electronic waste and price gouging thing. But prices like this, for small parts like this? It smells of both.

Or take my mechanical computer keyboard. I own a "Das Keyboard" Professional S with ISO/DE layout for over 15 years. It works flawlessly. Since I own it, no matter how long I type, my knuckles no longer hurt. Thanks to the Cherry MX Brown switches, there is also no clicking noise when the keys are pressed.

Now after over 15 years of use, the Enter keycap has broken. What do I mean by a keycap? Most mechanical keyboards use some sort of switch - Cherry MX Brown or Cherry MX Blue, for example - that determines how much kinetic force you have to apply to the key before it is recognised as being pressed and whether or not it makes sound. But this is just the switch. The electrical part. The part that our fingers touch is called the keycap. And this keycap just sits on top of each individual switch. The sort of switch you use define which keycap you can use, although it seems most settled for the convex plus-shaped connector to stay compatible.

Now this keycap broke. And I thought: Well, those keycaps are replaceable. There are literally hundreds of shops that sell whole custom keyboard keycaps. In all sorts of materials, colours, etc. So it shouldn't be that hard to get a single keycap for my enter key, right?

Yeah, no. It took me 6 hours spent over 2 days to find a shop that:

1. Sells either individual keys or small replacement collections
2. Has the enter keycap in ISO design (2 rows high instead of just 1)
3. Is located in the EU, preferably Germany (shipping time/cost)

If I had placed my order in one of the many Taiwanese shops I would have to pay US-$ 2,50 for the key, an additional US-$ 30 for shipping and have to wait 3-6 weeks. Too expensive. Too long.

The shop where I bought my Das Keyboard in 2012 still exists: GetDigital.de. And judging from what I see they are still the official vendor in Germany. But replacement parts? Nope. Only whole keyboards. Yes, some fancy keycaps for the escape, control or alt keys. Or replacement keycaps with the Linux or MacOS logo for the Windows key. But no keycap for my return key. Narf!

Heading over to the r/MechanicalKeyboards/ subreddit I was delighted to find a list of vendors in their subreddit's wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/keycapsellers

Still nothing with matches my criteria...

Only through sheer luck I found a comment linking to the keyboard vendor list from Alex Otos who seems to specialise in keyboard builds. There I finally found 2 shops from Germany. GeekBoards.de from Berlin and Keygem.com from Aachen. GeekBoards sells at least a 4-keycap collection with the enter keycap in the ISO form I need: https://geekboards.de/shop/c0039-enjoypbt-iso-compatibility-keycap-set-light-grey-370?variant=1115 Yai!

Ok, it is in light grey and not black, but I can live with that.

Finally..  I mean 6€ + 7,90€ for shipping (in Germany, the same country!) is also somewhat pricey, but alas at least I have a replacement key. And to be fair: The whole handling and logistics stuff for single keys is the same as when I bought a whole keyboard.

I later found out that r/MechanicalKeyboards/ has a separate list for Germany and GeekBoard is listed there too.. https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/germany_shopping_guide Ah well.. Hopefully this information helps someone else too. 😅