Group Buy Information
What is a Group Buy (GB)?
Group Buys have their roots in the early days of the mechanical keyboard hobby. Before custom keyboards were an industry, enthusiasts would band together on forums and groups to fund a project. The more participants, the lower the cost.
Over time, GBs became bigger and more organised with the involvement of vendors. This provided benefits like warehousing space, sales platform and marketing reach.
Why is Keyboard Treehouse running GBs?
Keyboard Treehouse has a long history of self-funding projects rather than running GBs, choosing to cover the cost of production and only selling after the products are on hand or on their way to us.
What changed was being asked to run a GMK GB by Zambumon, the designer of our Staebies and long time collaborator.
How does a GB work?
At the core, it is a group of people putting money together and submitting a single order to a manufacturer or store.
In the keyboard world, the most common GB items are custom keyboard cases and custom keycaps.
The designer will gather interest by presenting their design and convincing people to join.
They place the order then the long wait begins.
If things go smoothly, the order is sent to the GB runner and they distribute it to participants.
How does a GMK GB work?
1. First we have the designer who has a completed keycap set design. They will approach others to see if there is interest in producing the set, typically done in places like Geekhack in the form of an Interest Check (IC) as well as talking to vendors and in community groups.
2. If they see enough interest, they can proceed to running a GB by approaching a few vendors. This is necessary because GMK does not work with individuals these days.
3. The lead vendor will contact GMK for a quote, followed colour matching and revisions if needed.
4. When everything is ready, the GB can open. This is usually for 1 month.
5. After the GB finishes, the order is submitted to GMK.
6. Production starts after order submission and has a 12 week lead time as of March 2026, but this can vary between projects.
7. After production finishes, the orders are shipped directly to vendors.
Why can't vendors fund production themselves?
Simply put, most keyboard vendors do not have the cash. It would also mean limiting sales to a much smaller portion of the community. By having multiple vendors involved, more people can get access to the design.
What happens if the GB does not proceed?
If the GB is cancelled (such as not meeting MOQ) then customers who have paid will be fully refunded.
Cancellation and Refunds
We offer full refunds to orders cancelled within the GB period as defined on the product page.
Once the GB has closed, we cannot offer a change of mind refund, and the order follows our regular Returns, Refunds & Cancellations policy.
Timeline and Potential Delays
GB timelines vary depending on the project, manufacturer, and scale of the run.
Delays can happen. Manufacturing is complex, and things outside anyone's control can push timelines out.
When something changes, we'll tell you. Updates will be posted on the product page and communicated through our usual channels.