Look for some of the better engineered Microsoft mice (now all discontinued) on Amazon for an idea of what kind of prices these are fetching. Some are crazy expensive and I suspect it is because people like me still want them.
Edit: Here's a 50-pack for £4500 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-IntelliMouse-Optical-1-1-o...
For me the 90s keyboard/mice quality would be enough - as known from the old Microsoft Hardware department, the old Switzerland based Logitech company and IBM Thinkpad keyboards.
The 90s/early 2000s hardware has a MTTF of about 10 years. The current 2010s hardware don't fit my needs at all, are overpriced (gaming devices) and have a very low product quality in general. [Edit: ...product quality of Microsoft/Logitech/Lenovo devices]
Sure, there are lot of shitty overpriced gaming keyboards but if you avoid those brands and get a Filco, Ducky, Das or Leopold for instance, you're getting quality.
And most switches except for Blues will be quieter than the 70s/80s IBM era. I'd hate to have to go back to 90s Microsoft keyboards to be completely honest, long lasting maybe but not a nice experience.
A couple guys at work are big mech KB fans too and one bought a Topre based KB - I'm thinking of switching to that. It's nice and worth checking out, even if you end up not liking it.
Maybe you earn your living with a keyboard and use it for 8+ hours a day. How much is that worth?
Maybe you spend $1,000 a year on a mobile phone + contract when you could get something that does the same job for half the price or less.
Maybe you spend $1,000 a year on Starbucks ;-)
Is a $100 to $200 mechanical keyboard actually overpriced if it works well for 5 to 10 years or even more?
I wrote "overpriced (gaming devices)". If I need a 90s/2000s style traditional office PC mouse (and keyboard) one has more or less resort to what's called PC gaming mouse/keyboard or keyboard with IBM/Cherry springs. The former is usually overpriced and often even of low quality (short life time) than the older generation of products. Example: a gaming mouse that costs $100 and has a crappy mouse-wheel and has a short lifetime of 2 years is of course worse than a good old Microsoft IntelliMouse or Logitech MX518 that used to cost $30 and has a lifetime of up to 10 years.
Also it's incredible hard to find a new notebook with non-soft-keys keyboard. If I would like to replace my Lenovo Thinkpad T410/T420, there is simply non from Lenovo, HP or Apple. I would pay up to $1000 more if Lenovo/HP/Apple would produce a new T4xx series with a good keyboard and case again.
Sadly, there are no good keyboards on laptops anymore because keyboard quality is one of the things you sacrifice for thinness (as well as performance, ports, expandability and so on).
Thinkpad keyboards have been in decline for a long time. The one on my 240X was brilliant and the X31 etc were good. The X220 was the last good one, with the new style arriving with the X230, I think. I'm not familiar with the T range but I assume parallel numbers apply.
The solution that works for some is to buy two external keyboards, one for home and one for the office. You can put the laptop on a stand and this improves the ergonomics....
I use the Ultimate (no key labels) of this DAS model: http://www.daskeyboard.com/daskeyboard-4-professional/. It's a fantastic keyboard, but yes it's more expensive. I found it was easily worth the price.