Everyone always forgets who is the real culprit.
And that is Kicstarter.com and Indiegogo.com.
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Make clear with every time someone 'invests' money you need to click a few checkboxes to make sure you understand the risks.
But they get away with, we are not responsible, we can not do anything, we are just the messenger, we don't check anything etc etc.
I know it can be tempting to blame these sites, but I still think most or all should sit on the users/backers. Nobody is twisting their hand to back these items. I think it's pretty clear to everyone except the most naive people that they are taking a risk with their money and that there is a fairly high chance they will get something possibly very different from what claimed and with quite a bit of delay.... especially for items which seem too far-fetched.
People who back these campaigns are not thinking logically, they are doing it emotionally and want to be the first ones to have something. Even the "pre-order" pricing isn't a heck of a lot better than the final product. Certainly after you factor in the risk and time, I would gladly pay $150 for something when it is ready and tested and has been reviewed in 2 years, than to spend $100 now for vapour that may never be made or end up being garbage. Unless it is an out-right fraud on the part of the project, the majority of the risk and blame sits on people who decide to fund these campaigns. Just stay away from Kickstarter and IndieGogo, and the entire "Crowd-funding" ecosystem/platform if you are not able to trust it or the people behind it. Just not worth it.
For Ossic X campaign they had the following for regular contributors:
1000 x $199 (we'll round it to $200)
1999 x $219 (we'll round it to $220)
5997 x $249 (we'll round it to $250)
704 x $279 (we'll round it to $280)
The headphone was supposed to "retail" at $399 (let's say $400). Who knows if that would have been the final price or not. Nevertheless, let's say you got in with the majority of people and paid ~$250, so you save $150. Let's say that's a typical "savings" although from the campaigns I've seen the percentage you save going in isn't a great deal better, this one happens to be but the majority are not.
Let's say there are 4 different gadgets A, B, C and D, all being Kickstarted, and all happen to be $250 early-bird and final consumer cost $400. You enter into 4 different campaigns and pay $500 into each (you want 2 of each thing for a total of 8 items).... ok that's $2000 on the table. Now you wait.... 3 months, 6 months, production delays, 12 months, 2 years...).
If all 4 campaigns deliver, you just paid $2000 for $3200 ($400x8) worth of tech. Not bad! You just saved yourself $1200.
Ok, if 3 campaigns deliver, you just paid $2000 for $2400 ($400x6) worth of tech. You are still ahead, by about $400. Again, this is a serious savings... I don't usually see it so much discount. You also still assume the final price is $400.... maybe they just say that to "inflate" the amount of saving. The real market may never bear $400 for the gadget.... they may end up only selling them finally at $300-350 when you paid $250.
In that case, 3/4 campaigns deliver, the actual price they can competitively sell for is $333 (not $400 as originally claimed), making the value of the delivered items $333x6 = ~$2000. In that case, you just barely break even. You paid in $2000, only 1 campaign of the 4 failed (I'm sure the odds are worse than that) and the final retail ends up being $333 (not $4000) when you paid $250. Even though you saved $83 on each item, you just broke even.
So now if 50% of the campaigns deliver, you have paid $2000 for $1600 worth of tech. You just lost $400 if half of the items don't deliver. Again, assuming it is even "worth" $400.
My point is, statistically speaking (and I'd like Kickstarter and IndieGogo to release stats), I'd like to see what the average early-bird pricing and final predicted retail and TRUE RETAIL prices are, and also what percentage of campaigns actually complete to final product. These are stats which *should* be available but are sorely lacking. It may make people think a bit harder about using Kickstarter as a "webstore" which it is absolutely not, and get a better appreciation of the true risks that exist with crowd-funding.