Instant Pandora with a premium?

[vadsamoht]

EDIT: Unnecessary post.

 

[edcowden]

Ah, this conjures up an age-old image for Los Angeles, New York, etc.: long lines of faithful people trying to enter a nightclub for $20 each, all of whom are kept waiting outside as the table-service/VIP/"let-me-slip-you-a-$100" folks bypass the line. That's what this looks like. Club Pandora.


Eventually, supposedly, you'll get in the club. Until they reach maximum capacity. In our case, that's the number of units that exist or will exist. And a lot of folks will only wait in line for so long before opting to go somewhere else. (The only way we're better-off is it's POSSIBLE for Club Pandora to grow in capacity.)


Which leads me to this: a fair number of folks have already dropped out, haven't they? (I'm positive a few folks canceled once news of this hit the 'net. Heck, I found out first on Engadget.) Rather than introduce a backdoor "get your Pandora in 7 days" scheme, why not take those cancellations, put them at the front of the Queue, and charge as much money as you can get for them? Heck, AUCTION them if that works out better. Thus, you largely preserve people's places in the Queue and it at least gives the impression that not just any schmo with $600-large can skirt the line and take "what would have been" my Pandora. Or as an alternative, set no more than 1-to-2 out of 10 produced Pandoras aside for auction/high price, to help fund the project, so as to not disrespect the remaining pre-orders, who have already paid full admission before getting in.


As an incentive for those left in the general line, if you're going to implement a "jump the line" scheme, you'd better give everyone who waited, who supported this project in the first place, a reason to wait even longer besides a promise of things proceeding more quickly. Seriously, how easily this could become another "false hope." Throw in a free LCD out. A free case. Something. Make them happy to wait, dangle a carrot to make them want to wait, willing to wait. "There are hot girls in Club Pandora. The music is awesome!" There have been so many promises broken, so many delays, that asking these people, myself included, to endure what is definitely perceived as a delay (no matter what anyone says), is reminiscent of asking someone for "just one more" favor after you've already exhausted your allocation.


As for the Batch 2 and beyond orders, why are these still being so undervalued? If these are being sold under-cost, you've got to raise the price. Simple. If you want to make some profit, for personal gain, to reinvest in Pandora or a future project, why hasn't that happened enough yet?


I'm also positive there haven't been more pre-orders for Batch 2 and beyond because Batch 1 hasn't been fulfilled yet. Honestly, who would pre-order now, after the history? If you take care of Batch 1, you'll get more people in line for Batch 2. (That is, give the public confidence in your product and they'll more more apt to buy it.) Obviously, raise the price of Batch 2 - a considerable amount. But you've gotta make good, as soon as you can, because a couple things are happening in the gaming community (3DS/NGP) and eyes are turning elsewhere. Just the way it is.


The post on Engadget was hardly flattering. Any recast of this type of news headline will definitely pull in some fast money, but runs the risk of losing people who have been on the ride so far.

 

[arthurlag]

Ah, this conjures up an age-old image for Los Angeles, New York, etc.: long lines of faithful people trying to enter a nightclub for $20 each, all of whom are kept waiting outside as the table-service/VIP/"let-me-slip-you-a-$100" folks bypass the line. That's what this looks like. Club Pandora.


Eventually, supposedly, you'll get in the club. Until they reach maximum capacity. In our case, that's the number of units that exist or will exist. And a lot of folks will only wait in line for so long before opting to go somewhere else. (The only way we're better-off is it's POSSIBLE for Club Pandora to grow in capacity.)


Which leads me to this: a fair number of folks have already dropped out, haven't they? (I'm positive a few folks canceled once news of this hit the 'net. Heck, I found out first on Engadget.) Rather than introduce a backdoor "get your Pandora in 7 days" scheme, why not take those cancellations, put them at the front of the Queue, and charge as much money as you can get for them? Heck, AUCTION them if that works out better. Thus, you largely preserve people's places in the Queue and it at least gives the impression that not just any schmo with $600-large can skirt the line and take "what would have been" my Pandora. Or as an alternative, set no more than 1-to-2 out of 10 produced Pandoras aside for auction/high price, to help fund the project, so as to not disrespect the remaining pre-orders, who have already paid full admission before getting in.


As an incentive for those left in the general line, if you're going to implement a "jump the line" scheme, you'd better give everyone who waited, who supported this project in the first place, a reason to wait even longer besides a promise of things proceeding more quickly. Seriously, how easily this could become another "false hope." Throw in a free LCD out. A free case. Something. Make them happy to wait, dangle a carrot to make them want to wait, willing to wait. "There are hot girls in Club Pandora. The music is awesome!" There have been so many promises broken, so many delays, that asking these people, myself included, to endure what is definitely perceived as a delay (no matter what anyone says), is reminiscent of asking someone for "just one more" favor after you've already exhausted your allocation.


As for the Batch 2 and beyond orders, why are these still being so undervalued? If these are being sold under-cost, you've got to raise the price. Simple. If you want to make some profit, for personal gain, to reinvest in Pandora or a future project, why hasn't that happened enough yet?


I'm also positive there haven't been more pre-orders for Batch 2 and beyond because Batch 1 hasn't been fulfilled yet. Honestly, who would pre-order now, after the history? If you take care of Batch 1, you'll get more people in line for Batch 2. (That is, give the public confidence in your product and they'll more more apt to buy it.) Obviously, raise the price of Batch 2 - a considerable amount. But you've gotta make good, as soon as you can, because a couple things are happening in the gaming community (3DS/NGP) and eyes are turning elsewhere. Just the way it is.


The post on Engadget was hardly flattering. Any recast of this type of news headline will definitely pull in some fast money, but runs the risk of losing people who have been on the ride so far.

Thanks I was just about to post the same post just you did. Totally expresses my feelings and i am pretty sure a lot more peoples. And the more dissapointing thing is we were supporters of the process all along the way for like 2 years. Now someone who cancelled his order and got his refund (someone who abandoned the good cause of openpandora). Will now have the chance to get one before we supporters do. This really makes me sad. But thats how things work i guess

 

[gadgetoid]

Sheesh. You still paid upwards of £100 less than what people now have to pay. At least that's something in exchange for all this waiting. I'd love my Pandora yesterday as much as the next man, but I'm not going to get petty about someone buying it for £100 more, hopefully speeding up my order.


To those people who are cancelling and re-buying... you're basically shifting me up the queue *and* funding OpenPandora to speed my order up. I salute you, and your absurd amount of disposable income, or forgiving wife... or lack of wife.


For those who are buying a Pandora outright at $500. Welcome to the club. And thanks for your support.

 

[mahousaru]

Ah, this conjures up an age-old image for Los Angeles, New York, etc.: long lines of faithful people trying to enter a nightclub for $20 each, all of whom are kept waiting outside as the table-service/VIP/"let-me-slip-you-a-$100" folks bypass the line. That's what this looks like. Club Pandora.


Eventually, supposedly, you'll get in the club. Until they reach maximum capacity. In our case, that's the number of units that exist or will exist. And a lot of folks will only wait in line for so long before opting to go somewhere else. (The only way we're better-off is it's POSSIBLE for Club Pandora to grow in capacity.)


Which leads me to this: a fair number of folks have already dropped out, haven't they? (I'm positive a few folks canceled once news of this hit the 'net. Heck, I found out first on Engadget.) Rather than introduce a backdoor "get your Pandora in 7 days" scheme, why not take those cancellations, put them at the front of the Queue, and charge as much money as you can get for them? Heck, AUCTION them if that works out better. Thus, you largely preserve people's places in the Queue and it at least gives the impression that not just any schmo with $600-large can skirt the line and take "what would have been" my Pandora. Or as an alternative, set no more than 1-to-2 out of 10 produced Pandoras aside for auction/high price, to help fund the project, so as to not disrespect the remaining pre-orders, who have already paid full admission before getting in.


As an incentive for those left in the general line, if you're going to implement a "jump the line" scheme, you'd better give everyone who waited, who supported this project in the first place, a reason to wait even longer besides a promise of things proceeding more quickly. Seriously, how easily this could become another "false hope." Throw in a free LCD out. A free case. Something. Make them happy to wait, dangle a carrot to make them want to wait, willing to wait. "There are hot girls in Club Pandora. The music is awesome!" There have been so many promises broken, so many delays, that asking these people, myself included, to endure what is definitely perceived as a delay (no matter what anyone says), is reminiscent of asking someone for "just one more" favor after you've already exhausted your allocation.


As for the Batch 2 and beyond orders, why are these still being so undervalued? If these are being sold under-cost, you've got to raise the price. Simple. If you want to make some profit, for personal gain, to reinvest in Pandora or a future project, why hasn't that happened enough yet?


I'm also positive there haven't been more pre-orders for Batch 2 and beyond because Batch 1 hasn't been fulfilled yet. Honestly, who would pre-order now, after the history? If you take care of Batch 1, you'll get more people in line for Batch 2. (That is, give the public confidence in your product and they'll more more apt to buy it.) Obviously, raise the price of Batch 2 - a considerable amount. But you've gotta make good, as soon as you can, because a couple things are happening in the gaming community (3DS/NGP) and eyes are turning elsewhere. Just the way it is.


The post on Engadget was hardly flattering. Any recast of this type of news headline will definitely pull in some fast money, but runs the risk of losing people who have been on the ride so far.

Thanks I was just about to post the same post just you did. Totally expresses my feelings and i am pretty sure a lot more peoples. And the more dissapointing thing is we were supporters of the process all along the way for like 2 years. Now someone who cancelled his order and got his refund (someone who abandoned the good cause of openpandora). Will now have the chance to get one before we supporters do. This really makes me sad. But thats how things work i guess

The both of you really need to read the whole of this thread or even the stickied summary before letting an engadget post spank u...


Doesn't matter if *enter name of hated individual here* buys one, you should get yours faster then you would have before the premium pandy funded staff joined the team!


Rather then thinking of batch 1 and batch 2 and batch 3, think of us preorder folk which is an exclusive club with entries frozen. Like buying a collectors edition of a game, we paid a little less, but had to wait a lot longer (+2 months).


From the way I read Craig's posts the $500 dollar is the new price for the Pandy to ensure that we get ours and that there is a future for the Pandy (please correct me if I am wrong).


Just think of it as a different queue and that the people who missed the chance to pre-order are now funding for you to get yours quicker!


In the end we all end up as Pandy owners, so I personally would rather start my journey being grateful to everyone that made it possible including the "queue jumpers" who helped to fund it!


Just to clarify I am one of those queue jumpers, but I am also one of those first batchers

 

[Creature XL]

Sheesh. You still paid upwards of £100 less than what people now have to pay. At least that's something in exchange for all this waiting. I'd love my Pandora yesterday as much as the next man, but I'm not going to get petty about someone buying it for £100 more, hopefully speeding up my order.


To those people who are cancelling and re-buying... you're basically shifting me up the queue *and* funding OpenPandora to speed my order up. I salute you, and your absurd amount of disposable income, or forgiving wife... or lack of wife.


For those who are buying a Pandora outright at $500. Welcome to the club. And thanks for your support.

+$500

 

[arthurlag]

Sheesh. You still paid upwards of £100 less than what people now have to pay. At least that's something in exchange for all this waiting. I'd love my Pandora yesterday as much as the next man, but I'm not going to get petty about someone buying it for £100 more, hopefully speeding up my order.


To those people who are cancelling and re-buying... you're basically shifting me up the queue *and* funding OpenPandora to speed my order up. I salute you, and your absurd amount of disposable income, or forgiving wife... or lack of wife.


For those who are buying a Pandora outright at $500. Welcome to the club. And thanks for your support.

Don't Get me wrong but if 150 USD can buy me 2 years of time i would buy it. So what they are paying extra is actually nothing at all thinking the inflation.

 

[MarioPandio]

Wow big thread


I have just a few quick points:


1) A wise move by Craig and OPT has been made, it was nice to have been asked first but better that they went ahead anyway and I hope Craig went to sleep after making it live.


2) We will see what happens as a result but it should be win win.


3) Welcome to the forum to all the new folk, or those that have lurked silently for years and now felt the time to say there piece from whatever their perspective If this is the Pandora Night Club, the forum is like the Night at the Roxbury queue, where all the action really is and all the rest (of this thread particularly) is just people expressing where their love lies....

https://www.youtube.com/embed/gAjR4_CbPpQ?feature=oembed

Lmao

 

[Fzero]

If I can pay some additional £ to my preorder monies already paid, and get my original FB in a matter of days, I'd be all over this.


So if that's it, bell or pm me craig, I'll even save you post and drive to your roof to collect it


I do want the proper FB marked one though, so if those aren't shipping I'll wait till my place in the line [est 3500-3999] comes along

 

[angus454]

wow, this is certainly a creative idea to generate funding and potentially speed up production and delivery of the Pandora units. At the same time, quite frankly, this is an idea that should not be instituted with the first batch. I mean really now, many of us took the leap of faith and have waited patiently for almost 2 years, so can you cut us some slack and not make us wait even more? I understand the thought behind it and can see the potential benefit to the 1st batch folks like myself,but there is a thing called 'good will' that is important to a young organization and speaking only for myself, changing the delivery schedule at a time when production is finally underway in a consistant manner is just plain unfair. I really am looking forward to recieving the Pandora, please don't do this.

 

[Cobalt]

I personally think Craig's idea is fine.


When I pre-ordered, I thought the price was a little bit of a bargain. More than that though, one of the biggest selling points was the long term viability of Open Pandora and community support. I would rather that Open Pandora make a profit and produce more than two batches (i.e., a few thousand units) than receive my unit and have production shut down after one year.


It's kind of a moot point now, anyway. I'm looking forward to hearing about the results of Craig's decision in a later post.

 

[Timstertoo]

I think the idea is fine too. Not only that I think it's essential for survival.


I just wish everyone would stop repeating the fallacy that this will guaranteed speed up the proces for the 1st and 2nd batchers.


Let's do a little what if:


What if the whole of the 2nd batch realises they could be waiting over a year from now and does a mass cancellation and then orders the 7 day Pandora. Can OPT financially afford to stick to their guarantee or will they have to do those 4k first? And barter about not making the 7 days.


What if 50% of them do it? 25%? 10%?


What if 2k new people order them? Can they and should they be willing to say "No sorry, we have an obligation to our 1st batchers and we'll have to forego on the 1 million revenue"


And then OPT will run out of the first batch of cases before the 2nd batch is fulfilled. What happens then?


What if only 500 get ordered this week which would mean a nice financial boost that will greatly help OPT. Will they say no to 250 of them because otherwise the first batchers who are in line this week will get it a week later? And what happens if they sell another 700 next week?


I don't think it's a matter of choice but of necessity but let's just be honest about it and quit this it'll be faster for everyone guestimate. Because you should be hoping you can't keep that promise.


And no I'm not cancelling or whatever and I'm still trying to get the preview on that website and hopefully tv program and will do my upmost to get a nice review posted once I get my unit.

 

[mongoose]

basically more money means more staff and faster production (assuming the parts are there in good time) therefore everyone should be able to get there pandora faster.


i`ve just upgraded mine to priority and i just hope the extra money can help everyone get theirs faster.

 

[zapman]

I highly doubt that people will get a premium pandora in 7 days and original first batchers will also get their pandoras sooner. Maybe that could work if ALL pandora parts would pile up at Craigs place but at least a whole bunch of cases and boards are still missing..


Craig tended and still tends to flex the facts to his advantage, I don't like that. Tell me Craig, all you want to do with the extra money is employ 2 extra people? You wouldn't use the money to pay for batch 2 parts or even some parts or production cost from batch 1? Come on, I don't believe you! Be honest. Don't spoil your most loyal supporters.


Btw, I also doubt that the reason there aren't any TV-out cables yet is because "OPT has too much to do right now and no spare capacities". Yeah, right

 

[mongoose]

I highly doubt that people will get a premium pandora in 7 days

well,this is the first time i`ve been given a guarantee so i`ll at least give craig a chance.


also i`m sure he knows his limits and isn`t going to end up with new orders he cant fill.

 

[Tom`]

I would like to see this issue addressed: particularly once there are more people working on assembling Pandoras, will CC be able to continue to keep up with the demand for boards? Will they and Craig be able to do a decent amount of quality control?


Even now it seems that's not happening. The shoulder-button issue bothers me a bit, and seems to be pretty common - to the point that I wish I'd ordered from ED, even if it would add another week or two to the shipping time.

 

[frostfall]

I've seen a lot of post lately in this thread asking if the new system will create delays if it works too well.


I juste wanted to say that about 10 page ago, Craigix(Or perhaps ED? Could'nt remember!) mentionned that as soon as the maximum "7 days" Pandora has been bought, there will be no more until next time.


So in no way the 7 days pandora could cause more delays in the queue because of that...

 

[ZXDunny]

Deary me, what a laugh.


The priority for Craig is to sell all his Pandoras. For as much as possible, so he can clear the batches and concentrate on building up some stock. If this means charging $500 for a perceived increase in production speed, then that's what he'll do. Many of you have proved that you will wait for your Pandas (I did) and many have proved that they will not tolerate any more delays. So what if people drop out and cancel? More of them are waiting to buy (and probably pay more than the cancelled people did, so that's another win for Craig).


So to sum up - THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE WANTING A PANDORA THAN ARE WANTING TO CANCEL. So long as this situation continues, then you can bitch all you like about it, because even if you cancel it won't make any difference to OPT - and in fact, it will likely benefit them more now that Pandas are available for $500.


D.

 

[Trip]

For once I actually agree with something Dunny's said. Hell must surely be freezing over :mellow:

 

[Farewell]

On second thought, I wouldn't mind as that much as long as there are figures demonstrating a reasonable movement through the queue... And I foresee a shortage of components.