Where has the thread I commented in gone ?

[WorldTripping]

Last week there was a thread started in the 'Ask Craig' sections.


It was specifically about how many units were in the next batch to be sent from ED to Craig.


I was the second person to comment as this is something that I would like to know too, as I'm about 7 units away from my upgraded pre-order (Oct 2008) being shipped.


Today I can't find the thread, nor is there any trace of it in the 'My Content' part of my profile.


Can someone tell me:


1) What has happened to the thread, are we censoring content these day?


2) Has anyone any idea when units are coming from ED to Craig?


Cheers.

 

[Tobs]

Hi, that was my question I believe. Sony hides questions there to give Craig a chance to answer them, before they get many possibly inaccurate answers (it now says this in the rules there). I emailed (and so did someone here) after Craig didn't respond, and it looks like the next shipment should be due in 7-10 days, and orders should be dispatched from that.


Pretty annoyed that despite producing 100+ a week, Craig is only getting ~20-30 every month. Unless there's some temporary stall, or Craig is getting a hundred pandoras. I guess what we need is a way for people to ask Craig questions, then he could let us know what's happening.

 

[EvilDragon]

Craig is getting the same amount of numbers I get for my classic customers.


There's no difference in the number of these "free" units.


He is also free to buy as many additional numbers he needs for production costs to sell to new customers, same for me.


All units I (or Link) sell to new customers add money into the "classic preorder units"-pot.


The money from this pot is used to cover the costs for the old outstanding preorders.


These are evenly shared between Craig and me.


Aditionally, ALL profit I make with any articles I sell in my shop (Everdrives, Caanoos, Pandora Upgrades, etc.) go into that pot as well.


So basically, my shop hasn't made any profit since October last year, every single Cent of that goes into funding both Craigs and my old preorders.

 

[Tobs]

Hi ED. I really do appreciate the work which goes in to making sure that classic preorders are still delivered, despite you making a loss.


The thing is, there's around 30 orders (including the OP and I) which were upgraded a month or more ago, but haven't been shipped. I might be wrong, but I thought upgraded orders really helped you guys out (one less classic pre-order, one extra full-price order) and so would speed up shipping?

 

[EvilDragon]

Upgraded orders sure do help, but the upgrade price is still much lower than the production costs, so while upgrades get shipped faster, they cannot be shipped immediately. We would run out of money instantly with that.


As far as I know, Craig uses the upgrades to keep his company going (shipping costs, wages, room rent, etc.).


Craigs company (OpenPandora Ltd.) only has the Pandora, so even if he gets units from me for his old preorders, he still has to finance shipping costs and other monthly expenses, that's why the only way for him to cover the costs is using money from the upgrades.


My company (OpenPandora GmbH) is running the gp2x Shop, so monthly expenses, wages, etc. are paid with all the items I sell. So I can use the upgrade money to finance classic preorders as well - and I'm even using this money to not only fund the units of my customers, but also the ones for Craigs.


Thanks to the 1GHz units, there should be more money coming in into Craigs Shop as well which will help funding more classic preorders, but right now, he is funding his company and I'm funding and providing both mine and his customers units.

 

[Grench]

Upgraded orders sure do help, but the upgrade price is still much lower than the production costs, so while upgrades get shipped faster, they cannot be shipped immediately. We would run out of money instantly with that.

I understand the math involved and that you can't 'count' the initial pre-order $$$/EUR because they're used & gone. But from an up-grader's perspective, they've sent you (through two payments) the same net $$$ or EUR that someone buying today did plus they had 'the wait'. That bit might be a bit difficult to digest.


I hope the 1Ghz units sell well enough to finally clear the backlog.

 

[macsimus]

Upgraded orders sure do help, but the upgrade price is still much lower than the production costs, so while upgrades get shipped faster, they cannot be shipped immediately. We would run out of money instantly with that.

I understand the math involved and that you can't 'count' the initial pre-order $$$/EUR because they're used & gone. But from an up-grader's perspective, they've sent you (through two payments) the same net $$$ or EUR that someone buying today did plus they had 'the wait'. That bit might be a bit difficult to digest.


I hope the 1Ghz units sell well enough to finally clear the backlog.

^^ This..


This is sad. I truly thought upgrading would accelerate my pandora delivery, but right now i'm not so sure anymore, 2.5 months after the upgrade..


I'm not even mad at the team after all this time, just sad for myself. My portable neogeo/arcade dreams are fading after 3.5 years, and I can't blame anyone for this.


The saddest part is the fact that if I had not pre ordered, I would have it now.. this strikes me the most as I'm on the verge on completely changing my homeplace and life.


The magic is partly gone


Now, I just hope to get it before end of august, getting it before would be a very good surprise, and after, another desillusion.


Kisses


Mac

 

[LineOf7s]

Remember the Good Ole Days (long long ago) when OpenPandora *appreciated* preorderers for making this whole venture happen?


Now it seems even paying extra to "upgrade" your queue position isn't enough to remove the stink of inconvenient obligation.


Sad.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, I can't do much here. I personally didn't accept the upgrade money until I had the units ready (so I informed the interested customers when that was the case), but I can't tell Craig how to handle his shop and customers. Maybe he thought he'd get the units faster.


We handle things in different ways, and if you ask me, there were times when the way Craig handles things really were the best way (I'm often too soft to be a good businessman, I would've never gotten the idea to ask for upgrade prices... but these were vital, even if I personally don't like that...) and there were times when my way of handling things would be better.


I doubt we'd still be alive and producing if only one of us was doing this.


The most important thing right now is to promote and build up as much money as possible so that both mine and Craigs preorder queue will be cleared as fast as possible.

 

[quartercast]

What is the production cost difference between upgrading from classic, and upgrading to a 'premium' order?


Should there be another upgrade including both, like upgrading to platinum? I.e. upgrade your unit AND the order itself.

 

[WorldTripping]

I emailed (and so did someone here) after Craig didn't respond, and it looks like the next shipment should be due in 7-10 days, and orders should be dispatched from that.

I had to recently change my delivery address, and in the response Jacqueline mentioned that mine (upgraded mid-April) would be in the next shipment from ED, which was likely to arrive within 10 days or so.

Cheers Toby, I'd missed that post as the signal to noise ratio can be quite high.

I guess what we need is a way for people to ask Craig questions, then he could let us know what's happening.

That would be ace wouldn't it, a place where we could post questions for Craig and see when they had been answered. And if someone posted a comment before he officially answered, well we could just choose to ignore it. What a fantastic idea, it should be implemented at once!


And ED, I think that most people who have been here since the beginning know how much time and effort everyone involved has invested in this project. I really didn't want to dig up any old discussions, I just wondered when you were next mailing a box of Pandoras to Craig, as I am pretty sure that one of them will have my name on it.


Cheers.