Am quite inspired by the ideas in the manga Liar Game.
Liar Game sounds like a game for liars, but that’s a trick on the author’s part to mislead the people involved in the ‘game’. In reality, Liar Game is not won by looking out for oneself, but by being wise, looking at the whole big picture, and coming up with win win solutions for everybody while accounting for the human weaknesses.
Many people look only for themselves. On this site there are people who would plunk down $1000 for some filthy vintage keyboard in a blurry ebay photo or $500 on one single keycap featuring some ugly skeleton or scowling monster, yet if you asked them to buy a few additional keycaps for a few bucks just so that MOQ can be met, these guys would act as though they had been robbed.
These relegendables are just ‘nice to haves’ for me. But if I come in to help meet the MOQ, it makes things cheaper for everyone, gets me keycaps at a lower per unit price, and I can still resell the excess later. As a guy who is perpetually late to group buys I can understand how frustrating it is when you want something and it is out of production and the only people who will sell are flippers looking for ‘market price’ aka hoping to make a profit.
Already by playing the part of the buyer and seller of last resort on GhostofHarry’s Tai Hao GB, I made things easier for Harry and everyone else without imposing any unfair costs on myself.
In a few months I may get a few very pretty sets of keycaps at an extremely modest price from Harry. I don’t need them, but they’re nice, and maybe a few years from now I will find some use for them?
I may also get nothing (and just my money back). That’s because some people who missed the GB have come in to ask to buy keycaps, and Harry has my permission to sell mine to them. In any case I still lose nothing, people get something, and everyone is still happy.
Now I do intend to cover my shipping costs. So if I buy more than I need, eventually I’ll resell at a 20-30% higher price than Group Buy price. But at least having someone hold a modest inventory is very helpful because there will almost always be people who missed the group buy and really want stuff from that GB. Having a seller who just covers costs is better than having some price gouger.
I have been talking endlessly about this Buyer and Seller of Last Resort concept, hoping to inspire more people to do the same. If we could have a CONUS person do this, things would be better. Inventory would be held at a lower cost basis since the CONUS person will run up lower shipping costs than me.
