The only way around this situation is limited artisans made with resin direct from the maker at high "original artwork" prices, then mass produced, like 100s to 1000s, at much lower "prints" prices. I'm still baffled that no one has adopted this yet, it has been the norm in the art world for decades.
There are no "prints" for any of my keycaps because they're ALL hand-made and hand-finished. I don't think anyone, myself included, really wants me to contract a factory to make copies of my keys so I can sell "prints."
But I'm all for opening a discussion to hear constructive feedback about what is wrong with artisan sales and how to fix any problems. My goal is to provide the best experience possible to someone who buys (or wants to buy) a Suited Up keycap. There are a lot of ways for me to reach that goal, so the challenge is determining what will get me the closest to the goal and with the fewest downsides.
Some steps I could take:
(1) Change to FCFS sales.
Good: If done correctly, reduces the chance of someone successfully "gaming" a sale. Sale can be resolved more quickly since orders and invoices can theoretically be taken and sent immediately. Some fans get their all of their top choice keycaps.
Bad: Unfair to many international buyers, people with conflicting schedules, slow internet connection, etc. The most sought-after keys end up in a few peoples' collections rather than being more evenly distributed.
Comment: There are ways to mitigate the bad effects here, but they can over-complicate the process. Generally the bad outweighs the good here when it comes to giving people the best experience possible, but sometimes it's just more convenient than other formats.
(2) Limit who can enter a sale aka "50 posts on Geekhack" minimum.
Good: Reduces cheating. Tends to get keys to those who actually want them. Supports loyal fans.
Bad: SO MANY fans are new/first-timers in each sale. New fans shouldn't be presumed to be cheaters. Gives off the appearance of an elitist or exclusive community.
Comment: I somehow want to do this (albeit in a relatively minimally restrictive way). I like how CtrlAlt has you sign up for an account in order to enter one of their sales. That seems like a reasonable hurdle to cross to enter a sale, along with other benefits like ensuring that each entrant is using a real address/email address. There are also some behind the scenes things you can do to improve sale speed and quality. I unfortunately haven't had any time to try to set up a website that can allow me to do this, but it's on my wishlist.
(3) Raise prices or use auction-like sales.
Good: Reduces flipping/aftermarket markup. Some fans would rather see the money go to the artist. Incentivizes the artist to pour more time and energy into each key, to push the "wow factor."
Bad: Increases barrier to entry for new fans. Can lead to an image issue like making the seller look greedy or out of touch. May reduce overall key quantity available.
Comment: I've been very happy to be able to sell keys at the prices I've used, but if there were some changes I could make to either the prices I use or how a sale works that emphasizes these good things and minimizes the bad, I'd love to hear your ideas.
(4) Change to "group buy" style sales aka HKP style.
Good: Everyone gets something from the sale. Increases availability of keycaps.
Bad: Reduces the uniqueness of each keycap. Fulfillment can take much longer. Diversity of what is offered in the sale usually goes down (unless it is blind box, which many people don't prefer). There are fewer sales in a given amount of time. Community-building trading can go down.
Comment: I'll probably try this style at some point if the subject matter of what is offered in the sale suggests it. I'm still mulling over whether this is a good way to go.
(5) Increase production.
Good: More fans get something. Increases availability of at least some keycaps.
Bad: Time between sales increases. Sale fulfillment time increases. Diversity of designs can go down, so each key may feel less special.
Comment: I have some plans in the works to address this idea.
Are there any other ideas from the rest of you about how to improve fans' experience? I'd love to hear what you have to say. Send me a PM if you prefer.
Thanks for all your feedback so far; it is much appreciated.
And I'll go ahead and reply to this as well...
I mean, I'm not sure if this is an audience problem/or crap RNG problem. I always seem to see mostly redditors/lack of geekhackers win your caps. I see more pics of them on MM than I do here lol. Probably just a coincidence.
Anyway, people will honest to god complain so much about FCFS and we'll whine about timezones/unfairness every time. It's not worth the hassle. You might even see the same winners over and over and people will get whiny about that.
GH post requirement...KEK. Shame you weren't here for when Brocaps attempted this ****. Basically bunch of redditors cried until he took away the post requirement. Plus, they were spamming GH. And really, I don't like people who just come here for caps and then leave. I want people to be a part of the community. Maybe if new people actually had an incentive they'd learn to participate, but again, probably wouldn't work because there's this huge sense of entitlement. You say it's reasonable, but just going to be *****ing.
Raising prices is a dumb idea. Hurts everyone, except you. It does not reduce flipping/aftermarket markup, not sure how you got this idea personally. If you are limiting the audience/number of caps made as well, it's just going to make your caps more "rare" or whatever idiots wanna call it these days, thus raising price/hype. Terrible. WRONG.
Group buys, no. Too much time, ****ty for you, less creativity involved, and you'd probably underestimate the number of orders you would get.
Increasing production...yea if this is just a hobby gig for you, don't do this unless you feel like it, not just to appease people.
As Hoff stated before, why not just limit the max caps people can get. It's funny though, you could get a max of 6 in this sale...but if you were in one of the naught/nice lists you got more than the 6 Max. That actually makes zero sense. I mean, you have a limited amount of product. If you actually want people to be happy, you'll limit the number of caps won, certainly lower than 6. More people having access will increase happiness then people will have to communicate with each other to get what they want. I only seem to see people who won 4+ actively trading those caps. People with less than that, I doubt they wanna trade their winnings as hard, since having less of something seems to increase the attachment feefees.
Doesn't matter though, people will complain about lowering max caps because they need trade fodder to get caps that are more popular than yours or something.
Also, I personally do not think a lot of people cheat in these sales. A lot of these 0 post accounts are from all over the world, and many people don't give a damn to post, all they want is a username for many of the sales around geekhack/reddit/etc.
