Well I mean 7bit said it pretty well. Everyone here running group buys is making money doing them, if they aren't they're either extremely good-willed or stupid. As I said before the handling fee is insignificant both in terms of profit and in cost to the buyer. If I was to add a $3 fee for example, I'd still have only made $375 for doing the group buy... after well over 100 man hours into it, that's a paltry $3.75/hour or less. However even having a $3 fee would likely upset a lot of people and result in lower numbers and higher costs for everyone. The idea here is to encourage as many orders as possible, not to try and profit from the outset. In my opinion, and this is shared by 7bit and others here, it is more fair for me to make my money by taking advantage of the discounts and selling extras. If I don't order extras, I don't make jack, but if I order too many everyone gets upset because I didn't share the savings. I'm not sure if its just that nobody realized this until now, or whether everyone is simply making a stink about this now because for entirely separate reasons I'm able to sell for a much higher profit margin than normal.
I get that many are a little miffed that I bought up to the next discounts for my buy and since that costs less, was able to get the keys for an extremely low cost to myself. However nobody should expect me to try and distribute refunds or have to figure out some sort of shared savings plan for me doing so, since if I charge everyone the price at the quantity discount I actually paid for, then I would have to fund a large portion of the buy just to get the discounts. This **** is complicated enough as it is guys, don't expect me to blow off more of my time out of goodwill. I do have classes that require a large amount of my time.
I'm sure I'm repeating myself but that makes perfect sense to me and I've been completely open with everyone on what my policies are and willing to explain and work through any problems that arise. I will not however tolerate further trolling and threadcrapping so if anyone wants to continue to hate on this or any of my buys instead of amicably approaching me with feedback, go cry to your parents because you obviously still live at home and they're responsible for making everything better.
