So Oobly, how would you characterize the advantages and disadvantages of each keyset delivery site/vehicle that we have now?
Ooh.. that is the million dollar question. Right now, the new PMK is really a big unknown, although we can extrapolate from information we have as to how it will most likely work out.
This will be a big post, sorry in advance...
Massdrop is best for big numbers. Simply because it's a popular site which gives exposure to people outside of the DT / GH / /r/mech communities. And it's an easy platform to order from, with good visual layout, etc. So you get a lot of orders from people who see the set listed and think "I like that, gimme one". The costs involved are a bit higher than with PMK or self-organised GBs since MD have their own fee, but it's less hassle for organisers since MD take care of managing funds, creating the bulk order with SP and sorting and shipping. They've had some "bad press" for the method of shipping used for Triumph Adler, but subsequent sets have been packaged better. I'm not aware of any "control" issues, but perhaps someone like tombery, Data or livingspeedbump could give some more feedback in this regard, since their sets have been run through MD.
"Тraditional", self-organised GBs are lot of work and hassle for an organiser, but you get to control everything about the run and the costs are minimised. In some cases, proxies are arranged, too, which reduces the overall costs for foreign buyers, too. Most designers / organisers nowadays find this too much work, but there are still some who do it. Paypal have recently changed their system a bit which makes collecting payments for a self-run GB a PITA, though, since they are locking accounts.
The "new" PMK site is the wildcard right now. They have a few things which I think will not work very well, but some that could be very beneficial. They definitely should chage the "Interest Check" part of the process, at the very least in name, since that stage is more like the voting stage at MD or the actual taking orders stage. The true interest check is complete by the time a set gets to the PMK site, as confirmed by SP. They want the design ready for production before submission to them. They have already changed their "License and Royalties" terms after the feedback in the other mentioned thread and I have been in dialogue with Bob Guenser (owner of SP) about further "improvements". The biggest remaining problem with the current "IC" voting system is that they don't get an accurate view of the total number of people who will buy the set from that. Just a vague notion of if the set is popular or not. That's not enough information to accurately guage how many sets to make and they have a history of getting it wrong (with the old site). They need to change it to a time based system and make it an "intent to buy" / preorder request rather than an interest check to get real numbers of how many will buy it.
In terms of speed to production, it's largely dependent on how SP manages things. In a sense, large orders from MD can be seen as proper client orders and should be treated as such, which should mean they get precedence over "internal" SP / PMK orders. On the other hand, SP usually handle things with "slots", so when a new run is planned they reserve a production slot for the run in their queue. Let's assume that both would be managed the same way by SP, so both would get the same production slot if they were requested / reserved at the same time:
MD: IC is done on GH / DT / Reddit. Towards completion of the design, they contact MD, MD then opens a poll for the set. This can be done before the design is complete, but after a good portion is done, so people have a decent impression of the set. If after voting the set is desired by MD, they start to arrange the MD buy, including getting quotes from SP and
requesting production slot and estimated date from them. MD may skip the vote / poll if they think the set will be popular and go straight to the sale stage. An important thing to note is that the design can be changed during the ordering stage of an MD buy, although most should be pretty much complete before the buy starts. This is important because if there is feedback during the buy that something is missing / incorrect, it can be fixed before the order is placed with SP (ideally this should happen at the IC stage, but with the larger audience of MD sometimes things are only noticed at this stage). Then the ordering starts and runs for a certain time period, after which the order is placed and estimated dates are updated to match the production numbers.
PMK: IC is done on GH / DT / Reddit. Once the design is complete and all kits finalised, the set can be submitted to the site. At their discretion, PMK will put the set up for votes. Once a certain number of votes is reached, they decide if they want to run the set or not. If they decide to, they reserve a production slot. Once the production run has started (or perhaps only once it's complete), they put the set up as a product on their online store. Note how the slot is only decided after the "IC" / voting stage and is completely at the discretion of SP. Note also how a person who wants the set cannot guarantee their place in the GB and needs to buy the set as a product only once production starts / finishes. It's also up to the designer to inform everyone at every stage what's going on. SP has no mechanism yet to inform people of the status of a set between submission and production or estimated production dates.
So if two sets get an IC started at the same time on GH, the one going through MD can get the production slot reserved sooner and thus will end up in your hands quicker. It also allows you to simply order it very soon after the design is completed / as it goes up on MD instead of having to wait for production to start and then quickly trying to buy it on PMK before they're sold out (which could well happen if they keep the current voting system).
I have already informed SP of my thoughts on these matters and suggested improvements to make it work better, but I'm considering adding yet another suggestion. It's very hard / practically impossible for them to judge how many of each child kit to make to go with the base set. You only really know these numbers after a set is run using MD or traditional methods. If they go ahead with the current system, it's likely they'll over / under produce the child kits and either some people won't get the kits they want (which they would through MD) or SP ends up with excess stock of kits they can't sell (which is just bad for the bottom line). If they were to change the "IC" on their site to a true "preorders" section, essentially the same as MD, they can collect your order there, including the child kits and you don't need to go back and "buy" it later. They then get the full picture of how many child kits to make for all preorders and that gives them an idea of how many extras to make. OR.... they could only offer the child kits with the preorders and simply make base kits (plus numpads) to sell as products on the store afterwards. This is akin to what I mentioned in the start of the thread, with all "special" caps only available in the preorders / GB stage.
Another problem is even if they know they should do another run of a set, unless orders for new sets stop coming in, they'll never get a slot for producing it. This has in fact happened with 1976. Their machines are constantly busy with sets ordered on MD and they can't fit the set in.
It's all a big unknown and it's not even settled / finalised yet, so most designers are happier to use MD right now, since it's at least familiar and they know they can get big numbers and guaranteed production of all ordered kits.
