Feasibility of pre-pay?

If Windstone did do some sort of pre-pay/order-esque system for regular store products I’d imagine the amount available for pre-order would have to be limited based on production capacity, so now you’re right back to where you started with the availability issue.

How about a “I want to purchase this” button. When the amount of people who want to purchase this hits a certain amount (like 10 maybe) then that item is front lined for production/paint.

That way Windstone knows it won’t have product sitting and there is incentive to produce them.

This is basically a “reserve”. You’re paying in advance to reserve a product. Think of how the kick starter dragons went… those were basically reserve (“pre-pay”) items, but still plenty of people seemed to be upset (I didn’t really follow the whole kickstarter thing, but that’s what I got from what I did see).
Now if it was a reserve for only one paint scheme it might have gone more smoothly. But with the kickstarter issues in mind, I do not believe it’s viable for windstone to do reserve items.

Courtney wrote:

How about a “I want to purchase this” button. When the amount of people who want to purchase this hits a certain amount (like 10 maybe) then that item is front lined for production/paint.

That way Windstone knows it won’t have product sitting and there is incentive to produce them.

That’s basically what the waiting list is. Windstone has stated that they produce out of stock items in order of how many people are on a wait list. If one item has 15 people on the list and another only 5, they will make the 15-on-wait-list first. At least, this is what I remember Susie mentioning.

We don’t do pre-pay or layaway…it is just too much hassle for Susie to deal with. Believe me, she’s got enough to do!
For a while, we were toying with the idea of having a “Windstone club” that would allow members to order stuff ahead of when they were available to others, but then again, somebody would have to manage it, and it would be a hassle. I really wish there were better ways to do these grabbags. Haven’t come up with anything better!

I don’t think your idea is bad at all Bodine as far as the Grab Bags are concerned. Quietly putting them in the store, like when a new color LP scheme is launched, might be a good idea. That may lessen the aggravation and stress some experience waiting for the dreaded GB Drop, and the ensuing website/cart crashes. And – I may get yelled at for this – if this suggestion is tried it might also be good to reinstitute a ‘one per customer’ rule at the beginning – to include all batches for a GB sculpt – unless Melody has 100+ painted of each batch/scheme perhaps. This would mean that a person would only be able to get one per for the total GB, no matter which batch option a person selected, And then don’t lift the limits for five or six days to give people time to be able to get one (get funds/paychecks cashed, etc.) who couldn’t get in on the first buying wave.

Ela_Hara wrote:

I don’t think your idea is bad at all Bodine as far as the Grab Bags are concerned. Quietly putting them in the store, like when a new color LP scheme is launched, might be a good idea. That may lessen the aggravation and stress some experience waiting for the dreaded GB Drop, and the ensuing website/cart crashes. And – I may get yelled at for this – if this suggestion is tried it might also be good to reinstitute a ‘one per customer’ rule at the beginning – to include all batches for a GB sculpt – unless Melody has 100+ painted of each batch/scheme perhaps. This would mean that a person would only be able to get one per for the total GB, no matter which batch option a person selected, And then don’t lift the limits for five or six days to give people time to be able to get one (get funds/paychecks cashed, etc.) who couldn’t get in on the first buying wave.

I think this has been suggested a few times now and Windstone keeps deciding how they feel each grab bag should be allowed per batch. The gb oris were pick 1 of 1 batch at first I think and they still sold out super fast. Unfortunately, nothing is going to stop the people who keep using multiple accounts to continually purchase over the limits they are allowed. And I’m not talking about gifts or blind trades.

Bodine wrote:

I know I’m going to get flamed for this but um…don’t announce them.Word of mouth caries very quickly as it is.

While one part of me agrees with this sentiment because it would reward the folks who are more loyal in a sense to the forum the other part of me knows as a company Windstone would want to advertise their product as much as possible so they can continue to sell out their products batch after batch and keep the excitement strong to ensure the business survival. Double sided sword there a bit… I do kind of like how the email announcements have been a little lagging just because it gives members who frequent the forum often a bit of a head start. It might just be a coincidence with a systems glitch, but it has kind of felt like that lately and I’m not complaining LOL.