ASICMiner USB group buy- orders closed, pay for extra!

[shep80]

I'm in for 1 to check them out.

[ensign_lee]

Please put me down for 5.

2.05 (shipping cost of .05 bitcoin) seems fair to me.

[arklan]

Please put me down for 5.

2.05 (shipping cost of .05 bitcoin) seems fair to me.

note that with john doing escrow, there's an additional 2% of the total fee. so, assuming we order exactly 300 and each have a .05 shipping and handling, that's 2.0808 per unit, for a total of 624.24.

currently we have:
arklan 1
bigbeninlondon 1
hepaist0s 2
BlackLilac Grant 10
johnny5 15
Stevenrm87 1
AForceNinja 5
DPoS 4
CanaryInTheMine 1
Bogart 10
Oaxaca 10
Photon939 2
purplesquid 5
zapeta 5
GreatBug 5
thoughtcourier 1
Herbalconfusion 5
Pez 1
finalmoney 10
cchan 5
el3ctrophile 4
logicbomb666 1
win07 1
bitcoinmike 4
noitev 1
DeveloperFish 5
chaxattack 2
muyuu 2
shep80 1
ensign_lee 5

for a total of 124. 176 remaining!

[ensign_lee]

I'm unfamiliar with using John K as escrow. Does he have a thread on his escrow services?

[wa4hsh]

Put me down for 2 please.

[arklan]

I'm unfamiliar with using John K as escrow. Does he have a thread on his escrow services?

yup!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=141672.0

[wsoei]

I'm unfamiliar with using John K as escrow. Does he have a thread on his escrow services?

He's a forum mod that's been doing escrow for a long time.  He's done it for a lot of group buys.

[silverbox]

Put me down for 1.  left coast USA.

[Klestin]

Although the financials of this don't really seem to make sense, what the hell, put me down for 2.  With the BFL perpetuqueue, this may be the only way I can actually have an ASIC.

[arklan]

currently we have:
arklan 1
bigbeninlondon 1
hepaist0s 2
BlackLilac Grant 10
johnny5 15
Stevenrm87 1
AForceNinja 5
DPoS 4
CanaryInTheMine 1
Bogart 10
Oaxaca 10
Photon939 2
purplesquid 5
zapeta 5
GreatBug 5
thoughtcourier 1
Herbalconfusion 5
Pez 1
finalmoney 10
cchan 5
el3ctrophile 4
logicbomb666 1
win07 1
bitcoinmike 4
noitev 1
DeveloperFish 5
chaxattack 2
muyuu 2
shep80 1
ensign_lee 5
wa4hsh 2
silverbox 1
Klestin 2

for a total of 129. 171 remaining!

[Timzim103]

Please put me down for 4 units. I'm in Wisconsin. Thanks a bunch.

[Xian01]

 Just did the math for these @ 2BTC each, and you are better off buying a 7970 instead of two of these USB devices if you are cost/performance minded.

 As much as I want to drink the Koolaid, having a very uneasy feeling committing to this round :|

[twobits]

I'll take 3

[twobits]

note that with john doing escrow, there's an additional 2% of the total fee. so, assuming we order exactly 300 and each have a .05 shipping and handling, that's 2.0808 per unit, for a total of 624.24.

I think I am missing the point of the escrow in this case.  All it is insuring is that your pass the funds to asci miner as I understand it.   It will not ensure that you actually then ship the miner on to us.  If that is the case I would rather not pay 2% for something that really adds little protection.

[arklan]

note that with john doing escrow, there's an additional 2% of the total fee. so, assuming we order exactly 300 and each have a .05 shipping and handling, that's 2.0808 per unit, for a total of 624.24.

I think I am missing the point of the escrow in this case.  All it is insuring is that your pass the funds to asci miner as I understand it.   It will not ensure that you actually then ship the miner on to us.  If that is the case I would rather not pay 2% for something that really adds little protection.

you have a point. no matter what we do, the miners have to be mailed to a single person, who then sends them on. that is, obviously, the nature of the group buy. hmm.

i will gladly provide any identifying information or do whatever i can to assuage any concerns on this. for example, my real (legal!) name actually IS Arklan. Arklan Uth Oslin. anything you see relating to that name on google is 99% guaranteed to be me.

the only reason i added escrow was people expressed wanting it. hmm. now i'm unsure how best to proceed here.

[oaxaca]

note that with john doing escrow, there's an additional 2% of the total fee. so, assuming we order exactly 300 and each have a .05 shipping and handling, that's 2.0808 per unit, for a total of 624.24.

I think I am missing the point of the escrow in this case.  All it is insuring is that your pass the funds to asci miner as I understand it.   It will not ensure that you actually then ship the miner on to us.  If that is the case I would rather not pay 2% for something that really adds little protection.

you have a point. no matter what we do, the miners have to be mailed to a single person, who then sends them on. that is, obviously, the nature of the group buy. hmm.

i will gladly provide any identifying information or do whatever i can to assuage any concerns on this. for example, my real (legal!) name actually IS Arklan. Arklan Uth Oslin. anything you see relating to that name on google is 99% guaranteed to be me.

the only reason i added escrow was people expressed wanting it. hmm. now i'm unsure how best to proceed here.

I was just going to post the same brain freeze.  Sending the BTC to John's address and then having him forward the BTC to Friedcat is only half the battle.  The much larger task is opening a big box and posting lots of little ones.  Not to mention the "run-away-with-the-boxes" problem.  Nothing against you arlkan, it's the same concern with any user on a forum that this set of buyers doesn't know personally. 

[Klestin]

Perhaps provide the identification information directly to John and he can verify here?

[PeZ]

Just did the math for these @ 2BTC each, and you are better off buying a 7970 instead of two of these USB devices if you are cost/performance minded.

 As much as I want to drink the Koolaid, having a very uneasy feeling committing to this round :|

Bear in mind that a 7970 uses 195 Watts while two of these would be around 5 Watts. My concern is how robust these devices are.

[John (John K.)]

Perhaps provide the identification information directly to John and he can verify here?

I can do this escrow as what I did in the last here where I held various identifying information by the OP:

I have received the email from OP and I'll verify it when I get home. I'm on mobile currently. Thanks.

I confirm I have received the following from OP
:

1. A scan of my driver's license.
2. A picture of me holding and showing my driver's license.

In addition to the docs above, I also received a utility bill scan (with the address confirmed as the shipping address, and the operator's full legal name), exterior photo of the house with OP within, and a photo where the house's number is clearly in place.

[purplesquid]

I propose a solution to the distribution problem: Payment.

Essentially, the group buy total would figure in a percentage that Arklan decides is fair for his labor in divvying up the packages. JohnK will receive all the funds, and place the group order shipped to Arklan. The leftover amount should be remaining individual shipping costs and Arklan's fee which will be released as soon as proof of delivery is shown to JohnK of these orders from Arklan (via delivery conf #'s). Since John is asking 2% I think this would be a fair service to ask of him, to place a group order and to pay the bounty to Arklan upon success.

We need a total group buy price. Currently each is estimated at 2.0808 which includes John's fee and an assumed shipping cost of 0.05 per unit = 624.24 Shipping assumes all these buys stay in domestic USA, which I believe it was intended to at some point.

Arklan, how much time/money do you need to make sure get all these out? Since JohnK is highly repped and charging 2% I think maybe 1% is fair for this group buy, about 6 btc.

At these terms:

cost           =       units          +       shipping     *    fees
630.36 BTC = (300*1.99btc)    + (300*0.05btc)  *   (1.03)

Grand Total of 2.1012 BTC per device. A price difference of 0.0204 but motivates everyone to play more fair?

Feel free to take shits all over this, I am sure it could be improved and modified but maybe something like this could work....