This isn't kickstarter. When I pay for something, I expect to receive it in a reasonable amount of time, or at least receive an explanation of what's going on. A little transparency would go a long way.
Definitely not the norm. Email me directly with your info and I'll dig into it now.
Emile Founder of Tindie Emile{at}tindie[dot]com
Sometimes conversations here can get a little sharp-elbowed, but I can't help but think I'm getting downvoted because I said something marginally negative about Tindie.
Is this what HN is becoming -- say something nice, or don't say anything at all?
Just saw this was picking up steam so if you have any questions, happy to answer them! Some might remember me from my posts a few years ago when I quit my job to learn how to code. Happy to answer any of those questions as well...
Emile
Founder of Tindie
Tindie Fundraisers just seem to have disappeared; what happened to them?
How do you regulate the marketplace competition? Do you let overseas companies copy a maker's product and sell it for a lower price?
I have a lot of friends, myself included, who started selling their items on Ebay, PayPal's button, or some variant of Magento. Nearly all of them have moved their shops to Tindie. When I was at PyCon, I happened to run into people I knew (independently!) at their booth.
I'm still not sure exactly how they'll reach profitability (they only take 5%) and I'd love to see better tools for sellers (a la shipping.) But I really like what these folks are doing!
I realize that I'll never make enough income to replace a normal job building this sort of stuff, so a way to make small runs of useful things and actually get them to people who are interested sounds pretty appealing.
As is, I just post stuff I'm making on blog.saikoled.com, but when I have some time I'll definitely look at putting up useful gadgets on something like this. I just don't have the interest to quit working on my real company, get enough investment/funding to make a serious product, and deal with the stress of pitching it to people on kickstarter =P
To the founder, I would approach them for an advertising deal if at all possible.
http://hackaday.com/2012/04/30/tindie-an-etsy-for-electronic... http://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/an-etsy-for-electronics/
Actually pricing what a Kickstarter "backing" offer should cost like is a lot like pricing financial derivatives. By offering to back a project, you're swapping a call option for something like a CDO - there are tranches, there are levels of haircuts, etc. etc.
Tindie is just Etsy for Arduino hackers. Congratulations for cutting that Gordian knot!
I was sad the day the "Supplies" category of product was retired, since there was plenty of stuff available which is hard to find, or just way more expensive, but I understand the need to focus and try to find a clear niche.
Speaking of Kickstarter, it seems possible for the two to co-operate: there's at least one product (Nick Johnson's "Re:Load Pro" active DC load) that I've backed on Kickstarter, and on the day the funding was complete I noticed it's also available (as a pre-order) on Tindie.
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickjohnson/re-load-pro..., and Tindie: https://www.tindie.com/products/arachnidlabs/reload-pro/.
