Backerx

[Jamesema]

Can you give us some examples of what we might get for our monthly subscription? How many projects a month will be promoted this way? How are the projects selected, and vetted? Is the 80% discount an "up to" thing or going to be a standard Backerx rate? Thanks.

[Ron Hollatz]

Is this legit or did someone get a hold of your user list?

[Wilberforce]

$79/month is a lot to ask considering that it's totally blind, and we literally have no idea what type of project will be involved. I'd need to at least think it was likely I'd save more than I'd spend.

[PortableTech]

I have to admit, I am really wondering if this is even legit at this point. It seems quite odd that a BackerClub Co-Founder would sponsor this and not have some more details.

Here is the other problem with the email that went out. The URL used has no code or unique id attached to it, so anyone who goes to that special landing page, regardless of qualifications, can sign up. If you go to the main home page however it makes it appear you need a special code. Clearly something is either off here, they have a very poor web designer, or they really are not trying to be as exclusive as they claim and will take as many signups as they can get.

BackerClub Admins, can you please weigh in on this?

[Mark Baker]

Hi all,

Yes, BackerX is legitimate. I understand people's hesitation about the price and the unknown factor of what projects will be offered. Our goal is obviously to give you a greater value than the $79 listing fee is discounts on projects. We've had a great response from project creators on this so we anticipate to have plenty of great rewards to offer the members.

If you have more specific questions please email directly my personal email at [email protected] as I don't use this forum on a regular basis.

Mark - Co-Founder

[OgreSauce]

BackerX is totally legit. I am a creator that has benefited from using BackerX. In our case, Backers are getting some suuuuper cheap BBQ sauce, and we get backers. Win! Mark from Backerclub/BackerX contacted me directly to make sure the deal is dope for both parties. Very cool.

Check us out BackerX'ers
http://backerclub.co/project.php?id=8092

[Nolan D.]

Edit: The below analysis is now outdated, as BackerX has moved to a one-time membership fee model for 50% discounts. That said, I'll leave it here for posterity.
In particular, it is now much easier to break even, since it has become possible to make a net savings on months with less than $79 worth of discounts.

--------------------------

Crunching some numbers on this, it looks like this program will result in breaking even for a user if they expect to pledge for at least around $200 worth of (pre-discount) rewards within one month (totaling $40 when discounted).
This can also happen over multiple months, but the total required pre-discount value will grow higher by $79 for each month it takes (~$16 discounted).

Breaking it down:
With the info from the second email, if a backer spends less than $79, their credit is $79-(discounts) -- in other words, they will directly pay back any discounts with membership fees.
If a backer gains exactly $79 in discounts, they reach the maximum equilibrium: they will pay the full membership fee the next month. So anything <= $79 in a month produces a net sum of 0, meaning a total cost over the entire subscription of $79.

As they mention, the game changes when a backer receives a discount of over $79.

Once this threshold is broken, the net savings in a given month becomes $(discounts)-79. A discount of $80 means a savings of $1 for that month.
Because the initial cost was $79, the total cost of the subscription becomes ((monthly savings) - 79) - 79

At the best case scenario, if a backer makes $158 in savings in one month, they will break even immediately: ( (158-79) -79) = 0. If a discount is 80% the reward value, this is 158/0.8 = $197.50 worth of pre-discount pledges (for which they paid $39.50 - pretty good!).
At the worst case scenario, a backer making $80 of savings per month would need (79*80) = $6,320 in discounts over ~6.5 years to break even. (That's a $7,900 pledge value for $1,580 - good if you can actually manage it)

It's important to note that we can't count any months with savings at/under $79, since these neither contribute to or subtract from lifetime subscription cost. Any month like this just pushes the lifetime cost forward with no change.

In between the two extreme examples, we can show that the amount of money it takes to break even will always be $((79*#months)+79).
This makes sense - every month you'd have to exceed $79 to make any progress, and the amount you exceed goes toward the original $79 that started the subscription. Once you've broken even, you'll start seeing benefits from any month with discounts >$79.


What does this mean? (tl;dr)

• Pros
• Lifetime cost caps at $79.
• Benefits do exist under specific circumstances.
  Cons
• Any month with less than $79 discount is essentially a $0 discount.
• No guarantee there will be enough projects you like to reach $79 in a month.
• Breaking even takes a big month or a long time.

If you back a lot (a LOT), or you get lucky with many interesting/expensive projects in one month, you'll likely see benefits from this program. Otherwise, you will probably be out somewhere between 0-$79 for quite a while, gradually chipping away at the initial fee. You aren't "sure to come out ahead" -- you're just guaranteed not to slide backward.

[Shrink]

How do I sign up for BackerX?

[denine99]

How do I sign up for BackerX?

You might not want to sign up right now. I just joined and saw that the product I wanted to back at discount had all its offers taken.

The way this works is that when a project agrees to join BackerX, they select a number of perks to provide at 50% discount, as well as a number of slots available for each perk. (Note that the fee structure changed to a one-time fee, and the discount changed from 80% to 50%.)

The number of available slots is a limiting factor. If there are, say, 200 members of BackerX when a popular project joins into the BackerX program, and the new project only offers 20 slots, then only 20 out of the 200 will get to back at the 50% discount. The rest can back through Kickstarter/Indiegogo like normal people or choose to not back at all.

We're pretty much subject to the ability of Mark et al to solicit more and more projects and slots the larger the BackerX membership grows. If Mark et al are successful, then BackerX could work out very well. If not, then those of us slow to log on to BackerX will face disappointment at having lost the open slots to our fellow members, and our membership fee will reap no value.

So, unless Mark et al is exceptionally skilled at recruiting projects, each person that joins BackerX only dilutes the value of a BackerX membership. Mark, on the other hand, collects $79 from every new member. Incentive mismatch, eh?

Now that I see the inherent competition between BackerX members resulting from the slot system, I wish I could reverse the $79 payment I just made. Perhaps I could transfer my account to you, if you don't mind the risk ~,~`

[Toren]

It seems the owners are using backer x to promote backerclub, I have stopped updating my pledges and almost stopped backing backerclub projects. While Backerclub is still a part of my KS and IGG profiles, I feel the owners have turned their backs on the people who have built their business.