Rewards taking a nosedive?

[Fivetwelve]

I clicked on two recent projects I was curious about:

http://backerclub.co/project.php?id=12827 Evolution pants
http://backerclub.co/project.php?id=12773 Kira keyboard

Both of these 'rewards' really kill the point of being in BackerClub.

The first offers a hat for an extra $5 pledge. The second puts you into a draw for a $50 gift card.

I can get a hat at a dollar store or from AliExpress for less. I can participate in an office raffle.

Hey, backers, if you find similarly 'great' rewards, post the BackerClub project here and list the reward. I am curious to see if there is a growing trend of descending rewards. Race to the bottom, if you will.

—Victor

[Agentdave7]

Even some rewards outside of BackerClub make me scratch my head. Such as certain film campaigns. You can watch at $20-$25, but to own it that's $50+.

[StevenBackerClub]

This is an important topic and one we will discuss further with members in the near future. For now, let me address a few quick points:

1. At the end of the day, BackerClub is committed to providing value for both creators and backers, and we don't believe we should sacrifice one of those groups at the benefit of the other. We must balance the relationship between the two and arrive at a situation where both interests are aligned. Therefore, is it morally right to only accept a limited number of projects where the creators can provide huge perks for our members, thus skipping a large group of interesting projects that deserve our attention yet can't afford discounts on their reward tiers? If that were the case, BackerClub would essentially be a coupon-site and that's not our mission going forward. We hope to connect passionate backers with genuine/reliable entrepreneurs that can deliver upon an interesting idea. In fact, we think it might be a step in the right direction to shift the special perks towards personalization, limited editions, or "good for the society" style of perks rather than rewards that are strictly a monetary discount. The latter isn't truly in the spirit of crowdfunding.
2. BackerClub does not provide the special reward for our community in 95%+ of cases. They are provided (and paid for) by the creators. We provide the special perk only when we desperately want a high quality campaign to be a part of the Club for the benefit of our members, but the creators are refusing to offer any extra perks (especially of the monetary kind).
3. We are finding Kickstarter/Indiegogo are becoming more competitive every year. Thus, creators are forced to keep their pricing insanely low to have any chance at pledges. Many of them simply do not have the product margin or promotion budget to profitably offer greater incentives.

To be continued...

[arckal]

This is an important topic and one we will discuss further with members in the near future. For now, let me address a few quick points:

1. At the end of the day, BackerClub is committed to providing value for both creators and backers, and we don't believe we should sacrifice one of those groups at the benefit of the other. We must balance the relationship between the two and arrive at a situation where both interests are aligned. Therefore, is it morally right to only accept a limited number of projects where the creators can provide huge perks for our members, thus skipping a large group of interesting projects that deserve our attention yet can't afford discounts on their reward tiers? If that were the case, BackerClub would essentially be a coupon-site and that's not our mission going forward. We hope to connect passionate backers with genuine/reliable entrepreneurs that can deliver upon an interesting idea. In fact, we think it might be a step in the right direction to shift the special perks towards personalization, limited editions, or "good for the society" style of perks rather than rewards that are strictly a monetary discount. The latter isn't truly in the spirit of crowdfunding.
2. BackerClub does not provide the special reward for our community in 95%+ of cases. They are provided (and paid for) by the creators. We provide the special perk only when we desperately want a high quality campaign to be a part of the Club for the benefit of our members, but the creators are refusing to offer any extra perks (especially of the monetary kind).
3. We are finding Kickstarter/Indiegogo are becoming more competitive every year. Thus, creators are forced to keep their pricing insanely low to have any chance at pledges. Many of them simply do not have the product margin or promotion budget to profitably offer greater incentives.

To be continued...

I disagree completely with your point #1, why the hell someone will come here and update their stuff and talk the things? One best reason is price/perks are discount or better inn a way so that returning backers get best perks. Not to just post things here and share on social media. If you think this is another social then probably I'll take my business somewhere away from this club. About competitive prices between kickstarter and Indiegogo I see other wise situation here, everyone wants minimize their risk so they come to these plateform and offer a little discounts only even big players like Anki (Vector) etc. and the fact is the day after project is shipped to backers (actually same day) those items goes on sale on Amazon at heavy discounts so who lost here??? Backers she put money and risks thinking they will get the first to try at good discount but actually they are F#$## you know what I mean. Now about the small creators they add hefty shipping charges and swell their actual prices in rewards/perks to claim that they are offering a very steep discount, where it's not a discounted product anymore because of those two issues. to be continued....my response.

[nfo]

I sympathize, since (1) I've been disappointed by projects before, and (2) I love getting extra perks. But in the end, I use this as a way to hear about potentially interesting projects that I would have missed. The crowdfunding sites are getting really crowded, and I don't want to sort through everything that's out there (or rely only on the platforms themselves to highlight interest projects).

[StevenBackerClub]

I disagree completely with your point #1, why the hell someone will come here and update their stuff and talk the things? One best reason is price/perks are discount or better inn a way so that returning backers get best perks. Not to just post things here and share on social media. If you think this is another social then probably I'll take my business somewhere away from this club. About competitive prices between kickstarter and Indiegogo I see other wise situation here, everyone wants minimize their risk so they come to these plateform and offer a little discounts only even big players like Anki (Vector) etc. and the fact is the day after project is shipped to backers (actually same day) those items goes on sale on Amazon at heavy discounts so who lost here??? Backers she put money and risks thinking they will get the first to try at good discount but actually they are F#$## you know what I mean. Now about the small creators they add hefty shipping charges and swell their actual prices in rewards/perks to claim that they are offering a very steep discount, where it's not a discounted product anymore because of those two issues. to be continued....my response.

Hey Arc,

We appreciate your perspective and we understand the BackerClub special perks are an important aspect of our future. For now, please know that we don't intend on suddenly dropping the existence of perks on our platform. Far from it. We hope to revamp many aspects of BackerClub so that the total benefit for members far exceeds what it is today.
For special perks in particular, we simply hope to approach them in a way that is economically feasible for creators, and a great benefit for members. Our goal is to make both sides of our platform happy so that we can all benefit.

I sympathize, since (1) I've been disappointed by projects before, and (2) I love getting extra perks. But in the end, I use this as a way to hear about potentially interesting projects that I would have missed. The crowdfunding sites are getting really crowded, and I don't want to sort through everything that's out there (or rely only on the platforms themselves to highlight interest projects).

Thanks for the feedback, nfo.

We look forward to talking about this more in the near future with members.

[TECHODR]

Waiting for BACKER CLUB 2.0