Lately I’ve been reexamining my relationship to Kickstarter. Like all websites that suddenly take off, how you used it when it first arrived on the scene will inevitably give way over time to something new and different. Remember how you used to interact with Aamzon when it first appeared? or Google? Things are very different now. But I think the most relevant analog to Kicstarter may be eBay.
Once upon a time, I used to enjoy going to flea markets with my parents. There would be aisles and aisles of complete junk, and, every once in a great while, you’d find a treasure. Only it was a treasure that nobody but you realized was a treasure: everyone else thought it was just more junk. And so the price was ridiculously low. And you would buy the treasure, and take it home, and marvel at how you got such a magnificent thing for such an amazing proce. It was fun.
In the early days of eBay, that’s what it was like: an online flea market that served up treasures disguised as junk, but from the whole world. What could possibly be better? But, over time, things changed. Once upon a time eBay was where you went to find great prices on stuff you couldn’t even find anywhere else. Now it’s where you go to see what ridiculous price some idiot might give you for the junk you have in your attic. Once a few years back I asked my father if he was still going to flea markets, and, if so, could he look out for something for me. He said, “son, you can just get all that on eBay.” I said, sure, but who can afford that?
And so my relationship with eBay changed. There’s so much stuff that I can’t possibly spend time just browsing. And the stuff that I do want, everyone else now knows it’s not junk, and I can’t afford to pay those prices. Basically, the only times I’ve been on eBay in the past ten years, I’d say, was when I was doing image searches to see what something looked like so I could decide if I wanted to buy it from some other site with much better prices.
And I think I’m reaching a similar point with Kickstarter. When it first started up, you could go there and find artists and inventors who were creating things and needed your help to fund their ideas. If you didn’t pledge, that creation would most likely never get made. Of course, even if you did pledge, there was no guarantee: those early days are full of stories of creators whose ideas were much bigger than their ability to deliver, or who simply misjudged how much things were going to cost. But you took your chances, and every now and again you got screwed, but mostly you got what you were buying into, even if you often had to wait an inordinately long time to receive it.
But things are different now. The financial stuff is much clearer these days: people understand that Kickstarter is going to take their cut, and that the tax man is going to get his, and they understand not to include shipping in the pledge amount. They’ve also figured out that you need to ask for way less than you really want so that you can guarantee you’ll hit the goal; what used to be considered core deliverables are now “stretch goals.” The initial funding goals of most Kicstarters are so low that they often fund within the first da
There are now “Kickstarter consultants” to help you run a smooth campaign, and even multiple different companies whose entire raison d’être is help you fulfill the rewards. There’s a site (Kicktraq) to graph your campaign’s progress and project your final numbers. There are people who treat Kickstarter just like Amazon: they don’t actually need your money to pay for their product, because the product is already completed; they just want the Kickstarter buzz, and they know they can make more money this way. As Kickstarter creators get more and more savvy, Kickstarter consumers get more and more demanding. I read a post from someone on an Internet forum recently saying that they wouldn’t even consider backing a project unless the product were already ready to deliver. And I thought: doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose?
But things are different now, I have to admit. Maybe it’s only in the few industries I tend to follow, but I suspect this is a general trend. And the end result is, I often find myself wondering why I should bother to back a Kickstarter campaign at all.
Certainly not because the creator needs my support: it’s super rare these days for me to find any Kickstarter that hasn’t already met its goal. Once the campaign ends, they will either struggle to get the physical product put together, or they’ll deliver it quickly because it was mostly (or even completely) done. Either way, why wouldn’t I just wait and see how the thing comes out before committing to buy it? It’s possible that they might charge more for it after the campaign is over, but that actually hasn’t been my experience: it seems to happen far more often that, in the absence of the exposure provided by Kickstarter, they drop the prices to attract those people who thought the Kickstarter pledges were too high. So, for a chance at a lower price, I’m locking in my money for anywhere from months to years, and risking getting nothing at all at the end of the day? What sense does that make?
Okay, fine: I miss out on some “Kickstarter exclusives” for many campaigns. But, in exchange for that, I get to see whether the final product will materialize at all, and, if it does, if it will live up to the hype. Once the product is done, I can actually read a review of it and decide if it really is worth the price. If it is, I can buy it then. If not ... then I just saved myself some money, and also however much time I would have spent fuming that the project was behind schedule.
For the past several years, for campaigns that in years past I would have immediately backed, about half the time I’ve just been making a note of the Kickstarter URL and setting myself a reminder to check up on it on whatever date it claims it will be ready. I almost always have to give it a few more months after that date comes around. Eventually, though, the product will come out (usually), and I can read a few reviews and decide if I want to get it. I’ve done this a couple of dozen times now, and so far I’ve only found one product that I decided to purchase. In every other case, I’ve said to myself, whew! dodged a bullet there.
And the other half of the time? Well, I’ve had a lot of disappointments. A lot of waiting around and wondering if my rewards will ever get fulfilled. I have one project that funded over two years ago, and I did get the main product, and it was awesome, but I’m still waiting on one final “Kickstarter exclusive” to get done. That company has done another five campaigns since then (and I’ve been waiting a year for the main product of one of those too), and I’m starting to just accept the fact that I’m never going to see that last item. So even the promise of getting extra bits for backing is losing to lose its luster. I keep thinking, if I hadn’t bothered to back the Kickstarter, but just waited for damn thing to be orderable online, I wouldn’t have spent any more money, and I also wouldn’t have the thing that I still don’t have, but I wouldn’t have had to be constantly whining about not having it to the company. Just seems like it would have been better for everyone that way.
So lately I’ve been wondering: am I “over” Kickstarter? Not exactly. I think Kickstarter will continue to prove to be a valuable future-product discovery service. Which is quite different from how it started out, but no less useful. Well ... perhaps a little less useful. But still handy. I just think that my days of excitedly backing creators and looking forward to their creations are mostly over. Perhaps a very few known, trusted creators may get my dollars at the time. Perhaps some will win me over with their exclusive rewards. Perhaps I’ll still find the occasional campaign that seems like it might not make its goal if I don’t pitch in. But I think I’m taking all that with a grain of salt these days, and there will be a lot less of my dollars ending up in Kickstarter’s pocket, because that post-Kickstarter product’s price will go straight to the creator. And, at the end of the day, I think we’ll all be happier about it.
Except Kickstarter. But I suspect they’ll be okay.
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