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Comment by typicalrunt | Hacker News Reader

Great idea. I'm surprised nobody has done this before (but they probably have, I'm no longer a skateboarder).

But I'm wondering about the prices. $10 stickers and $40 t-shirts are still advertising, so people are paying to advertise for your company? That doesn't seem right.

In reality, they are really trying to push people to spend $1200 for a board. Even the $1099 pledge is a complete rip-off since you spend $100 less than the pledge that gets you a board, and they only give you a $100 coupon when you buy your first board for full price. That doesn't make sense.

A suggestion: create a small batch (5) of $500 or $700 pledges that provide a board. That kicks everyone into gear to get that pledge as soon as possible and fight over the $500 pledge spot.

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The pricing seems like a complete rip-off, to be honest. $10 for a sticker? $40 for a t-shirt? $1000 for a skateboard?

For comparison, you can buy a top-of-the-line longboard for $200, full kit. An essentially equivalent product [1] is selling for $500 a pop, half the price. That's more in line with what I'd pay for a luxury product like this.

Also, I'm not sure how comfortable this would actually be to carry around. Most longboards are around 7 pounds... this says "12 to 15" in the description. So, basically, this is going to feel like I'm carrying two skateboards around, not one.

[1] - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1645804961/the-zboard-th...

the lightest zboard weighs 30 lbs vs 12 lbs for this. Big difference in tote-ability there.

I think describing that linked product as "essentially equivalent" is a bit misleading. It takes 5 hours instead of 2 hours to charge, the top speed is 15mph instead of 20mph, and it weighs 37 lbs. instead of 12-15 lbs.

I think you hit it on the head with the weight issue. 15 pounds isn't light, but it's manageable for most people -- about the same as an 18 pack of canned soda/beer. The $500 board listed above is a whopping 37 pounds... much heavier than an ordinary person can carry comfortably.

    $10 for a sticker? $40 for a t-shirt? $1000 for a skateboard?

You are not "buying a sticker" or a t-shirt. The offer is "donate to this project and receive a 'thank you gift'." This is referred to as a "premium" and can be seen in the USA in Public Radio fund drives: "Give $60 and get an NPR mug" they are not "selling really expensive mugs," they are soliciting donations and giving gifts or "premiums" in exchange.

A premium is, basically by definition, worth much less than your donation. Giving a premium with a $100 cash value for a $100 donation would not be a good way to raise money. ;)

My understanding is that Kickstarter is a funding platform, not a donation platform.

Funding and donation have very different connotations.

actually I'd like to hear more about this because it looks like a donation platform to me and I'm confused about this. You give money -> don't necessarily get anything in return, this alone fits the definition of "donation" to me. When you do get "premiums", they are typically worth far less than the value of your donation (stickers for $20, eat lunch with the team for $5k etc.). Again this fits the donation model.

I'm referring to "donation" model vs. "goods/services exchanged for money" model. I think both of those can be "funding." Anyway I am very interested in this perspective and in particular why someone wouldn't consider giving money in exchange for as little as nothing a "donation."

You are not buying a sticker. You are interested in a product and decide to help them out. In return, as a token of gratitude for your help, you get a sticker. If the sticker would cost as much as the pledge it would be completely pointless.

Uhm.. I read it the way you did it for a couple of times and then decided that it's really just a bad way of saying 'back early (25 max) and get a board for $100 less than the next 25 people on the first batch'. In other words: No, I really don't think they give you a $100 rebate for ~$1100 and a full board for $100 more..

Not my native language though..?

Well of course it's this. If not you'd be buying 100$ at 1100$ !

Not much of a bargain... ;)

There have been plenty of electric longboards before, but none even close to this size. Someone else linked to this: http://www.zboardshop.com/ which is basically the same idea but the difference in implementation is night and day. This board weighs 12lbs, the Z board weighs 37lbs, and it's one of the lighter competitors.

The stickers and t-shirts are meant as a way to help the project while still getting something in return - think of it as a donation with a perk.

As for 1.2k / board - that's quite steep, their BOM (Bill of Materials) should be at most 1/2 of that. A very substantial off-the-shelf 4x (motor + ESC + LiPo) combo will run at the very most for $400.

"The stickers and t-shirts are meant as a way to help the project while still getting something in return - think of it as a donation with a perk."

I feel that's how we should think of most stuff we back on Kickstarter. Since at some levels the "reward" is the product itself, though, it gets harder to think like that.

That's why when you pledge to donate on Kickstarter you're called a "backer" instead of a "customer", I think. You're a customer AFTER you get the product, but till then you're a someone that believes in that project and wants to help.

There's actually a bunch of companies already making these - definitely not an original idea or even an original implementation.

Back in 2007 we used to ride electric boards around UC Berkeley, and they only cost $600.

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