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Comment by chegra | Hacker News Reader

Collectively purchase/own items. For instance, baxter[programmable android] came out yesterday/today, and you would like to try it out, but the price point of 22k is too much. A group of people, say 22, can collectively purchase it and rotate the usage of baxter amongst themselves.

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Are you familiar with Timeshare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeshare)? It usually refers to property ownership, but can apply to pretty much anything. Most people consider the middlemen in timeshare situations to be scammers, so it would be tough to market.

A few problems: 1. The subject property breaks, who pays? Insurance is clearly necessary, but who will go through the time to process a claim? What if it breaks in transit between owners? 2. Theft. What's to keep an owner from disappearing with the item?

I have a similar concern with this. It's too easy for a scammer to just walk away with an object. Invest a small amount, run away with an object of far greater value.

I'm counting on human honesty. If that can't be trusted then maybe a gps tracker attached to the system.

There are communities who do do this. I wish I had actual references to point out, but stuff like only having one or two lawnmowers for a neighborhood does happen. It's a cultural thing more than a business opportunity.

OTOH, what if you looked at this from the perspective of a dating site? The goal isn't merely to collectively own a thing; it's to find and meet people who you could get to know well enough to trust and participate in collective ownership.

If you don't mind, I have a lot of questions about this.

* The idea is to get x unknown people to pool in for an object, correct? Imo, you're relying a lot on people being honest. What's to stop a person from never passing on the object? Furthermore, what about the time slice for which each person gets to keep an object?

* Where does a company coming in to all of this? What else do they do other than facilitate the transfer of the object?

Sorry if that's too many questions. I like the idea and it seems like something that could be beneficial in theory, but I have my doubts about it working in practice.

In the case of an android, it could just walk to your house when it's your time to play with it!

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