Surely in many cases the incentive is to get a pre-order of some item, possibly at a reduced price that you might not have had a chance to purchase at all otherwise?
Eg. say someone is offering some new gadget for $100 as a Kickstarter reward, and they then raise the price to $150 when it is an actual product (this doesn't seem to even happen much, the product price for products that do successfully make it to market is more often the same as the Kickstarter price). You save $50 but in the meantime your money is tied up for months with nothing to show for it, and it is entirely possible you will never get an item. I'd rather just pay the $150 myself and get the product 2 day shipping when it is actually a product.
This doesn't mean Kickstarter is useless to me as there are some cases (more the art stuff than the gadget stuff) where I think supporting the project is more important than receiving the end product, but I certainly don't understand why so many people backed OUYA, for example. I'm glad they did because I will buy one when they are available via retail, but I didn't back it.
As to your money being tied up for months - obviously it depends on the amount, and on the buyer, but I'm sure quite a few funders can tie up $100 for a few months without caring. If I'm going to spend $100 on something that's available in 6 months I don't really care if it comes out of my bank account now or then.
I do. What if a better implementation of the same basic thing comes out for $80 in 3 months?
You pre-pay $100 to reduce the risk that it never becomes an actual product
Hell I just saw a KS I'm probably going to throw money in for where the main product is going to be free, the incentives are mostly stickers plus a few webinars/videos around ebook topics
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1371597318/the-peoples-e...
They are building a web app. It will require ongoing costs to host, support and enhance. I don't think their $10,000 goal (of which they have raised over 50% more than that) could possibly cover these costs.
What you're doing when you fund an idea like the above, is funding a startup. They will own the technology and can do with it whatever they want. That distinction may or may not matter, but it's important.
Nobody in their right mind would pay $10 for a couple stickers. You are not getting the value from the little token gifts. You are getting value in feeling good about helping someone achieve their dream...and potentially building something you intend to use.
You will not benefit economically from giving your economic assistance in helping get their idea off the ground. For tons of people giving money on Kickstart, that is just fine. The lesson is not everyone is wholly economically motivated. That's pretty cool.
"please keep pledging and keep passing it on to help us build the best free tool for e-books on the planet."