TANKART 4 GERMAN ARMOR Kickstarter campaign

[Ian]

TANKART author Michael Rinaldi is running a Kickstarter campaign for the forth book in his TANKART series.

I'm a big fan of his books, own 1-3, and was happy to support him for the next one.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2063490063/rsp-launches-into-phase-2-of-operation

 

[JohnSimmons]

Yup, love his books I've got 4 on pre-order.

 

[Ian]

There's not a lot of time left, and he's got quite a bit to go. Hope he makes it.

 

[adampolo13]

Just out of curiousity, why is he running a kickstarter campaign if the first 3 were sucessful?

 

[Ian]

I'm not sure, it's a little confusing.

Originally, the campaign was a 'Phase 2' of Rinaldi Studio Press, but then he quickly changed the focus to be on the TANKART 4 book. It seems like he's trying to build his company infrastructure, to not have such high overheads when printing a new title?

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Here's my only issue on this, and I could be completely out to lunch here.

I like Mike, he does amazing work, great books, and an genuine nice guy.

But a kickstarter campaign to fund Tankart 4? So we kick in the funds to produce TA4, and he reaps all the profit?

Does anyone have a problem with this? Or just me?

I understand (sort of) what, and why he is doing this, but it is kinda the same as if I all of a sudden said, I am going to do a kickstarter campaign for say $5000, to help pay for all the extra stuff I am going to bring into the shop from now until Xmas for sales. You guys put up the cash for the product, but I am going to reap all of the profit from said sales.

I am looking at it from a unique perspective, being on the proprietor side of a hobby business, and maybe I don't quite understand quite how kickstarter works, but if I want to improve and grow my business, that's on me to put up the investment for and on me to grow it, not having many other hands to pay for it, unless it is for an investment stake in the business, IE: I give you X amount of money, but I own X amount of the business, kinda like Dragon's Den or Shark Tank.

Either way, it won't stop me from buying TA4, for both myself and bringing it in for the shop to sell, but I just don't know about this kickstarter thing.

 

[Ian]

I'm betting his profit margin, after KS takes their cut, and then printing and shipping TA4, is going to be quite low.

If he continued down the same path as 1-3, the pre-orders for #4 might only cover a small percentage of the printing /delivery costs he'd have to lay down (depending on the print run size.)

The KS campaign also elevates and brings attention to his book and work, more so than just running it on Rinaldi Studio Press. He's muddied it a bit by making it broad and offering far too many rewards (ie. it's just plain confusing). Having not reached the halfway amount mid-campaign is a sign that it may not reach its goal.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Honestly, I thought the retail price on the books were far too low. I mean seriously, I was selling them here in Canada at $33 each, and that was after buying them from a distributor, and not directly from him (had to buy too many directly from him to get the same cost per book as I was getting from my distributor, and could buy as many or as few as I wanted).

I have seen far less books, with far less information in them sell for a much higher price, I think the MSRP could probably be bumped to $49.99, and he would still sell as many books.

 

[Grendels]

After looking over the kickstarter, I think he made a mistake by limiting the number of low end funding opportunities.

If you look, almost all of those are gone, while the high end expensive ones are still in place and available.

 

[adampolo13]

I hope I don't offend anybody by saything this, but I'm going to speak my mind.

In general, I haven't seen too many good business people in the hobby industry. Not to say they aren't good people, or very talented people. but when it comes to running a business, they've got no freaking clue what they are doing.

I share Scott's (ECH) senitment here. If Mike had better excuted on 1,2, & 3, he may not be in a situation where he needs funds for 4. I do know that everybody I've talked to really likes his books, but there's something not right if he cannot afford #4 after 3 succesful books.

Just my thoughts.