Re. the Your Inner Vagabond Kickstarter
I hate to sound curmudgeonly, but...
I donated when YIV had that fire a couple of years back. My friends and I give YIV *tons* of money every year at Pennsic. Seriously, our patronage winds up being hundreds of dollars every summer, and that's just my immediate circle. Every single time I go in there, the place is packed full of seated patrons trying to throw money at them and the to-go line is at least 10 minutes deep.
Now they have a Kickstarter project up, the point of which -- as far as I can tell based on the scanty information on the site -- is for us to give them more money specifically so they can turn around and sell us new and different stuff? Providing vanishingly few details beyond "We need more capital in advance and we promise you'll like all this new stuff you're now going to be paying *twice* for... [oh, and by the way, new managers]"?!?
You know, I go to YIV specifically because I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in preparing fiddly little dessert and snack thingies or fancy drinks myself at Pennsic, and vanishingly little interest in trying to reproduce those things at home. So no cookbook, thanks. T-shirt? Maaayyyybeee, if it's drop-dead gorgeous, but I seldom wear t-shirts and let's not forget that people who do put on a branded shirt are doing them a huge PR favor. Bumper sticker, same thing in triplicate. Give them $50 and get back $25 in shop credit? Tempting... but again, I keep coming back to -- what the heck have they been *doing* with all the money they make at Pennsic every year, that they're claiming they don't have enough funding to set themselves up for this time around?!? Yes, I know they have substantial overhead and material costs, but... IMHO, if they can't manage the planning and organization to keep one of the most beloved and heavily patronized businesses at Pennsic going, maybe they shouldn't be in that business.
So, no, I don't think I'll be donating. Sorry. They'll get my usual business -- assuming the new staffers don't totally screw the place up, of course...
I donated when YIV had that fire a couple of years back. My friends and I give YIV *tons* of money every year at Pennsic. Seriously, our patronage winds up being hundreds of dollars every summer, and that's just my immediate circle. Every single time I go in there, the place is packed full of seated patrons trying to throw money at them and the to-go line is at least 10 minutes deep.
Now they have a Kickstarter project up, the point of which -- as far as I can tell based on the scanty information on the site -- is for us to give them more money specifically so they can turn around and sell us new and different stuff? Providing vanishingly few details beyond "We need more capital in advance and we promise you'll like all this new stuff you're now going to be paying *twice* for... [oh, and by the way, new managers]"?!?
You know, I go to YIV specifically because I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in preparing fiddly little dessert and snack thingies or fancy drinks myself at Pennsic, and vanishingly little interest in trying to reproduce those things at home. So no cookbook, thanks. T-shirt? Maaayyyybeee, if it's drop-dead gorgeous, but I seldom wear t-shirts and let's not forget that people who do put on a branded shirt are doing them a huge PR favor. Bumper sticker, same thing in triplicate. Give them $50 and get back $25 in shop credit? Tempting... but again, I keep coming back to -- what the heck have they been *doing* with all the money they make at Pennsic every year, that they're claiming they don't have enough funding to set themselves up for this time around?!? Yes, I know they have substantial overhead and material costs, but... IMHO, if they can't manage the planning and organization to keep one of the most beloved and heavily patronized businesses at Pennsic going, maybe they shouldn't be in that business.
So, no, I don't think I'll be donating. Sorry. They'll get my usual business -- assuming the new staffers don't totally screw the place up, of course...