The dust has finally settled and the November Eight (that's what I'm calling the final 8 boxes) are patiently sitting in our family room eagerly awaiting their trip the post office this afternoon. I thought I would take some time to reflect on this experience while it's [mostly] clear in my memory.
First, what an awesome experience this has been (despite my mini-griping below). I mean it. Thank you to everyone involved. Afterall, it wouldn't be a "GROUP BUY" without the "GROUP"!!!!!!!! This is by far the best forum that I'm a part of and it wouldn't be that way without the membership. Thank you all for placing your trust in me on this one. I hope you are as satisfied with the chipes as I am.
HUUUUUUUUGE thank you to Josh for letting me take the reins and for doing all the initial discussions with Matsui. Your negotiating skillz are impecable, sir.
DOUBLE HUUUUUUUUUUUGE thank you to the always-impressive Johnny5 for his assistance with this project. I truly feel that he hit this one out of the park and got it EXACTLY right. Thank you John. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Finally, an enormous thank you to my wife. I've spent more time on our PC at home over the last few months than I have in the 5 years we've been married it seems....emailing Matsui dozens of times/day.....emailing J5 about design stuff.....spending countless hours checking, re-checking, and re-re-rechecking numbers, sizes, glitter, etc....compiling address lists, weighing shipping options....and so on and so forth. She's honestly the best thing that's ever happened to me and I felt the need to giver her some well-deserved props here. After all the boxes were packed up, totals crunched, and PMs sent, she came into the poker room with a rum and coke in hand and said, "Looks like you deserve a drink." I hit the jackpot with her for sure.
Things I Would Do Differently Next Time:
- Require orders to be made in multiples of 20 per denom (e.g. 100, 240, 180, 400, etc.). Not that filling orders w/ odd numbers was all that difficult it was just a tad time consuming.
- Only offer glitter or non-glitter chips (glitter, obv). I totally get the appeal of 40 and 43mm chips and would have no problem offering both sizes should there ever be another Matsui GB and I'm "chosen" as the organizer. It just adds another variable and therefore another avenue for potential error.
- Take more time to get orders packaged and shipped or take more time off work to do this. I am truly wiped out and have had a very hard time focusing on anything for the past few days. I expected this group buy to essentially consume my life which it did. So I guess I'm just whining for the sake of whining
- [shipping/packaging issues TBD...hopefully none]
Anything else that participating members would have liked to see done differently? Please let me know. If I never run another group buy maybe someone else can learn. I appreciate all the pleasant feedback I've already received from many of you. I hope I made the experience as smooth and easy as possible.
11-16-2011, 10:45 AM
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