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 BrookM wrote:
But seeing as Dakka is such a fractured and large community, it wouldn't work.

You kidding? I'd pay for DCM to get a small share in the mini company and access to the molds from time to time

Checked out his site, the models appear to be decent, at least the historical ones. Of course, there's no telling what shape the molds are in, which is the most important bit.

 BrookM wrote:
But seeing as Dakka is such a fractured and large community, it wouldn't work.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
We'll just mail the molds around to each other, each investor getting them for a week

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
You kidding? I'd pay for DCM to get a small share in the mini company and access to the molds from time to time

Checked out his site, the models appear to be decent, at least the historical ones. Of course, there's no telling what shape the molds are in, which is the most important bit.

It wouldn't be easy but it would be doable. It isn't that it is a fractured community, there is just a lot of diversity and different directions to go. That is the advantage of buying an existing line with a large line of options. It would need a board, 1-4 people to run daily operations and maintain that it actually does sale to make profits. Each person who invests X amount of dollars essentially is a share holder, translating that into they get access to equipment, miniatures at cost. This ensures that it isn't losing money and since the materials are being paid for, the business isn't losing money. Priority would have to go to actual profit sales but even with a large community as Dakka I don't think that would be an issue. There are also a large group of not only gamers, but designers and artists. They could for cost get their designs created into actual miniatures, having the company sell them for a portion of those miniatures sales. This ensures new designs coming into the pipeline as well as allowing people to do small runs or personal projects. As long as there is the ability to make a profit on existing and new lines, that supports 1-2 people operating it then it isn't such a bad deal.

Another method to simply do it is one person just runs a Kickstarter (doesn't have to be KS just an example). The backers receive X dollars available to be used to purchase miniatures at cost. To make it really worthwhile, it would probably have to be double to triple the amount the backer pledged. If someone pledged $300, they could get access or the ability to purchase $600-$900 of miniatures at cost. Then really the only thing the creator would be giving up is their own time to fulfill those orders. It can be set up to 'obtain in waves' with priority still going towards new sales without putting a strain on the project creator. Since people could essentially get access to stuff within a few months, it should work out fine as some people may want to wait. The backers would be able to get their return anytime as early as 4 months and up to 4 years later, since not everyone may want to cash in immediately or may only want a portion redeemed.

That is at least how I would do it. If I had the networking I would probably do it. I have the space and time to be able to run daily operations but unfortunately I don't think I have the networking to really market and sell the idea in that method.