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Some people back KS projects, then for whatever reason decide they don't want to be part of the process any more and sell off their pledge

this could be a purely private transaction (the product will show up at their door and needs to be forwarded to the buyer, or a simple change of address so the KS delivers to the new backer), or with some 'official' agreement from the KS company (who swap out the old backers details for the buyers)


but what happens if things go wrong with the project ?

either the company turn out to be crooks who run off with the money (the real worst case scenario)

or folds while trying to deliver, partially deliver (with promises to get round to the rest some day) or just take forever


it all the above cases there is plenty of criticism of the companies involved, calls for their heads, gamer boycotts etc, even when the legal situation may well be that the backers are just out of luck (except when the whole KS was a deliberate, planned scam)

but what about those 'lucky' backers who sold their pledges and lumbered somebody else with the consequences of their KS disaster, should they take any responsibility? should they refund (or partially refund) if asked ?

I honestly think no.

All parties involved knows the risks of kickstarter to begin with.

that should include a secondary purchaser.

it should be up to the backer(s) to research what they are kicking first before making any transactions.

It will depend on how I am selling the pledge. For example some pledges if you message the company, they will officially transfer the pledge.

The old way was have a throw away Kickstarter account. Back it, then sell the pledge and basically give the account away.

That quickly changed when having a backing history could become relevant for other things.

Depending on the person if I buy/sell a pledge, determines how much responsibility I would think they need to be part of. It is always my responsibility to follow-up and track things. Personally I don't think I would hold someone responsible for if I bought a pledge but that would be communicated in the deal usually and I'm familiar with Kickstarters. I can see where someone new to the process could feel scammed.

The only buy/sell pledges that I usually do these days though because they are safer, is directly through the KS company. They can make transfers through the pledge manager. I bought someone's Forward Base pledge and a couple others, that were done via the company. Once they received notice that they were paid via paypal, they officially transferred it to me. It is better in the long wrong if there was a mis-shipment, to replace lost/broken items and just in case of lying. If not done officially nothing stops the original account holder from changing the address, even if you sold/bought it.

If someone buys a KS pledge, they then have the same standing as any KS backer: They have invested in the development of a product that may or may not be delivered. They should have understood that when they bought the pledge, same as if they had pledged during the funding time.

On the flip side, if I were to offload a pledge for whatever reason (needing money for life expenses, project going sour, loss of interest) and later had the person I had sold my pledge to come to me asking for their money back when the KS failed, I'd tell them to pound sand. It would be like selling shares of a company, and having the person who bought them come back after the stock plunges months later demanding their money back.

I tend to weight Kickstarters on whether or not I can break even on my investment. While much of that is in terms of "This is what I'm getting for X amount of money, and I am keeping the product", if a project has gone to crap or I lose interest, it turns into "What can I do to negate my financial loss as much as possible" - selling my pledge or what was delivered. If I can sell my pledge, it means I have broken even and I am walking away from the project. Whomever buys it, it's theirs. Ceveat Emptor

Hard to say. KS is still relatively new and I wonder how often this has come up.

I guess it's one more reason that the seller and buyer should hash this out before $ changes hands.