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Whoo man, KS can be utterly savage. Losing your own house due to a "Too Successful" Boardgame KS

And some of the backers havent been so sympathetic

This man lost his house because his Kickstarter was too successful

http://news.yahoo.com/man-lost-house-because-kickstarter-150443118.html

Good news is that the creator now is getting back on his feet. Still, this serves as a good warning on how ks can spiral out of control

This is misleading, He lost his house because of financial problems lead to the loss of his house.

...Yes. Financial problems resulting from his kickstarter cost him his house.

You weren't expecting a Mecha-Droid named Boardgame KS to show up, pick up his house, and walk away with it, were you?

That's an incredibly misleading title, both for this thread and the article:

Running out of cash and faced with expenses from every avenue, Carter stopped making the mortgage on a house he owned outside Boston, which was also his company address. He eventually lost the house. (Carter, who lives in Amsterdam, admits that had he lived in the Boston house, he might not have sacrificed it for the game.)

So this guy lost an investment/vacation house, NOT his main house that he actually lives in. I have zero sympathy for him.

Yeah, KS makers need to not be greedy with insane stretches if they can't handle it.

If you don't have a scalable business model or production model, then limit your KS and do a 'second edition' later.

It seems like too many people don't realize their limits or risk and just take too much money with no plan.

So, yeah... he didn't lose his house because his Kickstarter was too successful. He lost an investment house because he didn't plan his Kickstarter properly, and because he lost his job.

I have the non-deluxe edition of "Glory To Rome". It is a nicely produced game in the basic version except you need to provide your own box.

Anyway, as said, he sold his house to make up the losses on actually shipping the game.

The losses where caused by various factors, including bad planning which was his fault. Even so, he could have just walked away from it and let everyone weep for their money, but he had a conscience and guts and pulled through with respect and a load of useful experience.

What it really illustrates is the problem when Kickstarter is not used to fund a risky arts project, but to fund production of large inventory of a retail item and it goes wrong.

Dang you people are harsh, he made some mistakes. No sympathy for someone that makes some mistakes and runs into unanticipated problems with partners?

I am glad more sympathetic types are running GW.

JWhex wrote:
Dang you people are harsh, he made some mistakes. No sympathy for someone that makes some mistakes and runs into unanticipated problems with partners?

Not really. If you want to run a business you accept the chance of losing money, and you have only yourself to blame if you don't consider that risk before taking it. And all he lost was an investment/vacation house, it's not like he suffered any real hardship as a result of his business problems.

JWhex wrote:
Dang you people are harsh, he made some mistakes. No sympathy for someone that makes some mistakes and runs into unanticipated problems with partners?

What exactly is it he needs sympathy for? Poor business management means he has to sell his vacation home ranks pretty damn low on my sympathy scale.

This has been posted already I thought?

JWhex wrote:
Dang you people are harsh, he made some mistakes. No sympathy for someone that makes some mistakes and runs into unanticipated problems with partners?

I am glad more sympathetic types are running GW.

This is the real world of business, not everyone gets a trophy and snuggle for participating. He screwed up and his losses are MINOR compared to the news he is making about it.

It doesn't help that the OP and thread title are both steaming piles of bs.

iDK, in the UK you have limited liability companies, i.e if the company fails then the debts lie with the company meaning all your personal assets are protected. If the same exsists in the US and he was one of those he could have easily walked away from it and let the company and the game and KS die with the customers becoming creditors for a few cents in the dollar.

Thankful it didnt end like that but no he ensured he made it to the end.

I did post up sometime before in a older KS thread and young/small companies taking a lot of orders on KS's that they cannot possibly fill I am not suprised this has happened and doubt it will be the last.

That article actually just reads as a list of Unfortunate Circumstances.

From lanquage issues, production issues, communication, shipping issues, weak economies, recession, and of course poor planning.

I don't think it was the kickstarter that caused the loss of his investment property "home" - it was more like the Kick Starter was just the catalyst.

MarkyMark wrote:
and he was one of those

Given by what happened, it seems fairly apparent that he didn't make the effort of forming an LLC.

JWhex wrote:
Dang you people are harsh, he made some mistakes. No sympathy for someone that makes some mistakes and runs into unanticipated problems with partners?

I am glad more sympathetic types are running GW.

I'm not unsympathetic, just questioning the general premise of the original post.

 Bookwrack wrote:

MarkyMark wrote:
and he was one of those

Given by what happened, it seems fairly apparent that he didn't make the effort of forming an LLC.

IF that was the case as a responable buyer I would have checked into these sort of things before buying into the KS, not sure if it is easily done in the US but its very simple in the UK to check.

You know, he could have passed the losses on to the backers, but he didn't and used his own money to fix the problems.

 Bookwrack wrote:

MarkyMark wrote:
and he was one of those

Given by what happened, it seems fairly apparent that he didn't make the effort of forming an LLC.

I don't think being an LLC would have made a difference here. He could have easily just cut out and that be that.

He decided to put money towards the game and not towards the house. No where did it say he was forced to. He probably knew he was going to lose the house when he did it.

sparkywtf wrote:

 Bookwrack wrote:

MarkyMark wrote:
and he was one of those

Given by what happened, it seems fairly apparent that he didn't make the effort of forming an LLC.

I don't think being an LLC would have made a difference here. He could have easily just cut out and that be that.

He decided to put money towards the game and not towards the house. No where did it say he was forced to. He probably knew he was going to lose the house when he did it.

Being an LLC would have allowed him to basically 'close the doors' on his business venture and let it settle up its own assets. He CHOSE to sell his vacation house in order to make good on his KS opposed to just close his doors and walk away. (which is very respectable on his end)

But still, KS is not necessarily a get rich quick scheme...

Could you edit the thread title to "Boardgame KS takes one of creator's overseas properties away"?

The guy is a chone.

"Carter cut out middlemen and went directly to a Chinese producer. But soon after he made the link, his Chinese-speaking head of operations quit over disagreements about free shipping and his relationship with a Chinese girl fell apart, leaving him with nobody who could speak Chinese. Small mistakes compounded his woes: it hadn’t occurred to Carter to add “no step” to the shipping documentation, which would have told handlers not to put anything heavy on top of the fragile game boxes. Stacking one pallet on top of another crushed them. Free shipping eventually came back to haunt him: Large orders to countries like the US were fine, as were a couple of boxes to Brazil, but sending 100 games to Australia meant fat expenses but not enough to benefit from economies of scale.

Carter’s work suffered. The company he contracted at, Staples, was making cuts and Carter found himself without a job. His savings were being ploughed into the game, which he says eventually cost him between $100,000 and $120,000. Running out of cash and faced with expenses from every avenue, Carter stopped making the mortgage on a house he owned outside Boston, which was also his company address. He eventually lost the house. (Carter, who lives in Amsterdam, admits that had he lived in the Boston house, he might not have sacrificed it for the game.)Meanwhile, Carter’s Kickstarter backers were getting anxious. Nearly a year after the campaign closed, they still hadn’t seen their games. An entire US state was “forgotten” when shipping did start. By March, Carter was facing tremendous pressure on his Kickstarter updates page. In response to a post about losing his house, one commenter wrote:

I’m sorry, but !@#$ off with your guilt trip at the beginning of your update. As someone who has sat quite [sic], my only crime is donating money to help get this project off the ground. I see no reason why you should be blaming us for your downfall. Most of this update was unnecessary and I’m done with this company."


Sympathy?

Hardly needed here. This was just an excuse to get rid of the US house. Seriously, have YOU tried to sell a house these days?

 Grot 6 wrote:
The guy is a chone.

I've never heard that term before, so looked it up on urban dictionary. I don't think that's the right word you're looking for in this case.

Inflammatory article title is inflammatory.

nkelsch wrote:

sparkywtf wrote:

 Bookwrack wrote:

MarkyMark wrote:
and he was one of those

Given by what happened, it seems fairly apparent that he didn't make the effort of forming an LLC.

I don't think being an LLC would have made a difference here. He could have easily just cut out and that be that.

He decided to put money towards the game and not towards the house. No where did it say he was forced to. He probably knew he was going to lose the house when he did it.

Being an LLC would have allowed him to basically 'close the doors' on his business venture and let it settle up its own assets. He CHOSE to sell his vacation house in order to make good on his KS opposed to just close his doors and walk away. (which is very respectable on his end)

But still, KS is not necessarily a get rich quick scheme...

Well, no. He had no legal obligation to begin with to fulfill his business venture, so he wouldn't even have needed an LLC. A Kickstarter backing is an investment, it's not a purchase of a product. And not all investments work out.

You won't find it in the urban dictionary, It proceeds the internet by a few years.

It means exactly what I mean it to mean.

http://www.the-mortuary.com/showthread.php?t=28786&highlight=chone

Wheres the story in this?