Hello,
I am Redan. If any of you remember me I used to handle group buys in the past. My main motivation for making group buys was to enable the attainment of unique and specialized products for nootropic purposes. I have made mistakes in the past when dealing with group buys; but, I think I've devised as close as perfect a transparent group buy mechanism that I want to propose. I've been avidly interested in nootropics since 2010 due to personal issues with depression, ADHD, psychosis disorder. My main motivation is to deal with ADHD as to make more a more functional person, given that I am quite dysfunctional or atypical. With that said, I've spent 8 years of my life buying and dealing with nootropics. I have worked for IRC.BIO, THT, and conducted numerous group buys, including ISRIB, GTS-21, BPAP, Uridine triphosphate, Pitolisant, and some others which I even forget. I have made mistakes in the past, and am avidly aware of the dynamics of how group buys are conducted based on experience with dealing with them. The failures of the previous group buy promises weighs on my mind, and thus I am creating this post. I propose the following as to how to better deal with group buys and avoid ambiguity and possible moral hazard:
First, funds would be gathered in a pseudo-Kickstarter method and handled by a trusted individual. The fact that one individual would handle the funds is inescapable and only affirmed by trust in him, there's no other way to mitigate moral hazard on the part of this individual. If I am wrong and another way to accumulate funds and manage them if it is possible, please share your thoughts then. One option to deal with this would be an escrow account on behalf of all participants. I'm not aware of any such service on the internet other than websites like Kickstarter.
Second, most transactions will be completed through Alibaba. All participants will know that the management of the group buy is not selling the product at a higher price or surplus value than base cost. This can be confirmed through 3'rd party invoices of the cost of the product from the supplier on Alibaba.
Third, orders will be placed through a community available account to all participants on Alibaba. By, this I mean to say that all participants will be provided the password to the account on Alibaba to be able to check the progress of the group buys. Alibaba Trade Assurance would be used as a precaution to fraud on the part of the supplier in case HLPC analysis and NMR analysis are conducted on our part to assure bona fide of the purchased product.
Finally, the product, once purchased, would be distributed by a chosen individual in the group buy. This means that the management of the group buy will have no contact with the goods, and only provide a medium where they can serve the interest of the participating individuals or parties of the group buy.
That's all I can think of how to devise a schematic or template for devising better conduced group buys.
