I am a consumer just like you and I also don’t want to give away my good hard earned money to some scam or to fund someones mismanaged dream. Kickstarter is a great idea, but unfortunately you can lose your money faster than Vegas.
Potential failures like the Cole Bar Hammer and sketchy tools like the over-funded Knife Edge Phillips Bit loom at every click. Looking at the Knife Edge Kickstarter comments quite a few people have been complaining that they haven’t received their bit yet and others claim that the guy wants an extra $8 to ship a second bit out. Did I mention the bits cost $16.99 a piece! Who in their right mind would purchase a bit for that amount of money and pay $8 shipping. Something just does not add up here.
Kickstarter really needs to put some sort of checks and balances in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Think about it, these people already have the money which makes it an easier decision to pocket the dough and cut all losses at the very hint of a setback. Check out the drama this guy caused over at Tool Guyd.
The lesson here is before you go funding someones pipe dream, let the idiots go ahead and lose their money before you do. Why not wait and see if it comes to market and buy a low cost production version rather than a high priced prototype. Look at the pictures below to see what a nightmare everyone is dealing with this Knife Edge guy. He is now trolling people who bought into this shady deal. But hey he raised $71,000 from some Phillips bit that even in his videos clearly did not work. A sucker is born every minute. Also check out Kickscammed.com
This is why I hardly back anything crowd funded. Too much risk for the most part. This one always blew my mind he was asking a ton of money for a commodity item. I could get a bunch of really nice high end Wiha or Wera impact bits for the price he is charging for just one Knife Edge bit.
Dan–Thanks for the investigative reporting, resulting in a heads-up for all of us. There are some legitimate inventors out there, but there are a lot of scammers, too, so buyer beware. If you’re dubious about a product, it’s always safer to wait for it to come to market before putting your money down.
funded the flip screwdriver …thought so cool…ended up in trash can…battery toothbrush
has more power than the flip junk..never deal with kickstarter again.