mhood wrote:I really don't understand this need many have to divorce BMD from participation/profit in the preorder process.
It's not just BMD. Payment terms between a manufacturer and their retailer/distributor do not start until the product has invoiced. Invoices cannot legally be produced until the product has shipped. Therefore, BMD does not receive payment until the product has shipped. That is just how manufacturing works. As I said before, no exchange of goods has occurred and therefore no money has exchanged hands between BMD and their retailers.
New product developments are not financed by consumers pre-ordering. That is the case with Kickstarter, but we are not dealing with crowd funding when we deal with BMD. BMD goes to 'Mr. Banker' and is extended credit based on pre-order forecasts and actuals. While the consumer does incur financial responsibility until the product has shipped, BMD's credit terms begin as soon as the money is lended. That's why when you hear Grant or other BMD individuals saying "BMD is as invested as anyone in shipping on time." That is because they are in fact more
invested than anyone else. If they cannot ship the units, they are not able to invoice, which means they are not receiving payments from their retailers, therefore they not able to pay 'Mr. Banker' in the manner they originally planned (most likely they will need to cut into the profit margins of one of their other products in order to pay their creditors until the delayed product becomes solvent).
That being said...I will reiterate that it is not very wise to purchase product from a retailer that requires 100% upfront deposit on a product which does not have a concrete ship date.