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Ask HN: Kickstarter for gifts and events. What do you think

5 points by Macshot ↗ HN
Me and my partners are creating a website that in a nutshell is kickstarter for gifts and events named NoBadGift(dot)com.

Nobadgift(dot)com is a site that allows users to make wish list of item/gifts for anything but focuses on gift giving events like birthdays, x-mas, house warmings, and such, like an online registry. Next users can share these wish list with friends and family members through e-mail, social media, or mailed invitations. On the other hand those potential gift givers can now view these wish list of exactly their friend or loved ones wants. Then either buy a gift on the list and have it shipped to them or make a contribution towards any number of gifts on a wish list for a small transaction fee. On the day of the big event all the money that has been contributed to a users wish list is then sent to that users paypal account.

What do you think? good or bad idea? Poor execution? Is there something we are missing?

8 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 29.7 ms ] thread
Khao
You need a way to see what the other friends are buying. Let's say I set up a list of 10 items that I send to my 5 best friends for my birthday. They would like to know if one of them has pledged to buy me a certain gift, so that I don't get something twice. Of course, it should be made so that I can't see what my friends are planning behind my back.

The only problem with this is it would be easy for me to send an invite to another fake friend and log in with that e-mail to see what my real friends are doing.

Macshot
Khao this is a good point but no one can see what each other buys or makes a contribution to. But, on the day of the event when you receive all the money that your friends have sent you, you also receive an e-card with all the well wishes from friends along with what item they contributed to.

Once enough money has been raised to pay for 100% of an item is it closed off and money will have to be contributed to another item.

DuqE
I would imagine that you / the user is not expecting to be surprised at any point if you use a service like this. I would also imagine that the op would fadeout or disable the ability for anyone else to purchase the same gift. However I am not sold on the idea of all the money raised goes to the User on the event.

For example Christmas you could of paid 50% of the cost to 5 items for friends and families hoping someone else would pay the rest, what if they do not? Come Christmas day your money is just passed to these peoples paypal accounts and you have nothing to give them on the day.

A question would delivery be optional to the User or me as the buyer? So I can give that gift to someone and not just deliver it by post?

I do like the idea and if executed correctly a very useful tool for around Christmas time. But it can be hard to predict the response to a service like this.

Macshot
DuqE the whole surprise factor is a great point and one we are uncertain on how to incorperate at this point.

In the case where a person gets only a percentage of the money for different gifts on their wish list and not 100% for any one item may seem like a problem but I want you to look at it differently. Think about this site first and foremost as an alternative to a gift card. Its basically the same principle but without limitation and the user gets to see that your money was given for the purpose of trying to help them get a specific gift(s).

nurik
The idea is good. However, not unique (yet :)). I am sure you know http://www.giftsproject.com. It will come down to "ease of use". Maybe try to integrate it with the social networks through an easy to use app (within that social network instead of adding more to the already crowded profile wall's etc...). If you wanna hit a home run maybe try to figure out how the gifts will be selected: http://ycombinator.com/rfs2.html. Its not easy but if you find an elegant solution I believe you will be off to a good start!
Macshot
nurik Thank you for the great feedback. As the site is currently up we are always looking for ways to make the site easier to use, but I can see your points and where we might need to make changes.
glimcat
These things live and die on the communities they create.
Macshot
glimcat you have given me something to really think over.