[davefp]

Niche hobby communities do this all the time.

The mechanical keyboard community wouldn't exist without group buys, they rely on them to hit minimum order quantities from producers of custom keycaps, PCBs, and other manufactured items. These are then shipped to proxy vendors around the world who do last-mile shipping to end users.

Homebrew clubs also put in wholesale orders for raw materials like yeast, grain, and hops. These are usually more localized given the large volumes involved, and involve a physical meetup where the goods are repackaged and distributed to the buyers.

I daresay there are more groups like this (home bakers maybe?) but they're largely invisible outside their own circles.

[jedimastert]

This is kind of the point behind drop.com, no?

[lunias]

Drop has been transitioning away from group buys for sometime now. Since their re-branding their strategy appears more reminiscent of private labeling.

Most products have Drop / Massdrop in the name now.

The most recent two actual (keyboard) group buys that I participated in have been really poorly handled. One is still delayed and has not shipped (order placed 561 days ago). The other shipped broken (to everyone in the drop) after being delayed for months. I had to manually ISP flash a bootloader.

[davefp]

> I had to manually ISP flash a bootloader.

I read about that problem with the Tokyo60 v3. Seems like a big problem with quality control, that should have been fixed by sending a new, working versions of the PCB to all customers.

I'm currently waiting on some Aqua Zilents which are delayed thanks to the current pandemic. I understand the delay, but they waited until the posted ship date (April 10th) to inform customers that it's going to be late. That rubbed me the wrong way for sure.

[davefp]

Precisely.

In their case, they're also trying to host the various communities rather than simply being a tool that anyone can use to run a buy.

[radec]

yeah I think that is the basic premise behind drop.com. Basically just a non-localized version of it.

[toomanybeersies]

I used to organise the group buys for a homebrew club.

We'd buy over a tonne of grain and probably 10 kg of hops every time. It saved us over 50% of what it would cost at the homebrew shop.

I think my record for cheap brewing using bulk-bought ingredients was about $5 for a 5 gallon keg.

[radec]

yes very true! It can be a great way to make purchases possible, make purchases cheaper,and/or buy less packaging.