[alexobenauer]

The don't actually get that $5,000. It's worrying that that amount was pledged, but Kickstarter / Amazon Payments doesn't charge until after a project is complete, and in the case of an unfinished, canceled project, never.

[andypants]

No, they get paid once the project reaches its goal and the time runs out. There's no guarantee that your money is going towards a project that gets finished.

[masklinn]

> and in the case of an unfinished [...] never.

That is incorrect. The money is transferred once funding period has ended if funding goals have been reached.

From that point on, the project authorship has the money (minus Amazon's and Kickstarter's shares) and may never get it done still.

Source: funded half a dozen of KS so far, I know when money leaves me. It would also completely unmake the point of kickstarter: it's about providing funds for the project to be done, not guaranteeing sales so people can go get institutional investors showing they have 3 million sales in already (especially since most KS are a few thousand, the current million+ craze is not the median project)

[hristov]

You are correct, but nevertheless, they did not get the $5000. The funding goal was $80 000 and they got nowhere near that. So that was a scam that did not work.

[GabeN]

This is only because the project was rumbled so quickly after it was launched. If they had maybe spent a few hours time mocking up some original images they could have been on their way to a fully funded project.