It seems that there were issues with this sale format. Although it's probably easiest for Jim, just let paypal handle the inventory and payments, we see that there were race conditions, paypal issues, forgotten chip orders and the multi-order loophole. The whole process seems a bit uncivilized. Why not something like this:
1. Open a thread where people post their intended orders following whatever chip limits that are imposed. Leave it open for a specific amount of time, say a week.
2. Once that thread is closed, at a designated time, Jim posts a randomized list of the member's orders and begins to fill them. He contacts the first person via PM and they have 5 minutes to respond and make the payment via paypal. If they don't respond, or chose not to order, they lose their place and Jim moves on to the next person in the list. The person will only be allowed to purchase exactly what they said in the intended orders thread. No more, no less.
3. Once Jim hits the first order he cannot completely fill, that person can modify their order for less of any or all chip quantities of only the chip denominations they initially intended to order, or just cancel completely.
4. Then continue until all randomized orders from the thread have been addressed or the chip reserves have been depleted.
5. Any remaining chips left over once all the intended orders have been addressed go on sale at a first come first served basis.
This way, everyone interested has an equal chance of getting chips and there is not this race where the fastest internet connection wins or paypal glitches or missed chips being ordered or multi-order exploits. Now I realize this is probably much more work on Jim's part, probably a few hours dealing with all the intended orders, but seems to me to be a much fairer way, giving everyone an equal chance of being first in line to get their order filled. We run auctions and raffles on this site weekly without incident. This does not seem to be any more difficult or challenging, and like I said, it seems to me to be much more fair and civilized.
The only potential downside I can see, besides Jim's time commitment, is collusion between members. Consider 4 people each want a 500 chip set. They get together and each submit they intend to purchase 2000 chips. This gives them 4 chances to be high up on the randomized list. Once the first order is fulfilled, the other three just decline their option to purchase when Jim contacts them. Not sure how you protect against that, but someone might be able to figure out how? Now I considered not explaining this exploit, for fear of giving people the idea of how to work the system, but your guys are smart and I'm sure many would have figured it out. So at least everyone understands this issue and can be thinking on how to protect against it, or at least be on the lookout for it.
Now with all this said, I understand Jim is the merchant and the professional and will handle his sales how he sees fit. I am just offering up a possibility of a format that ( I think ) removes many of the complaints that I have read in this thread.
So, good idea? Bad idea?
