People have been asking for a website for months.
Has FriedCat ever replied something about that ?
It might not have been directly about a website, but I recall FC saying some words suggesting that AM leaves opportunity for distributors to make any kind of service they want to. In other words, AM doesn't need a website, but if you want to but wholesale, and sell retail, go for it. Make your own website, sell their boards, etc.
Or maybe I'm making this up...
I think a retail channel would be a good idea as it would free Bitfountain from the hassle of dealing with hundreds of retail buyers. Surely if there is stock on hand or stock committed to be produced now is the time to start shipping it, not in three months when its value has fallen by 2/3rds. Also better to sell stock in bulk than have to worry about deploying it to the farm with its attendant admin and operations costs.
There are risks involved in being a reseller of any mining product in an era where generations of tech are measured in months - you don't want stock sitting in your warehouse for more than a couple of weeks, tops. The blades are currently priced at a premium as well, which would make it hard to make a margin on top of that. Perhaps the distribution channel should get blades at say
BTC25 each in volume and then be looking to sell them to retail customers for
BTC35 each (still a good business when each blade only costs about
BTC1 to manufacture). AM would sell an absolute boatload of blades and would have a bulging war chest to pay for the next generation of hardware.
I agree the price for blades and usb eruptors are too high for re-sellers, yes they are going for $400+ on ebay but thats only because of how hard they are to buy at the moment and how hard btc is to get. If you are only selling in bulk you need to price it accordingly to make it financially viable for your re-sellers.
I still think they need a website for info, when you google bitcoin asics you get bfl's website first then some forums posts a few wiki entries and thats it. Heres a perfect example of why there needs to be a website.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1fg1m4/looking_to_buy_a_bitcoin_miner/If there was a website on what products were available, specs, how to use them, how to order, maybe a list of re-sellers for people that only wanted one. Then this type of thing wouldnt happen. Especially for the blades, they are so bare bones they need support documentation easily available.
I wouldn't be surprised if half the share holders didn't even know asicminer sold hardware until the release of the usb miners.
I just find it daft that a company that has potentially millions of dollars going through its hands doesn't have a website and depends on a community website to make sales and provide support.