Some of the language on the Hashfast site makes me worried about when we put this order in.
Specifically from the third line of the Upgrade Kit description: "This offer is only valid while supplies last". I'm concerned that Hashfast is treating this upgrade more like an promotion, rather than an honest upgrade option for the Baby Jet Batch 1. So I think it would be good to upgrade as soon as possible, putting an order in as soon as we have enough shares bought between R1 and R2, or getting some clarification from Hashfast as to the ongoing availability of the Upgrade.
Including myself, it seems like there is a significant interest "picking up the slack" for these upgrade shares. I mean why would there not be? This is probably the cheapest $/Gh available until 2014. Along what thomas_s was saying, I think we should treat this upgrade as 40 (or 80 if we include both R1 and R2) new shares. Following the model of the original GB: Allow people to put in soft reservations, each person would be guaranteed their ability to upgrade their shares until a certain % of reservations/payments is hit, then a deadline for payment would kick in after which all unpaid shares would be made available to others in the GB. (Possibly through a bidding system or something else, can be decided upon once we get there...)
The current payments would obviously stand, but if something like 75% of the payments came in I think it is unfair to let the 25% remaining to hold back the rest of us (especially since there is good demand for their shares). You could insert whatever percentages you deem fair, but I think it's time to get the ball rolling on this.
This is all just a suggestion but having a little more structure/transparency to the upgrade process can not hurt. Any thoughts?
I'm in agreement with what y'all are saying about speed/limited quantity & fairness to the majority of the co-op.
At the same time, while we close out this GB, I think we need to protect the original share owners that may be on travel, too busy, or too invested elsewhere, to keep up with the latest changes and come up with the BTC immediately to secure their R1 or R2 upgrade share which they fully deserve. As long as the people involved w/ the "Buyout" of R1/R2 upgrade shares (which is one heckuva deal) give the orig. share owners an opportunity to buy back their R1 or R2 share *before* the upgrade part(s) ship, I have absolutely no issue with this "buyout" approach, assuming that orig. share buyer protection is built into the buyout to "get 'er done!"
Which, BTW, you know I'm all about having built this co-op out of ether with time/BTC/quality people invested into growing and improving: "The little Co-Op that could." As far as our niche of Industrial Class ASIC Rigs, this co-op may have possibly outsold every other GBC or co-op for the month of September (although I'm always open to correction or constructive criticism), so no reason to slow our momentum just because original R1/R2 owners are too busy or too invested elsewhere at the moment.