Now I guess it's my turn for failure
. After all I am just a newbie which understandably a red flag for most reasonable people (I know it would be one for me, too). Besides, the group buy idea on this forum was pretty much dead for about a year. Yet, I think I found a way to buy, where people don't need to put their trust into new personalities, even such wonderful as myself.A little bit about group organizer: my name is Alex, I am from Toronto, ON. For about 10 years I owned a Freight Forwarding company in JFK, NY. Now I am trying to develop a mining service, you can google Prudent Mining. Anyway, the bottleneck of any group buy is payment vs goods. People want to send money to someone they trust, pretty obviously.
Here are 2 ways I suggest how it can be done:
1. There are 5 US based escrows listed on this site: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/recommended-bitcointalk-escrow-services-2439910.
Let's choose 1 escrow for each of the following major destinations: JFK, LAX, IAH, ORD and YYZ. Each escrow collects funds for no more then 100 miners to start with and pays it directly to Bitmain with instructions to send shipment by air to the according US airport. The ultimate consignee on master AWB will be a US Customs broker for US shipments and a Canadian one for Canadian shipment.
DISCLAIMER: My background is in logistics, so I personally know the US broker for about 15 years. He has been in the industry for about 30 years and licensed his own company about 8 years ago.
You can and should be suspicious of everyone, including customs people, but the chances of customs broker running with 100K worth of merchandise, losing hard earned license and facing lawsuits along the way, would be pretty minimal.
Escrows are greater risk, almost none of us know them, and they are not licensed as escrow. Yet I have a feeling many forum members trust them, because of their history on this forum and positive reviews.
DISCLAIMER: Sending funds to any escrow is your own risk. I am just organizing a group buy, so I must not be held responsible for any wrong doing done by any third parties, including, but not limited by an escrow, manufacturer of miners, overseas freight forwarder, US customs officials, US Customs Broker, US domestic trucking company or releasing warehouse. (TO BE CONTINUED)
Along with master AWB I will instruct overseas freight forwarder to produce what's called house AWBs for each participant in the group. That's the document which will allow each group member to receive their miners.
Question: can a group organizer (i.e. myself) ask overseas freight forwarder to prepare HAWB or MAWB for myself, to receive all the miners, and then run?
Answer: We will instruct escrow to inform Bitmain during payment to use US Customs Broker as an ultimate Consignee on MAWB.
Master AWB holder, i.e. licensed US Customs Broker will be in control of the goods until it's customs cleared. He will be informed about each group member. Each group member will have to contact him directly PRIOR to shipping and PRIOR to payment from escrow to Bitmain is done. I will provide him with the list of names and contact details as well as the quantity each one ordered.
Each member will confirm that information with the broker directly. He will know what to expect for each client and whom it should be released to. He will also have the copy of each HAWB from me and from you and they have to match. Also, the totals from all HAWb’s should equal total number on MAWB. Any irregularities will be noticed.
Now about process of releasing goods in the airports.
To avoid any confusion, there should be the same person and/or company on the HAWB as on POA. Once miners arrive to the US, people will have to bring those HAWB’s, POA and matching valid government personal ID (Drivers License or Passport), even if receiving for company, in order for the miners to be released.
Question: Can someone sneak into warehouse and receive goods instead of a lawful owner?
Answer: In order for someone to get your goods he will have to:
a. get hands on your HAWB by hacking your computer or stealing a paper copy from you
b. get hands on your POA, the same way as in a.
c. prepare fake ID with your name and present fake ID with your name at the warehouse equipped with video cameras.
Long shot, if you ask me.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Now about the order itself. I have been in contact with Bitmain for the last 2 days and there are good news and bad ones.
Ordering for June batch is pretty much closed unfortunately. The next batch of T17's and S17's is expected in September. So you are looking at about 3 months of your money seating at Bitmain. For some of you it can be a deal breaker right here.
The good news is that September batch of T17's and S17s will be cheaper. Not only hardware will be cheaper, there should be NO(!) 25% import tariff, as goods will be coming NOT from China. I cautiously say ‘should’ instead of ‘will’ because:
a. 3 months is a long period of time and government can change tariffs any way they want, especially with current administration.
b. Bitmain can change their mind or make a mistake and ship from China, triggering a tariff.
But as it stands right now there should be only 2.6% duty and no 25% tariff when importing to the USA.