I haven’t been terribly active on the forums, but have been lurking since the crowdfunding campaign. Unfortunately, as Canadian Golden Email Day approaches, my wife and I have been reconsidering whether a Glowforge is right for us. The potential is there, but given the uncertainty around international warranty work and tube replacements the money is better spent elsewhere for us.
Given that we’re so close to Canadian units shipping, we’re hoping to take delivery and resell. Everything gets far more complicated if shipping is involved, so ideally the buyer would be able to pick up in Kitchener/Waterloo.
We’re looking for $4,500 (CAD) + whatever the final brokerage bill is. That includes one Glowforge Basic, shipping charges (excluding brokerage and taxes), the $150 worth of Proofgrade materials, and an estimated $320 worth of Glowforge store credit. The credit isn’t transferable, so we’d place whatever order you wanted before transferring ownership with Glowforge.
That price is with the Glowforge valued at $3000 (USD), or halfway between the preorder price we’re locked in at and the current sticker price. The Proofgrade and store credit is included at 75% of face value. Once it’s delivered we’ll confirm the final brokerage bill and add that to the $4500.
Current estimated “golden email” date is April 23rd, with delivery within 6 weeks of that. If you’re interested but not on the forum, feel free to email me at mail@lukebecker.ca.
Glowforge folks: I believe all of the above is above board, but if there’s anything you take exception to don’t hesitate to let me know.
I don’t know so much about canadian vs US $, but considering you aren’t paying for the PG sample box, or the store credit, why do you include that in the price? I already bought a second unit, or I’d think about this more, but it doesn’t seem right to me to charge for something you didn’t pay for. That is since you are already meeting half way between out of your pocket and current pricing.
Yeah, fair enough. Coming up with a fair price in this kind of a situation is always strange, so my thinking was “knock 25% off of what it would cost to buy this stuff new”, including PG and credit. Another way to look at it would be that we’re knocking $500 off the cost of the Glowforge instead of $1000, and throw in the PG and credit for free.
Either way, if someone’s interested but the price is too high please be in touch anyway! Like I said coming up with something that’s fair is far from an exact science, so I’m more than open to counteroffers.
And a postscript for those interested: currently 1.00 USD ~= 1.25 CAD, so a new Basic would be about $5000 (CAD) + $375 shipping.
It feels a little scummy to profit off of a preorder item that hasn’t been received yet and more so as you are expecting the buyer to pick up the duty and shipping fees. It is an interesting conundrum, for anyone that wants one now it’s a pretty easy way to cut in line…
I don’t beleive that you can charge/resell for the sample pack or the credit, I’d check the ToS or email Glowforge.
Sorry you are selling, I’m happy with the 1 I have but I think it’s a good deal and you are not priced too high at all. a discount off what it would cost to buy all of it now, soup to nuts, IS the proper way to sell something. the fact that that 2 years ago you basically lent money to GlowForge in exchange for a box of material doesn’t in any way mean you can’t charge for it. in fact it shouldn’t matter at all how you got any of it: it only matters what it would cost to buy now. and at 25% discount, plus cad to USD exchange, it’s a good deal.
at most, he is profiting off the the 2000$ he risked and invested more that 2 years ago. and yes it’s an easy way to cut in line but they are paying 50% more than you and I did…
I’m not sure what’s the point of discouraging someone to resell his own purchase at a profit, on his own terms.
I’m neither encouraging nor discouraging selling it. If I lived in Canada I would think twice about it, alas I live in the U.S. and would have to pay duty to bring it back into the country. At the end of the day having two would be awesome
Just as an FYI there are some goodies, like the extended warranty, that are lost when buying a preorder.
They can’t resell the credit, but as stated above, they will order using the credit before the sale and then include the physical goods in the sale. Glowforge might try and stop this, but they even if they were so inclined they’d probably let it slide. Once the OP has the physical goods they can sell it. In the US at least.
Your Glowforge and the materials you own - whether purchased with cash, credit, or in the starter pack - are yours to do with as you choose. The only thing that cannot be resold is your account (which holds your unused credits, designs you’ve uploaded, etc). On the bright side, if you find a friend with a Glowforge, you can use your account with it!
I did mean to mention the loss of the extended warranty in the original post, but looks like I missed it. Good catch.
I know @Dan weighed in already, but I wanted to reiterate that if Glowforge has any issues with anything I intend on doing I’m more than happy to change plans accordingly. The last thing I want to do is stick whoever buys off of us with any unintended problems.
We are too. We kept trying to figure out a way to make it work but it’s just not the right way to spend that money right now. I really, really wish that wasn’t true though!
Have you considered, if it’s possible, to rent/lease it out to someone local , possibly for a fixed term ?
They could be set up to use your ‘account’ with GF, but would give you a return until you’re in a better position.
Haha, yeah, we considered it but that’s unlikely to change any time soon. When we placed the preorder one of the reasons we liked it so much was that we could use it in our apartment. We’ve since bought a house, though, so pretty much all of the project time and money that would have gone to the Glowforge needs to go to the house. And given the house-project list covers roughly the next decade, it’s probably going to stay that way until long after I can expect a Gen-1 Glowforge to last.
Plus I have room for my table saw/mitre saw/band saw/etc now, so I’ve got other ways to scratch the building things itch.
