.COM Domain for only $2

[Python]

I am in the process of setting up a payment list. Basically when someone contributes $2 via PayPal their name is added to a list. Then when the total contributed amount reaches enough to be able to pay for a domain name the person at the top of the list is given a domain of their choice...

Full details can be found at http://www.devdreams.com/forum/thread1418.html


There arent many people taking part yet so please help out... It will only cost you $2 and if you dont get the domain name (you definately will get it) then you will get a full refund.

This way your saving over $6 per domain name.

Thanks

[Queen Bee]

Hi Python,

Does this really benefit your company? I always wondered about these things, if they were really worth it or not. It seems too risky.

Wouldn't it be better if you just charged $6 less than everyone else or not?

Sorry if my questions bother you... I have just always wondered about these list-type payment methods.

[Python]

No this does not benefit me at all in any way. This just benefits the people who join in. This is because I do not get any of the money. All of the money is used to pay for the domain for the person at the top of the list.

This is just a simple way for people to get domain names at just $2 each.

[Queen Bee]

Oh okay, I see what you are saying.
But I read on the forums that you were cancelling the idea... People have a lot of problems with this type of 'top of the list' things, mainly because everyone ends up getting scammed anyway.

My mother did that with her laptop, paid $50 and waited. Finally, the site closed down and she didn't get anything out of it...

Yours might be perfectly legit, but it's really hard to pin point something like that. Besides, I'm not sure if there is any point in it anyway, especially if you don't benefit from it.

I hope you don't mind me being blunt about it. Just my two cents.

[Andy]

I thought at first that this was a scam but my mathematical analysis shows that it should be sustainable. 

For example, the retail price of the domain name is $10 and each person in the list pays $2

The person at the top needs 4 people under them (4x$2 + $2 = $10) to get the domain name then they leave the list and go home.

The next person needs $10 sponsorship so they need 5 people on top of the 3 people under them that already contributed to the 1st person. So the list that started with 5 people and lost 1 now has to grow to (5+3+1) 9 people.

This person now got their domain name so went back home.

Now the next person is left with 7 people under them that have already contributed to the 1st 2 people so we need 5 new people to invest $2 each. Now we have (5+7+1) 13 people.

The sequence is 5, 9, 13 ...

So it seems like 4 new people are always needing to be added to keep it going which is a linear progression so should be sustainable.

Any mathematicians out there? My gut feel says there must be something wrong with it but I can't see it now.

Modification to post:

Ah ha!  Everytime someone new joins, we need 4 new people to keep it going.  So 1 person joins we need 1+4=5 people to pay the 1st person.  Then we have 5 people who need (5+9+13+17+21) 70! people to pay them.Wow, what a rate of growth. No wonder it was difficult to get a $50 laptop.