I have a few questios about the group buy. Asked DBSAR about it and he said other members of the project could answer it better; and the answers may be useful for other people.
1 - Which are the payment methods? Does it includes PayPal?
2 - Where is it going to ship from? Would be useful to know if they exclude some places for shipping.
3 - Is there some way we can calculate shipping costs, or some chart with shipping rates?
I expect those are questions that do not have a specific answer until the lanterns are in production. Look at other BLF-Sofirn projects for possible selling options.
Based on past Sofirn group buys:
1 - Sofirn has stores on AliExpress and Amazon. AliExpress sometimes takes PayPal and sometimes doesn’t, and when it does they usually charge a small fee. I always just use a credit card on AliExpress. Their credit card processing via AliPay is totally fine in my experience. On a side note, I always see new people treating AliExpress shopping as if it’s a daunting experience - it’s just Wish but without the markup.
2 - China. Overseas sellers will eventually get it at a markup. YMMV if you order it with batteries included.
3 - Shipping is usually free due to the Chinese government subsidizing shipping on packages below a certain weight.
How much will it slide now? All the weight is hanging down, so it will center itself on the bail (thank you for learning a new word :D).
I don’t see it sliding around much, had DBSAR tested this before?
I have many lanterns with the metal hoop-type bail, i never really had much of a problem with then on nails or cords. (unless you try to deliberately hang it on one side on something grippy like a rubber coated hook, they mostly center themselves. adding a protrusion will have it stick out (like a protrusion) when the bail handle is down though, and probably more of a hindrance when packing it in a a soft bag or case.