Thread: Who is interested in a pass-around for a Chinese scope?

Originally Posted by Ultimitsu

It is much more complex than that and I am sure you know it.

1. The products are usually loaned, not gifted, to the media outlet (magazine, website, youtube channel, etc). At the end of the review, unless it was a T-shirt, it usually has to be returned back to the provider. Or else why dont we all just start an exotic car review mag and become instant millionaires by selling our free review cars?
2. Usually there are highly refined commercial contracts in place, addressing issues of risk, insurance, obligations, and disclosure.
3. Usually one has to be at least a medium heavy weight media to get free loan products for reviews (in other words, have proven circulation of your publication), and one needs to have ongoing relationships with the product providers. In fact, if you read firearm and related products review on the internet, most are done by people who pay their own hard earned cash for the product.

Now let's compare what we are doing here:
1. This is a New Zealand website. International traffic exists but not that big. We are not Rimfire Central, or Sniper's Hide, or Optics Talk.
2. We are not obligated to produce a 10 page comprehensive tech review that must include things like test results for resolving power when looking at an imatest chart at 300 meters, or light transmission percentage measurement, or precise maximum recoil tolerance, etc. I can tell you a website I have been going to for about 12 years which gets free loan gear to test. DPReview.com. See one of their latest review : https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-m50. This is the level of professional review you may be expected to produce if you want to get a free loaner.
3. The pass-around that I am trying to put together is intended to be accessible to anyone who is interested in having a go. One does not have to be a highly published and respected tech journalist to participate. One does not even have to have any review experience or published anything or any technical knowledge of rifle scopes. Anyone who has these skills and want a go, great. Anyone who has none of these skills but just want to play and try out a new scope, can do too. And can do it for FREE.
4. No one has the time to draft, or can be bothered to go through, a lengthy and onerous contract to further refine each side's obligations. A $400 bond to have free play with for a $500 scope is the best balance that I can think of between many competing considerations such as collective convenience, individual responsibleness, equal access, and risk allocation.

As someone who is directly involved with this sort of thing, in the shooting/firearms industry, I can say that this is mostly correct but not quite as in-depth as you make it out.
We loan out firearms and optics to various online "personalities" and magazines etc to test or review. The same firearm would go to multiple different people or magazines as we generally only have one or two of any given optic or firearm for demo purposes. We do require them back.
The requirements that we place on the borrower are not so stringent, we do not go into great detail about what - if anything is expected. (assuming its not some kind of review that you pay for - but most are not, that creates a biased review or add.) Most personalities or magazines want to review your product or do a write up on it for the benefit of their magazine or page, so its a win-win all round. You pay for product advertisements but generally not reviews or write ups.
Everyone wants to be the first to get their hands on a new rifle or scope and review it in their magazine etc. We like to let them use it as they see fit and give impressions as to what they really think of the product that relate to how they would actually use it. We do not have a check list of points to be covered. Reviews should be genuine thoughts and not a check list, otherwise its an advertisement.
We do not have any lengthy contracts etc to over complicate things. We sign the item out, with details as to who / what its for, and a due date for return and that's about it. I think the crux of it is, in the vast majority of cases they go to people/ personalities who are established in the industry, so you know they are not going to disappear with your products.