I get the idea and think at the basic level it is a good idea, but there are a number of reasons it won't work.
1) The consumer has to do too much work. Print out, tape on, fiberglass it in, etc. Too much work. People (not just surfers) are lazy and want everything done in one step- this is like 5 steps too many (buy board, register online, print out, stick on board with acetate paper, glass over, sand, etc.)
2) Most people own multiple boards. By multiple I mean a lot of people own 5+; I own 6 I use on a regular basis and an equal number of other ones I pull out of the rafters once in a while. I'm not going to want to pay (although I have no idea how much it would cost because you do not offer a conversion to $US and am just to busy to research it) for each board.
3) Modern shortboards rarely last a year if ridden hard and often. People will not want to repeatedly register boards every few months and deal with the hassle of reporting them sold legitimately.
4) The tag can easily be removed, hence no reason to bother.
5) If removing the tag leaves evidence behind, it can easily be sanded off or stickered/painted over.
6) You could have constant hassles dealing with boards that were sold legitimately but never reported to your site. Some grom who purchases a secondhand stick and then tries to re-sell it could wind up hassled for trying to sell a "hot" board.
7) The only way this could work is if you make agreements with shapers to include the registrations in their board-building process, putting the tag under the glass and making a point of this feature to potential buyers as a "peace of mind" option. Or if The Law gets involved and requires this for all boards (and we don't want to be hassled by The Man, do we now?).
[ February 26, 2003, 02:41 PM: Message edited by: hackeysaky ]
