On the 15th of July, he decided to ask his supplier for permission to use their photos (as they provide an unbranded print catalog for distributors) and launched his website ahead of my schedule.

He posted to /r/guns (http://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/wlvwz/handcrafted_30_cal_bolt_action_pens_would_these/) and the place blew up. Some people accused him of stealing images and descriptions. Others accused him of reselling finished products from his distributor for "outrageous" markup. But what really happened was over 3k unique page views in 2 days, and a substantial increase in orders. Its my understanding that being on the front page of /r/guns generated enough orders to blow through their initial stock in hours. They still accept custom build to order requests, and those are selling steadily.

It amazed me, even though I'm an active redditor, how quickly the "hivemind" polarized into two camps and created massive drama, which generated white knights buying the product to support the firm (and leaving customer notes explaining why) and detractors playing inspector detector to "hunt down" the owner and threaten him via non-published numbers and letters to his house.

I'm happy that the website I basically cobbled together from pre-existing free and commercial open-source software (WordPress, WooThemes, WooCommerce) have worked out for them so well, and still do maintenance and consulting for them.

The site for the company is http://www.wastark.com/