The reason I feel that the 2nd buy is at 40% of the goal is that nobody is leading this. We need someone to keep giving it the attention it needs. With the first one I kept the thread active, even with that people who logged in every so often were able to know that there was a group buy.
If you want to speed things up the best thing is to bring attention to the thread so others are informed.
As for purchasing the pads separately you'll most likely spend $20 to $40 more elsewhere without doing the group-buy participation.
I personally don't like the google doc thing for people adding orders. Having people add their name to the thread lets them know they're in and accounted for, also it bumps the thread up so more attention.
If you want to speed things up the best thing is to bring attention to the thread so others are informed.
As for purchasing the pads separately you'll most likely spend $20 to $40 more elsewhere without doing the group-buy participation.
I personally don't like the google doc thing for people adding orders. Having people add their name to the thread lets them know they're in and accounted for, also it bumps the thread up so more attention.