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What so many people keep missing is that it is not necessary for MPB to
"beat eBay" in order to succeed -- or to be a valuable service for poster
sellers and an important venue for the collecting community. We have no
intention of "supplanting eBay" and have said so from the beginning. What we
offer is a lower-cost, but very viable alternative which is dedicated ONLY to
movie posters. By maintaining a tight focus, we can be viable for all of those
who participate, keep good personal customer service and let eBay go its own way
-- the way of mass-marketing and 99 cent geegaws, used car classifieds and
real estate listings. That business model simply doesn't work well for movie
posters -- and we all know it. But that's clearly the direction eBay is headed,
so we are urging movie poster sellers to adopt an evolutionary strategy.
Specifically:
List on BOTH eBay and MPB. Shift some of your auctions to MPB right now and
advertise them to your existing client mailing list. Help us build up not
only the number of auction listings on the site, but also the number of people
checking out the site. Continue to auction on eBay and occasionally snag a new
customer from the teeming throngs of eBay, but then "bring them over" to your
MPB auctions by sending them messages about your auctions there. Over time, with
a lot of listings every week to keep people coming back, the audience at
MPB will build to a level that should rival eBay in the only area where it
really counts -- in ACTUAL SALES of movie poster items worth more than $10 bucks
or so. It might even prove more profitable for you than eBay eventually, since
the focus on movie posters is so tight on MPB.
Think about it. There is no reason why -- if enough sellers would
list a sufficient number of items at ALL price levels on a regular
basis -- that MPB should not become the preferred "first stop" for people
who regularly buy movie posters. These people would appreciate the narrow focus,
the absence of hundreds of reprints cluttering up the originals categories, and
the knowledge that they are buying from honest, reliable sellers (the
only kind we allow to do business on MPB). It could easily get to the point
where the majority of regular buyers only go to eBay *after* they've checked out
MPB first. It could easily happen -- and in a fairly short time -- but it
takes a real commitment from many more sellers than have stepped forward so
far to make it happen.
Look, we could advertise MPB on billboards 100 feet high in Times Square
and it wouldn't do a damn bit of good if the auctions weren't there when people
clicked on their browsers and went to the site to check it out. Unless a bunch
of you sellers do what must be done -- step up and list on MPB, in quantity and
with regularity, so that when the advertising brings in the viewers they have a
wide variety to look at and bid on. At this point, pouring additional money into
advertising without having the listings we need to take the site to the
next level would be futile.
The audience at MPB has continued to grow from day one and new members are
still signing up every day. It is the vast majority of the sellers who have not
come through in a big way to make MPB the truly viable alternative it could
be. The potential buyers are there and more will come if the auctions are there
to attract them.
With MPB we have created the platform and proved that it works -- but
only the sellers can really make it happen. Without them, MPB is just an empty
store front.
I've said it before: If you want it, it's ready for you to step up and make
it happen. We've done our part. Now it's your move.
-- JR
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- Re: [MOPO] how can this thing be? J R
- Re: [MOPO] how can this thing be? Joseph H. Bonelli
