David, Well, not doubt eBay has developed a huge audience -- and I've always said that MPB is not intended to replace eBay (at least for most people), but to provide a more focused, trusted and personal-service alternative. I still recommend that sellers should sell BOTH on eBay and MPB. This makes sense for the sellers (why sell in only one store when you can sell in two or more, even if a lot of the same people go into both stores?). It also makes sense for the buyers (again, why not shop in both stores?). And there are still a lot of people who prefer the more intimate atmosphere and service of a specialized store to that of Wal-Mart.
Plus, I have a personal motive. I urge MPB sellers to sell on eBay so that when they exchange invoices and messages with eBay buyers that they can tell the eBay people about MPB. Having said all that, I have big doubts about eBay's claim to 125 million users. I have more than one eBay account. I have 3. Let's see a show of hands... how many people have more than one eBay account. When you figure that a whole bunch of those accounts are inactive, I'd put the number closers to 50 or 60 million. Still nothing to blow off, of course. -- JR ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Kusumoto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2005 18:00 Subject: [MOPO] Hi JR JR: ** I do love MoviePosterBid and find it easily navigable. But I do believe that in spite of eBay's horrible problems, that it remains difficult for any independent business owner to kiss off a potential audience of 125 million customers, if eBay's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission are to be believed. ** MoviePosterbid is a wonderful alternative, a more focused venue than eBay, but its audience remains, in my view, more knowledgeable and hard core than the average buyer. There is a higher "geek factor" associated with people (myself included) who visit such sites, as well as those who read or post to similar forums and blogs -- indicating a more intense interest in a subject than the average housewife, for example, who surfs Amazon.com for her shopping needs. ** I'm not saying choose "this OVER that" -- as much as I'm saying that a decision to leave eBay is not as "slam-dunk-obvious" as people are claiming -- as it APPLIES to Bruce, given his high volumes. ** Perhaps a compromise of using both MoviePosterBid and eBay can work, maybe not. But I am from the school that believes growing a business for the long term -- over many years -- especially for a non-essential commodity (posters vs. food), requires continual replenishment of customers, young and old. And the "discovery" factor is high at eBay, where there a lot of "crossover" traffic occurs involving people with little to zero interest in collecting and who may be, for example, only interested in purchasing gifts for others. ** My gut feeling is most who embrace MoPo and Movie Poster Bid and Movie Poster Talk are not buying for others, but for themselves, or who, as in my case, have a continuing interest in posters even though I no longer voraciously buy posters like I did when I was young. ** As to the "moral and practical" issues you allude to involving eBay, that's a subjective call, but I am in your corner about eBay's arrogance, monopolistic and anti-competitive image -- everything from its rules stifling criticism to its incestuous engulfing and devouring of entities -- which casts a wider net over potential dollars (e.g., the most glaring example is its acquisition of Paypal and the numerous layers of additional fees it receives when used by members). ** Criticizing a company, if it's your company, is a 1st Amendment right. But this doesn't mean your customer should be allowed to do it on your own site. So while I find eBay's behavior disagreeable, I have to bring everything down to the mom and pop level to see if what I feel equally applies. eBay has rules. If you don't like 'em, don't play. Bruce has rules too. He says if you don't like 'em, don't bid. You may have rules as well. If people don't abide by 'em, go somewhere else. We all have different theshholds of tolerance or rules we apply -- whether we're a buyer of something at 10 o'clock or a seller of something else at 11 o'clock the same day. -d. ----Original Message Follows---- From: J R <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Why I was suspended from eBay Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 15:16:18 -0500 David, With all due respect to your otherwise thoughtful and incisive analysis, I have to take issue with the idea you seem to advance that the only way new movie collectors will ever become part of the hobby -- or see Bruce's or anyone else's auctions is through eBay. I don't believe most people limit their web activities to eBay alone. In fact I would hazard that for most of them, eBay is a side-activity, something they engage in from time to time, not the penultimate destination of their online lives. Let's not swallow eBay's publicity whole without at least a dash of salt. There are search engines integrated into virtually everyone's web experience and www.MoviePosterBid.com does show up in the top 1 to 3 spot on all of them except for the greedy "you've got to pay big bucks to be seen here" Google site (where MPB's placement varies daily from number 10 to number 30 or so, depending on something I can't figure out). But the point is, there are plenty of websites selling posters and lots of ways for new people to find out about Bruce, MoviePosterBid and other poster venues beside eBay. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting what you're saying here, but if the advice you seem to be giving is that it is worth whatever price one has to pay and whatever arrogant and unfair treatment one has to put up with in order to continue to list on eBay -- well, that strikes me as simply incorrect, both on moral and practical grounds. 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