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Bruce,
You are to be commended for passing up the opportunity to pick up a quick
few hundred bucks on that particular item. As you must know, when a regular
seller says "I don't know what this is" that's usually sufficient warning for
most people to do their own homework and knowingly bid at their own risk. But
it's different with you. You have built up such a fine reputation that many
people would tend to shrug off your disclaimer, thinking "Bruce is too
knowledgeable and professional to sell a commercial reprint without clearly
saying so". Heck, I bet many of your bidders don't even bother to read the text
description and just look at your high resolution picture and make their
decision on that basis, so they might miss the disclaimer entirely.
So, while what you did was the right thing to do, it also protects your
reputation doesn't it? You know what kind of firestorm this would have become on
the forums if the story came out (as it surely would have) that Bruce Hershenson
"duped" some poor fool into paying $360 for a reprint. Thus I conclude that your
honesty comes as much from self-interest as altruism. See? I *knew* I could find
something snippy to say about you if I tried hard enough. :))
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce
Hershenson
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 13:06
Subject: [MOPO] Honesty IS the best policy I had no idea what this was, but I put it was a special poster, and said I had no idea if it was intended for theater use (and asked anyone who did know to e-mail me so I could post it). I thought it was likely NOT a commercial poster, given its large size. One person e-mailed me on the poster prior to today, and I posted the response online, saying I had no clue. But David Lieberman just e-mailed me a link to an eBay auction showing the same poster for sale for $12 and he said it IS a commercial poster. He said it is sold "all over eBay". I went to the auction and the poster was at $360!!!!!!!!!! I would say that this amply demonstrates the power of eMoviePoster.com's number of viewers, and why we get so many consignors! I can't cancel the auction because eBay doesn't let you cancel auctions within 12 hours, so I did the next best thing, which was to cancel all the bids, add to the image, and e-mail all the bidders. I am just glad I found out BEFORE the auction ended. Did I ever consider just letting the auction end and telling the buyer, "sorry, but I stated I did not know what this was, so too bad for you"? After all, one could say that I did nothing wrong, and it was the bidders' fault for not checking out the item thoroughly. Not for a moment did I consider doing this, because I truly do believe (as my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Crabtree told me), "honesty IS the best policy". Oh wait, that wasn't MY kindergarten teacher, but rather the one from the Little Rascals shows I watched all the time. But I do believe she was surely right (and I wish all auction houses (and movie poster sellers) felt the same way)! Bruce
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- Re: [MOPO] Honesty IS the best policy -- and self-insurance JR
