*WE GOT MAIL! Here are a dozen e-mails we received over the past few weeks
from some of our 30,000 customers: *
1) "Bruce, we received an order from you and one of the items was damaged
(it appeared to have happened during packing). We notified you and you told
us we could return it, or that you would consider an offer of a partial
refund (you asked us to say how much we thought it had been devalued).
Thanks for your gracious message. We sincerely appreciate it. Please
know that we will gratefully accept whatever you deem to be a fair amount
for a partial refund, because we know that you are an honorable seller and
we trust your judgment as to what would be a fair amount for a partial
refund.
We have said this before but it bears repeating. You & your staff are
simply the best. It is always a pleasure doing business with your company.
We can't say enough about how professional & gracious all of you are in the
process of conducting business.
Thank you and we wish all of you continued success."
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE:* Thanks for your high praise. We spend an
inordinate amount of time on customer service, and we know that we are one
of the few larger companies that do. But we want to make our customers happy
even on those rare occasions when we make mistakes, and we know this
attitude really sets apart from other major auctioneers.
2) "I just wanted to drop you folks at emovieposter.com a note to say "Thank
you" for sending me my consignment proceeds check for my recent
consignments, which included some very expensive items. Thanks for marketing
my posters so effectively, and paying exactly when you said you would. I'm
also glad that all the buyers of my items paid for their items, so I did not
have to wait for some of my money or have any returned. What a sigh of
relief!"
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE: *It is an "open secret" that many auctions have
difficulty collecting from some of their buyers, and that they often hold up
payments to consignors for a long time, and even more depressing they often
have buyers that never pay, which means the same items come back in the very
next auction, sometimes more than once.
But in our auctions, we collect from 99% of our buyers (and we
completely ban the 1% who don't pay), so the vast majority of our consignors
have an experience just like this consignor's, where we pay in full and
exactly on time.
3) "I tried to bid on one of your items, but I was unable to, and received a
message that my account had been made inactive. I e-mailed you asking why,
and asking you to reinstate me, and you sent a lengthy reply telling me that
it was because I had not logged in for over one year, and that you had had a
problem with hijacked dormant accounts, so you made all such accounts
inactive, but that now you had made my account active again, because I had
confirmed my continued interest.
Thank you for explaining everything, and it make a lot of sense for the
protection of all concerned to make unused accounts inactive. You have by
far the best auction system I have seen so far. Your products are superior
and I feel safe in knowing anything I purchase from you will be authentic
and original. Thanks again for your time."
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE: *Thank you very much for being understanding of
our desire to keep our site as free from "prank bidders" as possible. In
addition to this, when anyone does not pay us, or breaks the rules, we ban
that person, and unlike eBay, where they can easily sneak back on, we put a
lot of effort into permanently keeping that person off our site, so that all
honest bidders can be assured that they are only bidding against other
honest bidders, who do intend to honor their bids.
4) "I used to buy from you on eBay, but then I stopped when you left there.
But recently I realized how much I missed your auctions and I started
bidding again, and I do so love your auctions, and to my surprise they are
so much better since you left eBay, because I love the extended bidding
option, which is much more fair to all bidders."
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE: *Thanks so much! We have noticed that, as eBay
continues to implode more and more each passing month, more and more of our
former buyers who stopped bidding after we left eBay are returning, and also
that we have more and more former eBay sellers as consignors.
5) "Hello Angie. Thank you very, very much for the smooth and fantastic
transaction! I received today the lobby card I purchased, and it is
gorgeous! Thank you again so much. Greetings to you and Bruce and the whole
team of eMoviePoster.com. Well done job!"
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE:* We are always glad to have another happy
customer. Remember that if you ever have a transaction with us that is less
than perfect, please let us know what went wrong, and we will do all we can
to make it right.
6) "Hello eMoviePoster. A small package from you arrived a few days ago.
Along the way, evidently it met some major wetting so the envelope was
buckled. Inside, the contents were protected by overlapping boards which
themselves were a bit damp. Inside that was the plastic bag holding the
items. The contents were completely unaffected and in perfect order. This
shows that your thorough packing methods are a) justified and b) effective.
Please tell the packing staff: Well done!"
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE: *Thanks for letting us know that the extra
efforts we go to in packing every order (no matter how inexpensive) are a)
justified and b) effective (but we knew that already!).
7) "Hi TeamBruce - just wanted to mention that when my last win (a horror
pressbook) arrived, the UPS guy left it in a pile of snow near our door. I
didn't see it until the next day and by then it was fused to the ice
underneath. I got it out, took it inside, opened it up and... it was totally
fine. Only your great packaging saved a 40+ year-old pressbook from becoming
a soggy ruin. well done! that's why your packing is worth every penny.
Thanks!"
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE: *We hear stories like these regularly, and it
always makes me extremely happy to hear this kind of story, because it
proves that our packaging is worthwhile. It is not the value of the item
that makes us want to pack everything so well. It is that these are 40 year
old (or 60 year old or 80 year old) items that have survived well against
all odds, and to have them damaged because of poor handling in transit makes
us very sad, but we virtually *NEVER* have any items arrived damaged,
because of how well we pack.
8) "The script I purchased arrived today and I am very pleased with it. I
must say that when eMoviePoster.com pack a package, they *REALLY* pack it!
There must be wailing and gnashing of teeth at the delivery services, as
there is no way they can damage those packages.
Also, there are a couple of things I'd like to know. In the last Sunday
auction it said that there were 322 scripts, Danish programs, and signed
stills. But when I type in "scripts" in the search box for those auctions, I
get nothing. How on earth do I find them? I can't face trawling through all
your hundreds of items and surely I can't be meant to type in the film
titles I am interested in, on the off chance that one of them might be among
the scripts on offer?
It appears to be the same with the programs. If I type in "Danish
programs" or "German programs", I get nothing. There, however, I have found
a kind of solution: if I just type "Danish" or "German", I get what you
have, programs, posters, whatever. And as there usually are not all that
many items from those countries, I don't mind having to trawl through them.
As regards the signed photos, I guess you have to look under a particular
actor's name.
I don't collect any posters, but I do collect portraits and stills, and a
few special lobby cards scripts from my favourite movies. So therefore I
want to know: How do I access them on your site, without searching through
everything?"
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE: *We are glad you were pleased with the script and
our packaging. I see the problem you are having with the searching and there
are two solutions.
1) The problem is you are searching for "scripts", but since our search
is exact, it has no results. However, search for it without the ending "s"
and it will work. For example, search for "script" or "German program".
2) We're going to try to adjust the search so it will work regardless
of there being an "s" or not at the end.
As a side note, I searched for "script" and see results that are not
scripts. We have a trick that will improve the search results. Instead of
searching for "script", search for "title:script". That causes the search to
only search the auction title, so you only get results where "script"
appears in the auction's title.
I hope the above is helpful, but please let me know if there is
anything more I can help you with. Please know that we are constantly
working on improving our search, so that it will be easier for you (and
everyone else) to quickly find what you are looking for.
9) "I am brand new to your auctions and your site and i want to know where
im supposed to go to like add a card for payment or how that all works? And
I'm not even sure if I won the item I bid on (the closed auction says im the
highest bidder so I am taking it that I won). If you could contact me as
soon as possible i would be very grateful."
We replied to this fellow as follows:
"When the entire set of auctiona ended (around 9 PM CST), we sent you a
winning bid confirmation for what you won which includes answers to all your
questions. Did you receive that e-mail? If not, or if you still have any
questions, please reply to this e-mail and we will quickly answer it."
He then re-replied:
"Yes I received the notice, I'm sorry to have been impatient. By the
way I absolutely love this site. I think its great. I actually just got into
collecting about a year ago.
Is there anyone I can contact or e-mail if i have a question on whether
a poster is rare or other specifications such as a general price? Like
sometimes there are posters i will find on some other sites where the price
seems absolutely outrageous. For instance one major website seems like they
charge a lot more for many posters than anyone else does."
Phil then re-replied to him as follows:
"Don't feel bad about being impatient. You are new to our site and
didn't know how our system works. I can help you with the sorts of questions
you mention. Sometimes I will be able to respond right away, but other times
it may take a couple of days when I have a larger-than-usual amount of
e-mails to answer. When you have questions about specific posters, it will
save time if you can tell me basic details such as where you saw the poster
(include a link when possible), a photo of the item, and its measurements. I
will always answer honestly, and if I don't know the answer, I will tell you
that.
I know what you mean by seeing outrageous prices on some sites. Often,
sites with high prices have a walk-in gallery and they have to ask high
prices due to the high cost of renting a commercial building and other
factors. Sometimes dealers will set high prices on items anticipating that
they will haggle with the buyer, and meet in the middle, and starting very
high means they are certain to get a good price even if it wasn't their
asking price.
Be leery when dealers say things like "extremely rare poster" or
"hard-to-find", because when you compare the movie poster hobby to other
hobbies, virtually everything is rare or hard-to-find, but that doesn't
everything valuable or expensive! But if you look at the hobby relative to
itself (and take into account that it is a small hobby with perhaps 25,000+
active collectors worldwide), you will find that most posters aren't as rare
as they are purported to be. You can usually determine true rarity by
looking up particular posters with our Sales Results Database to see how
many examples we've sold. This will give you a better grasp on which posters
you should pay a premium for and which ones you can be patient and wait for
a good deal.
I hope the above is helpful, and I wish you the best of luck on
whatever you may bid on in the future, and that you continue to enjoy this
great hobby!
10) "I just wanted to let you know that I wore the t-shirt I received for
buying from your last mini/major auction to our Super Bowl party, and I
received envious stares from our friends attending!"
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE: *Thanks for sharing that. Remember that we love
when our customers send us pictures of them wearing the bonus shirts they
receive, especially if they wear them in exotic locales!
11) "Can you tell me if all your auctions are for original posters? How can
I identify whether the auction is for a reprint or for an original poster?"
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE:* Every poster we auction is an original (with a *
VERY* few exceptions, which are *ALWAYS* very clearly identified). Please
know that we never want to deceive anyone, so we also clearly note originals
by writing "An Original Vintage..." in large red text at the top each
auction, and on the very rare occasions where we do auction a reprint for
some reason (perhaps because it is personally autographed by a star), we
clearly note "*REPRO*" in the auction title and write "*REPRODUCTION*"
prominently within the auction description.
Additionally, please know that in the case of posters of the past 40
years, where reproductions are often sold as originals on eBay and
elsewhere, we keep careful track of how to tell originals from
reproductions, so that every time we get a poster consigned to us where
there are known repros of that title, we examine it very closely. *If we
aren't 100% certain it is original, we return it to the consignor and do not
auction it.*
12) "I recently sent you a pretty large consignment, and you have already
listed most of it, and I'm so excited! Thanks to all of you *SO* much and
know that I appreciate all the hard work on your part.
I do know that you guys will get me more money at auction than anyone
else and what I like is that you are also all so nice and helpful and easy
to get along with unlike another auction house I've dealt with (but will not
name!). Anyway, you've made my week. I will begin putting together another
consignment"
*RESPONSE FROM BRUCE: *Thanks for the praise! Know that we have
massively refined our system so that most often we can get new consignments
through our system in just a couple of months. We also now have a way to
auction every single type of movie memorabilia there is, so we can get
everything you send auctioned pretty quickly (we used to have a lot of
problems with very unusual items).
We do know that when you compare "apples to apples and oranges to
oranges" we *DO* clearly get more money for our consignors than other
auctions, and we also *DO* regularly hear how much more pleasant consignors
find it to deal with us rather than certain other auctions!
--
Bruce Hershenson and the other 28 members of the eMoviePoster.com team
P.O. Box 874
West Plains, MO 65775
Phone: 417-256-9616 (hours: Mon-Fri 9 to 5 except from 12 to 1 when we take
lunch)
our site <http://www.emovieposter.com/>
our auctions <http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/all.html>
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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