* That's an interesting way to look at this, Franc, and you're not wrong. But
I tend to believe that for consignors, if 57,000 of our items sold for under
$14 in 2012, fetching $478,400 - then such items, one could argue - might be so
"less desired" - that they might've fetched no more than $14 each anyway, with
or without the use any selling platform, even after subtracting commissions. I
think the big factor is whether our "below $14 items" are given a solid chance
to reach the highest number of potential buyers - before deciding that I'm
better off using my paper as kindling.
* I've always believed collectors/buyers are creatures of habit, whether they
buy from Bruce, Heritage, Rich or from you and Al. If we reflexively check the
listings of every sale hosted by the aforementioned names - (as I suspect many
hard core collectors do) - we do so at the exclusion or displacement - of time
spent browsing your competitors. The other factor has to do with the number of
consignment houses that will allow themselves to be used as a dumping ground
for items valued at less than $14. From the consignor's side of the equation -
using myself as an example - I've used both Bruce and Grey. Both have been
terrific. But most of the items I used to own were in the $5 to $100 value
range. Bruce has a large factory of employees who can process a high volume of
material quickly and efficiently. On the buyer's side of the equation, I don't
spend a lot of $$$. How I am treated as a low-end buyer - informs how I might
be treated as a consignor of low- (and high-) ticket items.
* Yet in my case, as a consignor - I still came out ahead when I consider what
I saved by not worrying about reaching the MOST buyers each week - for
low-to-mid-range material that many dealers or consignment houses might turn
down. Given the value of what I owned, I chose Bruce to liquidate most of my
collection and I did well. Hard figures: Since I began paring down my huge
collection after the wildfires in our area, my stuff has fetched more than
$202,000. And 94% of that came since late 2007. Sure, I had a few choice
items like "Gilda" and "It's A Wonderful Life" - but most of my stuff was
low-to-mid-range in value - with NO horror pieces, a genre I've never
collected. If a schmoe like me can get these kind of results, that's
something, because there's NO WAY I could've achieved this without expert help.
What mattered to me most was getting my "less valuable" items visible to the
highest number of buyers, but not via eBay where things tend to get "lost," but
via the most popular sites for collectors of movie paper. -d.
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:20:45 -0500
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold for $14
or less!
To: [email protected]
Whether or not someone would spend $475K to buy 57,000 items is not
at all the point. All I'm trying to express to you is that your
ad is not a good pitch for a potential consignor of low-end items
especially when you deduct your comission from those sales under $15, that's
all
and you might want to think about sending out a multi-purposed pitch as yours
is. FRANC
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 17:19:54 -0600
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold for $14
or less!
To: [email protected]
Do you think you could find ANYONE in
the entire world who would pay $478,400 for those 57,000 items? Or
$300,000 or even $200,000? If so, send them to me because I can easily
put together a better group of similar material for that price!
The people who send us that low end stuff are mostly theater owners
who got it for free or people who just want to be rid of it, and they
already offered it to as a group and found no takers. But by us selling
it item by item, we find specific buyers for each specific item, who
value it at those prices. But NO ONE but us will go to that effort on that
large a scale.
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 17:33:38 -0500
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold for $14
or less!
To: [email protected]
I have to
disagree with you, David. This pitch has too much contradictory
content. If you add up how many items in this ad sold for under $10,
you get a total of 268,377. At the benchmark of under $14, the total is a
whopping 478,400. That might be very attractive to the buyer of low-end
movie ephemera, but if you are a consignor, I should think those statistics
are not attractive at all. FRANC
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 12:16:37 -0800
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold for $14
or less!
To: [email protected]
In my view, this is a creative/iconoclastic/against-the-grain ad. I don't know
many businesses that can effectively market in "several directions" at once,
e.g., touting good results for premium items and "great buys" for lesser items,
the latter a means to reach "shallow pocket" common collectors who might
otherwise feel alienated by multi-thousand dollar posters. And then there's
the consignment end - whereby dealers know there are few places where their
sitting inventory can get greater exposure every week - to thousands of loyal
customers - without hassling with grading, photographing, packing and shipping
items with high grade materials to buyers. Thus dealers know their only "real"
heavy lifting - involves shipping their languishing inventory to a consignment
enterprise in one big batch. PR / news guys like me are always intrigued by
the different ways creative businesses market "discretionary" items during a
sluggish economy. While movie posters aren't necessary like food, creating
temptation for buyers to snare a great deal for under $5 plus shipping - up to
three times a week - is a good thing. -d.
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 07:26:44 -0600
From: [email protected]
Subject: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold for $14 or
less!
To: [email protected]
Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold for $14 or less!
Our latest ad has the hard, cold facts, showing this (and also showing that we
auctioned 6,904 items for exactly ONE DOLLAR each, and 24,600 items for FIVE
DOLLARS each or under.
So if you are looking for true bargains, look no further than the two to three
THOUSAND auctions you will find every week at eMoviePoster.com!
http://www.emovieposter.com/unused/ads/20130109_everybodyknowsyoucantgetdealsanymore.jpg
--
Bruce Hershenson and the other 29 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
our auctions
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