I see my business as a *SUPPLEMENT* to all dealers' businesses, and that the wise dealer uses *BOTH *sides of my business to *IMPROVE* theirs!
There are only a tiny number of dealers out there who have not consigned to us (some solely consign utter crap they have been unable to sell any other way, some carefully study our results and consign items where we have consistently received good results, etc). Not as high a percentage of dealers are regular buyers from our auctions. I never "out" any buyers (or sellers) but some use their business name (or a well known ID) for their buying. These dealers mostly look for items that are going cheap, ones where they feel they can re-sell them at a profit within a fairly short time, and no doubt most do, because they keep bidding and buying over and over. These dealers have found how they can adapt to a changing world and use our services to get rid of unwanted inventory quickly and with no work in a time when lesser items can be very hard to sell, and to use us as an added buying source when traditional buying sources have been drying up. I can relate a story where an individual went on a trip to France and he told me of meeting four different dealers there, and he asked what they had against me, because all of them spoke very negatively about my business. He told me their names, and I had to laugh, because three of the four are regular consignors to our auctions (as a high percentage of dealers from all over the globe)! I invite *ALL *dealers who have never consigned to us before to send us a sample consignment, and it doesn't matter if it solely contains bad condition six-sheets, or low value bad condition items, *AS LONG AS* they have read our terms and can accept really low value items auctioning in bulk lots. So many dealers have started sending us a few consignments, and once they start getting those regular checks back, their consignments keep increasing in frequency and size. On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 9:52 PM, David Kusumoto <[email protected]>wrote: > Franc's point is that Bruce's ad is, in his opinion, ineffective. > He's not demanding people agree with him; he's just expressing an opinion. > He also notes that "a consignor might not find Bruce's results on low-end > items to be an incentive to consign." This could be true for some low-end > consignors - but this didn't impact my decision to consign my low-end items > to Bruce. Meanwhile, Phil - well, Phil, your Brit-Aussie Commonwealthwit > makes me laugh, but in a good way. Franc wasn't being > "over-analytical." If you look over the thread below, everyone who's > chimed in has cut to the chase. I've been the guilty idiot who has > over-parsed this stuff beyond recognition. > > P.S. - I know several dealers - (not Franc) - who have bragged about > buying stuff from Bruce - and then "flipping" them elsewhere for a profit. > Biting the hand that feeds them - as in the case of a dealers who have been > critical of Bruce while simultaneously profiting from his selling model - > strikes me as the height of hypocrisy - because at the end of the day, > these dealers are criticizing - while buying and "flipping" items out of > rational self-interest. Some of these same people, who are profiting by > flipping their purchases - have even had the gall to claim that their > "profit" serves as "proof" - that they could do a better job than Bruce > as a consignor. In my view, as a person who's actually CONSIGNED to Bruce > - who in return has consistently exceeded MY expectations - that's total > b.s. -d. > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 03:13:17 +0000 > From: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold > for $14 or less! > To: [email protected] > > Thanks for clarifying what MOPO is, Franc. > Never been quite sure all these years. > Phil > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:26:33 -0500 > > From: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold > for $14 or less! > To: [email protected] > > It's called a "Discussion Forum". This discussion initiated by David was > about a sales pitch, not about whether someone's business is successful or > not. As I said in one of the e-mails in this thread, I'm not trying to > denigrade Bruce's operation at all. I just don't think that last ad was a > good sales pitch because it's trying to appeal to two different audiences, > the consignor and consignee, and it is sending mixed signals in the process > for all the reasons I along with several others in this forum have > outlined. FRANC > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 02:12:43 +0000 > From: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold > for $14 or less! > To: [email protected] > > *We are just an all-purpose auction house who can auction ALL the items > any consignor has, and we are the only major auction house who can do this > with large collections. > > *What Bruce said in this one line says it all. He is running a very > successful all-purpose auction house, just like hundreds around the world > in big and small towns and online. It's what eBay was before it disappeared > up its own bum and wanted to be Amazon. > The difference is, he regularly gets results that the majority of > all-purpose auctions houses would never get for movie posters and memorabil > ia. > > > I think both Franc and David are being over-analytical about the sales > pitch simply because it covers the major appeal points for both sellers and > buyers. At the end of the day, what does it matter? Material keeps > rolling in and rolling out and there are plenty of people who > appreciate the level of service on both sides. > > Phil > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:21:46 -0600 > > From: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold > for $14 or less! > To: [email protected] > > And I can only reiterate that the vast majority of those 57,000 items came > from people who got them for nothing, were offered next-to-nothing for > them, and didn't want a new job selling them one by one. Very few were from > collectors, except for those who simply wanted to get rid of all they had. > Most took our advance and looked through their consignments before they > sent them and only sent items that truly figured to sell for $15 or more. > > But we just got in a pallet each from three different consignors and those > items will go in bulk lots and only a few in single sale, and a lot of the > single sale items will auction for $14 or under. Consigning those items to > us made the most sense to those people. Others, like you, would *NEVER > *consign > even one sub-$15 item, and that makes sense to you. > > We are just an all-purpose auction house who can auction ALL the items any > consignor has, and we are the only major auction house who can do this with > large collections. > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:42:29 -0500 > From: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold > for $14 or less! > To: [email protected] > > Because there are many dealers who buy material from Bruce at his under > $14 low prices and then resell these same items at a profit on Ebay, their > own websites and/or the websites of other dealers that accept consignments, > I can only reiterate that a consignor might not find Bruce's results on > low-end items to be an incentive to consign. > > FRANC > > ------------------------------ > Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:29:55 -0800 > > From: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Once again, in 2012, over HALF the items we auctioned sold > for $14 or less! > To: [email protected] > > * 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 of 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 > * > > [image: http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad49/PRtoday/bhad.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 <http://www.emovieposter.com/> > our auctions <http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/all.html> > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ How > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: > [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF > MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > -- 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 <http://www.emovieposter.com/> our auctions <http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/all.html> * Complete Buyer Protection<http://www.emovieposter.com/unused/20120625ad_emovieposter_no_buyer_beware_buyer_warranty.jpg>- *No time limit on our guarantees & *NO* buyer beware * Hershenson Help Hotline<http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/20120906_mcw_ad_hershenson_help_hotline_forsite.jpg>- *Direct line to Bruce (our owner!) for urgent problems* *Also, please read the following three pages of in-depth* Customer Reviews *of our company * - Page 1<http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page1.jpg>, Page 2<http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page2.jpg>, Page 3<http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page3.jpg> *, which shows you in our customers' own words exactly what makes our company and our auctions so very different from all others! Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
