BRUCE is the gold standard about being transparent about every aspect
in the buyer and seller equation - no guessing. He also has a skill
that he doesn't get enough credit for - which is calming nervous
consignors about how their submissions will be handled and the
potential risks involved if they have a set number they're stuck on.
Maybe now's NOT the right time, maybe it is, etc., no pressure. His no
reserve policy probably scares some people which is why the other
houses will get the pieces only the rich can afford - but they don't
get all of 'em. His major sales still feature great items that WILL
sell - hence they generate tons of traffic. He routinely sends
advisories to winners about each step, e.g., to not expect their items
right away (unless they're willing to pay extra). Every item is packed
so solidly that his tubes and materials double as baseball bats /
brown paper cut knives for people to carry while strolling through
dodgy areas in any random city.
Most of all - he is a master at MANAGING EXPECTATIONS, e.g., getting
ahead of hiccups before people have a chance to query them in public.
This is why I RARELY see people on MoPo or on FB asking, "Hey, has
anyone gotten their winnings yet from Bruce's auction three weeks
ago?" GREY is next on my awesome tree and he had a stellar debut at
Propstore - so happy for him. The touch he refined at Heritage is now
in LA and that's great. And as far as contemporary release posters -
DALE Dilts is my guy, e.g. first rate condition, super dealer for
those of us who still buy posters as gifts - or as outright bribes for
vulnerable elected officials with kids who are into fads. These are
just opinions and if I wrote any more I could list about 10 other
names of people I consider solid. (Looking at you SUE Heim and WALTER
Reuben and HELMUT.)
That's all for now and BTW, FREEMAN Fisher - have really missed your
contributions, hilarious as ever. You and GREG Douglass and KIRBY
should take your act on the road. I never tire of retelling your story
attending an advance MGM screening of "2001" back in 1968. - d.
-------------------------
FROM: MoPo List <[email protected]> on behalf of Freeman
Fisher <[email protected]>
SENT: Tuesday, June 13, 2023 7:18 PM
TO: [email protected] <[email protected]>
SUBJECT: Re: Auction winnings
MOPOers Okay I need to weigh in on this mild kerfluffel regarding Prop
Store, shipping charges etc.
All of you know I work at Goldberg Coins and Collectible as the
Director of the division. It’s my baby and that includes collections
and shipping.
The challenges are huge and besides myself there are three others.
First bringing the auction to market, it’s never easy and it’s
exhausting. Then two to three weeks later its auction time (in my case
usually two days, may be three this July it got so huge)
The first issue is reconciling the auction and sending invoices. We
can’t automate by single lots because 85% of bidders buy more than
one item. It could be Laurel & Hardy signed photo and a guitar signed
by the Bee Gees. How can any computer anticipate accurately shipping
or whether possible to combine? That is a manually configured
challenge.
Then billing, dealing with a lot of new folks. We have been burned so
many times by card fraud we like to wait three days with a card before
shipping to see if rejected. It happens a lot. Those are frequently
easy to ferret out because they are always desperate to have the item
sent because it’s a birthday present for the wife (really? A Civil
War rifle?) So I have had to start actually doing this on the dozen or
so suspicious bidders,,,
I GOOGLE THEIR DAMN RESIDENCE. I swear it works but its time
consuming. Great example last auction, two 18k gold bracelets, a fast
talker and kept calling to have immediately shipped. I Googled his
shipping address and it was a bombed out trailer park in Baton Rouge
with a blue tarp covering half of his roof. Busted
But all of these payments and special demands come to the fore. It’s
Summer, people travel, so a mix of can you hold shipping until such
date, can you ship where I will be fishing etc. etc. And that becomes
an additional challenge in that if they are out of state, we have to
adjust the invoice to remove CA sales tax, but possibly increase their
shipping
There are so many variables. Also understand with each day and
avalanche of payments are being called in, wire transferred etc. but
the plates spinning to get those paid shipped as carefully as possible
are happening at the same time.
Every auction house knows the value of keeping their clients happy and
I promise you every one of them bust their asses to make any issue
right. Realizing the steps involved especially in auctions as large as
Heritage, Prop Store, Bruce’s most certainly (which is a gold
standard I shoot foe) might be worth a consideration. I am going to
have probably 1200 lots my next auction which I am usually 700-800.
So an advance plea for consideration, guys I have the damndest
collection of entertainment memorabilia ever. Not film posters, (I
have a few) but the photographs will blow your mind as well as some
killer signed pieces. I also have a Thomas Jefferson signed Act of the
2nd Congress, I have a one of a kind NASA model of Friendship 7,
Glenn’s Mercury Mission never before seen) I have modified
Hassleblad used to train Apollo 14 astronauts, I have the finest
collection of ancient glass Goldberg’s has ever had (you want to
talk about difficult shipping?) and I have three Roman marbles from
the Flavian period 1st Century AD that each weigh about 160 pounds.
Either of three will look great with your Steve Reeves posters. I have
Bobby Darrins original arrangement of Mack the Knife for trumpet who
was none other that Doc Severenson, So a huge collection of various
weights, shapes and sizes, and like any auction house, I want them to
get there in perfect condition .
And perfection can indeed add days. But its all good
Freeman Fisher
Long Time Mopoer
Film paper lover
Funny Guy
On Jun 13, 2023, at 5:14 PM, Bruce Hershenson
<[email protected]> wrote:
Let me throw in a hearty defense of PropStore here, only because I
have extreme personal experience with similar matters.
In the past few months I have been telling buyers after our auctions
we need a total of 3 weeks to pack everything, so 4 to 6 weeks does
not seem the slightest excessive to me, because the same people who
pack posters likely also have to pack props, which can be super
time-consuming.
And wouldn't everyone rather wait longer but get a superbly packed
package, ESPECIALLY considering the man (and woman) handling so many
packages and tubes have been receiving at the hands of the delivery
services (the damage numbers are ten or twenty times what they used to
be for us, indicating to me a total breakdown in their systems).
One thing I added was a $15 Rush Fee that solely moves your order to
the top of the stack (behind already entered Rush Orders). This has
soothed those who DO have an extreme urgency to get their order. Maybe
PropStore might consider adding this (maybe at a higher fee), or maybe
it just isn't feasible there.
I know everyone wants their items tomorrow (thanks to Amazon causing
everyone to expect that) but that just isn't possible with expensive
one of a kind collectibles of every kind/
So maybe cut PropStore a break!
Bruce
On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 4:14 PM Alan Heimann <[email protected]>
wrote:
To be exact many items requiring “special packaging “
On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 5:12 PM Alan Heimann <[email protected]>
wrote:
Got in touch with customer service..they explained very small
packaging staff dealing with complex orders ..estimating as long as
4 to six weeks
On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 5:07 PM <[email protected]> wrote:
Nope, paid over a week ago. No communications yet.
Wim
www.movie-ink.com [1]
On 2023-06-13 22:10, Alan Heimann wrote:
Not yet but I paid with a personal check
On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 2:57 PM Christopher Quarles
<[email protected]> wrote:
Has anyone received their winnings in the recent auction from
our
MoPo friend Grey Smith?
I won a clockwork Orange quad and paid for it within a week of
closing, but have not received it yet. Am I unusual in that
regard?
Chris Quarles
-------------------------
To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1
[2]
-------------------------
To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1
[2]
-------------------------
To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1
[2]
--
Bruce Hershenson and the other 22 members of the eMoviePoster.com [3]
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 [4]
our auctions [5]
COMPLETE BUYER PROTECTION [6] - No time limit on our guarantees & NO
buyer beware
HERSHENSON HELP HOTLINE [7] - 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 [8], PAGE 2 [9], PAGE 3 [10], which
shows you in our customers' own words exactly what makes our company
and our auctions so very different from all others!
-------------------------
To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1
[2]
-------------------------
To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1
[2]
-------------------------
To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1
[11]
Links:
------
[1] http://www.movie-ink.com/
[2]
https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1
[3] http://emovieposter.com/
[4] http://www.emovieposter.com/
[5] http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/all.html
[6]
http://www.emovieposter.com/unused/20120625ad_emovieposter_no_buyer_beware_buyer_warranty.jpg
[7]
http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/20120906_mcw_ad_hershenson_help_hotline_forsite.jpg
[8]
http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page1.jpg
[9]
http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page2.jpg
[10]
http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page3.jpg
[11]
https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1
