Posted By:
scott (runscott)We are seeing that if you jump on the crooks and jump hard, they eventually melt down - Broadway Rick is now doing private auctions, which is the kiss of death. He'll never again be able to sell to legitimate bidders. Libertyforall may very well end up with the government on his ass, which is never a good thing. Other auction houses and ebay sellers who practice deceptive advertising have lost mega-bucks and don't even realize it (I still drool looking at items in auctions run by unscrupulous dealers, but will give my $$$ to others now).
I really think we can clean up this hobby a bit, but internet business is still in its infancy and we have to expect these cockroaches to keep crawling in through the cracks. The best we may be able to do in some cases is give them the scarlet letter of "private auction".
I think that ebay's survival will be a good thing for us - Yahoo has certainly failed to fill the void ebay has left for good honest internet auctions. And I really think that ebay will eventually get its act together - the market will force them to. I used to do 99% of my business on ebay, but now it's down to 50% or less because of auction houses like Mastro, Teletrade, CollectibleClassics, AboutTime, Sportscardsplus - they are all improving their ability to take advantage of the internet in conjunction with simple telephones and printed material. Ebay has proven that all they care about is the allmight dollar, so they have to respond.
CollectibleClassics showed how easy it is to enter the vintage memorabilia market successfully, simply by providing great customer service and a lot of elbow grease. Festberg showed how easy it is to fail in the same market, despite a great reputation - I speak with people all the time who tell me what a great guy he is, the incredible amound of knowledge he possesses, and how willing he is to share information. But run an internet auction? Definitely seems to have no inclination to do so.
I don't mention Verkman because I don't understand him.
Just my two cents.
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