I'm with you on that one. I have struggled over the years to get an off-eBay
site to work, one that fails more then it succeeds, but I'd never stop it
cause it's a door to getting a client base going. I have the BEST customers
that come back again and again and they make it work for me more then
anything else. Right now, the Auctionne is not doing well over all and yet
my off-auctionne sales are doing great. So, one doesn't reflect the other. I
had a client call me this AM to pay for a purchase, I was kinda cranky
(well, I don' to think I was ACTING cranky, just commented I was feeling off
and he stayed on the phone and we had a delightful chat about Trek, Farscape
Xena, Votager DVD's....by the time we said goodbye my mood was lifted and
the day was turned around. You can't get that anywhere but one on one and I
think it matters more then the final dollar value of a sale (to some degree,
I mean, I doooo have bills to pay and cards to buy!) It relies less on the
whims of fate then quick fix Ebay auctionnes.
Lynne

"Jon Doyle" wrote in message
...
It's not that I don't feel for you guys. . . and it isn't like one dealer
can change everything, but it's a big picture thing at this point -- in my
opinion.

Since many dealers do sell their best stuff on eBay (I like buying in
person -- you know that, Dave :-) ) it has become the place to go to buy
the high end stuff. . . and when someone is looking for high end stuff on
eBay they often come across the other stuff they are looking for. The only
way to change what is happening online is to change it on a dealer by
dealer level. . . you aren't going to beat eBay -- it's just not going to
happen, so dealers need to focus on customers, and give people a reason to
stop at their tables -- ie. Dave -- he knows some of the things that I
like and I know that he has interesting stuff so his table has become one
that I plan on spending money at. At the last show I attended Dave was
the only person at the entire show to sell me loose cards -- it's not
because I ran out of money, or was being picky about what I bought -- it's
because he was the only one that had what I was looking for.

Unfortunately I am forced to do shopping on eBay 9 months out of the year
as there are no dealers around here. Luckily there are a handful of
decent shows during the summer . . . actually it's probably good a dealer
like Dave isn't set up around here as I'm sure I'd end up spending many
times what I currently spend on cards.

In that same vein. . . it surprises me how few dealers direct market to
people. . . if someone were to send me lists of things I was interested in
I'm sure I'd be buying a lot more than I have been -- plus they wouldn't
be paying eBay fees, or table fees, and they'd be building a relationship
with a customer. . . the only thing I ever get from dealers are press
releases on new products.

Jon