David
I'm going to make this short and succinct
#1 calling me disingenuous is a crock. I recommend going back and
reading my posts from the beginning. I am neither for Heritage nor
against Geraldine. I have an opinion and as long as these emails
arrive in my mailbox I'm going to comment on them, but I can be
neutral, even if you don't think I can.
#2 I am neither Brutus, nor Marc Antony, nor any other Shakespearean actor
#3 I am not keeping this issue alive.. Geraldine is.. I couldn't
possibly keep it more alive than she is, so that argument is a straw
man, as are your comments that I am being disingenuous
#4 I'm actually quite surprised at your flat out attacking me.
#5 I still respect you, my friend
Rich
At 01:52 AM 6/9/2012, David Kusumoto wrote:
"As to how this has unfolded at MoPo - it is my personal view that
Geraldine should just post and people who are truly Heritage's
friends should shut up."
ABOVE is my quote from Tuesday, which was "cherry-picked" by Rich in
his most recent rambling post. BELOW is my quote in its full context:
"As to how this has unfolded at MoPo - it is my personal view that
Geraldine should just post and people who are truly Heritage's
friends should shut up. If you're not Heritage's friend - or if you
don't know its people in person - post away. There are tactical
reasons why Heritage hasn't posted much about this at MoPo. I've
personally talked to Heritage about this. Quite candidly, public
rebuttals from third parties to Geraldine's posts aren't doing the
people in Dallas (Heritage) any favors."
* With the above, I'm NOT saying people should stop commenting "in
toto." I'm saying that if you're pals with Grey or Rudy - you're
not helping them by continuing to respond to Geraldine's posts -
which have the effect of keeping this topic alive ad
nauseam. Geraldine's posts may continue, but you can't have an
argument when just one person is talking. You can plead with her to
stop posting her grievances, but that just invites her to do the
opposite. That's my take. Meanwhile, I have to say that Rich's
post has a mildly disingenuous feeling woven into it, e.g., sort of
like debating with good manners, dishing out phrases steeped in
blood, slicing and dicing along the way, while reassuring readers
with a semi-Shakespearean flavor that his intentions are good and
respectful, e.g., like when Brutus says before the final act, "But
Caesar is a good friend of mine." He begins with a headline that
declares he's "neither for Heritage nor for Geraldine," but then the
rest of his note undermines his declaration and his true leanings
are revealed. He infers that if it was him, facing Geraldine's
circumstances - he would graciously accept Heritage's settlement
offer to donate the proceeds of HIS missing posters - to charity.
* Look, everyone has an opinion and we're free to voice it - or
not. I repeat, I've discussed this issue with Heritage and with
Geraldine. And in my view, there's no value in dissecting
Geraldine's posts like others have - with point-by-point
rebuttals. But you guys can go right ahead, even though I bet Grey
and his pals would prefer you resist. As I wrote previously, the
public posts on MoPo about Geraldine's troubles feel like they're
running 10-1 against her anyway. But I don't believe they're making
a bit of difference in her determination to keep posting. I also
believe - that she believes - that she's truly writing for the 350
of the 376 members of MoPo - who are lurkers and mostly silent
collectors - who are getting some value watching this train wreck -
while simultaneously taking notes about which dealers they think are
more "customer friendly," who in turn they'll buy or consign posters
with in the future. One of the things I DO like about Rich is he
doesn't give a damn what people think in relation to its impact on
his business; the guy has been a success at everything he's done and
it explains why "attitudinally," he tends to go his own way, e.g.,
he's no one's "puppet."
* Finally, people who've seen my writings at MCW and/or on MoPo
during the past 15 years know the manner and style of my
arguments. The "truth" as I see it isn't always "truth" to you -
nor "ethically correct" to you. Everyone has their own "truth,"
even when laced with "facts." Public debaters like myself know -
that it's how "facts" are presented - which can shape an audience's
perception of neutrality or bias. We tend to like people whose
views already match our own. Politicians, celebrities and other
public figures complain about being "impugned" all the time -
constantly threatening detractors with libel or slander
lawsuits. It's the American way to parody public figures and even
insult them. But you only hear about the lawsuits which
succeed. Most of them fail. In sum, again, you guys can do
whatever you want. I just get the impression that Geraldine is
emboldened - and not discouraged at all - by the resistance she feels here. -d.
----------
Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2012 21:09:43 -0700
From: sa...@comic-art.com
Subject: Re: Bruce vs Heritage inventory & auciton services
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Bruce
you mischaracterize some of our positions (those of us who have made
comments).
I am neither for Heritage nor for Geraldine
I am for seeing things in a realistic and fair way and honestly,
Geraldine is piling on.
and piling on
and piling on
If you look at my initial posts in this thread, I am clearly
neutral, and I only finally created this thread after weeks of not
commenting on Geraldine's claims at all. I am not a "Heritage
supporter" as you characterize. I am all for right and wrong.
It's easy to understand that she is pissed off and she feels she's
been ripped off.
Whatever the reality - if she did or did not send these posters -
the problem I see is that she has no inventory of what she sent,
there is a dispute of an inventory Heritage provided, and she
disagrees with that inventory
Grey Smith as agent of Heritage has offered to donate a negotiated
amount to the charity of Geraldine's choice, even though he does not
believe he received the posters that Geraldine claims. I'm not sure
what else you would expect someone to do, although it's obvious that
Geraldine feels Heritage should pay her directly, even though she
has no inventory to back up her claim.
If I was in Grey's position, I wouldn't do anything different. If I
was in her position, as the realist that you know I am, I would
accept the charitable offer, choose a charity, and move on.
However, Geraldine has repeatedly impugned Heritage, even though she
has no absolute inventory of what she sent Heritage.
Don't you see a problem here??
Geraldine wants to say, in different words of course, that she isn't
trying to disparage Heritage. I dispute her characterization in that
regard completely and as concerns my good friend David, for whom I
have lots of respect, when he says no one should be commenting other
than Geraldine or Heritage, I think he is completely wrong.
Geraldine, by virtue of posting her claims into a public forum
engenders commentary by all of those who are members of this forum,
otherwise she should be speaking either directly to Heritage via
whatever other form of communication she choose, or seeing as she
has an attorney apparently working on this situation and Heritage
equally no doubt has an opposing attorney, then she probably should
have discontinued posting to any forum as long as the legal eagles
are dealing with the issue, she shouldn't probably be saying
anything to anyone so as not to present herself in a position where
Heritage could counter-sue her on grounds of disparagement and
interference as well as whatever other civil tenets she might be offending.
That does not mean I am saying Geraldine should not post to the
group if she so chooses. Similarly, she should not be insulted by
anyone else who chooses to respond.
To further delve into what David said: "As to how this has unfolded
at MoPo - it is my personal view that Geraldine should just post and
people who are truly Heritage's friends should shut up."
by that measure, David must equally feel then that Bruce should not
comment on any issue that involves, Heritage, Movie Poster Exchange,
MoviePosterBid, eBay, Sotheby's, Christie's or any similar entity
because, well golly, we're all competitors. But before you ask do I
really think that should be the case? Absolutely not. There is no
reason why anyone here, yourself and myself included, should not be
able post our feelings or to comment on anything posted to MoPo -
a p u b l i c f o r u m - by other members. Anything else would
not only be against the rules of the forum, it would be against the
first amendment rights we are all supposed to share. If Geraldine
wishes to continuously post her whine, she shouldn't be offended
when people respond to it, no matter what position pro or con that
anyone takes. The same goes for you, or myself. You continually
attack Heritage in your posts and in your marketing approach. I've
told you personally my opinion on this and it isn't something we
have to agree on. I find no purpose in attacking my business rivals
personally. But again, this is not something you need to agree with
me and that doesn't mean I do not respect you regardless. I do
indeed respect you for the things you do, what have done in the past
and also based on our 44 years of knowing each other. I just means I
disagree with you, which last I looked is not a serious personal
divide. If it was, you probably wouldn't be talking to your own
children over some issues as I am positive that few children agree
with their parents on a whole lot after they reach the teenage
years, and that goes for wives, parents, girlfriends, best friends
and employees.
I don't know anyone who I agree with 100% of the time - not even my
best bud Sean or my best buds John Knight, Redbeard or even my pal
Dan here in Vegas. So I don't think I have to agree with Geraldine
either, who isn't even on my best buds list, whether I were to
support Heritage or not. But it is disturbing when my friend wants
to paint me as something I am not and I am not a Heritage supporter
as you characterize. I disagree with Geraldine's approach, and I
have commented. If Heritage truly screwed up their consignment,
there should be a solution, but Geraldine has to have more than "I
know I sent them, even though I have absolutely no darned proof". At
some point you just become a whiner.. Take what you can get and move
on and forget about it. Otherwise, get a bottle of Pepto Bismol
Rich
-----Original Message-----
At 07:59 PM 6/8/2012, Bruce Hershenson wrote:
Allen
Now I'm VERY confused! Is the "piling on" that bothers you the
criticism of Heritage? These threads actually started out with a
bunch of die-hard Heritage supporters "piling on" against Geraldine,
and only David Kusumoto stood up for her!
But be that as it may, let me address your comment to me about me
not "needing this situation".
For quite some time, Heritage has (or had) a page on their site
showing how many more page views a day their entire site gets than
mine (and they name my site).
They believe this is a strength they have over my business, and they
are trying to exploit it (I will leave out a discussion of the
merits of comparing ALL their visitors from a huge spectrum of
collectibles to mine).
But when I REPLY to a discussion about a strength in my business
over theirs (I do not initiate it as they do in the example above),
you say I don't "need this situation"!
Why exactly is this so? If there is something factually incorrect in
what I have posted (here or anywhere) please let me know and I will
retract it and apologize.
Here's an example of what I consider a VERY valid observation of a
major difference between our two businesses:
Isn't is a HUGE conflict of interest when a major auction house own
major shares in grading companies, and that they buy graded items
from their own auctions and also directly from people who contact
them, and then have them re-graded higher by companies they
partially own, and then re-auction them to people who bid with a
snipe program the major auction house itself owns (and at least some
of those bidding have no idea the sniping company is owned by the
very company they are bidding with)?
Now if you see no conflict in this, fine. But I don't see what is
wrong with my raising this factual query, just as I see nothing
wrong with them showing that their entire site has more visitors than my site.
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 9:44 PM, allen day
<<mailto:aday_5...@yahoo.com>aday_5...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Howdy y'all,
I am not going to pretend to speak for Mrs Kudaka; she is a member
of MOPO; she has every right to post as she sees fit, just as her
detractors have every right to label it as horse hooey.
What I perceive as 'getting old' (besides myself), is the 'piling on'
However, there is a great balancer in all this ... delete key.
BTW ... please use the delete key on this message ASAP
ad
-----Original Message-----
From: Rix Posterz <<mailto:rixpost...@aol.com>rixpost...@aol.com>
To: <mailto:MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Sent: Friday, June 8, 2012 10:20 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Bruce vs Heritage inventory & auciton services
Geraldine,
Personally, I send all of my high-end pieces to Bruce H., but, man.
all this constant negative B.S. about Heritage Auctions is in my
estimation truly getting old. Even if Grey Smith was the Devil
incarnate, I'd be growing weary of your constant diatribes I have
no doubt that most members of Mopo feel the same way. but are too
polite to say what they think it to you. If I'm wrong, Mopo. please
lie me on a bed of nails and let Rich find great pleasure in urinating on me!
For all of us, Geraldine, please silence yourself about
all this worn-out bullshit,
Sincerely,
Rick Ryan
rixposterz
-----Original Message-----
In a message dated 6/8/2012 6:49:55 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
<mailto:gkud...@rocketmail.com>gkud...@rocketmail.com writes:
Seems to me the director of a professional auction company would not
say, "Don't worry, we have your posters tagged and
inventoried" unless they did have them tagged.
Seems to me, a professional auction company doing what is close to a
billion dollars worth of annual sales would have a very good
double-ledger type of accounting software tied to a database which
could help staff evaluate poster's worth and track it's movement
through their system. That same software would not allow an employee
to simply remove it's existence from their inventory.
Seems to me if a professional auction company has high end Signature
auctions and weekly low-end auctions, posters going in the low-end
auction would be in the same database.
Seems to me, if a company like Bruce's which does a high volume of
annual sales is capable of keeping track of their customer's
inventory, a company like Heritage, which specialized in high end
Signature auctions, should be able to keep track of inventory....
The question is, does a high end company like Heritage depend on
their customer's inventory to evaluate a poster's worth or a
shipment? Doubt it.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Waldman <<mailto:jhnwald...@yahoo.com>jhnwald...@yahoo.com>
To: <mailto:MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Sent: Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Bruce vs Heritage inventory & auciton services
Seems to me a professional auction company would tell the customer
to do a inventory. Not everyone knows what to do when they are
selling something at auction. It's not an everyday occurrence after all.
A little customer service goes a long way.
JW
-----Original Message-----
From: Geraldine Kudaka
<<mailto:gkud...@rocketmail.com>gkud...@rocketmail.com >
To: <mailto:MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 9:40 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Bruce vs Heritage inventory & auciton services
These conversations move very rapidly, especially when one gets
loopy after a lot of hours writing emails. My apologies...
I don't know if you've been following the discussion about our
submissions to Heritage and our stock -- which we had been told by
Grey were tagged and inventoried -- "disappearing". We were never
paid for them and they weren't returned.
After Heritage only listed a portion of our posters on their
inventory, Rudy Franchi told us Heritage didn't want the common
posters -- like the Judge Dredd double sided transparency posters
used in light box marquees we had sent in our first consignment
batch -- and suggested we consign the higher valued posters to
Heritage, and common posters like the aforementioned Dredd to Bruce.
I posted my submission to Bruce on MOPO because there was a lot of
talk about my responsibility for sending an un-inventoried lot to
Heritage. In fact, some MOPOers said I was to blame for their
"disappearance" at Heritage because I hadn't inventoried them or
pursued Grey about their status.
Well, at the same time we sent our 2nd batch of posters to Heritage,
we sent an equal sized consignment batch to Bruce. Like the Heritage
consignment, this consignment to Bruce was not inventoried.
I haven't been posting Bruce illegally appropriated my goods because
there wasn't a problem with payments or returns.
The deal was straight ahead and worked without any effort on my part.
And if Bruce wears a kilt or has good legs... well, I couldn't say.
-----Original Message-----
From: Rix Posterz <<mailto:rixpost...@aol.com>rixpost...@aol.com>
To: <mailto:MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Bruce vs Heritage inventory & auciton services
Wait...maybe I missed something. Does Bruce wear a kilt? Is that
what you're saying?
-----Original Message-----
In a message dated 6/6/2012 5:44:47 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
<mailto:gkud...@rocketmail.com>gkud...@rocketmail.com writes:
I did forget to mention you, Bruce... Sorry.. Mistake as you were
the inspiration for my disgruntled attitude... Your regular payments
to our Paypal account was what kept Heritage's lack of payments in
the forefront of my mind.
Even though your company has done phenomenally well -- an
inspiration for any ebay seller that yes, there is life after ebay
-- Heritage gets more press because of their huge glossy catalog and
high dollar items...
But you've proven that reliability is more important than big glossies.
Reminds me of a producer I knew who accidentally started investing
in coin operated laundromats. He loved it. Said all those quarters
were the easiest way to rake in the money, and he didn't have to
deal with whining actors and residuals. All it took was a part time
handyman to keep those machines running.
Quarters add up faster than big checks that never clear.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Hershenson <<mailto:brucehershen...@gmail.com>
brucehershen...@gmail.com>
To: Geraldine Kudaka <<mailto:gkud...@rocketmail.com>gkud...@rocketmail.com >
Cc: <mailto:MoPo-L@listserv.american.edu>MoPo-L@listserv.american.edu
Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 7:45 AM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Bruce vs Heritage inventory & auciton services
Thanks much! That is the huge advantage of having 26 people working
here, compared to just a handful (or just two) at many other places.
And of course it is not just your consignment, but all the ones we
receive (which can be very daunting, since we receive thousands of
items per week, of all sizes, from all countries, and from all
years). This past Sunday we even added TOYS to our Sunday lineup!
Our job is to make it EASY for collectors to dispose of unwanted
items, and to help them get more than they could if they sold them
to a dealer. If they need to have notarized lists of what they sent
(complete with videos of them placing the items into packages and
taking them to the Post Office!) then we no longer serve that
function, and our consignors will go elsewhere.
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 12:12 AM, Geraldine Kudaka
<<mailto:gkud...@rocketmail.com>gkud...@rocketmail.com > wrote:
One point, which Sean inspired me to put into my email rebuttal --
is actually a very important point which I didn't bring up earlier
because it wasn't relevant.
The same day we shipped out this 2nd batch of 30-40 un-inventoried
posters to Heritage, we also shipped a batch of the same 30-40 batch
size to Bruce.
We packed them at the same time, and took them both to be shipped,
insured... of course.
Bruce immediately responded by email, and we started getting sales
reports & payments to our Paypal account.
In fact, it was Bruce's regular payments that caused us to start
questioning why we hadn't heard from Heritage.
So here's to Bruce, for handling out 30-40 un-inventoried posters in
a responsible, professional way.
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