Punching a gift horse in the mouth...

[Brian]

Folks,

A couple of listings were brought to my attention on eBay's UK site in which 6 or 7 of the complimentary DVD that I produced on Momotaro were up for auction, with at least one sold for 15 pounds. I made an exception with one dealer who had resold the mag without first working out the details with myself. Quite a number of people had subscribed through this dealer, instead of directly through Koi-Bito, and me being the sort of person I am gave free copies of the DVD to this dealer at his request so that nobody that "subscribed" would feel left out.

Now I'm sure that everyone has reasons for doing things, and I've yet to hear the dealer's side of the story, but I must admit that I felt a bit devastated when I confirmed that the DVD's were on eBay when I had given them away as a free gift. I made absolutely no money directly by producing this DVD. It was meant as a gift for our subscribers to show my appreciation for the support they give the mag, and I spent at least 160 hours of sleepless nights, long days of editing, and lot and lots of post-filiming production...and did the whole thing by myself. Pretty good amount of work for one person, if I do say so myself.

That being said, seeing that somebody else was making a profit off of my work, when I made absolutely no profit was a real slap in the face. It seems to go against the notion of fair play, and definitely breaches the intent and spirit of why the DVD was produced in the first place. It also dilutes the value of subscribing to and supporting the magazine, which made me see red more than anything else. Koi magazines aren't exactly gold mines, and this really felt like someone was thieving a bit of my soul considering how much I put into production, and that someone else received money for my work.

I'd ask all of you to PLEASE not follow this person's example, and to not resell the DVD. If you do not wish to have it anymore, and are happy with the magazine, then please just keep it in your library or destroy it. I enjoy producing these bonus items for subscribers, but people need to realize that they are not commodities, and if you wish the magazine to continue publishing the best information from Japan, then it's vital that they not be treated as such. Seeing what I saw on eBay makes me have to sit back and seriously reconsider whether I want to invest the personal time in production (and away from my family) to produce gifts, only to have other people turn around and make a profit while I make none.

Apologies if I sound a bit harsh, but this has really taken the wind out of my sails and is extremely disappointing. I hope that you can all see this matter from my point of view.

[markgardner]

Brian

I understand and am with your post in its entirety!

Mark

[Bern]

Brian,

I am a subscriber to Koi-bito via a 3rd party in the UK and I didn't get a copy of the DVD.

However, another 3rd party vendor of KB in the UK (a certain Mr Gardner) loaned me a copy (for about 3 months).

I'll send you the details of the original 3rd party by PM.

rgds Bern.

[Andrew]

Brian,
You are not sounding harsh at all.
You are 110% correct and I totally support everything you have said, additionally if I see the same on ebay in the future I will alert and shame the 'seller'.
Regards to you and yours, keep up the good work and don't let the b*****s grind you down!

[kiky]

Brian,

I totally agree with Andrew. And I think we all, as Koi-bito lovers, should go one step further by at spreading words at least among our circle of friends, not to support the auction, both directly or indirectly!

[paulw]

brian
your doing a marvelous job with the magazine and we all love it and cant get enoth of the pleasure it brings us in the uk, then you get someone like this spoiling it and making his rewards of your hard work, i saw the items last night while flicking through ebay.
is there nothing that you could do ie copyrights etc.
keep up the good work we do epreciate it.

paul

[Bob Hart]

Brian,

Just thought I'd add my meagre support as well.

Keep smiling, the DVD has now been watched by myself so many times, I know parts of it off by heart. It's the best bit of Koi 'viewing' I've ever seen.

Dont get put off by the idiots, we love you!!!!!

[Dan Blatt]

Brian - I agree with Bob - don't let this get you down. It's a shame that some people don't apply good ol' common sense in their transactions. Lesson learned I guess. You have a great magazine that we truly enjoy and we all appreciate your hard work and efforts on our behalf.

[JasonS]

First, 'ditto' on the comments above.

Or you could take it as a compliment. The DVD and magazine are so highly thought of and coveted that the DVD, even without the excellent magazine, fetches such a nice price.

Hit 'em back! Sell the DVD too! Obviously there is a market for the thing, and you've got the sales thing figured out through the web site.

Which reminds me, I need to get my DVD and magazine back from the guy I loaned them to!

[gknight]

Brian

Ditto to the above coments, but then I hope you reliased that from my email. Fully appreciate the amount of time you put into the magazine, let alone producing a DVD.