Ebay, Resellers & Requests

Disclaimer: This is part one of two, part two will be posted tomorrow.

I will start in reverse of the title - requests! We are still sitting pretty on the mediabase charts, #10 on weighted and #13 on Top 500. A little bird also mentioned that we are #11 on Billboard, so we are smokin' hot! Keep up those requests, and bring a new friend or two into the fold to help you out. #10 here we come!

Ebay came up as a topic this past week courtesy of someone selling a yearbook from Bucky & Rocky's freshman year. I admit with minimal guilt that I bid on that darn thing, but it does open up something of a can of worms in regards to Ebay and performing artists. Bucky has a team that works to provide items for fans to purchase, t-shirts, key rings, can coolers, ball caps, can openers, promo photos and our favorite - the CD. When we purchase these items, a portion of the sale goes to Bucky's label and it is one of the many ways we can show our Bucky love. When we purchase an item from Ebay, you can pretty much bet your next paycheck that neither Lyric Street nor Bucky will see even so much as a penny of the proceeds.

Is this a bad thing? Not always - every once in a while a fund raising cause comes along with donated items (I have a wonderful autographed print and a promo CD thanks to one of those very fund raisers). In my opinion that money goes to a good cause, and there is a chance that even Bucky or his promo crew donated the item for said cause.

What about the other items on Ebay? Well, that is where it gets a bit tricky. Let me start off by saying I commend the creativity of many of the sellers on Ebay, either for creating the item itself or for promoting it successfully. That said, the money from those "other" Bucky items almost always goes straight into the sellers pocket. Ok, so everyone needs to make a living - agreed.

My issue comes with the morals behind it. There are likely copyright issues which are very difficult to address (hard to police Ebay, that is one big place!) and to be honest, while I really dig some of the items they have on Ebay, I would MUCH rather put my money where it has the biggest vote, which is into the pockets of Bucky's promotion company and Lyric Street. If I cast my vote with the Ebay seller, I am only encouraging more of what I consider to be questionable behavior.

Part 2 coming tomorrow will deal with resellers, along with any responses to possible comments on todays blog. You feedback is always welcome and certainly encouraged. More tomorrow!