DaDon actually contacted me directly regarding the secret stealing of LDDb's data and offered to make it up.

I proposed to donate $X to help cover LDDb's hosting fees and he agreed.

Don't worry, it's not a huge X

Update #1: Donation was just received, it's the spike turning 3 months green! -> http://www.lddb.com/hosting.php

Julien

The most valuable part of LDDB.com he cannot steal or even buy because it is the community of people established here who have their own unique shops (129 so far), most of whom are collectors themselves. According to the latest statistics LDDB.com currently offers 31,914 laserdiscs for sale across the various shops which is incredible. In practice there are far more discs potentially available because many LDDB transactions with sellers lead to other transactions either privately or via LDDB.com, not to mention the 325,000+ laserdiscs in personal collections!!

His site is like an empty skeleton in comparison with very few pictures, no track listings and nowhere near as many discs. Many of the discs he stocks are also nothing special although he would have you believe otherwise. There isn't anywhere near the diversity or rarity of titles at DaDon's that you would find on a daily basis at LDDB.com.

He doesnt have a copy of titan AE lol. Even if it is out of my price range!

Once again, I have no problems with his prices. If he can sell stuff at what he asks more power to him. If he has something that people want they will pay. His shipping is second to none, excellent all around. I dont know about his customer service because I cant be one, lol. Regardless, if he has something and you need it and are willing to pay, get it by all means. You will get it in the condition advertized! That is the bonus for him!

He is reading this as he just called me and he just wrote me a note on yahoo asking me what was the problem and that he thought everything was solved.

Update #1 : Late last night I received the following from DaDon:

FYI: Your account at eBay is re-activated.

Update #2: Approximately 3 hours later he then sent:

When I sent you the e-mail a few hours ago, I though all was well.
I just went to the LDDb forum and read your posts.

All I can say, is I am sincerely sorry if I offended you and you
have my best wishes.

It would appear this forum is getting the message across.
These days we are moving away from traditional high street stores to online businesses.
This does not mean any seller can become complacent when there is no face to face contact with a customer.
In fact the exact opposite applies - you need to go the extra mile to establish and continue to prove yourself as a credible seller as there is steep competition everywhere you look online.
If you choose not to follow this advice you run the risk of putting yourself out of business very quickly as word travels fast these days.
As the old saying goes 'if you live by the sword you die by the sword'.

Same here!

I just don't get it. I'll be at the head of the line and say that I think some of DaDon's prices are on the excessive side. But it comes down to a matter of how much you want a title. Is a copy of "Jane Fonda's Total Workout" worth $30? I suppose that depends on how badly you want it. (I just pulled that title out of the air). Going back to the start of the thread, I want to say that no one should ever expect a refund two years after buying a disc claiming it is rotted. The fact that a refund was extended at any time after 90 days is just an example of how good a guy I believe Don to be.

And there are a bunch of sellers that limit who they are going to sell to. For example, Image Entertainment (back when they were making LaserDiscs), wouldn't sell to individuals. A reseller has the right to choose not to sell to other resellers. Determining if a buyer is a reseller isn't all that hard. At the same time, there is some validity to the idea that someone who wants to only pay $2.00 for a disc, then complains about the price of shipping, and then complains about a crease in the jacket art or that there is a tiny wall pop is just more trouble than the sell of the disc is worth.

Some people are never happy. All I see here are a couple of folks b**ching back and forth. I do not see any evidence of a pattern of behavior to warrent this level of comlaining. And some of this complaining is being done by the same folks who have praised him in other threads.

My advice, if you don't want to buy from DaDon, for whatever reason, then buy your discs from someone else. LaserDisc Vault and Stuff by Duff are big resellers too. Life is too freggin' short to get all worked up over a LaserDisc.

Blaine

I have never said anything bad about his product, shipping or anything, his refusal to sell to me came out of the blue and then he wrote me a nasty letter saying he didnt want me to even look at his products, he banned me from even viewing his webpage and was going to report me to ebay for buying his stuff. I had bought stuff from him in the past and even gave his glowing feedback for his stuff. It is his choice to sell me or to not sell to me. I just dont like the way he went about it. He could have told me, hey, dont buy from me. No, he didnt do that. I still dont have a problem with his stuff and you are right, if you want to pay 30 bucks for Jane Fonda, then pay, I personally wouldnt, well, maybe eroticize lol. He then emails me and asks me what is wrong like he never wrote a letter to me basically telling me to P**S off. So please, I have not said anything that has not happened. I could care less about his prices. I have wanted to buy from him. As to your analogy, it doesnt work, a better one would have been we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason.

Hey Blam1 i did not expect a refund out of the blue he somehow saw a thread about sellers here & if Traderhorn gave me a refund which was far less than $15.00 i would thank him also. By Don doing that he signed me up for his website & i did purchase a title i had wanted & planned to post here when i received it. Whats the saying you can catch more flies with sugar that vinegar?

After reading all the additional comments since I posted about DaDon, I felt like I needed to post again. I may be a newbie on this forum but I'm not a newbie to laserdisc collecting and I have been a member on LDDB in the past. I have over 3000 titles in my personal collection and I have been collecting since 1993. I also have 92 rare laserdiscs for sale on ebay and I have been buying and selling them for years. There are a lot of nice comments about DaDon and a lot of not-so-nice comments about him on this forum. All I can say is to repeat what I've already said... I've dealt with DaDon many times over the years and never had a problem. In fact, he's always gone out of his way to work with me. If you are a serious LD collector, you need a resource like DaDon, so don't just blindly take the word of a few disgruntled people on this forum... deal with him yourself and make up your own mind!

He has been trying to contact me over the last few days so he is making an effort. I am just trying to get over my stubborness.

DoDon has always been a very friendly seller to me.
Sure sometimes prices are somewhat on the way up but let's be honnest
Is there anyone selling titles like Fight Club, MI2 , the Beach or even U571 & the Sixth day for a few bucks.
besides finding of a superrare title in some lot we've purchased by luck for a few bucks we have to face it...
limited pressing should keep somewhat of a status since there would be no more fun in hunting down a copy or even purchasing it

I can imagine that from time to time things can get out of hand with seller or buyer but the rule of thumb to me is:

Get over it
and find yourselves rare titles for a few bucks that compensate that one bad deal

Myself I've been dealing with all kinds of sellers and buyers. Some treasure and overprice any laserdisc and the ones dumping their collection whatever titles they've got . However the more I deal with people the more they become friends and that's what it's all about to me.

This is how I feel about things anyway

I just received two laserdiscs purchased earlier this month from DaDon in two separate parcels.
Both suffer from rot.
I've notifed him and am awaiting his response.

Update #1

Dadon came back very fast offering either a full refund or a store credit.
I mentioned to him I've received no less than 14 defective LDs this month from various other sellers all of whom I have contacted. I did buy a very large quantity of discs this month though.
My message to all sellers is very simple - please always do a final spot check of your discs before shipping. If this isn't possible then just let me know and I will buy elsewhere so we can both avoid all this hassle and expense.

Whilst shipping might be inexpensive (even free) within the US from certain sellers, it certainly isn't if you reside in the UK and are buying from the US or Japan.
Most sellers want their discs back if they are defective and I will gladly send them back if someone requests because I want them to see first hand what utter junk they shipped to me!
I also encourage sellers to tag/uniquely identify their LDs by whatever means so they know they are getting back what they sent out. I have nothing to hide.
I am an honest buyer and seller but it seems there are a lot of other sellers out there who are cutting corners when it comes to quality control.

I have been watching movie after movie!!!! It is so painful, lol. I have actually had to pull a few back that were fine a few years ago which is sad. It is mostly older titles that were ok. What is going to be interesting is to see the ones that are always bad and mine werent as of 2009 - Last time I watched my copies of erasure and starship troopers. I have yet to see a good copy of copycat. I have watched the Craft and know for a fact my copy is good. Anyway, it is a learning experience.

DADC sounds like what your trouble is on those titles unless they were japan imports.

My own experience with Copycat was that I got a totally clean copy on the third try. Maybe I just got extremely lucky, but it can be done. The first copy I got on eBay was heavily rotted, and the seller refunded my money. The second time, I decided to try Chuck Legg at Discount LaserDisc. He had several copies, and he told me he was certain he could put together a good set. He called me back later and said he was sorry, but he couldn't put one together after all. All of the copies he had were rotted on one side, I think it was side three. The third time was the charm for me. Another seller on eBay listed a copy, and they were gracious enough to check it closely for me upon my request. It passed inspection with flying colors!

David

It took me probably a dozen copies of "Copycat" to get a good one. DADC was such a disaster except for their really early stuff.

Clearly, all the complaints (from me too) about pricing have not fallen on deaf ears. I'm noticing that DaDon's eBay site has entire catagories on sale at 25% off. I zipped him an email and he sent me this response:

I'm new to "forums" so please forgive any posting etiquette blunders. I've know Da Don for over 8 years now and while I've never made a purchase from him (my interest is hardware repair, not so much discs) I must say he is one of the most standup customers I have. His interest in the format is such that he has donated players and parts so that I might recondition and get someone into the hobby for the first time at a reasonable player price. We are constantly spitballing about what we can do on our websites to promote the format and educate those new to the hobby. He has helped me numerous times when I need a specific disc for testing and has never asked for anything in return. A bit biased because he's a friend? Perhaps, but I like to think I chose my friends with care.
Just my two cents...

Received my order & it was double boxed & disc played perfect. Im learning to do a stock check on his site to make sure that possible more purchases are in stock.

well if that's the case, he may be better than others are saying

duncan says he's good then i would go for that over others.

if you can't trust duncan then you shouldn't collect LDs or Players