Da Don just refunded me for The Hustler i bought several years ago from him. Just wanted to let everyone know here that he his a stand up fellow.

Presumably he was reading some of the less than complimentary comments posted about him on this forum and that is what persuaded him to re-evaluate the situation given his business might be affected.

So you know...non-members of lddb cannot read the threads on the forum.

He could still be a member and be reading.

that should be changed, people will do searches on the internet and these pages will pop up.
then more will buy the discs we have to sell

and why wouldn't dadon be signed up to read this stuff.
just change your name and info and bang your home free

I can read the forum without logging in. I have it on speeddail in Firefox.

Anyway I ordered something from Da don awhile back and waited for awhile for him to send the disc I ordered and he never had it so he refunded me the money so maybe it varies.

well I can sign off and unable to read the forum. Also DaDon told me they cannot read the post on the forum!

Whoa several years ago? How much interest did that acrue?

Hi. I'm a new member but I've collected LaserDiscs for years and I've bought from just about every major dealer out there. I have to say that DaDon is one of the best dealers I've ever dealt with. His eBay listings are comprehensive; his packaging is superb; his items are always as described and often better than described; and his customer service is second to none. I have personally talked with DaDon on several occasions and he has gone out of his way to help me when I needed help. Folks this is a man you can trust and I find it sad that people are knocking him in some of the threads on this website. Yes, his prices may sometimes be higher than other dealers, but he does entertain "best offers" and as Kurt Vonnegut said in Cat's Cradle... "In this world, you get what you pay for." When you deal with DaDon, you always get what you pay for and more. Just my 2 cents.

And my two cents, he will not sell to me for any reason even though he gave me an account. He has threatened me on ebay for buying from him and he has a few others as well. I have always given him a decent rating, have never once knocked his shipping which is second to none and his products which are as described. It is his business ethic which I am questioning. I know you can sell to who you like but to actually ban me from seeing his website is a little over the top. A PS to this, I have never once asked for a best offer from him, ever unless it was the first time I bought from him. After that to when he banned me I never asked.

Last weekend Dadon had 2 copies of a particular disc I was after listed on Ebay - one opened and one sealed and neither expensive.
As it was a late Sony DADC release (which is very prone to rot) I thought it was too risky to bid on the sealed copy so I put in an offer for the opened copy.
The offer was declined overnight which is fine - that is every seller's right. As it wasn't expensive I decided to login to Ebay the next morning and simply buy the item.
To my surprise both listings had vanished from Ebay.
When I searched completed listings both had been ended at exactly the same time but had not sold to any buyers.
Upon accessing Dadon's own website the same two items were now listed at almost 4 times the price they had been listed on Ebay just hours before.

I contacted Dadon to which his reply was:
'after we declined your offer we removed then from eBay as we had priced them incorrectly.
'it is very simple, you made an offer and we declined. Then we removed the item from eBay.'

He then went on to explain to me that he had 'started DaDons for the sole purpose of helping the industry'.
Well if that is what he calls helping the industry I suspect everyone on this forum could do without that kind of help.

I explained to him I've no problem at all with an offer being declined - that is his perogative.
What I do have an issue with is the exact same title being listed at almost 4 times the price hours later.
He is merely using the 'make me an offer button' to gather info about which titles collectors might want so he can then hike the prices up
on his own site after they have been removed from Ebay. Ever wondered why so many offers you make are declined?
Whilst there is nothing illegal about this practice it is not exactly a practice that would appeal to collectors ....or 'helping the industry' as he puts it!

Now given the volume of laserdiscs he sells the same could probably have happened for any number of other LDs I was interested in putting in an offer for.
So where do you draw the line? I asked him did he want me to tell him which other LDs he had priced incorrectly.
Would you trust a seller who changes prices on the fly like this?

He then replied 'In order to remove any further controversy from this situation I just removed it from sale on eBay and our Website.'
Please note the word 'controversy'. which he used not me. I think it is a very accurate summation of the situation.

DaDon then said the following about LDDB.com:
'I am sure you know that Julien does not validate any of the information, or identities
on LDDb. Not to mention that LDDb charges a sales commission for any LaserDiscs sold
on his site. So LDDb profits from putting down any eBay providers. Further,
several of my friends have been burned on purchases on LDDb and there is
no recourse. Julien will just so sorry...'

After a few more email exchanges where I asked him what price he wanted for the disc in question he simply said 'after this juncture I respectfully suggest
that you take any further business elsewhere as we can not meet your standards and I do not appreciate my ethics being questioned at every juncture.'
Again please note the word 'ethics' Dadon used. He knows exactly what he has done wrong and was just trying to cover his tracks and make me feel like I've done something wrong.
Rather bizarrely he then went on to say he had included the disc 'as is' with another parcel I had already paid for.

Needless to say I declined his offer of the free disc as it felt like a total cop out to me. If a disc is this painful to acquire he can keep it for himself. No disc is worth this hassle.
I had already offered to pay for it and even asked how much he wanted for it but he refused to reply to those questions.

So mikeystoyz - I believe every word you say. I can see he is not a friendly seller at all to deal with and it is about time someone spoke up about him.

If he regards you as a dealer (competition) he bans you.
If you email him about a complication and he gets tired of replying he bans you.
If you complain about a defective disc he bans you.
If you put in too many low offers he bans you.

Spot the pattern?

As Dadon said 'Our thinking is this, if we have to spend an inordinate time with one client then we have ignored 10 others and that is not fair to
them. The key is that we are an "online business" therefore, most situations should be handled with computer systems and software.'

So you are just a number with a fixed amount of time. If you go over that time - you are banned!
I suggested to him he may need to work on his current customer support model as it is somewhat flawed.
He said the following 'we have a business model that works and I am most pleased with it. I think our Customer service is nearly perfect'
Well I beg to differ - there seems to be plenty of room for improvement if my experience and that of others is anything to go by.

Interestingly within 24 hours of this happening he had issued a refund to myrtle1beach in order to get any negative comments about him removed/edited from this site.
So he was clearly listening to what I said but just didn't want to acknowledge it. This is a seller who never owns up to his own mistakes.

Within another 24 hours we have some newbie(tomkern1) who has never posted here before stating how wonderful Dadon is!
Now call me naive but I can smell a rat a mile away.
DaDon may have been able to buy some people's silence on this forum but he hasn't bought mine and never will.

He might have some ok discs for sale and does pack items carefully but his after sales customer support sucks and his pricing is all over the place.
Make no mistake about it if you need to contact DaDon about any sort of issue you will regret ever buying from him.
He is not a genuine laserdisc enthusiast or fellow collector. He is just a cut throat businessman who doesn't even have the spine to login to this forum and reply in person.

I wanted everyone on this forum to know the truth about 'DaDon'.

what i really don't understand is that he is obviously not an easy person to deal with.

so why do you still buy from him, stop buying from him and get him out of the disc market.
he is acting like the family that he thinks he's from, he may have some cool discs but they are over priced.

these "re-sellers" must learn, not just him but others, if you put all of your discs are 2-10 times
the value then you are making a "fake" market, if these discs only sell on the bay for 2 bucks then that's the value.

ALL of these re-sellers who have more than 30 discs listed are just trying to get all the money than can out of us.

O.K. so some may have 1 or 2 rare discs, put a high price on it, i'm not against high prices but i am
against ALL HIGH PRICES.
discs that you can get on auction for 40 bucks they ask 200 for
and i think 40 bucks is too high to beging with.

Believe me I am as shocked about this seller as you. He successfully managed to completely alienate himself in a just a few emails.
I thought he was an honest seller - one of the good guys with integrity but I would never buy from him again after this experience.
It is very much a case of he is right, you are wrong, don't waste his time.
I've over 1000 LD films earmarked for purchasing too but all will be bought elsewhere as he a very unpleasant seller to deal with if you question anything.

I have a letter I showed to Julien that he emailed me. It showed me how strange people can be. As I have always said, I have no issues with his product, no problems with his shipping, I just have a problem with his attitude towards anyone he considers a threat. If anyone wants I will email them the letter or I could put it here. Anyway, I have nothing against his product, his prices (If you dont want to pay, dont buy, simple as that) or his packing. I would buy from him tomorrow if he had something I wanted. He just wont let me so I wont. On the other hand I Have found many dealers that I will go to for whatever I want and continue to expand my collection, whom I blame Rixrex for as well as urabanchou.com. Omg those guys discs are works of art. There are others here but it would be a long list of people that are a community. If someone doesnt want to be a part of it, that is their right as well.

It is probably the same letter or material in that letter he sent me - with lots of cut and paste in between various paragraphs. That is what he is like.
I've bought loads of discs from him but it is the way he treats you like an idiot - 'it is his way or the highway'. There is no flexibility whatsoever.

I'll take my money elsewhere and spend it with other sellers who are much more accomodating. I've already begun identifying sellers on this site
who have what I require and will be in contact with them shortly. DaDon wont be getting a thumbs up from me any time soon.

As I told him it is always wise not to bite the hand that feeds the mouth. That advice is probably sinking in for him now if he didn't previously follow what I meant!

My side:

• I validate each seller individually based on either their reputation, double-checking their feedbacks on eBay/Amazon/others by sending them direct emails to make sure they are who they claim to be, and actually reject about 20% of the people requesting to sell on LDDb.com because I cannot assess how well they will behave here.
• eBay costs a fortune for small-priced items in volume and re-listing again and again eats up most of your profits.
• LDDb.com charges the lowest commission you can find around. You can keep LDs listed for free at all time and opening a shop costs nothing. You only pay after $15 of fees. For the same service eBay will charge you listing/options/selling fees, shops fees and make you pay at the first $1.
• LDDb profits from putting down any eBay providers == LDDb.com provides an alternative, cheaper, more focused marketplace to anyone who wants to give it a try. There is not requirement to leave eBay to sell on LDDb.com
• Can I have the list, transaction numbers and LDDb usernames of the "burnt friends" please? If DaDon takes you money and never send a LD... Who will be sorry for you?

I follow the user feedbacks very carefully (http://www.lddb.com/stats.php?id=15) and twice in the past have reported buyers trying to scam sellers or suspicious buyers activities ahead to avoid problems down the line.

For everyone's information, DaDon used to purchase from me when I was in Japan. We even met in person once in Tokyo. He later became extremely demanding on buying conditions (paying 50% first, the rest 3 months later, not paying for shipping, etc.) and I just turned him down at which point he swore to never buy from me again. He had been very pleased with my items in the past (double-boxed shipping, rare Hi-Vision titles, etc.).

He also requested that I terminate his LDDb.com account back in early 2009. He used to buy some LDs here and have his own shop ("Da Don") as well from 2005 to 2008 on LDDb where he sold about 30 discs. He closed it down when his own website shop was launched, which is fine by me as long as the LD Database is his own, not a stolen copy (see post further below). I have never bought from him so I cannot tell if he's a good seller or not.

Julien

Anyone (including google bots and other spiders) can access the forum from the root address: http://forum.lddb.com

The header will only tell you that a "LDDb.com user account required to post".

All they have to do is create a LDDb.com account as it is explained everywhere: http://www.lddb.com/help_forum.php

They can't or they don't want to?

Julien

Before reading this thread I have always been against ever buying anything From Da Don. Mostly because of his prices.
After reading this thread wow...
Typical brutal seller that only cares about the sale, not repeat business.
The one thing I do like is he always tells which edition he is selling, complete with the number on the spine.
Very few sellers do that.
Edit: I just remembered. There is a second thing I like about Da Dons listings on Ebay. I like it when he uses the Coming Soon logo for his listings. Spotting it I know not to bother clicking on it.

when i list i use the reference number, i also try to post LDDB so others can take a look.
there are lots who buy only on the bay and are not even on this site.

i too like the comming soon to skip his listings

Julien...
DaDon only said that they couldn't access the forum to read any of the post, that was months ago and haven't talked to them since.

This is really disturbing to hear what has been said about the transactions some people has had recently dealing with DaDon. Myself personally have not had any bad dealings with them so I cannot say anything bad. Just for the record, I do not know them very well just had a couple conversations on the phone and emails mainly selling some titles. I think customer service is a huge part of selling so if they are going to do what has been said, well that is poor service in my book, I would want repeat customers coming back because it's not a easy market to sell these precious gems.