Remember that movie (whose name slips my mind!) where 7 gunmen go to a small Mexican village and chase off around 50 bandits?

Well, as admirable as that was, I can tell you that it is a WORLD harder to run 3,000 auctions of unique items every week, and to hold well just under ONE AND A HALF MILLION such auctions (1,442,000, at latest count) is, well, simply MAGNIFICENT!

I deeply thank every one of the other current 32 employees of eMoviePoster.com who make this happen week in and week out (because this truly IS very much a "team effort"), and I know that our 46,000+ customers and our 2,175+ consignors do as well!

If you read our last club message, (and if not, click HERE to read what I am referring to) you know I gave specific thanks to the five employees who have been here the longest (an amazing 15+ years each), Phil, Angie, Gary, Toby, and Clark. This week I want to also talk about another eight who have been here between six and eleven years each, because they also deserve considerable praise for all they contribute here, and just because they have not been here as long as the above five does not make their contributions any less important!

On June 11, 2007, Paul started, and I can't begin to say how important a part of what we do he has been. He is in charge of organizing the items AFTER a set of auctions is ready (getting 999 mixed up items in order three times a week!), and he follows the items through all the way until they are sorted by who bought what. Prior to his being here, we would have items "mixed up" (two items given to the wrong buyers) around once every week or two. This is "pretty darn good" when you only make an error once every 3,000 or 6,000 unique auctions, but SINCE Paul took this over, there is now a mistake once every MONTH or two, meaning his people only make a mistake once every 12,000 or 24,000 auctions, which is beyond belief to me! Of course, on those very rare times we make a mistake we get the items back from both people and refund all their shipping, so no one loses but us, but I know that most auctions make this sort of mistake all the time, and Paul is a major reason we almost never do! In a few weeks Paul will have been here 11 years!

On May 26, 2009, Steven started, and he has the massive job of running our internal website AND creating and maintaining all our entire online website. He single-handedly created our online Checkout, and lots of the other features regular auction uses know so well. If you wonder how our website and our auctions work so well (and have so many fewer problems than just about ANY other websites you visit, Steven is a big part of the reason why).  In a few days Steven will have been here 9 years!

On January 4, 2010, Eric started, and he spent his first year here organizing the easier types of posters we auction, like one-sheets, lobby cards, and other standard U.S. sizes. But he soon "graduated" to organizing and preparing NON-U.S. posters for auction, and it is thanks to Eric (and Matt, see below) that we are now able to auction so many posters from every corner of the globe, making us far and away the world leader in auctions of non-U.S. posters (and of course we already were the the world leader in auctions of U.S. posters! Eric has been here well over 8 years.

How I came to hire the next employee is a funny story. After Paul (see above) started in 2007, I quickly saw he would be one of my best employees ever. Not one to leave any stones unturned, I said to him "Do you have any siblings?", and he said, "I have a brother, but he is very happy where he is." I said, "Too bad", and thought no more about it. Then, three years later Paul said, "The company my brother works for is closing, so are you still interested?"! I said, "Absolutely",  and I met with him, and was very impressed.

On March 22, 2010, Matt started. He started as one of the people who "describe" posters (creating records for each one, and merging the image we took with an online description of the movie AND the poster, and adding a new record if need be), and in less than a year he was the best we had ever had in that position, and he was instrumental in making many major changes to our procedures that allowed us to auction posters from EVERY imaginable country, and also posters that have nothing to do with movies (something we almost never did before Matt arrived). In recent years Matt has trained several other employees to describe posters, and that has freed him up to handle LOTS of other things here, including most customer email related to ongoing auctions, and much, much more!  Matt has been here 8 years!

On June 1, 2010, Christian started. He has worked in several different departments (including shipping and packing), and he has excelled in every one of them. EVERY single person he has worked with has had made many positive comments about his performance, and he has been a giant asset to eMoviePoster.com. Christian has been here 8 years, but very sadly we are about to lose him, because in just a few months he will be moving away, and there is nothing to be done about that. He will be sorely missed.

On November 11, 2010, Josh started here, and he too has worked in several different departments, and he has been a big part of how we have been able to hold a giant bulk lot auction every single month, plus he helps a great deal in organizing our massive warehouse. Whenever I have had an urgent need to fill a gap left by a sick or departed employee, Josh has stepped right in and kept that from becoming a big problem. In six months Josh will have been here 8 years!

On April 18, 2011, Terri started here, not too long after we had gone to three sets of 999 auctions every week, and we needed a full-time invoicing person who could be counted on to do a great job, while being here every day, and to also be polite and efficient with the many customers who still like to call in and pay by phone. It was asking a lot to find all of the above in one individual, but Terri IS that person, as those of you who talk to her on the phone can attest to! In a few weeks Terri will have been here 7 years!

On November 16, 2012, Todd started here. He started as a "describer", working under Matt (see above), but not too long after he started we had a long time employee leave, and that was one who did one of the absolute hardest jobs here, describing the condition of each item, and adding an individual title for each auction, and giving each auction a final "look see" to make sure no errors make it to the "live" auction. I asked Todd if he was willing to take on this most challenging job (explaining that I wanted to maintain the quality of condition describing we are famous for), and he did, and I am SO glad he did, because not only has he done a wonderful job, but he has also changed some procedures that make our auction creation even more efficient!  In six months Todd will have been here 6 years!

So the five employees I described last time have been here a combined EIGHTY SIX years, adding that to the experience of the above eight (plus MY 28 years doing nothing but this) gives a total of ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY SIX years of total experience from the top 14 people here! The next time you are wondering HOW eMoviePoster.com does all it does (and does it so expertly) reflect on the 176 years of total work experience, and you have your answer.

Of course there are another 19 employees here who have been here between a few months and four years. They include some of our very top people, so their not being included in the above list in no way reflects on how much they contribute to all we do. Next time I will describe the top five of those, the ones who have been here between three and four years. And once some more make it to having been here three years, I will thank them personally as well!

But it really DOES take all 33 of us here to make eMoviePoster.com the very best auction house there is. If YOU have not yet discovered how very different it is to deal with us rather than ANY other auction company, just buy one item from us (or consign one to us) and you will quickly see just how different we are.

It has taken us just under one and a half MILLION unique auctions to get to where we are, a milestone no other auction will likely ever reach. But we have to warn you. Once you discover "the eMoviePoster.com difference", it may be very hard to go back to any other auction!

See Also
Did you know... that the five top employees at eMoviePoster.com have been here for 15 or more years (Employees Part I of III)?
Did you know... about the five employees who have been here between 3 and 4 years (Employees Part III of III)?