I started this particular thread, but it wasn't 
the first one.  This issue began with a thread 
that started from Marcia's last post (just before 
she hit the road to Canada).  In starting this 
new thread, I wanted to distance myself from the 
responses to the older one, where there was a bit 
of name-calling and flaming on both sides.

In my new thread, I wanted to address the 
concerns and frustrations of a lot of people 
WITHOUT resorting to anything degrading like name-
calling or pure ranting/venting.  Even though my 
language may have been strong some times (but 
nowhere near as bad as what followed, though), I 
felt that I was giving an honest opinion about 
the matter and I hope to present things from the 
different sides.  Although there were many 
criticisms about Anime Assault, I still defended 
Marcia and gave her the benefit of a doubt when I 
could.  At the end, I still declared that the 
auctions are worth looking at.

Was I counting on Marcia not to be around to 
defend her business?  Of course not!  As I said, 
I just started this thread while waiting for a 
cel dealer to make an update on Friday.  And I 
was hoping that Marcia could respond (and 
hopefully in a more objective manner than how she 
eventually did) in a timely fashion.  Many of my 
comments were directed at Marcia specifically and 
clearly showed that I would have appreciated her 
objective response.  Despite word of her move, 
the Internet is very flexible these days 
(laptops, for example) and so I didn't really 
worry about her being cut off for long while this 
thread took place.

In the end, what I was hoping for was for Marcia 
took listen to her customers, just as any good 
business person would and should always do.  
Despite Marcia's last remark, it doesn't matter 
(and it's not supposed to matter) how people view 
a seller personally.  What matters is how the 
seller conducts a business and adapts his/her 
business in order to maintain customer 
satisfaction.  That's simply good business.

Of course, buyers always have the option of 
taking their busines to another seller, this is 
true.  But I still don't see the logic of a 
seller who wants to frustrate or scare away 
potential customers.

Anyone who has worked in retail knows about 
dealing with frustrated or even combative 
customers.  Your situation is not certainly not 
unique, Marcia.  It's up to you, though, to 
approach the matter as a professional seller 
would and improve your service, not to treat it 
as some kind of personal attack.  Many of these 
folks are griping, yes, but I believe that many 
of us feel that there are steps you could take to 
improve and better your business.

It is really unfortunate that Marcia responded 
too emotionally and reactionary to some of the 
comments.  And I am VERY sorry that the name-
calling and other flaming found their way back 
into this thread.  I didn't want to be a part of 
that.