An Open Letter to BluFans, Let's Talk about Kevin

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apsmith21

Operations Director
Staff Member
Aug 6, 2010
29,096
USA
Hi members of HiDefNinja, it is with some sadness that I write to you today about the end of an era here at HDN.

Recently a situation unfolded where one of our group buy hubs was accused of stealing a number of copies of a BluFans release, and was told that they needed to repay Kevin over $1,000 to replace the items that were lost.

The items in question represent less than 1% of the total items in a BluFans print run.

Some people would have you believe this is just a "disagreement" between HDN and Kevin.

If you are new to HDN, or perhaps just not aware of how these group buys work with BluFans - the hubs, the persons responsible for shipping out hundreds upon hundreds of steelbooks work for very little (if any) compensation. I would propose that our hubs are some of the most trustworthy members here and a great asset to this site. Often they do their best to combine shipping for you to reduce the cost in general and bring you a great release, safely packaged and delivered - such that you do not have to rely on ebay sellers or other folks that will mark these items up.

Having said that, packages sent from BluFans are done in the following way.

1) They are marked a very low value and as "plastic" cards to avoid customs
2) Tracking numbers, are rarely shared with the hubs.
3) There is no invoice or packing slip that state how many items should have been received.
4) Sometimes members are left off or missed in the creation of the lists. Meaning the count of the total items sent is not always accurate.

Therefore, as a hub on this forum, there is a level of trust that we put in not only BluFans, but also bluraysteel (Kevin) to accurately and correctly convey our responsibilities in delivering these releases to you. To give you an idea, one box (only one!) of BluFans steels can exceed $900 in total value.

These boxes are NOT insured! So what happens when items are lost, not sent, or the records are incorrect? It appears that they will come after the group buy hubs! :(

And as this trust has now been violated, as no hub now or previously (unless they keep very thorough records of every shipment made, to every member that is on their list) can completely disprove the accusation that has been made. We have nothing at our disposal that can show without a doubt what we say is true, despite the pictures on our threads of the items, the posts about when we received them, and the other information we very publicly share with you, our members, to keep you up to date.

To restate this...it has been said that one of us, one of our hubs, is not a person that can be trusted.

I've gone to great lengths to personally investigate this question and provide pictures, posts and other information that show very clearly that HDN nor our hub stole from BluFans.

I think we can all agree that we love BluFans releases. We love the package, we love their thought and care that is put into creating a wonderful collectors items. But it seems as though bluraysteel has decided to take all of his group buys somewhere else in retaliation for not sending him $1000.

I cannot stop you from supporting BluFans releases, and I'm not asking you to not buy their steelbooks. But I would like you to consider that you will not receive the support from moderators and staff members on other forums that you have received here. There likely will not be any quantity per member limits that are enforced. There will not be the hubs you have worked with so many times before. I hope there are not other challenges as well.

I would like to take this opportunity to call on BluFans, to call on Abu to replace bluraysteel as the liaison between our two forums, and to instead use someone that can work with HDN, and will not turn on HDN or our hubs so quickly.

Thank you very much for reading this thread, and I would like to personally apologize to you if this causes any trouble.

For members of my UP 3D slip hub, as far as I'm aware some of these are on the way to me currently - and if they do arrive, I will continue to assist in completing this group buy and bring you the items you paid for.

Best regards,

Andy
 
So what is the new website for International members who still want to buy Blufans steelbooks?

Blufans and Kimchidvd are the only reason I still enjoy collecting steels. They have so many awesome releases coming out this year, I can't stop now.
 
lost happens on the post sometimes. and because we all try to save on shipping and declaration we all taking risk. in my opinion we all collectors could do some support for kevin and hub. box was lost and has to be replaced (if there are more of those in stock) because some collectors still want it. we could donate X$ each. (for example: 5$ from 200 members = 1000$). and if the box will be found HDN will sell them on the ebay or to other members for the coast and the money will go to the forum for example.

yury
 
haven't really purchased or been interested in a BF release in a while, but it is disappointing to hear.
 
Ouch, kind of a kick in the spine to those who did not get the kimchi Thor 2. Hopefully someone can step up by the time the Blufans one is up for order.

I'm assuming by Andy's post that Kevin sent a shipment to a Hub and they never got it?
 
All I can do is frown right now. This is a disappointing time for this community, HDN and BluFans. I'm especially disappointed that I'll have to go through hell now to try to acquire the Pacific Rim and Gravity SteelBooks. Man, I hate when **** like this happens to good people.
 
Thats the whole point,eliminating the middle man is the way to move forward.Blufans will have to make this leap if they want to continue the barrage of orders they've been receiving from overseas.To be blunt,we're the ones making them the money.World wide customers.Even members there are buying these releases to resell to international customers.
Just look at the exclusive releases they have lined up.Its because of the impact we've had in numbers.They even used HDN's input to come up with some of their designs.We make a world of difference.
 
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I paid for UP 3D long ago and am also supposed to be one of the hubs.

I don't see why Blufans can't send at least to Japan and I can forward things. I mean, it's not all that far.

I just hope I end up seeing my copy and the copies for others.

EDIT: OK, not much I can do, but I did go over and register on the other forum so I could PM Kevin. I asked about my personal paid for copy as well as hub status, so I guess I just have to hope to hear back soon.
 
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I have faith something will be worked out soon. Blufans have way too many releases lined up and HDN is the biggest steelbook community out here. I cant see the two forums being separated for long
 
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if that's kevin's attitude then he's better off on a lower level forum!
i am not going to another forum for blu fans group buys, i don't feel like supporting them after hearing this, i can live without them (prefer kimchi anyway)
to anybody who's still waiting for BF Steels from group buy, hope it gets sorted.
 
I have not had any dealings with Kevin, do not join his GBs, and do not personally have anything against him, hence I never spoke up. But everyone does know that he takes a healthy commission of everyone who joins his GBs, right? Sure, you can say he is running a business, but he is very protective of his "sole" right to run GBs here. Why? Because he knows he is in a privileged front-runner position to take serious money off collectors (who may be willing to pay more for them, of course) who want BF steels and just cannot get them anywhere else, and hence done his utmost not to relinquish his pole position. So my armchair view of him is that he is in it for the money, and not for the collectors love of steel, and to stop pushing his wares to a hungry HDN market over one incident and exit completely is not business-savvy at all. Its silly, in fact.

I know most of you are grateful for his help in the past, but don't need to feel sorry for yourself, and certainly not for him. Good luck to one and all who still wants to get their hands on BF steels. I trust it will work out...

Nice, witty title, btw, apsmith :>
 
Appreciate the transparency Andy.

I don't really know what to say about the situation other than Blufans should definitely have both tracking and insurance when sending large shipments like that out, because then this whole situation could have been prevented.

I don't know who the accused was, but I could never see you, Naughtius or Drum ever doing such a thing. All of you have never been less than professional with me, have always kept me up-to-date with my GBs and hub shipments, extremely polite, and most importantly, all obviously doing this on your own time to help other members who are just as passionate about this hobby out (which is much appreciated). It just doesn't fit the profile... not for a thousand bucks and burning that kind of bridge.

I'm hoping this is just a misunderstanding and gets sorted out. And if it doesn't, then onto new beginnings and horizons.
 
Nicely said AprilArrow...:thumbs:

I contacted him over at Blu-ray to find out more information regarding UP 3D and hopefully he answers back. Honestly this week has been such a bummer so far.
 
It was only this morning Kevin posted about a 'surprise' for members who had attained a blufans award. Which makes this all the more of a shock.

I can't help but think back to the situation with the WIR damages, when Kevin threatened to throw in the towel. Have to admit it was a bit of an eye opener, seeing how fragile our arrangements were with Blufans.

I hope a resolution can be reached to allow things to move forward, with or indeed without Kevin.
 
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Open communication with a trusting "I want to work this out because we have a good thing going here" type of attitude goes a long way, and would be especially effective with a niche group of hardcore collectors like those here on HDN. We are a pretty tight knit group here. I know some of us can get a little testy every now and then, but hey, we invest a lot of time and energy and money and dedication into this crazy little obsession of steelbook collecting. A couple jabs here and there is inevitable I suppose, but overall, I think we all generally appreciate each other pretty well.

Where I am going with all that, is that if Kevin really does feel slighted... if there's an honest and true motive behind his decision, then I think there definitely could have been a better route. $900 is not a lot split across hundreds of HDN members. If we were told that a box got lost, and that those helping with group buys are truly unable to account for it, I don't think $900 would have been too hard to put together with this gang here on HDN. I for one am grateful for my Blufans steels and I would have helped if I was under the belief that what happened with the missing box is not a shady attempt at theft.

At any rate... it's a real shame to think that our ties with Blufans might be severed and unrepairable. If Blufans decides to take the bull by the horns and ship to us worldwide like Kimchi and Plain Archive and Zavvi and the Amazons of the world, this could be the start of a great thing for us all.

Let's hope that possibility comes to fruition and support those that have direct ties to Blufans that might be able to make a new bridge happen.

...and to apsmith and the staff here at HDN, thank you for communicating clearly about the situation. I will reserve judgement and assumption and remain of the belief that those hosting group buys for HDN operate in a manner that is always above board until it is proven otherwise.
 
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