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| About Us... |
Mopar Collector’s Guide, like many businesses, was born out of necessity. We needed a way to find parts for our own Mopars. Living in the deep south, we were nowhere close to the big two shows of the time, the Mopar Nats in Colombus, Ohio and Mopars at Englishtown in New Jersey. Way back in 1988, when we started the magazine, Al Gore had yet to invent the internet, so Hemming’s Motor News was about the only national source for buying and selling cars and parts. Like many others, we didn’t care about 95% of what Hemmings had to offer. Not being a Mopar specific publication, it wasn’t always easy to find what you were looking for. And if you advertised regularly, Hemming’s could be quite expensive.
“Hemming’s is too big and well established to ever compete with.” We were told that over and over again. To beat Hemming’s MCG had to do a better job at a cheaper price. By only focusing on Mopars, we thought we could build a better mouse trap. The MCG idea of free advertising for subscribers was born, and little by little, we chipped away at the Goliath until one day, MCG was generating more Mopar ads than the supposedly untouchable Hemming’s. MCG’s success was not only due to hard work on our part, but also thanks to the thousands of Mopar lovers who wanted a buy/sell/trade magazine to call their own. The people got behind us and with their support, by subscribing and spreading the word about MCG to their friends, they made MCG the success it is today.
As MCG focused on Hemming’s, a little thing called eBay was born and the way many people sold cars and parts changed forever. Now it didn’t matter what you wanted for a car or part; if someone wanted it bad enough, with eBay, they could let their money do the talking. Many times, the price you could get with an online auction format seemed to surpass anyone’s expectations. While eBay has many advantages, like Hemming’s in its day, it has become quite expensive to advertise there on a regular basis and less than 5% of the content pertains to what Mopar enthusiasts care about. In addition to this, the site has become wracked with fraud.
Several years ago, I thought to myself, there’s got to be a way to rally the Mopar faithful to support an auction of their own. At least in the Mopar world, it should be possible to create a better online auction experience. I began investigating what it would take to host an all-Mopar online auction site and the investment, quite frankly, scared the daylights out of me. MCG’s business philosophy has always been to give back to those who support us. The more subscribers and advertisers, the bigger the magazine, and recently, your support has afforded us to expand MCG onto the web. That once unattainable Mopar-only auction site is now being made possible, not only by MCG, but more importantly, by you.
It’s been six months since we began working on the Bidmopar project and I’m proud to say, despite multiple complications and delayed release dates, we now have a working model for you to check out - the first-ever online auction site just for Mopar lovers and only from your friends at MCG. Like those early issues of MCG, it needs some refining, but I think the model for something really good is at hand.
Here’s how it works. Just like eBay, an individual can place an ad for a part, car, or whatever, as long as it’s pure Mopar, for a nominal fee. If you’re an MCG subscriber, you can pay an extra $10 a year to become an MCG Elite Access Member and get free ads. MCG Elite Access gets individuals unlimited free online action. For frequent sellers, this will save you hundreds of dollars in fees. Businesses may purchase $30 banner ads to go along with their already running print ads, and they will also be allowed unlimited free online auctions, saving them thousands.
Now we’re not naive enough to believe we will adversely affect eBay, but we do believe we will be able to deliver top dollar for Mopar cars and parts. The fact is, despite the millions bidding on eBay, only a fraction are interested in your Mopar stuff. On Bidmopar, we will deliver 100% interest in your Mopar stuff for sale, which should insure top dollar for your auction items. As the site grows, plans are to offer periodic specialty auctions that will be promoted ahead of time in the magazine. It’s also our hope to be able to police the auctions a little better than eBay to try and cut down on fraud. As with anything new, there will be lots of room for improvement, and we want your input. Log on, place some stuff up for auction, and let us know how we can make Bidmopar the best auction site on the web!
MCG’s business philosophy has always been to give back to those who support us. The more subscribers and advertisers, the bigger the magazine, and recently, your support has afforded us to expand MCG onto the web. That once unattainable Mopar-only auction site is now being made possible not only by Mopar Collector’s Guide magazine, but more importantly, by you.
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