MVPA and Government Liquidation

[Blythewoodjoe]

I have noticed the front cover on my Supply line magazine has had a big expensive Government Liquidation ad on it for a while. I also received a calendar this week from the MVPA and noticed every Thursday is marked as a Government liquidation auction closing.

I pay dues to the MVPA (Military Vehicle Preservation Association) and receive benefits for these dues, the most notably the magazines. I support the MVPA and it’s mission. I hereby petition the MVPA to do something about the way Government liquidation treats it’s customers, or stop with the advertisements at once. Yes I know I am a nobody and represent a very small part of the MVPA but I feel it is wrong for the MVPA to allow it’s members to be exposed to such advertisement from such an unethical organization as Government liquidations.

I post this here because I know many of the Steelsoldiers family are also members of the MVPA. The MVPA is our club. We elect the leaders and pay our dues. We deserve a voice and we should feel comfortable doing business with ANY advertiser in our magazines. As for Government liquidations, we deserve to be treated with respect . We deserve answers to our questions. I don’t have to mention what they do here, we all know. There are a half dozen threads on their twisted business practices here at any given time. I can’t get results from DLA or the DMV or any other government agency but I think the MVPA can make a difference. I speak only for myself, but I think it’s time my club drop the ads and let me pay a few dollars more a year for a club and a magazine I enjoy with no GL strings attached.

Joe Trapp

 

[gimpyrobb]

Good points Joe. I am not a member, but would want answers as to where the "gl" money is benefiting the "club".

 

[Jimma]

I joined the Georgia MVPA and have gone to two rally's and they have not even sent me a card, a password for the web site or done anything other than acknowledge they recieved my information and application. They all must be run very differently. I had no idea there is a magazine. Wow. I hope someone in the Georgia MVPA reads this.

 

[gunboy1656]

The downside is, GL is crammed down your throat everywhere you look in this hobby. the upper right corner, MVPA, military vehicles magazine and many other places all are being paid for by them and their monopoly. Almost a necessary evil.

I had to laugh when I saw that calendar, they have other auctions that end on different days, but they only listed when the vehicle auctions ended.

I would also see what their money pays for, I am a life member, so I dumped a bunch of money into the hobby ( have to love being deployed to allow me to buy that membership)

 

[steelandcanvas]

I joined the Georgia MVPA and have gone to two rally's and they have not even sent me a card, a password for the web site or done anything other than acknowledge they recieved my information and application. They all must be run very differently. I had no idea there is a magazine. Wow. I hope someone in the Georgia MVPA reads this.

Does Georgia have it's own state MVPA? If so, I think he is speaking of the National organization.

 

[Jimma]

Here is the web site for the Georgia MVPA www.gamvpa.org

 

[bulldog_mack13]

Thats an affiliate, just like the MVCC in Colorado and other clubs, most state club names piggy back from the MVPA name.

Joe I agree with you. Has anyone gotton this months due magazine?

 

[wreckerman893]

Joe,

I agree with you in principle but having been a freelance writer for many years I have some insight into the publishing business.

One of the sad truths about magazines for private organizations is that they are money pits.

Without ads you would pay a heap of money for those two publications.

GL is a skunk in the woodpile but sometimes you just have to hold your nose when you pass by.

Many of us have gone toe to toe with GL and we still buy because they are the only game it town.

I have had crappy experiences with the Head Shed out in Arizona but only two bad experiences at GL locations (both at Creekside in Columbus, Ohio).

Maybe David Doyle can chime in about what it takes to put out those mags.

GL is a multi-million dollar operation......I don't know if MVPA has any clout with them or not.

If GL does not like the MVPA response they will pull their ads and the magazine will lose revenue.

 

[Blythewoodjoe]

Joe,


Many of us have gone toe to toe with GL and we still buy because they are the only game it town.



If GL does not like the MVPA response they will pull their ads and the magazine will lose revenue.

Your first statement above sums it up very well. People ask me why I just don't buy from someone else.

As for ads, there where 59 full pages of ads in the August/September Supply Line if I counted right, and 2 of them where GL. We all agree in principal but I suspect we are all in the same boat. I didn't complain much before now because it was some other sucker having trouble. Well now it's my turn and at the risk of be hypocritical I'm voicing my opinion and filling complaints with every agency that will take one. What GL does is wrong and illogical. Customer satisfaction goes a long way and isn't hard to provide. I wonder what their stock holders know of their practices and how so many people don't bid because of this.

 

[Crazyguyla]

I look at it this way, if GL was a private business selling MV's, we could just not buy from them. GL is contracted with the Gov't to auction surplus items. Being part of the govermental process, it's fraught with insidous pitfalls. I remember picking up some items for a member from th GL site on Ft Leonard Wood. The rep wasn't unprofessional, but was a negative towards me. I don't know if it was because I was in uniform, because my truck wasn't a 20 ft traler or a combination of both. First, remember you're dealing with people, people aren't perfect. Read and understand the policies of GL, they will often break said policies. After reading some of the complaints about GL, it reminds of the days I had to deal with turning stuff into DRMO. Same mentality. Finally, from my point of view, unless the entity that awarded the contract forces GL to conduct better business, everyone's stuck. GL seems like another part of the government system.

I have seen more than one person post, beware of any dealings with GL. I'm still hesitant to buy from GL because of the trouble I had picking up property. I suspect that the people running GL and working the diffrent sites worked for DRMO at one time or another. It's just something I notice when the Gov't downsizes an area, the company the wins the contract normally hires that had been doing said job before. Even tho I had bad dealings with one GL site manager making fun of my truck size I would help someone else out with a pickup.

I remember when I first was getting into the hobby and there was no GL or internet. It seemed to me next to impossible to find out what was being auctioned where. When a listing was found of what was being auctioned, there was just a discription and no pictures. From what I do remember reading about the process of buying, doing paperwork, and pickup of items; GL has streamlined a few things. We also have pictures to look at, may not be the right picture all the time. Finally, who is GL main buyers? Surely not the hobbiest. I thiink it would be corperations(vendors) buying the items to sell to businesses and the hobbiest.

We as a group really have a small voice to GL, MVPA has a bigger voice, and businesses probaly have less problems with GL than the hobbiest. This is my final thought on GL, if by some chance GL doesn't get the contract renewed; we as a group have to deal with another entity that may not be any better than the first. I'm off my soap box.

 

[bulldog_mack13]

The problem isnt fixing GL its getting the MVPA to understand what GL does to MVPA members. Honestly I bet you my next pay check that the MVPA directors know what GL does to its customers. Do you really think they dont know? They are normal guys just like us, easy to call and talk to also. And again il bet they have bought things from GL. Its all about the dollar and what it takes to put a magazine out every other month for Supply Line. I have no problem with GL being in Supply Line(one time) its when I see GL or anyone elses ad's in Army Motors that would get me.

I hope I didnt fuel the fire, I just wanted you guys to think about that.

 

[Crazyguyla]

The problem isnt fixing GL its getting the MVPA to understand what GL does to MVPA members. Honestly I bet you my next pay check that the MVPA directors know what GL does to its customers. Do you really think they dont know? They are normal guys just like us, easy to call and talk to also. And again il bet they have bought things from GL. Its all about the dollar and what it takes to put a magazine out every other month for Supply Line. I have no problem with GL being in Supply Line(one time) its when I see GL or anyone elses ad's in Army Motors that would get me.

I hope I didnt fuel the fire, I just wanted you guys to think about that.

add another log to the fire... anyone got marshmellow??

If it pays the bills, why not? Hope this doesn't start another fire.

 

[B3.3T]

Sounds like a good topic for an extensive article in MV or Supply Line.

 

[gunboy1656]

I doubt they would ever do a story like that. With the money GL puts into those publications, they would lose too much of their funding by bad mouthing them.

 

[Blythewoodjoe]

Here's one more point. There are lots of business's out there that advertise for GL (this site is one). The difference between the MVPA and most others is the fact that members pick up the magazine and see an ad for GL. If this ad is the only contact they have with GL, they do not know that GL conducts business very poorly (if you don't believe that, wait a little while and they will prove it). We assume the management at the MVPA is on our side and not the side of money. After all, it's a club, not a business. I think it is questionable at best to expose club members to a company with such a poor track record with out disclosing their practices.

Realistically speaking, I don't think anybody will do anything, but I believe we have to ask.

 

[roscoe]

The downside is, GL is crammed down your throat everywhere you look in this hobby. the upper right corner, MVPA, military vehicles magazine and many other places all are being paid for by them and their monopoly. Almost a necessary evil.

I had to laugh when I saw that calendar, they have other auctions that end on different days, but they only listed when the vehicle auctions ended.

I would also see what their money pays for, I am a life member, so I dumped a bunch of money into the hobby ( have to love being deployed to allow me to buy that membership)

I thought - OH cool a calender - but was slightly annoyed with the Thursday GL reminder. Kinda ruins the calender in my opinion. It would have been more interesting to have significant anniversaries acknowledged or something similar.

 

[drgreg]

I am a MVPA member and have never had a problem with GL. There are a few other vendors that advertise in the mags that I have had some issue with. I guess these vendors should be excluded too. I don't agree with everything in all of the articles, should we censor them?
All-in-all MVPA puts out some nice publications and the ads help them do this. I would like the mags to be ad free, but it just is not reality. So I will continue to read the good stuff and look past the bad, and enjoy the publications as they are.

 

[Chief_919]

Guys, if you want changes at Government Liquidation, elminating advertising on this website will not make it happen, the MVPA will not make it happen if they refuse ads.

Two things possibly can- one is enough, large level national attention to the negatives that they get motivated to change.

The otheris by going above their heads. That means when we have problems, report the to DLA Disposition Services (Formeley DRMS/DRMO) every time. DLA has a small business ombudsman whose job it is to take our issues, adddress them, and find a solution. Use that office.

We should also start compiling a long list of people with issues and details of those issues and send that so some Congressman or investigative reporter who wants to make a name for himself by attacking waste in a government contractor.

If we started compling a long thread of examples of damage to equipment from DRMO/ Government Liquidation neglect and abuse, we could send an investigative reporter a long list of hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in damged government property. The media or a Congressman won't do that legwork, but if you hand them an extensive report on a silver platter, they just may run with it. If every one of us took photos of equipment damaged or neglected in GL or DRMO hands when we saw it, and posted that in a long thread with locations and dates, that would give someone a powerful tool to start asking questions.

 

[Scarecrow1]

In the past have stopped buying mags because of the 90% B/S adds Compared to the 10% articals I bought the thing for to begin with .......So it's simple live with the adds are don't buy the book .......Freedom of the press allows this to be in our hands and ours alone ....

 

[boomer]

I agree. Along with WM. I also want to ad the same about tri-state insurance. It should be try state. I don't know why they advertise for M.V.'s. They claim to be a small time outfit, and (really) not worth their effort. I tried them one year. More trouble then it's worth. I have heard similar experiences from others. not just M.V.'s.