Wetlook World Forum

Message # 14730.2.1.1.1

Subject: Re: Really though, what would you expect from an adult bookstore...

Date: Wed 23/02/05 19:14:09 GMT

Name: AnthonyX

Email: anthonyx@jowc.net

Website:

By Getwet - Wed 23/02/05 14:48:34 GMT

Website:

By MK - wamtec@compuserve.com Wed 23/02/05 09:07:59 GMT

Website:

Anyway....Rudy Guliani was not the problem...the problem with this particular adult store (and many other adult stores too) is that they are run by dishonest people...who engage in making pirated copies of your works. Back in the 1990's...when we did use to have various stores in NYC and Japan and San Francisco selling our tapes in their stores....these store owners would only ever order 2-3 copies of each tape (which is highly suspicious....cos when some store or distributor only wants to order 2 of each of your stock....you can bet the farm they will be selling loads more and just making extra copies themselves). We were suspicious of the Kinematics store in NYC....cos we were sure they must be pirating our tapes....we only sent then "engraved" tapes...where the titles on the vhs tapes are not put on via sticky labels...we had the title engraved into the plastic casing...which few video pirates have the capability to do. Then a few months later...we conducted a sting operation....and I sent one of my New York based customers to go to that store and buy one of my tapes...and then send it to me...so I could examine the casing. And as suspected...it was a pirated copy with a home made label on it. After that....we pulled all our business from that store...cos they could not be trusted.

We have had similar experiences with other distributors we tried to set up in Japan and Germany too.

So...as adult bookstores and video stores cannot be trusted not to duplicate our works....we basically set a policy now...that we will only deal with distributors if they will order a minimum block order of 50 units....and none of the distributors will order 50 of a given tape....they just want 2-3 copies so they can duplicate your works.

All this happened in the mid 1990's ....during the VHS era.....before the DVD era. Now...with the DVD era...things are even worse....cos at least with pirated VHS tapes you can see the degradation....but if we send a DVD master to a distributor now...they can easily make 1000 copies and only tell us they sold 10 copies...and we would be none the wiser.

So....this is why most of the producers do not want to deal with adult video stores. It is not that we cannot find distributors....we can....but finding HONEST distributors in the adult industry is very difficult.

The ONLY reputable stores are the big mainstream chains like Barnes & Noble etc...and they will not touch our subject matter at all (though they do sell spring break wet t shirt videos).

We once had out tapes being sold at ATOMIC BOOKS

http://www.atomicbooks.com/

they are reputable.

Anywhere...so there is your catch 22 situation....any adult book store who only wants to order 2-3 copies of your tapes for their store....cannot be trusted. The only way you can protect your interest is to force them to buy in miniumum block orders of 50 units at a time...and they do not want to order in blocks like that. So...you have an impasse.

MK

By Waterguy - wateretaw@aol.com Tue 22/02/05 22:51:16 GMT

Website:

I have not found ANY wetlook videos in NYC.  I've looked in a lot of stores in and around times square.  The only thing I've seen is a few UW videos from Aqua Tapes (Wamtec's old partner)- and they were just 2 videos and I must have spent an hour in there before I came across them.  I know that you're not looking for that but I think you won't find any.  I don't mean to speak for them but....... I believe that most of the wetlook producers on the internet here don't have distributors - so they only sell online.    I hope this helps.  Let me know if you need any more information.

By closetwetlookloverinnyc - Tue 22/02/05 21:42:51 GMT

Website:

I've walked into "adult" shops in the village before - and I get the strangest looks from proprietors when I ask if they carry "wetlook" videos.  I don't think anyone I've approached has ever even remotely conceived what I was talking about.