Who bought 15,609 Howard Lederer DVDs?

Following Howard Lederer's strategy DVD selling at auction for $0.10, Barry Carter debates who would buy them and why?

It’s not nice to laugh at the misfortune of others, but I think the poker community had a little giggle this week at the news that Howard Lederer’s poker strategy DVD sold at auction at a price of $0.10 a unit. Someone paid $1,560.90 for 15,609 copies of Howard Lederer’s Secrets of No-Limit Hold’em.

Even though the money doesn’t go to Lederer himself, it is still a big sign of the fall from grace of the former Full Tilt boss. He once was one of the richest and most powerful men in the industry, and a successful WSOP bracelet winner too. Now his strategy advice is deemed so pitiful you could buy one for every player at your table and still have change from a dollar. 

It does lead me to wonder, however, who on earth bought them all? Who has a use for 15,609 Howard Lederer DVDs? It is most likely someone who plans to sell them again, which leads me to also wonder, will they make a profit? Is there still a market for Lederer’s advice?

Is it a profitable investment?

Taking a browse at Amazon and eBay, it looks like the DVD is retailing between $1.95-$7. So if the buyer actually succeeded in selling them again, they would enjoy a very high markup. You would only need to sell about 800 to break even (Assuming it’s on Amazon or eBay, the postage is added onto the price), and then you have nearly 15,000 more that is pure profit baby!

But will they even sell 800? It is hard to fathom this would be possible. Lederer is maybe the most hated man in poker, and even before Black Friday wasn’t exactly revered for his playing style (Most consider him a huge nit). Then you have the format itself, DVDs, which are fast becoming as out-dated as his strategy advice. 

If you check out Amazon, his DVD turns up on page 10 for the search ‘No Limit Hold’em’ but page one when you filter for DVDs. The same search on eBay actually sees his DVD appear on page one for all categories.

Who is the target market?

I think the target market for these DVDs are, understandably, people who don’t follow the poker scene. If you go in any casino around the world you will likely meet plenty of people who haven’t heard about Black Friday or Lederer’s fall from grace.

In the United States I imagine here are plenty of people who stopped following online poker in 2006 after the UIGEA, and who still assume Lederer is a big name (Annie Duke’s book still sells well and she makes lots of public appearances, and she is almost as despised as her brother).

So I can believe that this has a potential to turn a small profit in the form of last minute Birthday presents for people who have played a ‘little’ bit of poker before (Or as joke gifts for serious poker players). I’d love to find out who bought them, and what their business plan was, because it would be really interesting to see whether it works out for them or not.

I did have an alternative theory, however, as to who may have bought these. This week it was also revealed that Joe Stapleton bought Daniel Negreanu some golf balls with Howard’s face on them, so KidPoker could enjoy pummelling his long-time enemy in the face with a nine iron. Maybe Negreanu bought the DVDs because he is taking up clay pigeon shooting as a hobby?

Will the buyer of the DVDs make a profit? Is $0.10 per DVD worth it? Who do you think will buy the DVDs?