Harry Potter and His Army of Collectors

This week we say "Lumos!" and shine the spotlight on Harry Potter and His Army of Collectors, wands down probably the most dedicated Harry Potter fans on eBay. We found a pensieve and were able to extract the thoughts of Group leader -- sorry, Head Boy -- q-collection and get him to tell us what makes the Group so magical. His thoughts are below. (Also shown is a beautiful painting of my favorite Potter character -- Severus Snape -- painted by Group member artofadornment.)

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Harry Potter and His Army of Collectors is an eBay Group for Potter-maniacs to share the fun of the books, movies and collectibles that young Harry and J.K. Rowling have spawned.

I've been involved with a number of eBay groups, but none have been as successful as the group Harry Potter and His Army of Collectors. In one year membership increased from one to more than 1,200 -- and it's still going strong. What has made this group more successful than others? Let us lift the Cloak of Invisibility to see:

THE 10 SECRETS OF MY HARRY POTTER GROUP'S SUCCESS

1. Encourage participation from new members. I invite new members to join us regularly. We request new members to introduce themselves or just say hello in a Member Introduction discussion thread that I have tacked as the first discussion. My second tacked discussion thread is for Replies To New Members. This prevents the introduction thread from becoming cluttered.
2. Have fun online. We have had several on-line parties. These include parties for Halloween, Christmas, combined birthdays and the first day of the new Harry Potter books and movies.
3. Share relevant content. We have a ton of Harry Potter-related YouTube videos in our links and discussion sections. You can find interviews, movie trailers, scenes from the movies and fan-made holiday-related music.
4. Share profiles of actors/characters. Among our discussions I've provided copies of on-line encyclopedia profiles of the actors and characters they play in the movies. I always provide hot-link credits so members can easily review the source if they’d like.
5. Use language from the books. Instead of calling our administrative staff Group co-leaders and Group moderators, we elected to identify ourselves as Head Boys and Prefects. This is in keeping with the theme of the group.
6. Keep up interest with regular e-mails with lists of new discussions. I send out regular e-mails to our members to announce our online parties and the addition of new group moderators (Prefects). Those e-mails always include a hot link to our group’s Welcome Page, the current membership number and a list of the ten newest discussions going on.
7. Rely on Co-leader and moderators. Having dependable co-leaders (after all, Harry had Ron and Hermione, didn't he?) is essential to the success of the group. Mine help out when I'm on vacation and we exchange barbs within the discussions to keep things active. I am constantly on the lookout for new moderators. 
8. Change the visual look every now and then. Every week I change the background colors and decorations of the group. And every two or three weeks I change the photos on the Welcome and Home pages. Rotating scans/photos and background colors always draws a lot of comments from our members.
9. Always do follow-ups to postings. I try to visit the group every day or two and always add fun comments to our discussions. That keeps the group active and usually results in additional comments by our prefects and members.
10. Treat everyone with respect. We treat everyone with respect in here. We're a bunch of people who love the world of Harry Potter, and this is our sanctuary away from the real world. Because we want to keep the discussions focused on our Harry Potter interests, we try to stay away from discussions about selling.

So there you have it.  Please drop by and check out the Harry Potter and His Army of Collectors group if you get a chance. 

John (q-collection)
The Harry Potter Group Head Boy