HAHAHAHATOOT(breath)HAHATOOT!!!

MA isn't similar to a service provided by Disney. Tours are provided by Disney, and providing your own tour in it's stead is stealing their business, much like selling bootleg merchandise. I don't go to the park and sell cotton candy or homemade mouseears.

I wouldn't go so far as to say "good for them" but rather, "Disney is stupid, and until they get a clue, they deserve to be taken advantage of by the online stores."

How is Disney stupid? The online stores still buy the mechandise from Disney, so Disney is still making a profit.

Disney could be doing the mail-order thing and be making the profit that those online sellers are getting. "Shipping and Handling" adds up to a lot.

Now, now you two. Kiss and make up.

Not to mention the 25-30% markup that the online stores get.

I understand why Disney doesn't merchandise the product outside of the resorts - the foot traffic is high and the idea of a guest "discovering" something special might lead to more impulse shopping. Disney is clearly not stupid when it comes to merchandising.
I also think that there's nothing basically wrong with shopping sites and on-line resellers. They charge a fee for obtaining goods for lazy people. In the age of internet shopping, most B&M stores do the same thing.
What bugs me about the online sites selling currently available park stuff is that they don't make it clear that all of the merchandise is available through Disney mail-order. They also don't list the official retail cost of the product they're reselling. That might not be wrong, but it's tacky.
I just ordered a book and a dvd from WDW mail-order. My cost, including shipping was $105.90. If I bought the same goods from laughing place, my cost would have been $141.96. That's quite a mark-up.
Rather than complain about this, though, I'm going to do something about it. Starting with the next MousePod, I'm going to suggest that all of my listeners who are interested in buying Park merchandise go to lp, check out what they want, and call Disney mail-order. Simple as that.

Well, I would guess that a vast majority of the people buying from LP and MS don't live near a Disney Resort. If I lived in Montana and really wanted a Shag Tiki shirt, I think the $12 markup plus shipping and handling would be significantly less than the plane ticket, transportation and admission (OK, save the $50 and buy from WOD).

Right, but I believe MousePod was refering to the fact that Disney does do mail order (Deliver Ears?), they just don't catalogue and market the items in the park. That's the "value added" to the online stores.

My gut says that the market for park-specific merchandise outside of the parks themselves is not particularly huge. It's there, but most people only want park mechandise if they're at a park. So while Disney makes it available, it doesn't make much sense for them to put up the overhead to catalog and advertise. But if some 3rd party wants to cater to that niche, the merch. sales generated for Disney are gravy, with no extra overhead. Seems like win-win to me.

Well, Disney allows it. It is no secret that LP and MP have a "shopping service" - LP is out of WDW and MP is out of DLR. For people in the midwest who collect anteana balls, this is about their only route. There is a lot of merchandise on these sites the people don't even notice in the parks. MP also has a sister site called Charming Shoppe for non-park, licensed collectables. There's some cross over there, but not a lot.