THE COMIC ZONE RADIO SHOW & DISCOUNTED MARVELS!

[stagedoorjohnny]

Agreed. Your inventory is way too vast for regular visitors to constantly sift through it to find the new additions. PGC Mint, who I believe has the best web-site in the business, has a section for recent additions as well as a couple other user-friendly features.

[murph0]

I don't think the fact that it's not cut/paste friendly is a big deal at all. What I meant was that I just couldn't copy the listing page and paste it here due to the formatting of your page. It's definately not a big deal as your page works fine and there's really limited reasoning for needing to cut/paste your pages.

I agree that there should be a new inventory page, it gets a little old going through the 3 titles that I like to see if there's anything new. Especially the ASMs as you have like 10 pages.

 

Brian

[Aces]

2 VG/F 5 $480.00 - 10% = $432.00

I almost fell off my chair when I saw that!

Then I got back on after this:

(mc small interior coupon clip)

 

Oh well...

 

Thanks for the list.

I'll email you about two I was interested in.

 

Oh yeah. Are both those FF 1 GVGs restored?

I see an ® near them both but wasn't sure.

 

[metropoliscomics]

Aces-

When you see an r it means resto. If you are still interested please call 800-229-6387 and ask for a description. Someone may have to go pull the book and get back to you so please be patient. My shipping manager is from Hawaii and every year he goes back for the holidays and we are understaffed.

 

Thanks,

 

Vincent

[metropoliscomics]

Murph and gang-

 

One thing I am confused about is why you aren't searching by title and issue number. I put that search engine on the home page to make your life easier. The last thing I want you to do is lose your minds running through 10 pages just to find the one book you are looking for....

 

By the way thanks again for all of the feedback- it is greatly appreciated.

 

Vincent

[murph0]

Why limit yourself? Wouldn't you rather have a casual passer-by take a look at some of your other books instead of searching for one issue, seeing that you don't have it, and then moving on? I've purchased many more books off of Comiclink now that they have a New Listing section, and I did so in the past too.. because I could quickly browse through all the listings of the title, and sometimes find something that I'm not really looking for and buy it.

As I said earlier, it sucks to look through 10 pages of ASMs for the new ones.. thus the reasoning for a newly listed items page. However, as I mentioned before if you continue to have people look through all the pages they might find something else they want.

 

Brian

[tth2]

I agree that PGC Mint has the best website in the biz.

[metropoliscomics]

The Metropolis Site has a lot to offer. As you know, I have a truly extensive inventory of low, mid and high grade Golden, Silver and Bronze Age books . Without a doubt I have the largest inventory of quality CGC graded comics in the market. Anybody who has visited my gallery in Manhattan can attest to that. I Would also mention that I do not offer all of these comics on my site all the time. Many books sell directly to highly regarded want list customers-yes I actually read want lists. And unlike the rumors you may have heard I do pay attention to big and small want lists alike. You don't have to spend millions of dollars with my company to be treated in a fair and decent manner. All you need be is serious about collecting.

 

If you are interested in specific books you are not seeing on the site please email me your relevent information (name, address, tele, email) and your want list (title, issue, grade range, CGC or not) and my staff and I will get to work on it. Please email serious want lists only to wantlist@metropoliscomics.com and type WANT LIST into the subject of your email. Please be patient as often times we are handling dozens of incoming want lists and we make detailed searches for each.

 

I believe the posters on this thread make several valid points and I most definitely will take them under consideration. I seriously want the site to be appealing to the broadest scope of collectors. I do believe, however, that my site, at its foundation was built on this premise. Metropoliscomics.com offers several different ways to hone a search that does not take a lot of time. If you are interested in only searching for CGC books you can type in a title, even an issue # and click on the CGC only search button on the home page and you will get a full list of CGC graded books available on the site.

 

On a personal note Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. Last night I made my very first comic book with my nephew/god son Dylan. This kid is amazing. He is acting in a pilot for a TV show I am producing, loves to sing, dance- you name it. He is four years old and loves comics. The borders in his room are filled with Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-man and a bunch of others. I drew and he wrote (dictated the story) a Captain America Saga of epic proportions. Basically, Cap is out walking his dog and Jonoh (the dog) gets dogknapped by none other than the Red Skull. Cap beats up the Skull and is reunited with his pooch. Perhaps if you guys ask very nicely I will post the images...keep in mind I am no Kirby (who along with Simon, I mention as the creators of Cap on the splash page) in fact I am no Liefeld (just kidding I like his art..kinda) but it was fun nonetheless.

 

I must be going now as Santa Claus (my wife) was very good to me this year! I am now going to go play with my new set of Wusthof knives...other than loving comics I also love to cook.

 

Happy Holidays to All,

Vincent

[comicwiz]

I agree that PGC Mint has the best website in the biz.

 

That's interesting. I have totally opposite views on the PCG Mint site. As someone who can appreciate a good web site on both functional and technical merit, I'm curious to know what it is about the site that makes it "the best" in the biz?

[tth2]

 

I have totally opposite views on the PCG Mint site. As someone who can appreciate a good web site on both functional and technical merit, I'm curious to know what it is about the site that makes it "the best" in the biz?

 

Well, I find it extremely easy to navigate, the interface is very user friendly and logical, it's very streamlined (I find many other dealers' sites, including Metropolis, to be very cluttered), it's fast, it's updated constantly, and Mark has scans of every single book that he lists. And, for books that he has sold, I really respect the fact that he shows the actual sale price and not what his listed price was, as there may often be a difference.

 

Of course, I understand that Mark is a very specialized dealer so the inventory on his site is much smaller and therefore much more manageable than dealers like Metropolis or PCE.

 

The only real criticism I have with PGCMint is that for some reason it doesn't use a scanner, so all of the images are high quality digital camera shots, which are not as good as scanned (Heritage probably has the best scans I've seen).

 

You say you have totally opposite views, meaning that you think it's the worst dealer site? What do you dislike so much about it? Who do you think has the best site?

[greggy]

The problem that I have with Mark's site is that if I am going through his listings, I can't jump to a specific page but have to scroll through all his pages. I understand that I could attempt a search but I prefer to browse the listings to see if anything seems interesting.

 

Although, he shows the actual selling price of a book, why does he have to keep it on his listings. Some of the books showing as being sold have been sold long ago.

[comicwiz]

Although, he shows the actual selling price of a book, why does he have to keep it on his listings. Some of the books showing as being sold have been sold long ago

 

That is one of the hang-ups I have with the site too. Not a major flaw, but more of a direct criticism towards most comic dealers that are still using online catalogues, and aren't' doing a proper job of updating. I've had plently of situations with some of the leading dealers in N.A., where I would see a book listed on their sites, place a call (in most cases, on my nickel being that they are long-distance), placed on hold -- sometimes for as long as 10-15 minutes only to hear the book was already sold. I then visited the same site months later to see the same book STILL listed with no reference to the fact that the book had been sold.

 

Taking this logic one step further, some dealers are well aware that certain comic titles and issue numbers attract visitors from search engines. This is how I find the majority of my books. But for the HTF books, I have had direct experience with dealers who DO NOT remove books from their site because their web stats reveal that those books are the top link referrers to their sites. Removing them often has a direct effect on visitors who might otherwise no longer find the listing by using google or yahoo, among many, search engines, and would no longer be taking a minute to see what other things that site may be offering.

 

I also realize that most of the larger dealers have made vast improvements in the area of online cataloguing -- including "status" features which allow the visitor to see that a deal is "pending", or that the book is sold. But I agree with greggy that it serves no purpose other than for showcasing or grandstanding to have a book on the web site with a final end sale price, and the status as "sold."

 

tth2

 

I wouldn't go as far as saying that the PGC site is the worst, but like many sites, there are certain things that it could certainly improve upon. With regard to the PGC site, the disconnect between the user and the site -- the link which states that you can "Buy Item" -- is certainly the most frustrating. The link initates a "mailto:" action to your email manager. If you don't have one, then all hell breaks loose on your machine, between Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Netscape all vying for the job of handling the request. But aside from all this, the fact that it uses an email dispatch method to purchase on their site is the biggest let down. If I want an item, I'd like the web site to have a way of removing the item as soon as I indicate a "buy" action. Shopping cart software, and point-of-sale online payment systems have made it so easy, that it doesn't take much to implement such a transaction-based online system. Perhaps I'm used to the auction style of doing things, but the last thing I want to be involved in is a transaction where the dealer indicates that their waiting on another potential customer who they have been in email conversations with for the past two weeks. I want the book right there and then, NEVERMIND puttting my request for purchase on hold. This standby, wait-and-see approach to doing business is likely to create more hassle than benefit, and in my opinon, it really is a dinosaur of an approach for any business to use in current climate of "quick" and "dead" consumerrism.

 

As for which sites I believe to be the best; I can't say I've had a chance to look at every single one of the comic dealer sites. I will say that look and feel is just as important to me as a site that navigates nicely. A site has to be just as alluring as a comic storefront. If the store doesn't say comic-shop, then I won't bother walking thru. I'm the same way when it comes to web sites.

[tth2]

Although, he shows the actual selling price of a book, why does he have to keep it on his listings. Some of the books showing as being sold have been sold long ago

 

That is one of the hang-ups I have with the site too.

 

Interesting, because that's actually one of the things I like best about his site--you can see what has been on his site and what it sold for. I would totally agree with you if, like many other dealers, the site wasn't updated regularly, in which case this would just cause you to waste your time asking for books that had been sold or were on hold already. But the website IS updated really quickly, so by and large if a book has been taken, it will be listed as pending or sold and you won't need to waste your time asking about it. Perhaps having books that are no longer available clutters up the site, but I personally find that the value of having the sales info outweighs the minimal additional time in wading through these "superfluous" listings.

 

But aside from all this, the fact that it uses an email dispatch method to purchase on their site is the biggest let down. If I want an item, I'd like the web site to have a way of removing the item as soon as I indicate a "buy" action. Shopping cart software, and point-of-sale online payment systems have made it so easy, that it doesn't take much to implement such a transaction-based online system. Perhaps I'm used to the auction style of doing things, but the last thing I want to be involved in is a transaction where the dealer indicates that their waiting on another potential customer who they have been in email conversations with for the past two weeks. I want the book right there and then, NEVERMIND puttting my request for purchase on hold. This standby, wait-and-see approach to doing business is likely to create more hassle than benefit, and in my opinon, it really is a dinosaur of an approach for any business to use in current climate of "quick" and "dead" consumerrism.

 

I see your point on this. I guess I never noticed the absence of this kind of functionality because it has never occurred to me to "point and click" to buy anything listed on a dealer's site for the asking price. I ALWAYS inquire about a discount or "best price" first, via email. Some dealers oblige, and some don't. But if you don't ask, how will you know? I guess it would actually be in a dealer's best interest to use the kind of shopping cart software you're talking about to try to steer buyers into a purchase at the asking price. I believe Metropolis' site has this functionality, actually. But I'd still by-pass it everytime to see what kind of deal I could get before committing to a purchase.