General question

[Forbush-Man]

What website do you feel has clean navigation?

 

 

 

As far as website function, Metropolis or Quality Comics have nice layout & functionality, IMHO.

[Forbush-Man]

I appreciate the "Search by Publisher". Wish Comiclink would do that.

[blazingbob]

I'm not following this post.

 

I don't try and catch suckers. Why would I want to have that type of business relationship? That's not my style at all.

 

Lower your starting bids on the slabs - you have some nice books but you have them priced eBay style like you are trying to catch a sucker.

[blazingbob]

Tim, Very interesting intrepretation of my post. My business is not down. I am genuinely trying to get some feedback from people versus guessing or assuming. There have been posts that have answered some of my questions. Clearly there is some confusion with the use of my website. I will try and correct those things.

 

I agree with you on the Flood of auctions. Frankly my experience with a couple of different auctions using the "no reserve auctions" has been a disaster. I could have sold my stuff for 1/2 off and done better. Oh yeah, good stuff makes headlines, common stuff makes auction houses money. I'm sorry but there are two sides of every transaction and when I see the guys proclaiming the great auction deals they just got I'm wondering if they seller feels the same way.

 

I don't disagree with you. I wasn't necessarily saying you should sell via auctions, or that auctions are guarantees of success. I was just pointing out why business may be down on your site.

 

I will say that the Guide and dealers need to get realistic when it comes to any post-1964 SA non-key book in less than CGC 9.0. Odds are it won't sell for Guide, and if it's raw, it's going to have to be discounted even more.

[fantastic_four]

I don't find comiclink particularly clean to use. Pedigree isn't fast either. All take multiple clicks to get somewhere.

 

I don't get your point about Pedigree. It has for years consistently been the fastest-loading comic sales site I've used, and it's one click from the home page to "New Arrivals" (or zero if that's where your shortcut is directly to as it is for me). Rare is the day when clicking something on that site doesn't yield results in under 2-3 seconds.

[Sal]

it's tough to take constructive criticism and not be defensive. if you're not used to it, everything sounds like an insult.

 

i really like the way Ritter and Nelson have the top half of their site set up. the top level nav is simple and you can get to where you want to go pretty quickly. a search feature is in the top portion of their real estate on every page. this is critical to me.

 

i would also consider replacing your home page with something that features your catalogue. informational home pages for retail sites are pretty much a waste of time and valuable space

[fantastic_four]

I think Worldwide has a great site.

 

It's strong, but he lists such a deluge of modern and bronze stuff that the "new arrivals" section is useless to me. All I want to see is new high-grade Spideys and FFs, and I can't do it without searching through the entire list of Spideys and FFs, at least as far as I can tell. Either the "New Arrivals" section needs more filter options, or the "Advanced Search" feature needs a way to sort by date added. The developer should have made both of these search types a single one with all the options combined.

[blazingbob]

I believe that the book finder feature allows you to search on these things.

 

A lot of people have already said some of the same things.

 

I'm on your site right now and I'll just give some impressions. I've been to your site before but I don't think I've ever actually purchased anything.

 

Home Page:

The first thing I see when I come to your home page is a lot of text.

........

 

Anyway, that's my first impression. Hope it's of some use...

 

 

Excellent, thorough response.

 

Re: the search function. Make it easy for the customer to find books using a wide variety of search criteria. You should be able to filter/search by title, publisher, issue number, grade, publication date, etc., etc., or any combination of these criteria. As much as I detest CLink's site design, I have to admit that their search function, while not elegant, is highly functional.

 

One other note: get rid of the black background. It's not a colour that evokes trust. You need to a light, bright, progressive, clean and inviting design.

[fantastic_four]

I'm not following this post.

 

I don't try and catch suckers. Why would I want to have that type of business relationship? That's not my style at all.

 

Lower your starting bids on the slabs - you have some nice books but you have them priced eBay style like you are trying to catch a sucker.

 

Perhaps not intentionally, but even when you build haggling into the price, you know you'll occasionally get people who won't haggle and just pay your list price. Either the non-hagglers are who he's thinking of as "suckers," or he simply doesn't even think to haggle in the first place, hence he doesn't get why the prices are above market.

[blazingbob]

And from my dropdown menu you can do the same thing - One click to new arrivals. The default setting is a title drilldown, clearly people want all the new stuff on one page. I will implement that. But it's still one click.

 

I realize that everyone is going to have a different "navigation path" they take. I don't find the site the fastest when it comes to looking for certain issues. If I use the Title search I'm guessing what page the issue I want is on for example.

 

 

I don't find comiclink particularly clean to use. Pedigree isn't fast either. All take multiple clicks to get somewhere.

 

I don't get your point about Pedigree. It has for years consistently been the fastest-loading comic sales site I've used, and it's one click from the home page to "New Arrivals" (or zero if that's where your shortcut is directly to as it is for me). Rare is the day when clicking something on that site doesn't yield results in under 2-3 seconds.

[comicalgems]

Bob,

 

Wholesale?

[fantastic_four]

And from my dropdown menu you can do the same thing - One click to new arrivals. The default setting is a title drilldown, clearly people want all the new stuff on one page. I will implement that. But it's still one click.

 

A new arrival recommendation--they should be sorted by date added in descending order, not title and issue--or even if date added isn't the default it should be an option. This is a gripe I have about Pedigree...it does sort new arrivals by date added descending, as does ComicLink, but ComicLink SHOWS the date added, whereas Pedigree doesn't. So if I know I checked Pedigree two days ago, I can't tell which ones have been added since then, I have to remember if I've seen them or not. On ComicLink, I keep scrolling down the new list until I think I hit the date/time I last checked, it's the most efficient site for checking new stuff.

[MrBedrock]

Bob, Louise and I have been arguing. Are you a red head or a blonde?

 

 

Which of you took the position that the carpet probably doesn't match the drapes?

Bob's drapes are very thin, and let a ton of light through.

So I'm betting Roy guessed hardwood flooring.

[MrBedrock]

What would it take for you to make my site the place to buy from?

The internet is so last week.

 

 

[blazingbob]

What do you want from me?

 

No, this thread is giving me a lot of good information.

 

Better thread headline would of been "What Do You Want From Me?" - BlazingBob. just my

[blazingbob]

Are the dropdown filters too small?

 

Or I'm guessing you don't like dropdown boxes where you can filter the results?

 

New in Last: 1 day 7 days 15 days 30 days Pedigrees Only Scans Only

[VintageComics]

Bob, Louise and I have been arguing. Are you a red head or a blonde?

 

 

Which of you took the position that the carpet probably doesn't match the drapes?

Bob's drapes are very thin, and let a ton of light through.

So I'm betting Roy guessed hardwood flooring.

 

Maple. And shiny?

 

[cheetah]

I've always thought the drop down to separate the new listings into periods was the site's best feature. I think it could be amended to give a New Listing selection like Pedigree and Worldwide do but being able to see a list of titles added in the last day or week really cuts out weeding through titles I have no interest in.

[inconceivable]

Are the dropdown filters too small?

 

Or I'm guessing you don't like dropdown boxes where you can filter the results?

 

New in Last: 1 day 7 days 15 days 30 days Pedigrees Only Scans Only

 

No those are fine. I thought you were going to put all the books from those time frames on one page though. Time-ordered or alphabetical is fine.

 

Maybe list 50/100/200 books per page?

 

Dan

[blazingbob]

I have considered a rewards program based on purchases.

 

 

 

Another random thought Bob (just trying to think of what has worked for retailers in general of late)...have you ever considered a first time customer sale to introduce them to your site and customer service (if this is what you are wanting to highlight)? Perhaps combining this with a frequent buyer/loyalty program to keep people from coming back (i.e. if you purchase at least once per month you are entitled to an automatic discount on each purchase...or a certain amount of purchases earns you Bob Bucks...you know the drill )

 

SE