General question

[lizards2]

Was this too hard to say? - OK then - your prices are too high, and there are rarely scans of books. Your books would generally not sell here because people cannot see what they are buying and the prices are way more than what I am used to paying for similarly graded books.

 

Similarly CGC graded books or raw?

 

 

Yes it is hard for me to say - your website is a retailing site. I don't buy hardly anything off retail sites, and I don't go to comic shops or conventions, so I thought it improper to make the apple to orange comparison to shopping here at the non-retail CGC forums, or on eBay, where I cast out 100s of lowball bids to occasionally catch a book.

 

I realize there is a different pricing structure for different venues. But yes, I would say high prices for both CGC and raw. And I believe we are entering a time when huge premiums on CGC casement (except at the highest label-chasing grades) are over.

 

 

[Dale Roberts]

Not just more scans, but zippier ones. Your scans make your stock look dull:

 

Bob's scan:

 

 

 

My scan:

 

 

There is no way the book actually looks like your scan though Bob. Bob's scan is an accurate depiction of what the book actually looks like. To me, enhancing a scan is as completely dishonest as offering one book and selling a different one.

 

Apparently this post rubbed namisjr the wrong way, so let me expound...

 

Bob(namisjr),

I didn't mean to infer that you are in any way dishonest. You never said that book was for sale,and I personally have no idea if it is or not. I have not been to Bob's site in over a year. I called using intentionally enhanced scans to sell a book dishonest. And it is. If you post scans which are intentionally enhanced and not accurately portraying the book in question, then that would be dishonest. I have no idea if you have ever done this, but I suspect not.

 

I don't buy from HighGrade's site. I am a retailer. But the scan in question looks like an accurate scan of an X-Men #4. Your scan doesn't look right to me. I have never seen an X-Men #4 with colors that look like that. If you post that book for sale and I buy it, and I got the book and the colors look duller than that, I would be fired up. I can understand variance in detail, and I know a scan won't show everything, but that scan just doesn't look right.

 

For the record, I don't think namisjr is dishonest in any way. In fact, I have bought books from him and never had a problem. Based on my dealings with him, I would recommend him to anyone.

Dale

[VintageComics]

 

And thats the bottom line.

 

 

...cause Stone Cold Dale Roberts said so...

 

Been thinking about changing my forum name to that, but.... I don't drink, so probably wouldn't work.

 

Yeah but do you watch wrestling? From what I hear it's popular in the hills.

 

[buttock]

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. Then a scrolling text field which I find extremely annoying. What this scrolling text bar does is make me totally ignore your main navigation bar. Your navigation bar actually also has the smallest font size compared to everything else I'm looking at on your homepage. No one will see it. What's even worse is that you talk about new books and special offers in your scrolling bar, but your scrolling bar isn't clickable and doesn't send me to your new books section.

 

Then I see some thumbnails of major key books but they aren't actually clickable and evidently aren't for sale.

 

So my first impression? You haven't shown me any books yet that are for sale. If I were just browsing, your 10-15 seconds of my time have just gone by and I'm off your site.

 

GUI studies have shown that users do not like to read past 8-10 words per line. Your centered text causes the eye to shift to find the start of the line each time. This causes eye fatigue and builds up an annoyance factor. Coupled with the moving line, your off-white text on deep red/burgundy background, and the fact that all your text is bold, it is extremely hard to read the rest of your text content.

 

At the bottom, I see more large major keys that aren't clickable. At this point, I'd estimate that the casual visitor would probably leave.

 

Looking at your business address, it's great that you list an address. The Business Hours is confusing and I would modify it. It seems to me those are the hours you are available by phone generally. If so, that's fine but it should be denoted as such. Right now, it sounds like a retail establishment's physical hours. Your e-mail address, one of the more important items on the home page is also the smallest just like your main navigation bar. Why this is so, I have no idea. It's almost like you don't want any e-mail queries.

 

(What's really happening is your web programmer isn't doing a good job with the CSS. You've bumped up the font size for your regular paragraphs but not for your email link. In fact your regular text is wrapped in an h2 tag which is a little odd as that's usually defined for headers.)

 

Finally, what's missing from your home page? A search box. I realize you have a book finder, but that's a click away. Once I get there, I get a bunch of boxes which is extremely intimidating. Unless I know exactly what I'm looking for, this Book Finder won't show anything. Clicking on the SEARCH button with nothing inputted SHOULD take me to a help screen of some sort or a default search of all books. Instead, it pops up an error message. This alone probably also drives some users away. You've got pull down menus with your navigation bar but you revert back to a complicated search form for your Book Finder.

 

Back to the Home Page:

 

The link I found myself drawn to is the NEW ARRIVALS link. Unfortunately, this takes me to a page that defaults to All-Star Squadron. Frankly, I doubt 90% of your audience cares about All-Star Squadron. I understand that you're displaying it alphabetically, but I would have liked to see some of the nicer books you've gotten in or a more representative sample. What's also unfortunate is that none of the All-Star Squadron books have scans. By this first impression, I might get the impression that you don't show scans of books. Clicking on the "To see all new arrivals on one page, click here." link, I get what I really wanted to see, new books with scans. Assuming I am a regular customer, this is probably the page I would check regularly.

 

The border that is shown around the page is also reminiscent of 1st or 2nd generation web design. It looks antiquated and you really don't need it if you have a good page layout.

 

Note: I haven't even talked about the Bid Now system which really isn't an auction system. What you really probably mean is Make An Offer which everyone who uses eBay would probably understand. When I click on Bid Now to buy a book, it takes me to a registration screen. There is no option to just buy the book as a guest which other shopping cart systems have as an option. I don't even know what the Bid process IS unless I click on How to Order (which isn't really the same thing as Bid Now). Clicking on How to Order takes you to yet another dense text page.

 

In my opinion, there are major problems with all parts of the navigation and the site. It is needlessly complicated.

 

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

 

 

ADDED: Your stellar reputation and personal interactions with users at conventions probably pre-dispose them to give your website more latitude. However, new users will probably not give you that same latitude. It is those users you probably want to attract and retain. That means having a site that doesn't seem to be actively making it as difficult as possible to buy something.

 

A great primer on Usability: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html

 

 

Excellent advice. Bob, you're competing with a lot of people and you have to make it easy for everyone or you're going to lose.

 

I think namisgr's point about the scans is important as well. Scan them all, and scan them well.

 

And the single most important thing I could recommend is to have a way to find new arrivals in the order they are listed (like Clink, WorldWide, etc). With the glut of books online, I find myself only having time to look through a few websites and then only at the newest listed. The way you and Ted (Superworld) do it makes it much more time consuming, and therefore I'm less likely to bother.

[Dale Roberts]

 

And thats the bottom line.

 

 

...cause Stone Cold Dale Roberts said so...

 

Been thinking about changing my forum name to that, but.... I don't drink, so probably wouldn't work.

 

Yeah but do you watch wrestling? From what I hear it's popular in the hills.

 

 

Back in the day, I loved Randy Savage. Liked WCW in its heyday, but don't care much for WWE and such. Never cared for Stone Cold or what he portrayed.

[NewWorldOrder]

 

And thats the bottom line.

 

 

...cause Stone Cold Dale Roberts said so...

 

Been thinking about changing my forum name to that, but.... I don't drink, so probably wouldn't work.

 

Yeah but do you watch wrestling? From what I hear it's popular in the hills.

 

 

Back in the day, I loved Randy Savage. Liked WCW in its heyday, but don't care much for WWE and such. Never cared for Stone Cold or what he portrayed.

 

I loved everything Stone Cold portrayed.

 

The Austin/Rock Freud was amazing.

 

TNA (basically the new WCW-same storylines) and WWE are complete garbage now.

 

[VintageComics]

 

And thats the bottom line.

 

 

...cause Stone Cold Dale Roberts said so...

 

Been thinking about changing my forum name to that, but.... I don't drink, so probably wouldn't work.

 

Yeah but do you watch wrestling? From what I hear it's popular in the hills.

 

 

Back in the day, I loved Randy Savage. Liked WCW in its heyday, but don't care much for WWE and such. Never cared for Stone Cold or what he portrayed.

 

I loved everything Stone Cold portrayed.

 

The Austin/Rock Freud was amazing.

 

TNA (basically the new WCW-same storylines) and WWE are complete garbage now.

 

Vodka drinking trailer trash. I'm surprised Bob lets you handle anything worth over $300.

 

[blazingbob]

With my new computer and hi def screen I'm not sure why some people think the background is black.

 

It's more a burgundy, black is the color of the animated gif with the hulk and thing battling.

 

Some have told me that my background is quite soothing.

 

 

[Dale Roberts]

 

And thats the bottom line.

 

 

...cause Stone Cold Dale Roberts said so...

 

Been thinking about changing my forum name to that, but.... I don't drink, so probably wouldn't work.

 

Yeah but do you watch wrestling? From what I hear it's popular in the hills.

 

 

Back in the day, I loved Randy Savage. Liked WCW in its heyday, but don't care much for WWE and such. Never cared for Stone Cold or what he portrayed.

 

I loved everything Stone Cold portrayed.

 

The Austin/Rock Freud was amazing.

 

TNA (basically the new WCW-same storylines) and WWE are complete garbage now.

 

Vodka drinking trailer trash. I'm surprised Bob lets you handle anything worth over $300.

 

[Dale Roberts]

With my new computer and hi def screen I'm not sure why some people think the background is black.

 

It's more a burgundy, black is the color of the animated gif with the hulk and thing battling.

 

Some have told me that my background is quite soothing.

 

 

its just your happy, laid back nature that is soothing to me

[8milemax]

 

And thats the bottom line.

 

 

...cause Stone Cold Dale Roberts said so...

 

Been thinking about changing my forum name to that, but.... I don't drink, so probably wouldn't work.

 

Yeah but do you watch wrestling? From what I hear it's popular in the hills.

 

 

Back in the day, I loved Randy Savage. Liked WCW in its heyday, but don't care much for WWE and such. Never cared for Stone Cold or what he portrayed.

 

I loved everything Stone Cold portrayed.

 

The Austin/Rock Freud was amazing.

 

TNA (basically the new WCW-same storylines) and WWE are complete garbage now.

 

 

I was a ECW fan, that was great stuff back then. Sabu was a nut, RVD was cool and the triple threat was just as good as the 4 horseman

[etanick]

 

The Austin/Rock Freud was amazing.

 

TNA (basically the new WCW-same storylines) and WWE are complete garbage now.

 

I agree about the entire Austin/Rock battle...probably the best that I saw. I stopped watching after the Rock went Hollywood.

 

Why the hell is he not making more action movies? stop making the dinky Disney stuff for the love of god!

[blazingbob]

I have been pm'ing a few people regarding scanner settings.

 

Again with the new computer, new monitor it's obvious my old computer settings weren't as "clear" as they should have been.

 

I'll be going back and rescanning some stuff and new stuff going forward will have better scans.

 

 

[Dale Roberts]

man, Bob's thread has derailed into a wrasslin thread...I feel a Bad Bob rant coming on.

 

Seriously, maybe someone should start a thread, and let's leave Bob's thread alone.

[comicalgems]

[sckao]

I appreciate the feedback and will make changes to the website.

 

I initially designed the website so forgive my 1st/2nd generation style.

 

I will say it's very hard to read some of your comments and not get defensive.

 

What website do you feel has clean navigation?

 

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

 

 

Hi Bob,

 

It's not unusual to get defensive. It's your website after all and something on which you've spent a lot of time. It's obvious you have a lot of friends/clients and those people will probably not be deterred by your website. My concern is really for the person who does not already know you and for the user experience they will encounter. Please take my comments as constructive criticism that is not meant to be insulting.

 

I've spent a lot of time on the internet (since the mid-80s) and developed a lot of websites (from 1993 on although I was using a NeXT computer as early as 1989). The NeXT computer was the computer used for the first web server and publicly available browser.

 

You're comparing your site to Pedigree and Comiclink when they are in a totally different category than yourself. I would label those sites as comic aggregators where the owner of the site does not own the majority of the inventory. Thus, when they have a bid or offer system, there is no one person who will be making a decision. Hence, the buyer who makes an offer has no fear of offending someone who remains nameless and anonymous. In your case, for the people who know you personally, some don't feel like making a low bid because it may offend you. For the new people, they may not bid at all either because the process is confusing and there are multiple obstacles blocking their way to simply purchase a comic book.

 

As comic aggregators, it's expected that they will have a lot of new inventory, probably on a daily basis. There is probably lower expectation for a dealer like yourself. Hence, your new arrivals section is VERY important as your regular users may not be back for days, weeks or months. The comment about showing when a book was listed in inventory is very pertinent here.

 

Metropolis is an obvious competitor in the same category as yourself. Superworld Comics is another competitor and seems to have the same programmer as your site. (There are major problems with the Superworld site as well.) The Book Finder search option you have is very powerful, but the implementation is counterintuitive. Mile High Comics and Lone Star are other peer sites.

 

I would consider Lone Star to have the best site of the ones I've listed with Metropolis coming in second.

 

One thing that both Metropolis and Lone Star do have is a recognizable shopping cart. When you buy a book, it gets added to the cart. This is something that most if not all users will understand. It is also conducive to buying MULTIPLE books. Your site with the Bid Now seems to imply that you can only buy one comic book at a time. Without registering, (since a new user will have to register first to even attempt to add a book to your shopping cart), the user has no idea if you even have a shopping cart system.

 

While Metropolis has a busy home page, once you drill down to a comic you want (or click on a particular comic image), they focus on the comic book. You get only the information necessary for you to make the decision whether you want to buy the book, make an offer, or go BACK.

 

Speed used to be a criteria before high-speed internet was so prevalent (and when people were still using modems). Now, a fast loading page is nicer but not a deal breaker. However, user experience has progressed to the point where users no longer read everything on a page. (I think the average has been listed as 28%.) They scan for key words or links that match what they're looking for and they will leave if they don't find it. That is why a search box on the homepage is so important. If they don't immediately see a relevant link pointing to the information sought, they will enter the term into the search box.

 

Your search box (Book Finder) is very powerful, but it's too hard to use. Advanced searches are for regular or savvy users. A basic search box is for the casual user who later becomes a regular user.

 

There is a lot of information about User Experience or good web design on the web.

 

Again, I'm not concerned about your regular users or for people who have met or purchased from you personally. (Although even some of those people are reluctant to use your site.) I'm coming at it from the casual comic collector's viewpoint.

 

(The comments about your domain name, highgradecomics.com, are valid in that it might turn off people who do not collect high grade comics. However, that's your brand and you've spent years using it. I'd put out that your name, Bob Storms, is probably a better "brand.")

 

When people think of Mile High Comics, they think of Chuck. They also blame Chuck for the grading and pricing even though he probably doesn't actually grade any comics these days. Your reputation as the person behind your business is probably stronger than the name "High Grade Comics."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[comicalgems]

And one for Dale....

 

 

And Bob,

 

What'd you mean by wholesale?

[blazingbob]

I'm really not following you on the issue with registering on a website.

 

Almost all sites have registration.

 

Lone Star has registration, Pedigree, Comiclink, Comiconnect. They are all looking for you to login in so that you can order and that information can be gathered in order to process your order.

 

My website does the same thing.

 

Registered users purchases are tracked.

 

I can implement a shopping cart, I haven't done it before because I prefer verifying items, sending a invoice versus having having someone pay for books and dealing with refunds etc.

 

I did print out your original note. There is a way to filter out books that only have scans by clicking on the Scans only check box. You can also filter down to pedigrees only also. Again is that too small?

 

As far as changing my company names goes I'll pass on that one.

 

bob

 

[sckao]

I'm really not following you on the issue with registering on a website.

 

Almost all sites have registration.

 

Lone Star has registration, Pedigree, Comiclink, Comiconnect. They are all looking for you to login in so that you can order and that information can be gathered in order to process your order.

 

My website does the same thing.

 

Registered users purchases are tracked.

 

I can implement a shopping cart, I haven't done it before because I prefer verifying items, sending a invoice versus having having someone pay for books and dealing with refunds etc.

 

As far as changing my company names goes I'll pass on that one.

 

bob

 

 

The difference is that other sites allow users to add items to a shopping cart prior to registration. If a user has filled a shopping cart with items, they are predisposed to register as they have already committed to buying the items in their cart.

 

With your site, the choice of registration is presented BEFORE they have committed. You're giving them an added incentive to bail out of the time consuming process of registration instead of adding an incentive to go through the registration process so they can check out.

 

It's a small but important distinction.

 

 

[VintageComics]

As far as changing my company names goes I'll pass on that one.

 

bob

 

Mid Grade Comics sounds much more inviting though...and you could have a franchise wing where John could handle the Low Grade Comics site.