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Would it be possible to buy a 1 day pass to GPA?

Started by mysterio,

108 posts in this topic

comicwiz

comicwiz

Posted
Posted
nor are you taking into account the cost, hassles, retooling and additional administration required to provide a "light" version of the service. I think a business would be entirely within their right to just say no, rather than trying to explain all the intricacies of how the burden and cost of retooling for on-demand service very likely would not guarantee the kind of significant increase in revenue to justify the change.

 

GPA uses WorldPay as their payment gateway. Thanks to this amazing thing called the internets, I can talk to a WorldPay company representative about their services via chat window. It's amazing, I know. What will they think of next?!?!

 

Thank you for choosing WorldPay. A representative will be with you shortly.

 

You are now chatting with 'Shirley'

 

Shirley: How may we help you?

 

you: Does world pay support subscription-based payments? I have a website that I would like to have a subscription option to access it and expire in 3 days rather than 30. Can you help me with that?

 

Shirley: I believe recurring payments can be customized to fit your needs. We need additional details about your business in order to answer you correctly.

 

Shirley: What type of business do you own.

 

you: Undergarment Restoration and Stain Removal business.

 

End.

 

Yeah, that's some pretty difficult retooling. :facepalm:

 

You can't be serious?

 

Tell you what. Start a competing company. Run a on-demand search for $3 (per book/one-day pass/whatevs) and let us know how that works for you.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted

Tell you what. Start a competing company. Run a on-demand search for $3 (per book/one-day pass/whatevs) and let us know how that works for you.

 

Yeah, this is pretty much it in a nutshell.

 

Armchair critics (no offence intended as I am one too sometimes) will always have a better way to run someone else's business but they're not taking the risks or putting in any capital into it.

 

It would be like Dr. Balls charging someone $3 per stroke because someone can't afford an entire painting.

 

:foryou:

 

Well, not really but I had to get the $3 a stroke comment in there.

 

:whee:

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zuulioso

zuulioso

Posted
Posted

Nothing wrong with a subscription model with a more expensive per use model. $10.95 month unlimited access or $1 per search. You can't abuse the system that way. It doesn't cost him a penny more in hosting, electric, etc. to have a single search run across the database.

 

Micropayments cost more to the business but his overhead is covered otherwise. If you take my $1 per search model though and it costs him $.33 in payment processing fees (probably $.30 for the transaction and 3% on top) then he is only gaining $.67 per search.

 

The real expense is in the development of such a feature. If it costs him 30 hours of personal development time (if he is the programmer) or a couple thousand dollars to build then how long until break even? Seems to me it would be longer than it is worth the trouble.

 

If he did a market study to determine that he can expect $1500/month of revenue for such a feature than it is another story.

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Gotham Kid

Gotham Kid

Posted
Posted
I think coffee should be available by the sip.

 

:sumo:

 

 

George is offering a special deal...this month only.

 

1 day GPA access for $10 $11 $10.95 and you get 29 days FREEEEE!!

 

:whistle:

 

:whistle:

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mysterio

mysterio

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Nothing wrong with a subscription model with a more expensive per use model. $10.95 month unlimited access or $1 per search. You can't abuse the system that way. It doesn't cost him a penny more in hosting, electric, etc. to have a single search run across the database.

 

Micropayments cost more to the business but his overhead is covered otherwise. If you take my $1 per search model though and it costs him $.33 in payment processing fees (probably $.30 for the transaction and 3% on top) then he is only gaining $.67 per search.

 

The real expense is in the development of such a feature. If it costs him 30 hours of personal development time (if he is the programmer) or a couple thousand dollars to build then how long until break even? Seems to me it would be longer than it is worth the trouble.

 

If he did a market study to determine that he can expect $1500/month of revenue for such a feature than it is another story.

 

This is my argument in a nutshell and more eloquently stated. Silly to implement if the costs/returns don't justify the effort, but great for the customers who would use the service if it would make sense and great for the website if it would bring in more profit they otherwise wouldn't capture

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comix4fun

comix4fun

Posted
Posted
I think coffee should be available by the sip.

 

:sumo:

 

 

George is offering a special deal...this month only.

 

1 day GPA access for $10 $11 and you get 29 days FREEEEE!!

 

:whistle:

 

 

No one here has any "cents" anyway.

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ChrisInBaltimore

ChrisInBaltimore

Posted
Posted

I don't buy/sell nearly as much as a lot of people around here. However, a little more than a month ago I joined. I've found it very helpful when buy books. It has also helped with negotiations.

 

I like it and just enjoy looking things up. I would recommend it.

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Flaming_Telepath

Flaming_Telepath

Posted
Posted
hm $10/ month ... 33 cents a day.

 

I can see why you'd want a pay per view option .... :eyeroll:

 

$10/day also equals $120/ year.

 

If - like some of us - you would like/need GPA to look up about 20 books over the course of a year, that's $6 a pop. That's not a great value. Worse than CGC's grader notes in fact.

 

"Toggling" the membership month by month is frankly a PITA, and the times you need it are pretty much spread out across the year anyway.

 

Not everybody has the same outlook/needs.

 

I think $2 for a day would be great, and the only way I'd likely sign upm again...

 

This.

 

There will always be people who disagree with a service model, and most complaints are going to be about prices.

 

Again, I'd put it into perspective - do the people who think $10 a month ever splurge on coffee, tea, donuts, candy bars, chips, magazines or anything else.

 

Not trying to create an argument but to keep it in perspective, I think many of us might lose $10 a month in change in the couch or car. I know we do up here in Canada with our $1 and $2 coins. :facepalm:

 

Stepping back and looking at the wealth of information available for $10 a month is pretty astounding, especially if the books you are buying are topping $100 or $1000 a month (and going by what Mint likes I think they are).

 

So again, I understand the perception that it's a lot of money but in the grand scheme, it's about the cost of a few bus tickets, enough gas to get around the city for a day or a cheap, fast food meal complete with dessert.

 

George (GPA) is about the easiest going person I've ever met through this forum but combine that with a model that really needs to be profitable and any online business needs to draw some lines as to what they can and cannot provide.

 

You can't cut costs forever to please everyone.

 

End of pontification.

 

:sorry:

 

 

Fekk me. :o

 

+100000000000000

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