Hammer slammer! Any landers in the CLink (May auction)?

[ciorac]

There should be a way to track without bidding. Major improvement that they should look into.

 

there should be a way to check only g.a. items. they do that for the "little" auctions, but not the major ones. i get tired of scrolling thru pages of stuff i have no interest in.

 

As long as they keep hitting new revenue targets I guess they have no incentive to spend money on their site.

 

As long as you guys keep bidding and winning in every auction, they will never change. Stop bidding and winning and they might hit the panic button and actually invest to win your business back

I agree with Bill. Cut off your nose to spite your face.

 

not sure how your analogy applies in this case.

 

If your customers stopped using you for their subscriptions, wouldn't you ask why? And if they told you it was something simple you could fix, wouldn't you? Or would oganizational arrogance step in and you'd tell them to deal with it and that you have no plans to change? Or simply ingnore it and let the business slide away?

[Sqeggs]

This no back cover scans business on the part of both CC and CL just keeps ticking me off more and more. How we let both of them get away with it for so long is almost criminal. Now I see Heritage is slowly adopting that position as well.

 

I've noticed that too. Recently there have been some fairly high-dollar (at least for me!) books in HA auctions with no bc scan.

[batman_fan]

i managed a little fox upgrade.

 

 

That's a mighty "Fine" cover ! I thought the final hammer price was reasonable on it.

[Straw-Man]

There should be a way to track without bidding. Major improvement that they should look into.

 

there should be a way to check only g.a. items. they do that for the "little" auctions, but not the major ones. i get tired of scrolling thru pages of stuff i have no interest in.

 

As long as they keep hitting new revenue targets I guess they have no incentive to spend money on their site.

 

As long as you guys keep bidding and winning in every auction, they will never change. Stop bidding and winning and they might hit the panic button and actually invest to win your business back

I agree with Bill. Cut off your nose to spite your face.

 

not sure how your analogy applies in this case.

 

If your customers stopped using you for their subscriptions, wouldn't you ask why? And if they told you it was something simple you could fix, wouldn't you? Or would oganizational arrogance step in and you'd tell them to deal with it and that you have no plans to change? Or simply ingnore it and let the business slide away?

 

his FACE is organizationally arrogant!

[MrBedrock]

There should be a way to track without bidding. Major improvement that they should look into.

 

there should be a way to check only g.a. items. they do that for the "little" auctions, but not the major ones. i get tired of scrolling thru pages of stuff i have no interest in.

 

As long as they keep hitting new revenue targets I guess they have no incentive to spend money on their site.

 

As long as you guys keep bidding and winning in every auction, they will never change. Stop bidding and winning and they might hit the panic button and actually invest to win your business back

I agree with Bill. Cut off your nose to spite your face.

 

not sure how your analogy applies in this case.

 

If your customers stopped using you for their subscriptions, wouldn't you ask why? And if they told you it was something simple you could fix, wouldn't you? Or would oganizational arrogance step in and you'd tell them to deal with it and that you have no plans to change? Or simply ingnore it and let the business slide away?

Bill,

I would certainly listen to customer input. And I am sure that Josh listens to customer input. Josh has had discussions with someone about the possibility, and cost, of upgrading the ComicLink system. But his present system is made up of old code. And a total overhaul would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And even that expense wouldn't get the ComicLink site to anywhere approaching the user friendliness of Heritage's site (which is what we are really asking Josh to achieve). Heritage has a lot more money at their disposal to create the customer friendly experience that their site offers. No matter how much we whine and cry, ComicLink is not going to be able to pay the amount of money required to upgrade their systems in the near future.

 

So the question is not whether they are watching business slip away, because their business is not eroding. The question is whether it is cost effective for them to spend the money required to upgrade so they can GROW their existing business.

 

So don't bid if you think that will teach them a lesson. But I'm not sure that you will be teaching them anything that they don't already know. In reality what we all should do if we really want ComicLink to upgrade their systems is to spend more money with them.

[Silver Surfer]

Richard does it really cost that much to upgrade? [i have no idea]. Reason I ask is that WorldWide for example has a great site and they are only a two man [now one?] operation. I think if they did a few minor upgrades at Comiclink like the payment processing would go a long way to improving the customer experience.

[MrBedrock]

Richard does it really cost that much to upgrade? [i have no idea]. Reason I ask is that WorldWide for example has a great site and they are only a two man [now one?] operation. I think if they did a few minor upgrades at Comiclink like the payment processing would go a long way to improving the customer experience.

Having looked into the possibility of doing a top line auction site with all of the features that you guys request (archiving, watch lists, enlargeable front and back scans, interactive customizable customer profiles, etc.), with a nice design and easy navigation would run $200,000 at a minimum. Something like Heritage, with live video feeds, and real-time bid buttons runs considerably more. Then add in the costs and/or lost revenue related to down time and all of the data entry for the reload and relaunch and you are talking about even more money. Then add in all of the technical support costs. Yep, it is a significant amount of loot.

 

WorldWide's site was created as a static sales site. The design is great, and it is easy to use. But it does not have all of the functionality of an auction site. The numbers I quoted above were given to me by the same guy who consulted with Matt and Steve on their WorldWide and Comic Pedigree sites.

[Doc Joe]

I have made suggestions for the ComicLink site before, there are a bunch of things in terms of appearance that could make it easier to navigate. I think those would not be too hard to do.

 

but at the end of the day

- their search function works very well

- their comic notification function works very well

and their style of auction, for me, works very well

 

I have had a few nightmares with HA mobile when I was trying to look at something and accidentally hit the bid button during an auction, sorry to whoever I drove the price up to, I was just trying to look at something else!

 

[mikephoen]

I won this book last night...

 

 

 

 

 

And then I upgraded it by also winning this one a few seconds later...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops!

 

 

[Dark Knight]

I won this book last night...

 

 

 

 

 

And then I upgraded it by also winning this one a few seconds later...

 

 

 

 

HOARDER! Leave some for the little people as well!

 

 

Oops!

 

[nearmint]

I don't have a problem with CL's site. I know it's archaic, but I actually enjoy going through each auction the night that it begins and entering in my placement bids.

[Transplant]

IMHO, I think Clink really NEEDS 2 improvements: ability to track and back cover scans. These are really minimums and shouldn't require any significant expenditure. Certainly the second thing doesn't. It's really an embarrassment of a site. ComicConnect is a middle ground of auction sites between Clink and Heritage. Doesn't Pedigree even have a tracking feature? Maybe Clink should just buy their software?

[mikephoen]

Back cover scans would definitely be an improvement. I can live without tracking though. Like others I've developed my own system for tracking and it's not really much more effort. It's about 3 mouse clicks per book instead of one to use a bookmark folder.

 

 

[Silver Surfer]

I think the fact that this thread is only 4 pages long and 3 of them consist of discussions of how old their website is probably says a lot. I don't mind C-Link at all but for the past couple years searching it has been a bit of an after thought. Too many years of the same BA/SA stuff, some of it very average in quality, has been churning on that site for years while the competition has stepped up their game considerably.

[Sqeggs]

I won this book last night...

 

 

 

 

 

And then I upgraded it by also winning this one a few seconds later...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops!

 

 

Whoa!

[Sqeggs]

I think the fact that this thread is only 4 pages long and 3 of them consist of discussions of how old their website is probably says a lot. I don't mind C-Link at all but for the past couple years searching it has been a bit of an after thought. Too many years of the same BA/SA stuff, some of it very average in quality, has been churning on that site for years while the competition has stepped up their game considerably.

 

i agree. I have made this argument before but I think a few years down the road we will see the current period as the high tide for comic collecting, particularly GA collecting, at least in terms of prices. Of course, the market has its ups and downs and some books are already well off their all-time highs, but if the market enters a long-term contraction and the remaining buyers get pickier, I don't think CLink is at all well positioned because of the shortcomings of their site.

 

I don't know whether their software can be tweaked to allow BC scans, but if can be done without costing an arm and a leg, they would be well advised to do it.

[ciorac]

There should be a way to track without bidding. Major improvement that they should look into.

 

there should be a way to check only g.a. items. they do that for the "little" auctions, but not the major ones. i get tired of scrolling thru pages of stuff i have no interest in.

 

As long as they keep hitting new revenue targets I guess they have no incentive to spend money on their site.

 

As long as you guys keep bidding and winning in every auction, they will never change. Stop bidding and winning and they might hit the panic button and actually invest to win your business back

I agree with Bill. Cut off your nose to spite your face.

 

not sure how your analogy applies in this case.

 

If your customers stopped using you for their subscriptions, wouldn't you ask why? And if they told you it was something simple you could fix, wouldn't you? Or would oganizational arrogance step in and you'd tell them to deal with it and that you have no plans to change? Or simply ingnore it and let the business slide away?

Bill,

I would certainly listen to customer input. And I am sure that Josh listens to customer input. Josh has had discussions with someone about the possibility, and cost, of upgrading the ComicLink system. But his present system is made up of old code. And a total overhaul would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And even that expense wouldn't get the ComicLink site to anywhere approaching the user friendliness of Heritage's site (which is what we are really asking Josh to achieve). Heritage has a lot more money at their disposal to create the customer friendly experience that their site offers. No matter how much we whine and cry, ComicLink is not going to be able to pay the amount of money required to upgrade their systems in the near future.

 

So the question is not whether they are watching business slip away, because their business is not eroding. The question is whether it is cost effective for them to spend the money required to upgrade so they can GROW their existing business.

 

So don't bid if you think that will teach them a lesson. But I'm not sure that you will be teaching them anything that they don't already know. In reality what we all should do if we really want ComicLink to upgrade their systems is to spend more money with them.

 

Fair enough. I'l defer to your assessment of the effort required to upgrade the software package to a more modern standard as it appears you've done some homework on that.

 

I know the level of effort you have put in to make your retail establishments world class. Heck, I based my business model on yours back when I owned comic stores if you recall.

 

And, I agree that Heritage has considerably more financial resources than Josh from which to drive enhancements on their web presence.

 

However, I am in the software business and know that with some investments, and not to the degree that you mention above, they could make some more user friendly enhancements to their site without a full blown upgrade.

 

To me it seems they are indifferent to it. You have information to the contrary, so again, I defer to your information.

 

I do think they should allow their public auction results to be part of the GPA information, and that would require very little, to no, effort on their part. It just paints the picture to me of a culture of exclusion rather than inclusion.

 

 

[Timely]

I was going to bid high on the All Star #6 9.0, it looked awesome, in fact it looked too good! So, after a quick search on Heritage, I found the book. It had a REALLY bad ugly corner crease on the back cover that made me think it was only an 8.0 at best, along with other defects. I did not bid up the book.

 

This type of book is perfect for Comiclink. Front cover looks 9.4, the book is graded 9.0, but the back cover has a horrible defect.

[cheetah]

To change the subject back to comics since the CLink thing has been rehashed for years, I got this one solely because of the number in the upper left corner.

 

[cheetah]

And this one, too.