Suggestions for Comiclink to become more competitive 2 2

[Guest Race]

After last night's fiasco on CLink, I had a few suggestions:

1. End OA auctions on weekends and before 7pm EST

2. Enable a "favorites" button so we can track lots

3. Give us a "favorites" reminder email/text option OR

4. Start sending general auction reminder emails/texts when the auction starts, halfway through and one day prior to the end

5. Finally, revamp your site to make it more device/cell friendly. Please.

I like the people at CLink and sold $$$K in OA and comics through them 5 years ago... but since then they have made zero improvements in their business, while Heritage has. Adapt or die, gentlemen.

[jjonahjameson11]

Doesn’t matter what suggestions we make.  Clink is set in their ways and won’t make any changes.

I called with suggestions several years ago and had a rather lengthy discussion with them.  None of the suggestions were implemented.  In fact, they countered every suggestion with their own rationale and hence you have the site/auction house that hasn’t changed since.

I haven’t used Clink to buy or sell for years, and I don’t miss them at all. 

[ThothAmon]

On 4/12/2022 at 7:22 AM, Race said:

After last night's fiasco on CLink

Do tell?

[gumbydarnit]

It's funny because you can see their path is pretty clear to gain some ground on HA but it seems like they are happy to stay stagnant.

To quote my buddy's grandpa:

"If you ain't growing, you're dying." - Grandpa Carver

[jjonahjameson11]

On 4/12/2022 at 8:15 AM, gumbydarnit said:

It's funny because you can see their path is pretty clear to gain some ground on HA but it seems like they are happy to stay stagnant.

To quote my buddy's grandpa:

"If you ain't growing, you're dying." - Grandpa Carver

I don’t think they’ve gained an inch on HA.  In fact, it evident they’ve fallen further behind.  But that’s what happens when you don’t listen to your customers.

[tth2]

On 4/12/2022 at 8:15 PM, gumbydarnit said:

It's funny because you can see their path is pretty clear to gain some ground on HA but it seems like they are happy to stay stagnant.

To quote my buddy's grandpa:

"If you ain't growing, you're dying." - Grandpa Carver

I don't think they've got the ambition or capital to seriously take on Heritage.  They're happy in their niche.

Plus, change can be bad, as we've seen with CC.

Heritage have continued to progress forward.  CL have stayed the same.  CC have gone backwards.  Relatively speaking, that's not so bad for CL, and costs them nothing.

Edited April 12, 2022 by tth2

[Twanj]

On 4/12/2022 at 7:22 AM, Race said:

After last night's fiasco on CLink, I had a few suggestions:

1. End OA auctions on weekends and before 7pm EST

2. Enable a "favorites" button so we can track lots

3. Give us a "favorites" reminder email/text option OR

4. Start sending general auction reminder emails/texts when the auction starts, halfway through and one day prior to the end

5. Finally, revamp your site to make it more device/cell friendly. Please.

I like the people at CLink and sold $$$K in OA and comics through them 5 years ago... but since then they have made zero improvements in their business, while Heritage has. Adapt or die, gentlemen.

CL is pretty bad. The volume of stuff between them, HA & others...it's getting too hard to wade through.

Text updates would go a long way.

Favorites would help wade through the junk.

Mobile friendly would reach more people.

I don't know about auction times, I'd hope there's some reasoning behind that to reach more people across all the time zones.

[The Lions Den]

Call me crazy, but I like the fact Clink hasn't changed much---sometimes change makes things more difficult. I've found their service to be very reliable. In this day and age, I think that's pretty commendable. But to each his own...  

[Sean I]

In the beginning of literally the same thread where people are now suggesting the prices were unusually low, people were attributing bids being driven up high by the lack of favorites/watching and forcing “tracking bids”. Just thought those opposing perspectives are worth noting.  

I definitely agree they need to work on their descriptions.  Heritage has a much larger user base across a variety of collectors so there may be more ‘one and done’ or casual collectors participating there that don’t take the time to look at ComicLink.  Also the contrasts are highlighted right now going from a premiere heritage event to a non premium clink event.

I’m just glad there’s multiple auction houses and a place for the Morlock art and sketches.  Also, I rank ComicConnect 3rd purely on their shipping charges alone.  

[grapeape]

On 4/12/2022 at 7:54 AM, The Lions Den said:

Call me crazy, but I like the fact Clink hasn't changed much---sometimes change makes things more difficult. I've found their service to be very reliable. In this day and age, I think that's pretty commendable. But to each his own...  

Josh? Is that you?

[The Lions Den]

On 4/12/2022 at 10:58 AM, grapeape said:

Josh? Is that you?

A swing and a miss...  

[malvin]

On 4/12/2022 at 5:08 AM, ThothAmon said:

Do tell?

I assume it's due to the low pricing? The one item I was really after my bid was 3-4x what I won it for.  I just assumed I was wrong about the market!

The second item I wasn't targeting but seemed low enough so I bid and won.

Malvin

[MattTheDuck]

I've also never had a problem with CL, so would be interested to know what the problems were.

Also, I'm not sure why you'd want to end auctions when the western part of the US is still at work.  Don't need to provide any more unearned advantages to the East Coast.

[cloud cloddie]

There’ve been countless conversations and suggestions over the years, and it’s clear that Clink gives zero fs about updating their business. I’ve come to accept it. With HA’s fees, I still think Clink is the better option for lower priced items - I used to think sub 10K, but I’d probably adjust to sub 5K at this point. Eventually, they’ll stop being any kind of competition and HA will have a stranglehold on the market - which will be good for nobody but HA. 

[Rick2you2]

On 4/12/2022 at 7:22 AM, Race said:

After last night's fiasco on CLink, I had a few suggestions:

1. End OA auctions on weekends and before 7pm EST

2. Enable a "favorites" button so we can track lots

3. Give us a "favorites" reminder email/text option OR

4. Start sending general auction reminder emails/texts when the auction starts, halfway through and one day prior to the end

5. Finally, revamp your site to make it more device/cell friendly. Please.

I like the people at CLink and sold $$$K in OA and comics through them 5 years ago... but since then they have made zero improvements in their business, while Heritage has. Adapt or die, gentlemen.

I didn’t consider it a fiasco at all. The two items I was watching were not A grade items, or even B, and the final prices were around what I would have expected over the past several years. But, I am also of the opinion that there is not one but anywhere from two to dozens of submarkets whose prices do not rise in lockstep. I paid around $650 for a JLA page by Buckler and Tanghal (I was looking for Tanghal). An R. Dillin page from JLA went for $1,000, and that seems to be consistent (or a little bit higher) with a decline in pricing now showing up on HA for at least a few things. While the hot stuff on HA has increased a lot, quite a bit doesn’t really move much.

With that said, showing pricing changes rapidly near the end of the auction (which should have happened but didn’t) would have been nice, or an extension of the end time by 3 minutes in the event of a bid could make up for it. An end time at, say, 8 EST would also be good. A better page for tracking auction items would also be good. Occasionally, descriptions are not accurate, but I can work with that. Still and all, the site is thrifty, and that does make up for quite a few shortcomings.

[fsumavila]

On 4/12/2022 at 12:34 PM, cloud cloddie said:

There’ve been countless conversations and suggestions over the years, and it’s clear that Clink gives zero fs about updating their business. I’ve come to accept it. With HA’s fees, I still think Clink is the better option for lower priced items - I used to think sub 10K, but I’d probably adjust to sub 5K at this point. Eventually, they’ll stop being any kind of competition and HA will have a stranglehold on the market - which will be good for nobody but HA. 

It's so frustrating. They could improve their operations in a bare minimum fashion and entrench themselves as a go-to site for the 10K-and-under market, but they don't seem to have the desire to upgrade. 

We (being collectors/consignors) need Heritage to have some competition; right now they have zero motivation to self-evaluate their business practices and figure out ways to do a better job with their auctions. And yes, the blue-chip art and comics are setting records and likely always will, but the mid-level range of stuff may get hurt by auctions with nearly 1,000 lots.

[RBerman]

What we need is not necessarily for ComicLink to improve, but for somebody to improve so that Heritage's hegemony doesn't distort the market further. It would be great if ComicLink wanted to rise to that occasion, but if not them, who will?

Seems to me that the biggest obstacle to higher sales on CL is the snipe-based auction conclusion, rather than allowing bidders to duke it out, taking each piece to higher valuations until someone drops out. That would take a complete rewrite of their auction interface, but it could be done.

[MAR1979]

- Website powered by tech from this century

- favorites or ability to track items

- longer login time-outs. I've missed placing in several bids, last minute, the last few years due to the absurdly low timeout. Yeah if one is careful and diligent  it can be avoided but losing  potential bids due to antiquated software or absurd settings is simply bad business.

I do wonder if the site is the way it is because they are cheap or apathetic or just happy to have the business they do have? Regardless, as consignee it inspires no confidence.

Edited April 23, 2022 by MAR1979

[jjonahjameson11]

If anything, this past weeks’ HA auction clearly demonstrates they need to add one more Signature auction per year to their schedule.

with an over abundance of material this past auction, 6 Signature Auctions per year would help to alleviate the volume we’ve seen recently.

[fsumavila]

On 4/12/2022 at 1:33 PM, RBerman said:

What we need is not necessarily for ComicLink to improve, but for somebody to improve so that Heritage's hegemony doesn't distort the market further. It would be great if ComicLink wanted to rise to that occasion, but if not them, who will?

Seems to me that the biggest obstacle to higher sales on CL is the snipe-based auction conclusion, rather than allowing bidders to duke it out, taking each piece to higher valuations until someone drops out. That would take a complete rewrite of their auction interface, but it could be done.

great point. The snipe system is ridiculous