Sold art clogging up dealer sites 2 2

[KirbyCollector]

This is probably an old horse to beat, but why are (some) dealers leaving thousands of sold pages on their sites? I want to browse and buy, but scrolling thru dozens of sold pages in search of sometimes a single (!) available page is brutal and kills my enthusiasm to buy. Maybe there is some magical sales advantage to torturing your customers with all of these unavailable pages? If so, it isn't working with me...

Edited February 21, 2023 by KirbyCollector

[Will_K]

Maybe the only advantage to a dealer that displays sold pieces:  See all those sold pieces ??  My prices are totally reasonable, so buy something.

[JC25427N]

I always imagined they kept the listing to preserve the key words for search engines. Someone looks up "McFarlane Spider-Man Original Art" or whatever they're lookign for, they get a result for a page from X Dealer's site from Google, and even though the person has now been taken to a sold listing they probably will go "Well I'm already here, let's see what else this dealer has"

But I've come to believe it's just out of convenience, the software they use for their site probably just has a quick option they can select to mark a page as Sold and it's easier for them to do that than to remove an entire listing

Edited February 22, 2023 by JC25427N

[RBerman]

This is why I stopped visiting the Romitaman site. The "new items" pages are clogged with sold art. Some dealers' CAF pages have a similar problem; they leave sold items in their "for sale" galleries, and you have to click on each page individually to discover whether it's actually available. Not worth it to look at dozens of pages that way.

[KirbyCollector]

One other thing... when you place available art next to sold art, you are automatically competing with your own product... many times I have been mentally stuck on "that sold page is better than the available page I like" and decided not to buy... can't imagine I am the only one who runs into this issue

[cstojano]

Easy solution is to default List All, with the option to Show Only Available Pieces. I know some sites do this. 

[Will_K]

On 2/22/2023 at 9:47 AM, KirbyCollector said:

One other thing... when you place available art next to sold art, you are automatically competing with your own product... many times I have been mentally stuck on "that sold page is better than the available page I like" and decided not to buy... can't imagine I am the only one who runs into this issue

That goes along with that theory where: the more choices a person has, the less satisfied they are with their selection.

And in your example, a totally unrealistic choice was given.

[KirbyCollector]

On 2/22/2023 at 11:56 AM, Will_K said:

That goes along with that theory where: the more choices a person has, the less satisfied they are with their selection.

We all know there is a value rating assigned to every page of a comic, so when you see pages on sale together you naturally rank them accordingly. However, just seeing one of those pages alone forces you to consider it on its own merits... and when you add in the appeal of scarcity/last one left, it often makes the page more appealing. It's basic psychology I wish more dealers would understand...

[babsrocks31]

Or even the worse, dealers that leave up pages without marking them sold OR unsold.

[grapeape]

I always assumed dealers who leave art (SOLD) on their websites do so for advertising purposes. As an example, let's say a dealer sells a piece by Frank Miller, they want you to know they sell and buy that quality of artist. Maybe the dealer sells a DKR 1-4 page, marks it sold and leaves it there as a badge of prestige. Look at the quality of art I (dealer) traffic in. I do agree there are other factors, already mentioned: software, link to artist name, pure laziness I don't mind sold art sitting on sites as much as the OP but I certainly empathise with what bothers him. As cstojano already mentioned if the site has specific option filters by all means use them. Browse only for sale items.

 

[JC25427N]

For dealers who are also reps I could imagine it's also a benefit to have sold listings stay visible to cut down on "Is this page from this series from this artist available?" inquiries. You can just go to the series/artist's page and see "Ok, everything is marked as sold except for page 12 and 13". Having those sold listings stay visible could also show people there is demand, so there are "psychological merits" to having them around too (for the dealer). 

[DeadpoolJr.]

On 2/22/2023 at 8:05 AM, RBerman said:

This is why I stopped visiting the Romitaman site. The "new items" pages are clogged with sold art. Some dealers' CAF pages have a similar problem; they leave sold items in their "for sale" galleries, and you have to click on each page individually to discover whether it's actually available. Not worth it to look at dozens of pages that way.

A reason I stopped browsing a while ago was because a lot of the "new items" weren't even new but older inventory that had been on the site for a while and was just getting refreshed to the top of the results.

[DeadpoolJr.]

On 2/22/2023 at 9:47 AM, KirbyCollector said:

One other thing... when you place available art next to sold art, you are automatically competing with your own product... many times I have been mentally stuck on "that sold page is better than the available page I like" and decided not to buy... can't imagine I am the only one who runs into this issue

That sold page might have also been cheaper than the available one too which is another thing that can stop people. Hard to justify today's prices when you see yesterday's right next to it.

[cloud cloddie]

On 2/22/2023 at 5:51 PM, DeadpoolJr. said:

A reason I stopped browsing a while ago was because a lot of the "new items" weren't even new but older inventory that had been on the site for a while and was just getting refreshed to the top of the results.

That’s why ‘new’ is always in quotation marks. 

[Brian Peck]

On 2/21/2023 at 3:41 PM, Will_K said:

Maybe the only advantage to a dealer that displays sold pieces:  See all those sold pieces ??  My prices are totally reasonable, so buy something.

For Romitaman he posts what was sold on Dueling Dealers, which never made it to the site before they sold. It’s great to see what was sold on the show but the show is similar to cons where dealers can bring new art not on their that sells. I have not seen a dealer post art sold at cons which were not on their site before. Seems to clog the new art section of the dealer. More non sale art to scroll thru.

[Will_K]

On 2/22/2023 at 11:39 PM, Brian Peck said:

For Romitaman he posts what was sold on Dueling Dealers, which never made it to the site before they sold.

I'm sure some of that is because on ComicArtLive, Bill used to (or still does) give numbers on top sales (aggregate or individual pieces) of dealers that Bill is hosting.  And my guess is some of that could be useful for the dealers own accounting purposes.  However, just because Bill is keeping track of sales, that doesn't mean it has to be displayed in the dealer's inventory after it has sold.

Bill seems to allow for some variation, for example, you can see just sold/for sale/all pieces for Albert.  For Mitch, sold pieces are taken down altogether.

[Brian Peck]

On 2/23/2023 at 7:43 AM, Will_K said:

I'm sure some of that is because on ComicArtLive, Bill used to (or still does) give numbers on top sales (aggregate or individual pieces) of dealers that Bill is hosting.  And my guess is some of that could be useful for the dealers own accounting purposes.  However, just because Bill is keeping track of sales, that doesn't mean it has to be displayed in the dealer's inventory after it has sold.

Bill seems to allow for some variation, for example, you can see just sold/for sale/all pieces for Albert.  For Mitch, sold pieces are taken down altogether.

But the pieces have no price so how does that relate to top sales which is value not number of pieces sold.

 

[Will_K]

On 2/23/2023 at 2:22 PM, Brian Peck said:

But the pieces have no price so how does that relate to top sales which is value not number of pieces sold.

Just because the sale price isn't displayed doesn't mean they don't know that number.  Bill used to report the top aggregate dealer sales number in dollars, (I think) number of pieces and (I think) specific high dollar pieces. 

Edited February 23, 2023 by Will_K

[artdealer]

On 2/23/2023 at 2:43 PM, Will_K said:

Just because the sale price isn't displayed doesn't mean they don't know that number.  Bill used to report the top aggregate dealer sales number in dollars, (I think) number of pieces and (I think) specific high dollar pieces. 

My sales are not posted in the weekly sales on CAF. I prefer it that way. 
I just don’t see the purpose of displaying one’s sales. It’s not a contest. 
Besides, some of the sales data is incorrect in that dealers that might give a discount, or trade art is not reflected or noted in the weekly sales. Which to me is cheating. 
Nothing that anyone writes will make me think differently. 

[MAR1979]

Some Bros can sell or trade art they dont have then makes you go through huge hassle to get your money or art back.