Comiclink 4 4

[drdroom]

On 3/14/2024 at 12:51 AM, MyNameIsLegion said:

if you have a high six or a potential 7 figure consignment, you can get much better terms, that extend not only to what you give them up front, but anything else you throw their way for a year. (more common with comics, that may need to go through the CGC pipeline) Not to mention an advance on the expected sales.

Thanks, that's super helpful. Lemme just rustle up one or two of those high-six pieces... where did I put that Itoya...? 

[barneythecantankerous]

The site is absolutely outdated and needs a revamp, but then again HA is also not that great, I mean you need to contact customer service for a lot of minor things - the whole point of having a website is to remove friction and give your users autonomy, it's also why I dislike a lot of dealer and rep sites. 

But one thing they can change at zero cost is allowing website scraping. It's 2024 and they've got a ton of business, so their servers should be capable of handling it (if that's the excuse) and it would get WAY MORE traction IMO, as right now the process is - "oh a CLink auction, let me go take a look", seeing that not every piece has been listed and the auction is a few weeks/months away, then remembering to head back and take a look when the pieces are there, then remembering 30 days from the auction starting that you want to bid. Allowing sites like Comic Art Tracker to scrape would mean we could be made aware about auctions much sooner and with less friction. 

[NicoV]

On 3/20/2024 at 2:04 PM, barneythecantankerous said:

their servers should be capable of handling it (if that's the excuse)

It has nothing to do with servers overload - CAT has no more impact on indexed websites than a couple of standard users (and it's even less noticeable for the websites that contacted me to know how to optimize / speed up CAT indexing). They never provided any reason for blacklisting CAT, but it's probably more about their (very unique) "strategy".

Edited March 20 by NicoV

[PhilipB2k17]

On 3/20/2024 at 11:24 AM, NicoV said:

It has nothing to do with servers overload - CAT has no more impact on indexed websites than a couple of standard users (and it's even less noticeable for the websites that contacted me to know how to optimize / speed up CAT indexing). They never provided any reason for blacklisting CAT, but it's probably more about their (very unique) "strategy".

I think an appeal could reasonably be made to Steve Borock that it behooves them to get as many eyeballs on their auction offerings as possible, to generate interest, results and better consignments. 

[Dr. Balls]

On 3/20/2024 at 9:39 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

I think an appeal could reasonably be made to Steve Borock that it behooves them to get as many eyeballs on their auction offerings as possible, to generate interest, results and better consignments. 

Depending on their marketing outlook, there is a definite avenue they could go down that is not being utilized by the other Big Two, which could position them better by embracing their basic auction formatting without resorting to a massive site rebuild. A concentrated, unique advertising campaign could be utilized across social media platforms to drive people there. The gamble being: would they convert people to accepting the basic format of their site or alienate their newly-introduced potential customer base?

Is there room for a Craigslist-type auction house? I think there is. But it's going to cost money to creatively implement a new branding strategy - you can't cheap out on this aspect thinking you could do it in house, this is ad agency-level development. You can play it safe spending money on a new site design to compete with the Big Two and hope that you gain marketshare with a new interface, or you can gamble and place yourself in your own category and "create" a new customer base. There's a lot of people out there to still convert to buying from auction houses - going after them with an approachable message and simple interface could build a lot of brand loyalty.

[barneythecantankerous]

On 3/20/2024 at 3:24 PM, NicoV said:

It has nothing to do with servers overload - CAT has no more impact on indexed websites than a couple of standard users (and it's even less noticeable for the websites that contacted me to know how to optimize / speed up CAT indexing). They never provided any reason for blacklisting CAT, but it's probably more about their (very unique) "strategy".

A few years ago (whilst I was learning PHP) I wrote my own little scraper for myself (which was garbage!) and noticed the terms about not allowing scraping. So it's not that they have CAT blacklisted they forbid ANY scraping... My best guess is it's some incredibly outdated policy which they probably just haven't bothered to ever revisit, as there's absolutely no downsides for allowing it IMO. But yes, it's a weird strategy!

[PhilipB2k17]

On 3/20/2024 at 1:25 PM, barneythecantankerous said:

A few years ago (whilst I was learning PHP) I wrote my own little scraper for myself (which was garbage!) and noticed the terms about not allowing scraping. So it's not that they have CAT blacklisted they forbid ANY scraping... My best guess is it's some incredibly outdated policy which they probably just haven't bothered to ever revisit, as there's absolutely no downsides for allowing it IMO. But yes, it's a weird strategy!

 

[Lucky Baru]

People do a lot of complaining about Comic Link’s website and have for years.  It must affect them more than it affects Comic Link, and their regular clients as it isn’t updated.
 

Personally,  I’m glad they don’t change it.  I know how to use it, and the lack of “surprises” is refreshing.  Trying to figure out any “latest and greatest” features would be a turnoff for me.  At the start of an auction, I put in tracking bids on what I’m interested in.  I schedule the end of the auction in my phone.  I get a reminder 24 hours ahead of the auction close date on my phone.  It is a simple and effective way for me to participate as a bidder there.

[KirbyCollector]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:50 PM, Lucky Baru said:

Personally,  I’m glad they don’t change it.

You cannot tell me you enjoy their site on your phone. It's 2024, for them (and CAF) not to have a site optimized for mobile is atrocious.

Edited March 20 by KirbyCollector

[jjonahjameson11]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:50 PM, Lucky Baru said:

People do a lot of complaining about Comic Link’s website and have for years.  It must affect them more than it affects Comic Link, and their regular clients as it isn’t updated.
 

Personally,  I’m glad they don’t change it.  I know how to use it, and the lack of “surprises” is refreshing.  Trying to figure out any “latest and greatest” features would be a turnoff for me.  At the start of an auction, I put in tracking bids on what I’m interested in.  I schedule the end of the auction in my phone.  I get a reminder 24 hours ahead of the auction close date on my phone.  It is a simple and effective way for me to participate as a bidder there.

How many miles per gallon does your horse and buggy get?  🤣

[All-Star Squadman]

Perhaps I'm just getting old, but I now lack the patience I had in the past for dealing with ComicLink's Website,

IIRC this was first Original Art I won from them, all the way back in 2006.  Still have it!

Although I no longer have the patience dealing with their website, it is somewhat comforting that the site has not changed since at least 2006

Edited March 21 by All-Star Squadman

[Xatari]

On 3/20/2024 at 3:50 PM, Lucky Baru said:

People do a lot of complaining about Comic Link’s website and have for years.  It must affect them more than it affects Comic Link, and their regular clients as it isn’t updated.
 

Personally,  I’m glad they don’t change it.  I know how to use it, and the lack of “surprises” is refreshing.  Trying to figure out any “latest and greatest” features would be a turnoff for me.  At the start of an auction, I put in tracking bids on what I’m interested in.  I schedule the end of the auction in my phone.  I get a reminder 24 hours ahead of the auction close date on my phone.  It is a simple and effective way for me to participate as a bidder there.

Very simple to automate from their end.  It's awesome that you figured out your rhythm here, but they lose a lot of bidders who don't do this.  It's money on the table for both their consignors and their own profit.  I was telling a friend, any new owner could instantly gain a 10-20% increase to their bottom line by simple "Watchlist" and "Reminder" options.  Because they won't invest in their own business, I don't feel comfortable trusting them with mine if I sell a piece down the road.  

Edited March 21 by Xatari

[Lucky Baru]

On 3/20/2024 at 11:25 PM, Xatari said:

Very simple to automate from their end.  It's awesome that you figured out your rhythm here, but they lose a lot of bidders who don't do this.  It's money on the table for both their consignors and their own profit.  I was telling a friend, any new owner could instantly gain a 10-20% increase to their bottom line by simple "Watchlist" and "Reminder" options.  Because they won't invest in their own business, I don't feel comfortable trusting them with mine if I sell a piece down the road.  

You post like you have an inside track on people not consigning with Comic Link.  What is the annual figure of lost sales, lost lots, and lost consigners that you have access to the data on?  Also, how is the “watch list” feature any different from placing tracking bids on items at Comic Link or HA.com?  I do it at both.  I can access both at any time during the auction in my account on both sites. Generally, the items I put a tracking bid on are the only items I’m interested in adding to my collection, so I don’t believe I’m missing out on anything at either site.  Apparently, your mileage is different.

 

[Lucky Baru]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:26 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

How many miles per gallon does your horse and buggy get?  🤣

We don’t have a horse and buggy on our farm.  However, my ‘70 Bronco, (which I’ve owned for about 20+ years) gets about 10, and my ‘84 Blazer gets about 8.  The 2005 Ranger that is being restored, so my son can use it as his first vehicle in about 5 years, I don’t have a clue.  The frame-off restoration we are doing on it won’t be completed until later this year.  

[KirbyCollector]

On 3/21/2024 at 6:20 AM, Lucky Baru said:

You post like you have an inside track on people not consigning with Comic Link.

The inside track comes from years of posts here, conversations at cons and shows-- and CL itself, whose personnel I have spoken with in person. They know their site is old, they know what Heritage does, and they know how much it would cost to upgrade it all. They know collectors are gravitating to Heritage but they chose not to make improvements on their own product because, to paraphrase Doug, "We don't want to, CL works fine as it is."

[Lucky Baru]

On 3/21/2024 at 6:48 AM, KirbyCollector said:

The inside track comes from years of posts here, conversations at cons and shows-- and CL itself, whose personnel I have spoken with in person. They know their site is old, they know what Heritage does, and they know how much it would cost to upgrade it all. They know collectors are gravitating to Heritage but they chose not to make improvements on their own product because, to paraphrase Doug, "We don't want to, CL works fine as it is."

OIC, you took a SWAG at it.  Cool beans.  

[D Parker]

A bit of serendipity had two pages from the same issue of Daredevil auctioned within a couple weeks of each other. Since I consigned the one with Comiclink, I was very interested in seeing where the one at Heritage finished.

• Daredevil #213, page 7, Heritage Weekly Auction ending 3/20/2024: $3,120
• Daredevil #213, page 8, Comiclink Featured Auction ending 3/6/2024: $5,650

The two pages seem comparable to me - page 7 is a much better action page, but there's something to be said for the DD/Kingpin interaction on page 8.

As I was only auctioning the one page, there's no way I would get any sort of favorable terms at Heritage, and I assume it would have been dumped in a weekly auction. To match the net amount I received from Comiclink, it would have had to sell for $7,062.50 at Heritage. No way to know for sure, but I think that's unlikely.

I'm very happy to have consigned to Comiclink and think they have their place. That said, improvements are always welcome, and you never know when someone is going to sneak up on you (MyComicShop is poised to each their lunch if enough eyeballs shift to their auctions). It's much easier to maintain an audience than to try and win them back after they've left.

[Xatari]

On 3/21/2024 at 3:20 AM, Lucky Baru said:

You post like you have an inside track on people not consigning with Comic Link.  What is the annual figure of lost sales, lost lots, and lost consigners that you have access to the data on?  Also, how is the “watch list” feature any different from placing tracking bids on items at Comic Link or HA.com?  I do it at both.  I can access both at any time during the auction in my account on both sites. Generally, the items I put a tracking bid on are the only items I’m interested in adding to my collection, so I don’t believe I’m missing out on anything at either site.  Apparently, your mileage is different.

 

I definitely know many in the hobby have adapted to the system in place.  That said, the fact that you have to place a legally binding bid to track an item is archaic when a basic item tracker can be implemented. We can go back and forth on workarounds, but that is truly what they are... workarounds to a lazy and inadequate platform creating a subpar experience for the end user.  This shows up in the disparity between CLink hammer prices and Heritage hammer prices.  

Also, these auction shareholders should want to get as many people watching and engaged as possible.  It's the reason emotional bidding happens at Heritage and can run up auctions well beyond what most would consider market value.  Heritage sends me text reminders on my phone when an auction I have tracked is about to come up.  Heck, even Comic Connect reps actually call me on the phone and remind me an auction is taking place later in the day.  For the prices of some of these pieces, those types of things are differentiators.  It signals to me these platforms have worked to earn my business if I decide to sell a piece.  

I wouldn't be able to pinpoint the annual figure of missed opportunity as I don't have insider knowledge to Comic Link's internal conversations, but I am part of a relatively large group of collectors (20+).  I won't speak for my fellow group members, but the consensus in our conversations tends to be Comic Link is the place to buy and Heritage is the place to sell.  Our group is primarily consistent collectors with few pieces selling and lots of buying, but there are times when pieces need to be sold to fund other acquisitions.  I know the general amount of money spent by the typical collector in our crew, so when it does come time to sell, I can say with confidence that it would be a substantial miss for Comic Link given our small sample size alone.

[Xatari]

On 3/21/2024 at 7:04 AM, D Parker said:

A bit of serendipity had two pa

• Daredevil #213, page 7, Heritage Weekly Auction ending 3/20/2024: $3,120
• Daredevil #213, page 8, Comiclink Featured Auction ending 3/6/2024: $5,650

The two pages seem comparable to me - page 7 is a much better action page, but there's something to be said for the DD/Kingpin interaction on page 8.

I think you nailed it.  Page 8 was a much superior page in my opinion.  Great portrayal with Kingpin and Daredevil.  The other page didn't have the same strength of DD images either.  Congrats on the sale!

[jjonahjameson11]

On 3/21/2024 at 10:04 AM, D Parker said:

A bit of serendipity had two pages from the same issue of Daredevil auctioned within a couple weeks of each other. Since I consigned the one with Comiclink, I was very interested in seeing where the one at Heritage finished.

• Daredevil #213, page 7, Heritage Weekly Auction ending 3/20/2024: $3,120
• Daredevil #213, page 8, Comiclink Featured Auction ending 3/6/2024: $5,650

The two pages seem comparable to me - page 7 is a much better action page, but there's something to be said for the DD/Kingpin interaction on page 8.

As I was only auctioning the one page, there's no way I would get any sort of favorable terms at Heritage, and I assume it would have been dumped in a weekly auction. To match the net amount I received from Comiclink, it would have had to sell for $7,062.50 at Heritage. No way to know for sure, but I think that's unlikely.

I'm very happy to have consigned to Comiclink and think they have their place. That said, improvements are always welcome, and you never know when someone is going to sneak up on you (MyComicShop is poised to each their lunch if enough eyeballs shift to their auctions). It's much easier to maintain an audience than to try and win them back after they've left.

Page 8, with the DD/Kingpin showdown is the more desirable page and that’s why it went higher than the other page.