How cheap are OA collectors? 2 2

[Panelfan1]

11 hours ago, Garf said:

Giving $75 or more to essentially what I see as a social media site to unlock features is where I draw a line. Giving a site that much support requires features I would use or a decent amount of disposable income and no inclination to donate to some other cause.

I really enjoy the free membership and features. It's nice to have a go to place to share and see what others share but I don't need any of the premium features and seem to have gotten along fine without them.

- Unlimited Gallery Rooms and Images - Don't need this. Free features seem adequate.
- Comic Art Classifieds - Rarely sell so I don't need this, people contact you anyway, people sell all the time by advertising their CAF elsewhere without this feature.
- Watch Site Member Galleries - Bookmarking/alert feature. Don't need this.
- Email Alerts - Really nice to have if you have money to spend and are looking to buy something that has been eluding you. Possibly the one thing I would want but I can live without it and it would only server to encourage me to spend more when I am sticking to limits.
- Fast Access to eBay Auctions - Can be done in eBay which goes to a mobile app.
Delete Unwanted Comments - I could delete a double post to tidy a gallery... don't need to though.
- Have a Dashboard! - Don't have it so I don't miss it.
- Multiple Image Upload - Don't need this. I am guessing it's nice for someone setting up for the first time or sellers.
- Increased Image Upload Size - Don't need this.
- About Me Page - Don't need this.
- Get Featured! - Don't need this.

People that just want to share a handful of images/convention sketches are almost never going to go premium as things stand currently. Rather than reducing the cost as a whole I think if there were more membership tiers available then it's possible quite a few would likely opt for one of the cheaper tiers to show some support even if they didn't need the features. e.g.

Tier 1 - More Gallery Features
Tier 2 - Email Alerts / Buyer Features
Tier 3 - Ability to disable Ads + Dashboard
Tier 4 - Larger image sizes + Seller Features

I think the seller features are too good to go for less than they currently do.

As a premium member ' the extra features aren't important to me. I do it for one reason. I want CAF to stay around and be in business because I enjoy it so much.  Its like supporting artists with patreon or having a digital newspaper subscription.  Sure I can get content for free - but if I want a business whose services I wish to continue - I support it.

Edited October 31, 2017 by Panelfan1

[Brian Peck]

2 hours ago, Panelfan1 said:

As a premium member ' the extra features aren't important to me. I do it for one reason. I want CAF to stay around and be in business because I enjoy it so much.  Its like supporting artists with patreon or having a digital newspaper subscription.  Sure I can get content for free - but if I want a business whose services I wish to continue - I support it.

Same here I have always supported caf, it changed OA collecting in a major way. I do tend to pimp the premium service to others. Which I am a premium member to support the site it has also paid for itself in the artwork I have acquired via the daily emails. Can’t count how many times over the dozen years I have bought art because I saw it in the premium daily emails and contacted the seller before anyone else.

Edited October 31, 2017 by Brian Peck

[Garf]

31 minutes ago, Panelfan1 said:

As a premium member ' the extra features aren't important to me. I do it for one reason. I want CAF to stay around and be in business because I enjoy it so much.  Its like supporting artists with patreon or having a digital newspaper subscription.  Sure I can get content for free - but if I want a business whose services I wish to continue - I support it.

I get that. It makes you happy and others happy, that's a good thing. Totally support the spirit of the donation. Much as I enjoy CAF there are other places I personally prefer to donate to either online or locally close to home, so CAF doesn't end up in that category for me.

It's part of a hobby that is lower down in the pecking order which is why I end up looking at the services. Based on budget, the lengthening gaps between pieces I am intersted in popping up, looking at inventory out there and taking into consideration if I trade or sell something if I would ever be able to get a similar piece again... I just don't see myself being more active in B/S/T than I already am.

[Brian Peck]

1 hour ago, Bill C said:

One of the main (of several) reasons I use CAF is to catalogue my collection (that of it which is public anyway). Whether I want to enjoy the art, remember what sequence of pages I have , etc. So the main advantage of premium membership to me is being able to organize the art in a way that makes sense.

Plus you can see your collection at 2000 pixels high for premium members

[Twanj]

6 hours ago, Brian Peck said:

Would you pay $10 year to use caf? If all are required to pay which inludes the premium features

Yes. A lower tier would invite more people. I think there'd be a really long tail.

I'd like to support it, but it's almost a charity and $75 is a bit much for some people. Then $75 more for market data? A total of $150 a year for something I don't use that often

[SquareChaos]

I'll admit to not being a premium member as well - I have an account, but I don't actually maintain a gallery of my collection. If we did a study, perhaps we'd find a higher predilection for a CAF premium membership among collectors with more tenure - those that remember the "Wild West."

[Michaeld]

The people who would leave CAF if asked to pay a minuscule $10 a year are not contributing now anyway so so what if they left. $10 a year for the service Bill provides is almost the least you can do for what that site provides. It's a hell of a lot more palatable than $75 which is why such a small percentage do it. At some point CAF is going to be to much of a financial headache for Bill to bare. It's amazing he is still doing it. It would not be a lot to ask for everyone to pony up $10. I think most members would do it. It's $10 a year people. Can you think of anything you pay $10 a year for that holds as much of your interest as CAF? 

[Will_K]

10 hours ago, Hekla said:

‘New Art in the last seven days’ as opposed to 24 hours

 

If you're logged in (or not), under Latest Updates | All, hit View All.

On the Recently Updated Galleries in the Last 24 Hrs screen,

you'll see the View all in Last 7 Days button.

There's also a View all in Last 30 Days button.

 

Edited October 31, 2017 by Will_K

[Will_K]

I'm not on Facebook.  I don't follow the Yahoo groups.  And those are free, I think.

Some have commented about not missing out on something they don't have.  So am I missing much ?

However I am a CAF premium member. 

What I pay for CAF means a whole lot more to them than paying the same dollars to Facebook or Yahoo.  That's all that matters to me.

On the plus side:

1) It's a great resource to discover new art and new artists. 

2) CAF is a great reference for matching up art with owners (e.g. when you suspect you see a fake for sale).

3) I occasionally buy and sell art via CAF.

On the flip side:

1) The market data doesn't matter all that much to me. 

2) I think CAF invested a good amount of time/energy to create an auction marketplace that did not get a following. 

 

[drdroom]

Has anybody else left obnoxious (because they were true) comments on non-premium member's pages knowing they will have to delete the whole listing to get rid of the comment, or am I the only one?

[thethedew]

2 hours ago, Twanj said:

Then $75 more for market data?

...which isn't nearly as robust as it once was.  I grok that that wasn't by Bill's choice, mind you; but I dearly miss the deeper historical database.  Quite a loss.

[malvin]

57 minutes ago, thethedew said:

...which isn't nearly as robust as it once was.  I grok that that wasn't by Bill's choice, mind you; but I dearly miss the deeper historical database.  Quite a loss.

+1

Malvin 

[comicwiz]

16 hours ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

I'm not a premium member, and frankly don't go there as much as I used to because I am concerned about the security of the site. It should be upgraded to Https, for one thing. That's just basic in this day and age. I can't even access the site from my home wifi network anymore, and I haven't figured out the reason why. There's something about the site that is buggy.

 

Unless you are being prompted of some security issue with this site, your inability to ping CAP could be an unresolved ISP issue on your end.

Edited October 31, 2017 by comicwiz

[comicwiz]

15 hours ago, zhamlau said:

10 items , no comments allowed on your posts, no PM's for free account.

Unlimited items, unlimited comments, PM's allowed on for 10 dollars a year.

Rest stays same.

Is this for realz? I became a member when one of the people I had dealt with on an original art purchased questioned why I wasn't on CAF. I remedied that by putting up a humble gallery, but I certainly have more than 10 items listed, have had comments and received/sent PM's with no restrictions? Has something changed or have I somehow accidently stumbled into an area where free account members shouldn't be?

[comix4fun]

7 hours ago, drdroom said:

Has anybody else left obnoxious (because they were true) comments on non-premium member's pages knowing they will have to delete the whole listing to get rid of the comment, or am I the only one?

It's one of the greatest reverse features on CAF. 

Usually it is reserved for guys posting fakes or attempting some other malfeasance. 

[delekkerste]

53 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

Is this for realz? I became a member when one of the people I had dealt with on an original art purchased questioned why I wasn't on CAF. I remedied that by putting up a humble gallery, but I certainly have more than 10 items listed, have had comments and received/sent PM's with no restrictions? Has something changed or have I somehow accidently stumbled into an area where free account members shouldn't be?

No, no, you haven't missed anything - James is just musing on how a free/$10 premium model might work if Bill changed it from the current free/$75 premium model.  

[wurstisart]

14 hours ago, Panelfan1 said:

As a premium member ' the extra features aren't important to me. I do it for one reason. I want CAF to stay around and be in business because I enjoy it so much.  Its like supporting artists with patreon or having a digital newspaper subscription.  Sure I can get content for free - but if I want a business whose services I wish to continue - I support it.

I agree with you 100 %.

Its not about the extra features, it's about supporting it...

 

but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

[PhilipB2k17]

4 hours ago, comicwiz said:

Unless you are being prompted of some security issue with this site, your inability to ping CAP could be an unresolved ISP issue on your end.

It's not a DNS issue. It's not an ISP issue. It's not a firewall issue. It's not a spam filter issue. CAF is tied into all sorts of dealer sites that display in both locations. If you do a CAF search for art, stuff from dealer websites shows up in CAF galleries. I believe that makes the site rife with bugs, and possible malware issues. 

[SquareChaos]

3 hours ago, delekkerste said:

No, no, you haven't missed anything - James is just musing on how a free/$10 premium model might work if Bill changed it from the current free/$75 premium model.  

The most likely change is that they'd likely go out of business.

[SquareChaos]

1 minute ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

It's not a DNS issue. It's not an ISP issue. It's not a firewall issue. It's not a spam filter issue. CAF is tied into all sorts of dealer sites that display in both locations. If you do a CAF search for art, stuff from dealer websites shows up in CAF galleries. I believe that makes the site rife with bugs, and possible malware issues. 

Every site has 'possible malware' issues. I think it is irresponsible to claim this. An aggregation site by it's very nature pulls in other resources. As long as they're not pulling in and executing unknown scripts... everything should be fine shouldn't it?