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GPA Issues
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413 posts in this topic

19 hours ago, blazingbob said:

Got it,  thank you.  Not very intuitive which is bad.  Lots of clicking to get there which is bad again.  No help when you scroll over a button which is bad since I already have been on here wondering if I click it can I undo it.

FYI to George.

I hope you know that a lot of transactions at shows take place with GPA.  Faster is VERY important with any deal so the longer it takes for Buyer/Seller to do gather pricing information the risk that no deal occurs rises.  Add wi-fi or hotspot transmission times into the mix and if it is slow now it will get slower at a show.  Something to think about when you test.

Yes,  too much navigation to get to where you want to be.  The old GUI was nice and simple.  I'm sure it will get better though. 

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Don't mind the desktop portal as I got used to it rather quickly. It's very clunky but it's growing on me. 

My biggest gripe is the mobile page and the severe lack of speed in loading pages. I was debating a purchase last night and it took forever for pages to load on an iPhone and iPad. Very frustrating. It's shiny and new so I'll give it time but man. Bumpy start. 

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9 hours ago, Aman619 said:

Not being a coder, I cant explain why so many are still having issues... last night I logged in and had a stable session, looking around.  Change is difficult. But we have to assume GPA knows what they are doing, and we will all be back up and running soon enough, and shortly after won't even remember how the OLD site worked.  Just like here on the Boards.

my issues with the new look are many too. too spread out, should be more compact. so we see more stuff and have a better idea where we are.  Before you knew you were looking at a series of grades and popping them open. Now you only see 2 or 3 grade levels cause so much other stuff is so loosely arranged vertically, using up our whole screen. 

Graphs should be optional, they take up too much vertical space and are too big, and really how many of us need the graphs?  Moving them off to the side and much smaller like before would be best if making them optional is not doable. 

Feels like there a lot more clicks, but the old system was all about opening up and closing down sections so I think its a wash.  Whats different -- again -- is that opening up just one grade section fills or runs off the bottom of the screen.   Obviously theres a lot of info that has to be organized here, Id struggle to think of another way to present it all... just want it to be less spaced out vertically.

Was actually thinking the same thing reading through this thread regarding the changeover to the new boards.  We really piled on then (me included).  Regarding the GPA site I've only accessed from my desktop and did need to reset my password however the mail account they had on file was valid and I received the reset
password rather quickly.  I did like the more condensed display of information on the old site however I'll adjust to the new site soon enough.

I certainly do agree about the change management process and overall communication was severely lacking.  Working in the business world I know change management is really an artform where it's always better to overcommunicate.

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9 hours ago, Aman619 said:

. . .

Graphs should be optional, they take up too much vertical space and are too big, and really how many of us need the graphs? . . .

 

+1

waste of bandwidth.

I would add that graphs have no value for GA sales due to single sale data points over several years.

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9 minutes ago, greggy said:

Also, why is there a need to integrate the live listings along with the price history data when it is separated already in its own tab?  Seems redundant and confusing for some. 

 

I'll second that. The links to current listings was a nice feature on the old site, but it was out of the way and not an impediment to locate the information you needed.

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9 hours ago, 69CamaroZ28 said:

So how does GoCollect compare to GPA?  I've been using GPA for years with no issues. As of now, I don't like the new format at all

I’ve been testing gocollect this month, long time gpa user, and continue to be. I understand people aren’t thrilled with new GPA site, but I like it just fine. Is it perfect?  No. Was it perfect before?  No.  Does it give me the info I need?  Yes.  

As for your question, gocollect has some advantages.

They retain comiclink sales, but don’t show prices because clink won’t let them, but you can click on link which will take you to clink site and you can see price there.

They have links to actual sales for all sites and retain images for sales, big deal for old eBay sales - as they are only retained on eBay for a couple months. This is especially helpful with GA books, to see what the books looked like.  You also have direct listings to each sale, I know sometimes gpa has links to sales, but it’s not the norm.  It’s nice to see where books are selling and at what levels.

They have CBCS sales too, which doesn’t really matter to me as I only buy CGC, but I’m sure some people appreciate that. 

Most people would likely prefer their interface and usability - some things are customizable on site too.

The service costs half as much as gpa. 

GPA wins in other regards. More sales listed. More comprehensive. More historical data. It’s the standard used by everyone. George has been part of this community forever, is friendly and responsive. I think the ‘standard’ display on old site which summarized each book individually for a couple years of sales was superior. I loved that layout, you could eyeball things better - like see a 6.0 last sale was $800, but 90 day average on a 5.0 is $1.000 - so you know that 6.0 was likely an outlier.  Green or red arrows for trends, etc  

I’d actually like to see the two sites merge, best of both worlds. 

For me while I like some things about gocollect the most important thing for me is missing - sales data. And I’m not talking about some obscure sale on some smaller site, I’m talking sales on eBay, ha, etc. I’m sure it’s difficult to get all that data into their database but GPA does it. If gocollect can figure that piece out I’d strongly consider keeping my subscription with them, but for now GPA remains king overall imo. 

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40 minutes ago, BlowUpTheMoon said:

I'd like to have Restored, Conserved and SS off by default.

When I first logged in, I unchecked those boxes and noticed that the site preserved those preferences for other lookups, but only for that one login session.  If the site would simply remember them across sessions, we'd be all set.

Edited by Sweet Lou 14
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25 minutes ago, RedGiant said:

I’ve been testing gocollect this month, long time gpa user, and continue to be. I understand people aren’t thrilled with new GPA site, but I like it just fine. Is it perfect?  No. Was it perfect before?  No.  Does it give me the info I need?  Yes.  

As for your question, gocollect has some advantages.

They retain comiclink sales, but don’t show prices because clink won’t let them, but you can click on link which will take you to clink site and you can see price there.

They have links to actual sales for all sites and retain images for sales, big deal for old eBay sales - as they are only retained on eBay for a couple months. This is especially helpful with GA books, to see what the books looked like.  You also have direct listings to each sale, I know sometimes gpa has links to sales, but it’s not the norm.  It’s nice to see where books are selling and at what levels.

They have CBCS sales too, which doesn’t really matter to me as I only buy CGC, but I’m sure some people appreciate that. 

Most people would likely prefer their interface and usability - some things are customizable on site too.

The service costs half as much as gpa. 

GPA wins in other regards. More sales listed. More comprehensive. More historical data. It’s the standard used by everyone. George has been part of this community forever, is friendly and responsive. I think the ‘standard’ display on old site which summarized each book individually for a couple years of sales was superior. I loved that layout, you could eyeball things better - like see a 6.0 last sale was $800, but 90 day average on a 5.0 is $1.000 - so you know that 6.0 was likely an outlier.  Green or red arrows for trends, etc  

I’d actually like to see the two sites merge, best of both worlds. 

For me while I like some things about gocollect the most important thing for me is missing - sales data. And I’m not talking about some obscure sale on some smaller site, I’m talking sales on eBay, ha, etc. I’m sure it’s difficult to get all that data into their database but GPA does it. If gocollect can figure that piece out I’d strongly consider keeping my subscription with them, but for now GPA remains king overall imo. 

Unfortunately, the bolded part isn't true in most cases. That data becomes unavailable after a time, even to users logged into a registered CLink account.

Oh man, wouldn't you love to get a dump of ComicLink data to dig through?

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24 minutes ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:
1 hour ago, BlowUpTheMoon said:

I'd like to have Restored, Conserved and SS off by default.

When I first logged in, I unchecked those boxes and noticed that the site preserved those preferences for other lookups, but only for that one login session.  If the site would simply remember them across sessions, we'd be all set.

Thanks.  Good to know. 

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40 minutes ago, RedGiant said:

I’ve been testing gocollect this month, long time gpa user, and continue to be. I understand people aren’t thrilled with new GPA site, but I like it just fine. Is it perfect?  No. Was it perfect before?  No.  Does it give me the info I need?  Yes.  

 

To me this is an unacceptably low expectation for a major product change. Users spent years getting comfortable with the old interface. Of course it was not perfect, but the only excuse for changing it is improvement. Most comments above instead significant losses in functionality. There are some improvements but these are greatly overshadowed by the reductions in usability. Yes I can learn to eat with a knife if you take away my fork, but I would not choose this progression. The treatment by the vendor and the subsequent response by the vendor to the many reasonable complaints should give everyone pause before continuing to rely on the product.

As an individual I don't have much leverage and for the near term I will be forced to continue to use the service. However I think the larger players (particularly the auction houses) should give a good bit of thought to how this product impacts their business and how they should interact with it or a similar product. I think that expanding data availability and the transparency of access to that data would benefit the overall market and enhance the dealer/auction business by driving transaction volume. Margins on dealer transactions here and there would be hurt, but I think the overall net margin would increase due to buyers/sellers being more comfortable that transactions are on-market, leading to more transactions.

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44 minutes ago, DavidTheDavid said:

Unfortunately, the bolded part isn't true in most cases. That data becomes unavailable after a time, even to users logged into a registered CLink account.

Oh man, wouldn't you love to get a dump of ComicLink data to dig through?

Absolutely!

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2 hours ago, MustEatBrains said:

Was actually thinking the same thing reading through this thread regarding the changeover to the new boards.  We really piled on then (me included).  Regarding the GPA site I've only accessed from my desktop and did need to reset my password however the mail account they had on file was valid and I received the reset
password rather quickly.  I did like the more condensed display of information on the old site however I'll adjust to the new site soon enough.

I certainly do agree about the change management process and overall communication was severely lacking.  Working in the business world I know change management is really an artform where it's always better to overcommunicate.

Well, does anyone really love how the boards are now compared to what they were before?

I can't speak for anyone but me but I don't, but if the alternative is leaving I'd rather put up with what we have now.

Kind of my mentality for the new GPA site.

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OK, I'm curious as to whether anyone much ever looks at the GPA graphs? I never have done, I'm just interested in the figures and everyone that I've ever spoken to about GPA is the same. Who here uses the graphs and if so, how much?

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53 minutes ago, gaz973 said:

OK, I'm curious as to whether anyone much ever looks at the GPA graphs? I never have done, I'm just interested in the figures and everyone that I've ever spoken to about GPA is the same. Who here uses the graphs and if so, how much?

I use them, though not super frequently, if I want a quick visual of how a book has done over an extended period. It's much easier than scrolling through a dozen years worth of numbers. Graphs also instantly highlight big price movements. 

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10 minutes ago, october said:

I use them, though not super frequently, if I want a quick visual of how a book has done over an extended period. It's much easier than scrolling through a dozen years worth of numbers. Graphs also instantly highlight big price movements. 

Same. Wish I could customize it though. 

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1 hour ago, gaz973 said:

OK, I'm curious as to whether anyone much ever looks at the GPA graphs? I never have done, I'm just interested in the figures and everyone that I've ever spoken to about GPA is the same. Who here uses the graphs and if so, how much?

I use the graphs all the time and I would say that they are indispensable. The only part of the new interface that I love (not just like) is the interactive graph. Because the price data is now so hard to use, I am adapting by scrolling along the graph and reading the data points at the bottom. If I were king, at this point I would go back to the old interface but keep the interactive graphs. I would then look at the ergonomics of the old layout and try to reduce the need for clicks and navigating away. The new interface has gone in the other direction (more clicks and more navigating away). Not being able to directly compare prices for different issues of the same title (particularly adjacent issues) is just one of many downsides of the new interface.

We should chip in and send GPA a set of Edward Tufte's books (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and subsequent volumes).

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