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GPA Issues
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413 posts in this topic

I for one am someone that spends most of their board and GPA time on mobile and I can say this is not a good experience at all thus far. I want to give positive advice and constructive criticism as a long time subscriber to GPA who absolutely loves and utilizes their product frequently. The mobile is absolutely terrible for me personally there is so much scrolling it’s almost nauseating. My comparison to the boards changing a few years ago is a few folks myself included really wanted a, “pinch zoom” offering for the mobile/tablet users so we could see the desktop format on our phones. I still to this day prefer that for the boards on my phone and I switch every now and again to see if I prefer the other way and I never have. Please bring an option to view desktop format if possible like the boards did that would be a great start. Honestly though the old one was PERFECT. I had not a single issue with its format. Good luck ironing out the kinks 

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For me, the former version provided access to most all of the information I looked for and the current one does not - and despite the former GUI having a visually "mechanical" feel the new one gives me an idea of what Sisyphus felt like. Unfortunately, every time I now go to use it I can hear myself say "oh.. not this again" and the biggest problem I have with the new version is its loss of key data sets. IMO, the platform has moved far across the universe from being a cornerstone of support for collectors to more of a cautionary tale of what not to do in business. GPA will never get back time and now needs its own set of super heroes to save it.

 

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Love GPA but the new design is horrible. Adding multiple clicks to get less data on one screen is just ridiculous. I’ve slowed down my buying and selling to a crawl this year, but maintained my account because it was still fun checking prices on my books if I was bored. Still used it almost every day. But now it’s so cumbersome I think I’ll just cancel my sub and maybe reactivate when I actually need the info. 
 

I hope George takes the feedback here to heart makes some major design changes. I know web design can be a challenging process, but this is exactly what beta testing is for. 

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I feel George went live with the GPA Beta version right now on our dime.  Great business model!  Getting feedback with our monthly fees.  How did you not ask dealers about this before you started?

Look at this cluster of garbage.....

1320589908_ScreenShot2019-12-07at4_09_45PM.thumb.png.161f750e14d2fea0f2d1ad3d6af8c1c8.png

 

You have a 9.6 with a "red live" logo?  How does that clearly tell someone that is a Universal "blue"  CGC 9.6?  Well maybe if they are colored blind sure!

George you should be embarrassed on how you are handling this.  I have seen people accused of fraud on the CGC boards at least respond back to the people who are asking for answers with better banter. 

Here would be the perfect response from you that I would expect to restore my faith .

"Everyone I value your feedback and we are currently making changes that will restored your confidence in GPA, just bare with us while we implement those changes into the application."  

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I've had a sub for years now, and just tried to navigate the new site for the first time. It's ugly, and it's cumbersome to get data quickly. I know I'm just repeating what others have said, but it's true. Lots of extra clicks. Pointless.  

Edited by Real Elijah Snow
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It’s too busy. I applaud the initiative to evolve and compete with threats (gocollect). But, while somewhat antiquated, the old site was beautifully simplistic. Just planting the seed, I wouldn’t mind if gpa reverted back while they rework their design. And honestly if it isn’t broke, why fix it? If I were them I’d focus on gathering more data (comiclink comes to mind) before doing a GUI overhaul.

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1 hour ago, NewWorldOrder said:

George you should be embarrassed on how you are handling this.  I have seen people accused of fraud on the CGC boards at least respond back to the people who are asking for answers with better banter. 

Here would be the perfect response from you that I would expect to restore my faith .

"Everyone I value your feedback and we are currently making changes that will restored your confidence in GPA, just bare with us while we implement those changes into the application."  

I'm not sure if your saw my earlier post in this thread:

"Appreciate the feedback, good and bad and assure you we will continue to work on the service, including the look and feel. Some things are easy fixes/changes, some will need to take into consideration the wide variety of use cases (mobile, visually challenged, etc) and some, like "will you go back to the old site" won't be happening."

We are not ignoring the feedback, far from it. As DavidTeDavid notes, changing things will not be trivial and immediate, although some elements can be adjusted sooner than later.

At the moment, I don't have a lot of time to come and address every post, which would be to the detriment of helping some users who have had login issues, and with getting on with implementing further changes.

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Out of curiosity, why were the changes even made? Was anyone actually clamoring for an interface that took a bunch of extra clicks and had less on-screen info?

And, fine...I get that you can't completely go back to the old site. But, can you make the new site look nearly identical to the old one? Or, at least give me all of this info on screen at the same time?

Because, see below. If the new design can't display all the info I see there, then it will always be an inferior product. 

Screenshot_20191207-211041_Telegram.jpg

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Funny, but if you compare the old layout and the new, all the same columns and data are there... practically in the same places.  Except bigger, and more spaced out. 
George, how about just tightening things up so that we can see nearly the same amount of data as before? Instead of each row being 3/8” tall surrounded by luxurious white space, make them 1/8” or packed in tighter... and make it so that when we pop open a listing/grade section,  graphs are hidden, (click to,open) . 

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7 minutes ago, pmWolf said:

Out of curiosity, why were the changes even made? Was anyone actually clamoring for an interface that took a bunch of extra clicks and had less on-screen info?

And, fine...I get that you can't completely go back to the old site. But, can you make the new site look nearly identical to the old one? Or, at least give me all of this info on screen at the same time?

Because, see below. If the new design can't display all the info I see there, then it will always be an inferior product. 

 

We made the changes because we’ve been getting feedback for 3-4 years now about making the site more responsive, especially as more than two thirds of GPA users now interact with the site via a mobile device, and ~40% exclusively. The older technology we were using would not have facilitated that (as well as security issues continuing to use older asp code).

As for not seeing the same information, putting aside the design elements (like removing the live icon and adding a universal grade icon) all that information you post from the old site is in the new site. Every row of every issue shows the grade,, notes, Averages for the past 12 months, the previous year and the year before that, as well as the most recent sale (and its sold date). 

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2 minutes ago, Aman619 said:

Funny, but if you compare the old layout and the new, all the same columns and data are there... practically in the same places.  Except bigger, and more spaced out. 
George, how about just tightening things up so that we can see nearly the same amount of data as before? Instead of each row being 3/8” tall surrounded by luxurious white space, make them 1/8” or packed in tighter... and make it so that when we pop open a listing/grade section,  graphs are hidden, (click to,open) . 

Yes to all this. 

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38 minutes ago, gpanalysis said:

As for not seeing the same information, putting aside the design elements (like removing the live icon and adding a universal grade icon) all that information you post from the old site is in the new site. Every row of every issue shows the grade,, notes, Averages for the past 12 months, the previous year and the year before that, as well as the most recent sale (and its sold date). 

I am pretty much giving up at this point because I and others have clearly laid out the problems and the response seems to be "live with it". I will for the time being, but if I find a suitable replacement I will grab it.

This response ignores 90% of the complaints, which have not been that the data is not available, but that it is far, far harder to use than before. Imagine being handed a million index cards, each with one sale for one issue written on them, and being told "all the data is there". It is of course not that bad, but the data access is far, far worse than it was previously.

GPA has taken a defensive stance through this episode. Clearly they are emotionally invested in what they spent a great deal of time developing without any user input. That is not a commercial attitude. GPA can get away with it for only one reason, which is they have a monopoly on the data. Instead of providing apologies to their customers, they seem to be taking offense at being called out for their amateurish mistakes.

As I said in a previous post, I think the real message is to the the volume dealers/auction houses that this amount of lost goodwill is an opportunity to shift to something better and more reliable for the market, that can be used to enhance their business through adding transparency, reliability, and further legitimacy to the comic market.

Edited by frank_newman
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