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68 posts in this topic

I have casually mentioned this in the moderation thread and here is how I see it... 

As of now, I assume that the money generated from the boards > than the cost of running the boards. 

However, eventually I see more and more companies drift toward social media and let places like FB handle all web responsibilities.  It varies with the vision of each individual.  For example, Hasbro is MUCH bigger than CGC and they do NOT have a dedicated message board.  Instead they reach out to fan sites and they utilize Facebook to unveil new product and interact with their customers.  Then you have a group like Lego. Lego recently saw the value of having a message board and BOUGHT Bricklink.  For those unfamiliar with Bricklink, aside from eBay, Bricklink hosts the largest second hand market for Lego and hosts a community message board like we have here. 

What will CGC do? It might be a conflict of interest for them to host or buy a market.  Lego does not 'grade' their product so the market is determined by desirability.  The condition of product is determined by the vendor.  Bricklink gets a percentage of the sale.  If CGC were to buy an auction house or something like eBay, there would be a conflict of interest since the higher the grade means the more valuable the book, which if sold on their site translates into a larger commission. 

I see CGC eventually shutting this place down and doing what Hasbro does on Facebook.   

Are the boards really worth all that trouble? 

If the boards shut down, where am I going?  I will interact with people on Facebook.  If the boards shut down I am still sending books to be pressed to Joe and I am still going to have things graded.

Are the boards valuable to me as a comic buyer?  Absolutely.  But if they are not valuable to CGC or if CGC feels that their end of the information chain can be distributed in a more cost effective way then I assume they will eventually do so. 

 

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Do you believe that you should be treated like a customer when you access these boards? This is not a simple Yes / No imo.  Yes I am a customer to CGC, but not all of the forums are tailored to being a customer facing environment.  Do I feel that I should be treated fairly and with respect, absolutely, as long as that is how I am treating others.  The moment that changes, is the moment the gloves should come off.  (joking posts aside because we should all be able to laugh and have fun)
Are the boards an ad for CGC? I would hope so.
Do they serve as a place for CGC to sell ad space? Absolutely, they also are a place to show off their product, both good and bad unfortunately.
Do you think CGC makes money off of you being here and participating? Also not a simple Yes/No.  While they do gain members, they might not gain paying members all the time.  In some instances they get 1 and done posters and others get ran off for misunderstandings, this can leave a person with a sour taste in their mouth and blame the company and thus not wish to experience the good the company can do.  But overall, I would hope they do make money thanks to the boards and its participants.
And should you expect any minimum level of service as a result, much as you would at a store of any kind? I expect more a minimum level of participation from CGC on the boards, not really service.  Their product is their service.

@theCapraAegagrus Appreciate the easy copy and paste Question / Answer format for me to use. :)

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6 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

I have casually mentioned this in the moderation thread and here is how I see it... 

As of now, I assume that the money generated from the boards > than the cost of running the boards. 

However, eventually I see more and more companies drift toward social media and let places like FB handle all web responsibilities.  It varies with the vision of each individual.  For example, Hasbro is MUCH bigger than CGC and they do NOT have a dedicated message board.  Instead they reach out to fan sites and they utilize Facebook to unveil new product and interact with their customers.  Then you have a group like Lego. Lego recently saw the value of having a message board and BOUGHT Bricklink.  For those unfamiliar with Bricklink, aside from eBay, Bricklink hosts the largest second hand market for Lego and hosts a community message board like we have here. 

What will CGC do? It might be a conflict of interest for them to host or buy a market.  Lego does not 'grade' their product so the market is determined by desirability.  The condition of product is determined by the vendor.  Bricklink gets a percentage of the sale.  If CGC were to buy an auction house or something like eBay, there would be a conflict of interest since the higher the grade means the more valuable the book, which if sold on their site translates into a larger commission. 

I see CGC eventually shutting this place down and doing what Hasbro does on Facebook.   

Are the boards really worth all that trouble? 

If the boards shut down, where am I going?  I will interact with people on Facebook.  If the boards shut down I am still sending books to be pressed to Joe and I am still going to have things graded.

Are the boards valuable to me as a comic buyer?  Absolutely.  But if they are not valuable to CGC or if CGC feels that their end of the information chain can be distributed in a more cost effective way then I assume they will eventually do so. 

 

This just makes me want to find you on FB. ;)

Already found a few boardies on it just from various comic groups.

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10 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

I have casually mentioned this in the moderation thread and here is how I see it... 

As of now, I assume that the money generated from the boards > than the cost of running the boards. 

However, eventually I see more and more companies drift toward social media and let places like FB handle all web responsibilities.  It varies with the vision of each individual.  For example, Hasbro is MUCH bigger than CGC and they do NOT have a dedicated message board.  Instead they reach out to fan sites and they utilize Facebook to unveil new product and interact with their customers.  Then you have a group like Lego. Lego recently saw the value of having a message board and BOUGHT Bricklink.  For those unfamiliar with Bricklink, aside from eBay, Bricklink hosts the largest second hand market for Lego and hosts a community message board like we have here. 

What will CGC do? It might be a conflict of interest for them to host or buy a market.  Lego does not 'grade' their product so the market is determined by desirability.  The condition of product is determined by the vendor.  Bricklink gets a percentage of the sale.  If CGC were to buy an auction house or something like eBay, there would be a conflict of interest since the higher the grade means the more valuable the book, which if sold on their site translates into a larger commission. 

I see CGC eventually shutting this place down and doing what Hasbro does on Facebook.   

Are the boards really worth all that trouble? 

If the boards shut down, where am I going?  I will interact with people on Facebook.  If the boards shut down I am still sending books to be pressed to Joe and I am still going to have things graded.

Are the boards valuable to me as a comic buyer?  Absolutely.  But if they are not valuable to CGC or if CGC feels that their end of the information chain can be distributed in a more cost effective way then I assume they will eventually do so. 

 

CGC would be foolish to shut these boards down.

 

Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.

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14 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

As of now, I assume that the money generated from the boards > than the cost of running the boards. 

If this were true, then CGC has to find a solution to whoever is forcing feeBay links to function they way they do whenever anyone types that dastardly site. To say nothing of the fact that at any given time, if an exploit were to occur from the scripting this site uses, it could cause a number of issues for its members here.

The only time I've seen this sort of thing happen is if there's some agreement with the hosting company to generate dynamic links from content (specific keywords) generated by users on a forum site.

Some sites turn this off when users login, I came up with feeBay just so I wouldn't participate in any of this nonsense. Seems like an unusual quip, but I have seen this become a scripting nightmare after a site exploit occurred.

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3 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

If this were true, then CGC has to find a solution to whoever is forcing feeBay links to function they way they do whenever anyone types that dastardly site. To say nothing of the fact that at any given time, if an exploit were to occur from the scripting this site uses, it could cause a number of issues for its members here.

The only time I've seen this sort of thing happen is if there's some agreement with the hosting company to generate dynamic links from content (specific keywords) generated by users on a forum site.

Some sites turn this off when users login, I came up with feeBay just so I wouldn't participate in any of this nonsense. Seems like an unusual quip, but I have seen this become a scripting nightmare after a site exploit occurred.

I assumed that they were receiving money for that to be honest.  

After all, they are affiliated with eBay with their authentication service. 

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11 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

CGC would be foolish to shut these boards down.

 

Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.

I do not think we are as important (on a message board) as we like to imagine.  How many active participants are there in relation to the growing number on Facebook? 

Hey, I could be wrong... but at one point Hisstank and YoJoe were the places to go for GI Joe information.  Now it seems that GIJoe ARAH 1982-1994 and GI Joe Trader PX are 'THE' Facebook groups to be in to know what is going on with Joe. 

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4 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

I assumed that they were receiving money for that to be honest.  

After all, they are affiliated with eBay with their authentication service. 

Most of the time it's monetized as a service cost offset. You can go with hosting company X who don't use this dynamic linking at full cost, or with hosting company XYZ who do, but provide the site hosting at a reduced price point.

Edited by comicwiz
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16 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

Honest question, why do you assume that? 

We know some of the potential monthly costs associated with having this site:

1. CGC uses Cloudfare for security and other services - according to their website, Cloudflare Business is $200/month

2. This is a cloud hosted site, so we can assume a rough cost of $500/month for compute, storage & bandwidth

3. The board software likely has a annual maintenance fee, again guessing that's a hundred a month

4. Misc expenses not including labor (SSL certs, etc.), again likely less than a hundred a month

Without labor, it's likely about a grand a month cost for CGC.

Don't have a clue how to figure out the ad revenue or feeBay passthru.

I suspect it's pretty much a wash for CGC, but they may squeak a small profit from it.

-bc

Edited by bc
typo #46,729
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honestly they may be ahead on dollars in (ad revenue) vs dollars out (hosting service), and honestly as others have said, they may have just chose an "ad supported hosting service" that has a lower cost to them, so it's still not at break even... but when you add in board administration and other Man-Hours of support (like in the couple of more actively curated sub-forums) I have very little belief that they are coming out ahead. 

I used to think there was benefit from this board as a transaction place, but we're a drop in the bucket vs eBay (90 days over 100k sold CGC books) so there's really no benefit to them in maintaining this forum. 

At best I think it's a handy barometer/sampling for the customer base so they can know when problems arise. If this wasnt here they'd have to monitor a lot of different CGC groups on Facebook, and that would be a lot more work. Instead WE do that and bring things here that pop up on Facebook to talk about them. 

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All I can say is I hope these boards stay around for a while. I migrated here from another comic site a couple years ago now and while I still enjoy that site, it just does not have the depth and variety and mass participation that these boards offer.

Facebook groups are hard for me as a Canadian buyer/seller. Great for selling, poor for buying as it seems prices are often inflated. When I can come on here and get a better deal (that is accounting for exchange rate, and high shipping costs), it is kinda hard to endorse and frequent the FB groups. There are some American ones that are the same I feel.

CGC can do whatever they want to make money here, whether its by clicks or ads or whatever. If they charge me to use the forums, I would be out. To me, it makes sense and shouldn't be that costly of an endeavour to have these here but...alas, what do I know. 

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1 minute ago, miraclemet said:

I used to think there was benefit from this board as a transaction place, but we're a drop in the bucket vs eBay (90 days over 100k sold CGC books) so there's really no benefit to them in maintaining this forum. 

 

Would they really benefit anyways if majority of people selling CGC comics sold here instead? Ebay makes money off the fees...if these forums started charging fees to sell books, I would likely be out (unless they were less than other avenues where I sell)

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In all honesty, I view this as a comic collecting community forum...the largest one with some of the most knowledgeable people. You can't get this type of response or reply anywhere. Other avenues are not "policed" and you can end up dealing with a lot of people who don't have basic common sense and kindness when talking. Granted, the odd grudge match happens on here but I feel in general, it is much more professional and understanding, as it should be. 

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Just now, comicginger1789 said:

Would they really benefit anyways if majority of people selling CGC comics sold here instead? Ebay makes money off the fees...if these forums started charging fees to sell books, I would likely be out (unless they were less than other avenues where I sell)

I think the benefit is it's a place for people to sell the books they've gotten slabbed. For modern slabbers that quickly flip books if there wasnt a forum to sell those books, they'd submit fewer books. So I guess what I mean is that this forum does help stimulate submissions. Not as much as ebay does (who collect fees). But then ebay doesnt benefit when someone submits a book to CGC. 

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3 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

I think the benefit is it's a place for people to sell the books they've gotten slabbed. For modern slabbers that quickly flip books if there wasnt a forum to sell those books, they'd submit fewer books. So I guess what I mean is that this forum does help stimulate submissions. Not as much as ebay does (who collect fees). But then ebay doesnt benefit when someone submits a book to CGC. 

Good point!

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31 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

Honest question, why do you assume that? 

Had to leave before - I apologize for not responding... realized I answer two out of the three quotes. 

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i love this forum and would be beside myself if they shut it down. i am on inst which i know is fb, but i rarely buy comics there and never sell them. i'm there to promote my work. i no longer use fb proper for myriad reasons. i've made online and real world friends through this site too as many of you have as well.

the buying and selling forum here is amazing! i've spent so much $ here and the kudos forum really allows me to know who i'm buying from, and trust them. and i sell here too sometimes, very successfully.  i think the selling forums certainly raise the amount of submissions for cgc, though it may not be a significant amount. 

since i use an adblocker (highly recommended y'all!) i dont see the ads here. but i assume from @comicwiz statements that it's mainly feebay. i still see lots of critical posts about them here. 

several folks already said it better than me: this site is free. it's not perfect but i am here every single day and i love it. we're not customers. it's free! when you submit a book, you're a customer.

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