Big Thank You From ComicConnect

[8milemax]

Well you should read what I said

 

 

Well I know that I will never go there. Anything connected to metropoliscomics i stay away, there priced to high and they never take offers unless you over pay.

[ComicConnect.com]

Well I talked to a person name Frank on the phone, thats why I know thats it was all Metro. He told me that Metro owned those books.

 

This is what you wrote: Of course Metro owned the books they were on metropoliscomics.com. Regardless, if you do ever want to give either company a chance you are always welcome. Hopefully there will be an opportunity that will present itself where we can do a deal that will make you happy. In the mean time have a wonderful 4th of July.

[Aman619]

gee, I dont know what would have been better,, or worse for Metro with ComicConnect:

 

1) never mention any connection so that CC can start fresh and avoid all negative aspersions and guilt by association about Metro.... until that day the truth leaks out and Metro is slammed for underhanded sneakiness?

 

or

2) announce their involvement upfront and in doing so, hinder their new CC launch by fending off Metro bashing.

 

 

A tough choice... but I think they made the right call longterm.

[sterlingcomics]

There's a book that I am interested listed for $265.00. I offered $225.00 but was shot down. I then offered $250.00 and again was shot down.

 

You should've bid $275.

[mr_highgrade]

There's a book that I am interested listed for $265.00. I offered $225.00 but was shot down. I then offered $250.00 and again was shot down.

 

You should've bid $275.

[Sal]

gee, I dont know what would have been better,, or worse for Metro with ComicConnect:

 

1) never mention any connection so that CC can start fresh and avoid all negative aspersions and guilt by association about Metro.... until that day the truth leaks out and Metro is slammed for underhanded sneakiness?

 

or

2) announce their involvement upfront and in doing so, hinder their new CC launch by fending off Metro bashing.

 

 

A tough choice... but I think they made the right call longterm.

 

ha! spoken like a true comic collecting cynic!

 

in the long run, transparency is the best bet. there are people who would never buy from Metro - and CC by extension - that would not have benefited from not knowing the relationship at the outset.

 

i'm looking forward to CC being a nice CL competitor as time goes by and they begin getting consignments on a regular basis... which, given their generous consignment / payment policies, should be fairly soon.

 

Just so long as they don't go the way of that certain unnamed auction house that passes all the costs from the seller to the buyer in a manner that would be unseemly if it were attached to any other venue besides collectibles

[CrocHntr]

So, I was browsing ComicConnect the other day and was impressed with the site layout. I decided I would try my hand at bidding on an auction, and found a nice GA comic with no reserve. I consented to the terms stating that "if I end up with the winning bid, I'm obligated to purchase the item", and placed the bid. I have to admit I placed a fairly low ball bid, but I was the highest bidder with about an hour to go on the auction.

 

I went out of town on the 4th, but checked back today to see how I faired. Well, evidently sometime in that last hour before the auction ended, the seller was allowed to cancel the auction with the explanation "This book has been removed by the seller".

 

I really didn't expect to win the book anyway, but it really upset me that I consented to terms that require me to purchase the item, but the seller can simply cancel the auction if he/she doesn't receive a favorable bid price.

 

I promptly e-mailed ComicConnect to find out more details and got a quick response. Although I appreciated the timely response, the explanation I received was that there were "strange issues with this customer's consignments" and that the auction was "mysteriously cancelled". I was then offered a chance to purchase the book at 5 times my bid price.

 

I of course declined. I understand that the seller didn't want to part with the book at such a low bid price. But just as I am required to commit to the purchase from a buyers perspective, the seller should be required to follow through on the sale regardless of the final bid price. The incident certainly ruined my confidence in ComicConnect as a fair and balanced auction site.

[benz]

RobioAXP experience seems disturbing. care to comment comicconnect? I would agree with 8miles experience with Metro. I have bought a book on Metro only to be told it was sold off. Still they are Metro. No experience with comicconnect except that when I go to their site the books are in a slide show format. Can this be change to static?

[benz]

Well I know that I will never go there. Anything connected to metropoliscomics i stay away, there priced to high and they never take offers unless you over pay.

 

Not even if they give you a $5 off on shipping.

[Sal]

So, I was browsing ComicConnect the other day and was impressed with the site layout. I decided I would try my hand at bidding on an auction, and found a nice GA comic with no reserve. I consented to the terms stating that "if I end up with the winning bid, I'm obligated to purchase the item", and placed the bid. I have to admit I placed a fairly low ball bid, but I was the highest bidder with about an hour to go on the auction.

 

I went out of town on the 4th, but checked back today to see how I faired. Well, evidently sometime in that last hour before the auction ended, the seller was allowed to cancel the auction with the explanation "This book has been removed by the seller".

 

I really didn't expect to win the book anyway, but it really upset me that I consented to terms that require me to purchase the item, but the seller can simply cancel the auction if he/she doesn't receive a favorable bid price.

 

I promptly e-mailed ComicConnect to find out more details and got a quick response. Although I appreciated the timely response, the explanation I received was that there were "strange issues with this customer's consignments" and that the auction was "mysteriously cancelled". I was then offered a chance to purchase the book at 5 times my bid price.

 

I of course declined. I understand that the seller didn't want to part with the book at such a low bid price. But just as I am required to commit to the purchase from a buyers perspective, the seller should be required to follow through on the sale regardless of the final bid price. The incident certainly ruined my confidence in ComicConnect as a fair and balanced auction site.

 

 

 

It's this type of abortive transaction that auction houses really need to watch out for, especially new ones. They're in a precarious situation - sure, the buyer is happy getting a great book for well under guide, but the seller isn't anything of the sort. As the entity in the middle, the auction house needs to maintain happiness on both sides. What's the point of having a bunch of happy lowballing buyers, if no one is consigning to them?

 

Metro's model has always appeared to be "we get the best books, so we can set the Market Value. Our level of capitalisation further allows us to sit on books forever until we get our price." It's worked for them this far, but to see it transferred to their new "auction" site is disappointing.

 

Sad to see this sort of thing is being allowed to happen. When building up an auction site, there will be a number of under-the-radar, below-guide deals that occur, until word gets out and the pool of buyers grows. That should be taken into consideration.

 

The reaction above seems to be the offshoot of Metro's seeming policy of trying to hold on to every sale in order to squeeze max $$$ out of a book, irrespective of the amount of time this takes. It's a policy I understand on a gut level, but does not seem to make much business sense.

 

 

Of course, this could actually have a legitimate explanation, like the books did not actually belong to the consignor, or something else like that, but the "explanation" from the CConnect rep - albeit paraphrased - should not exactly fill one with confidence

[ComicConnect.com]

Dear Rob,

 

I am sorry my email conversation with you regarding the Whiz Comics #70 auction was unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, we discovered a problem on the website that had inadvertently affected that specific auction. Thankfully, we have completely resolved the situation and we do not expect anything like this to occur in the future.

 

I felt as if I handled the situation very fairly by contacting the seller to apologize and requested a price that he felt was fair to offer you. I understand the fact that I am not capable of pleasing everyone, but I am certainly trying to!

 

Again, Rob, I am sorry for the inconvenience this situation has caused you, and I hope you understand that I did not intend for this to occur and I will always do my best to help you.

[qualitycomix]

Dear Rob,

 

I am sorry my email conversation with you regarding the Whiz Comics #70 auction was unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, we discovered a problem on the website that had inadvertently affected that specific auction. Thankfully, we have completely resolved the situation and we do not expect anything like this to occur in the future.

 

I felt as if I handled the situation very fairly by contacting the seller to apologize and requested a price that he felt was fair to offer you. I understand the fact that I am not capable of pleasing everyone, but I am certainly trying to!

 

Again, Rob, I am sorry for the inconvenience this situation has caused you, and I hope you understand that I did not intend for this to occur and I will always do my best to help you.

 

Explaining things fully to the customer will always help if you or your software screwed up. I've found most people to be very reasonable once they understand what the problem is.

[8milemax]

I felt as if I handled the situation very fairly by contacting the seller to apologize and requested a price that he felt was fair to offer you

 

Was the seller metro comics

[aardvark88]

I don't have any problems with Metro or ComicConnect. cConnect has helped me sell a SA Cgc 8.0 and a raw comic in the last 7 days. Consignors have very little to lose by giving them a try til Sept. 1, 2007.

 

The only downside is the 48 hours to reply to an offer. If a vendor/collector is away from their computer for a week at say Wizard Chicago or Comic-con: San Diego, he may not have seen the offer before it expired.

[nearmint]

I always bring my laptop to Comicon.

[ComicConnect.com]

I felt as if I handled the situation very fairly by contacting the seller to apologize and requested a price that he felt was fair to offer you

 

Was the seller metro comics

 

No, the seller was not Metropolis.

[ft88]

I still don't understand the business strategy of charging equivalent fees as comiclink. This is a website market making venue that might have some startup costs but should be able to run itself nearly for free if don't properly.

 

I simply don't understand how emulating a craigslist/photobucket/myspace/yahoo/CGC forum/flickr/ and on and on isn't the right way to go. Its clearly an excellent website with a few kinks. Fix those and push the marketing. Make it free and community oriented and let the viral affects make this the defacto comic book exchange. It is only too easy to make money by being the first place to go for buying and selling comics. Think createively or experiment. Ask for ideas from outside your company and post them for further criticism.

 

Ed

 

PS. For more professional opinion on this, read a book called Wikinomics which outlines reasonably well the point I am trying to make here.

 

I'd really like to get a response as to why you think this strategy won't work.

[qualitycomix]

I still don't understand the business strategy of charging equivalent fees as comiclink. This is a website market making venue that might have some startup costs but should be able to run itself nearly for free if don't properly.

 

I simply don't understand how emulating a craigslist/photobucket/myspace/yahoo/CGC forum/flickr/ and on and on isn't the right way to go. Its clearly an excellent website with a few kinks. Fix those and push the marketing. Make it free and community oriented and let the viral affects make this the defacto comic book exchange. It is only too easy to make money by being the first place to go for buying and selling comics. Think createively or experiment. Ask for ideas from outside your company and post them for further criticism.

 

Ed

 

PS. For more professional opinion on this, read a book called Wikinomics which outlines reasonably well the point I am trying to make here.

 

I'd really like to get a response as to why you think this strategy won't work.

 

This is not like craigslist/photobucket/myspace/yahoo/CGC forum/flickr/ because comicconnect actually takes payment directly and also processes the books. If they didn't do that, then yes, it would be more cost effective to emulate aforementioned sites.

 

If they did that, then raw grades could not be verified. Restoration/trimming could not be verified. And you get the same results as you do with ebay/craigslist. You pay for competence.

 

If people were only allowed to list CGC certified books, that would take care of part of the problem, but most of the more expensive comics in this world are not certified.

[ft88]

 

This is not like craigslist/photobucket/myspace/yahoo/CGC forum/flickr/ because comicconnect actually takes payment directly and also processes the books.

 

I have it right that comicconnect has the exact same business model as comiclink? ie a comic sold is sent to comicconnect first and then shipped to the buyer. But neither they nor comiclink don't check for restoration and grading to the equivalent of CGC do they? Also comiclink requires you to be a BSD before you can sell raw books. Not sure if cc is the same.

 

This just does not take full advantage of the internets powerful tools. Shipping a comic twice is incredibly inefficient. Not being able to communicate back and forth between buyer and seller is also a significant flaw and valuable necessity that the internet is particularlly designed for. Not being able to see either buyer or seller reputations (or having a reputation system) is flawed. All it is, is a blind market place with no differentiation between comiclink and pedigree and others. The only differentiator possible is usability of the website and qualtiy of books. Since the website is equally as good but no better than the others (at least not in anyway I could see), and the majority of the books are Metros; then there is no value added by this venture.

 

Here are 10 ways to make money off a free but popular website

 

1. Advertise with banners or clickthrough ads. CGC charges $6k for a 12 month banner ad

2. Ask for donations - you'd be surprised

3. Tie donations to reputation - ie you gain reputation points by contributing to the site.

4. Charge by scale. First 100 sales are free. next 100 are 5% each, next 100 are 4% cents each etc. - the amounts can be adjusted but the idea here is to generate a viral community. A significant number of initial sales should be free to get encourage new users and also encourage veterans.

5. Charge a fee to provide for shipping insurance. The USPS insurance system is flawed, take advatage of it.

6. Charge a fee as a third party grader/checker on raw books - good idea QC.

7. Charge for auctions but not listings. Listings are static, auctios generate excitement.

8. Charge only for CGC comics, or the opposite only for raw comics, or only for high dollar comics or only for low low dollar comics. But create some sort of free service that keeps people coming back over and over again. This is the craigslist model - they charge only for job postings.

9. Tie in the website to other websites like CGC, GPA, etc. Set up partnerships if viable.

10. Expand to other markets such as cards coins stamps toys posters etc. (see Amazon history)

11. Once becoming the defacto site - only then charge a nominal fee for listing. this can increase over time (see ebay) but only after you own the marketplace (again, see ebay)

 

 

All of these need the website to be the premiere place to buy and sell comics first and foremost. None of this is easy or automatic or even free to do but it seems that at least one of these or many of these would work to some degree. At the very least the ideas I've listed need to be debunked as too risky. For now it just seems like a comiclink copy cat - that seems risky in its own right. The key to this and any business is to create value for customers (and still make profit). The value of comicconnect as it currently stands is zero over and above whats out there. If the value is as a third party grader, then charge for that. If its for shipping insurance, charge for that. But don't charge for using a website and then force us to ship twice and not allow us to talk to each other. Does that add value or detract value? Name a successful stand alone website that charges money just to use the webpage? Even in the internet porn or gambiling industry, free is still used to "hook" folks in.

 

Once September comes around the buzz will have worn off. The comic listings will dry up and the website will surely disappear. That's a shame for what could be.

[qualitycomix]

 

This is not like craigslist/photobucket/myspace/yahoo/CGC forum/flickr/ because comicconnect actually takes payment directly and also processes the books.

 

I have it right that comicconnect has the exact same business model as comiclink? ie a comic sold is sent to comicconnect first and then shipped to the buyer. But neither they nor comiclink don't check for restoration and grading to the equivalent of CGC do they? Also comiclink requires you to be a BSD before you can sell raw books. Not sure if cc is the same.

 

This just does not take full advantage of the internets powerful tools. Shipping a comic twice is incredibly inefficient. Not being able to communicate back and forth between buyer and seller is also a significant flaw and valuable necessity that the internet is particularlly designed for. Not being able to see either buyer or seller reputations (or having a reputation system) is flawed. All it is, is a blind market place with no differentiation between comiclink and pedigree and others. The only differentiator possible is usability of the website and qualtiy of books. Since the website is equally as good but no better than the others (at least not in anyway I could see), and the majority of the books are Metros; then there is no value added by this venture.

 

Here are 10 ways to make money off a free but popular website

 

1. Advertise with banners or clickthrough ads. CGC charges $6k for a 12 month banner ad

2. Ask for donations - you'd be surprised

3. Tie donations to reputation - ie you gain reputation points by contributing to the site.

4. Charge by scale. First 100 sales are free. next 100 are 5% each, next 100 are 4% cents each etc. - the amounts can be adjusted but the idea here is to generate a viral community. A significant number of initial sales should be free to get encourage new users and also encourage veterans.

5. Charge a fee to provide for shipping insurance. The USPS insurance system is flawed, take advatage of it.

6. Charge a fee as a third party grader/checker on raw books - good idea QC.

7. Charge for auctions but not listings. Listings are static, auctios generate excitement.

8. Charge only for CGC comics, or the opposite only for raw comics, or only for high dollar comics or only for low low dollar comics. But create some sort of free service that keeps people coming back over and over again. This is the craigslist model - they charge only for job postings.

9. Tie in the website to other websites like CGC, GPA, etc. Set up partnerships if viable.

10. Expand to other markets such as cards coins stamps toys posters etc. (see Amazon history)

11. Once becoming the defacto site - only then charge a nominal fee for listing. this can increase over time (see ebay) but only after you own the marketplace (again, see ebay)

 

 

All of these need the website to be the premiere place to buy and sell comics first and foremost. None of this is easy or automatic or even free to do but it seems that at least one of these or many of these would work to some degree. At the very least the ideas I've listed need to be debunked as too risky. For now it just seems like a comiclink copy cat - that seems risky in its own right. The key to this and any business is to create value for customers (and still make profit). The value of comicconnect as it currently stands is zero over and above whats out there. If the value is as a third party grader, then charge for that. If its for shipping insurance, charge for that. But don't charge for using a website and then force us to ship twice and not allow us to talk to each other. Does that add value or detract value? Name a successful stand alone website that charges money just to use the webpage? Even in the internet porn or gambiling industry, free is still used to "hook" folks in.

 

Once September comes around the buzz will have worn off. The comic listings will dry up and the website will surely disappear. That's a shame for what could be.

 

I see what you're saying. A few flaws in your logic. Comiclink isn't going anywhere and neither is comicconnect. Comicconnect is well funded, has an established customer base, and extensive inventory. Also, they have the manpower, and an existing shipping department that will be able to handle all of this. For metro, this is a no brainer. And it will succeed.

 

Also, just because you're a copycat, doesn't mean you can't be successful. There are tons of instances where the company that's late to the game, picks up all the pieces, because they do it just a little bit better. Comicconnect's site is much more user friendly and easy to navigate. Comiclink's site is old, clunky and generally annoying compared to what it should be given the level of sales that they do.

 

Finally, sellers don't care how much consignors charge, as long as they can net the same or more than they can anywhere else. It's that simple.

 

If the following is true:

1) Company is not responsible for grade

2) Company is not responsible for book's resto status

3) Company is not responsible if the book is ever even shipped

4) Company does not settle disputes between buyer and seller

 

Then a free site might be ok. This is what craigslist does. It's all buyer beware. Sure, the company can offer these services for a fee, but I can guarantee that only a very small percentage of people are going to do that. The only way to really make money is to get enough targeted traffic to get decent revenue from banner ads.

 

comiclink probably nets close to 1mil per year. Do you think you can come anywhere close to that with banner ads? Not in this industry. I just don't see the site you envision NETTING 1mil+. It may net 50K - 100K a year after a LOT of hard work. But when you compare that the potential dollars they are giving up, I don't see the financial incentive, unless they are altruistic.

 

If comics had a much broader appeal, I could see this working. There's just not enough money/people in the hobby to make it work.