Malakai wrote:First thank you for creating such a great site. I am not a huge eBay fan but I don't know of any alternatives.

That's why RPGmarketplace was started!!!

My thoughts:

It isn't very easy to contact a store owner. I can ask a question about an auction but I can't just go to say their store page and click ask a question. I think it would be helpful to have something like that I feel a bit more comfortable going to a store site and knowing I can get in touch with them in some way.

It's kind of like your hiding something with the lack of information in the site about who you are. With eBay they have the history to make you fell like maybe they could help if something goes wrong. I doubt they would but do you see what I am saying from an outsiders perspective if your open to new faces you might have to be a bit more open to them contacting you.

(The only option I can easily see to contact a store owner if your curious about a store is to send an email to the admin@rpg and ask for help. Or go into an auction and clutter it up with a question that may not even be related to that particular item.)

Maybe all of this is there and I'm just blind if so maybe it needs some attention. Or I need glasses. I tried searching here but I can't see if this has even come up before.

Yes this is a problem and one Doug is hopefully looking to correct. A lot of how the site works is based on the software, and the company has promised a lot of updates soon. One thing is that through our feedback to them, they are actually listening to a lot of our suggestions and will incorporate them into the next version.  Another thing we are hoping to see is a way to have a list of complete members, so if you quickly check out the site you can see if a forum member is there (since about 99% of those registered used their name here or a close version).  Doug did adjust it so instead of the last five registered users it now shows the last ten, we are hoping they will make it so all members can be seen.

Also the navigation is a bit wierd takes a bit to not go in circles. Images with no hover text like about me would be useful (Verified User has hover text)

Hope this is helpful stuff for you. And Thanks again for opening such a great place to shop.

Thanks man.  Two things we need, are more users, espeically "casual" users (i.e. those not just in the market for a Ghost Tower limited), and more items listed.  I just haven't had time to put up more than 40+ items, I hope at some point I can put up some more.  And if you have any other suggestions post them here or use the "Contact Us" button as Doug checks his emails every day.

Mike B.

serleran wrote:
I've looked, and other than the ultra-rare expensive stuff which I can't afford anyway without payment plans (I see no one ever offers those... a shame [I would assume that there was some schedule of payments - miss one and the item goes back up for sale, and the buyer does not get the item until its been paid for, of course]), there's not a whole lot that is "casual." I understand its in infancy, but maybe more of the "common' stuff might attract those people? I dunno. Seems rather limited if you're going to be trying to just get Acaeum and DF members to join. That's only like, what 2k people? Sounds like a lot, but its really a drop in the bucket.

More "ordinary" stuff should be going up in the next month.  As for the number of people...we are trying to concentrate it at first among "known" collectors such as those on Dragonsfoot and Acaeum, and letting word of mouth attract others. I know I've got a few people to sign up after they were Ebay customers of mine, and were very interested in the concept.  We actually WANT the site to be somewhat exclusive, to promote the idea that it's a place you can go "where everybody knows your name" and you won't be ripped off.

2K?  I would be highly satisfied, but realistically, without a big campaign to push the site, it isn't going to see a lot of people out of the small circle of collectors at the typical gaming forums online.  I'm actually going to be excited if we even get 200 people (a tenth of that) in the first year or so. The sites main purpose is to promote sales/trades within the community, and so far it's done that admirably.  We've already saved a LOT of money from going into Ebay's pocket, based on the high priced sales already.

Mike B.

Aneoth: When you first sign up, you can't sell. You are suppose to contact me about it so I can update your account... in your case I researched your account name to verify the real name you provided matched your real name here. If you'd like to be a verified user there, send me a message from your eBay account (mine is douglaswrhea on ebay) and I'll update you to verified.

Malakai: ref contacting other users... yes I have contacted the programmers about having the ability to contact other uses with the messaging system without it having to be related to an item up for sale... it's something they will consider for the next release, but could end up in the release afterwards... so I suggest Store owners to put their email info in the Store's main page or something for now. Users can add additional information on the "About Me" page or the Store's main page. Thanx for the suggestions though as it gives me more to add to the list of requests from the programmers.

serleran: I have sold a couple of the high priced items AND in 2 cases payments are being made... I don't offer payments in the auction descriptions since that is a case by case option I would offer. In the case of the Ghost Tower, it's going to Italy with me in Sept once it's paid for.


If any of the Acaeum Valuation Board members are tracking any of the sales from the site, please contact the seller of any high priced items as sometimes deals are made and the buyer just "buys" the item to "win" it, but pays a lesser price. In the case of the Ghost Tower the buyer did not pay the full $2200.00, we worked out a deal.

ScketreWhisp wrote: In the case of the Ghost Tower, it's going to Italy with me in Sept once it's paid for.

Nice service, if Killjoy orders something when he's on his Sahara marathon, will you fly to the desert to hand deliver it?????

Mike B.

mellmorranth wrote:this is a great site. thanks for putting it together!

a few suggestions for the sellers though - some of the buyer restrictions and shipping prices seem a little strange/high, don't they?

if the purpose is only to sell to acaeum/dragonfoot members then the restrictions probably don't matter. but shipping fees of $9-$10 for single modules or books seem excessive.

if the hope is to attract non acaeum/df members, i think many might be a little scared by the auction terms listed in various item descriptions.

just my $0.02.

Good suggestions. I think the entire idea of the marketplace, unlike Ebay, is that negotiation can take place. I for one just reposted my ebay shipping prices; I will lower these for any Acaeum member.  I bet other sellers will do the same.

Mike B.

serleran wrote:Can I get free shipping? I'll strike you down with vengeance if I don't. Hehe.

...and of course, one advantage to not being on ebay is being able to tell Buyers to take a flying leap into Hell!!!  

Mike B.

About the rss feed page.

The links to the pages don't go anywhere I put together a little site with the help of Feed2HTML it's a free utility. (Can't beat that price.)
The sample is

Here

The index is for each link and it opens a viewable webpage of each feed.

I modified the script a bit on the bottom of each page is a button that takes you back to the previous page. (I also took out the date function as it showed 12:00 no matter what time it was maybe it's just my php or something.

I have zipped all the files Here


I was even playing around with the random function and set it to show only 1 ad. I thought maybe I could eventually make a PHPBB MOD to show a random feed on a forum (Kinda like the Google Adsense Mod that places a single Google Ad in forums.) It's way beta but that would be cool free random ad based on the feed. The example is phpbb_ads.php Here

I added echo('<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="15">');  so the page automatically refreshes every 15 seconds.

Since there is not alot to randomize it is slow to work but refresh the page a few times and watch the new items rotate.. Fun stuff hope you like it or get inspired from it.

When processing I noticed the Under $10 feed is showing things starting at $5 and going up to $50 (That's under 10 Euro isn't it   )
,

Had my first successful purchase from the site..quite surprised at the ability to leave longer comments about the experience, but still sort of stuck in the limited ebay mode.

ShaneG.

bombadil wrote:
I'll vouch for that, plus Al's packages always smell so good...

lol