All I want to do is talk about Sportlots

[RobDerhak]

@sportlots

one feature that would make buying on the site MUCH easier would be to allow sorting of the columns when looking for a card...i.e. if I need card #53 in Topps Platinum Anniversary for my set...I pull up the inventory for that card, and the guy that has it for $.20 MIGHT not be the cheapest overall b/c he charges $3 for box shipping...but the guy that has it listed for $1.25 has box shipping for $.50 (i'm just making all these price points up to make a point)...sure, I can find all of that out now, but it is time consuming and the longer I (or any prospective buyer) have to mess around to make sure I buy from the 'right' seller, the likelier I am to say screw it & go to COMC or eBay to spend $$

I, and presumably other buyers understand that the shipping costs change w/ quantities of card, but having that sort feature would also GREATLY increase efficiency when sellers list cards and want to get a real idea of what other sellers are charging. I keep my shipping rates as cheap as possible...I am 100% positive I am selling cards 10-30% lower than I could when shipping rates/discounts are factored in, but it is in no way feasible to pop-out the info for every card listed and check comps when shipping is factored in.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by RobDerhak

@sportlots

one feature that would make buying on the site MUCH easier would be to allow sorting of the columns when looking for a card...i.e. if I need card #53 in Topps Platinum Anniversary for my set...I pull up the inventory for that card, and the guy that has it for $.20 MIGHT not be the cheapest overall b/c he charges $3 for box shipping...but the guy that has it listed for $1.25 has box shipping for $.50 (i'm just making all these price points up to make a point)...sure, I can find all of that out now, but it is time consuming and the longer I (or any prospective buyer) have to mess around to make sure I buy from the 'right' seller, the likelier I am to say screw it & go to COMC or eBay to spend $$

I, and presumably other buyers understand that the shipping costs change w/ quantities of card, but having that sort feature would also GREATLY increase efficiency when sellers list cards and want to get a real idea of what other sellers are charging. I keep my shipping rates as cheap as possible...I am 100% positive I am selling cards 10-30% lower than I could when shipping rates/discounts are factored in, but it is in no way feasible to pop-out the info for every card listed and check comps when shipping is factored in.

I hear this a lot and I have tried to come up with something that would work.
In the end, I just give up because it gets so complicated and is still not right. The problem is this is a very complex situation with almost an infinite level of possibiities if you want to do it right. Do I just do it based on "Budget" shipping? Do I just do it based on the assumption that you are only going to buy 1 card? It just isn't practicle because hardly anyone buys just one card.

Some sellers charge high shipping rates for say up to 10 cards, but free shipping afterwards. They are trying to encourage larger orders and discourage smaller orders. Should I punish them for that?

Should I look at their buying history, try to determine which shipping method they typically use and use that as a basis? Should I look at their current shopping cart and see that they have 4 cards from one seller already and 12 cards from another seller. If you buy from the seller that you already have 12 cards, the 13th card is free, regardless of how much the seller charges for shipping. But if you buy from the seller who charges much less for shipping, but the 5th card goes into another shipping category and it ends up actually costing them more regardless. And all of that just assumes that this is the last card they are going to purchase.. It drives you mad trying to come up with something that would actually work.

There are so many variations of things to look at and no way to get it perfect.. if we do this wrong, what is the expectation from the buyer if our recommendation caused them to pay more overall?

Can you tell I have put a lot of thought into this in the past???

One way to fix this would be to force set shipping costs on sellers. That way, the only variable is the price. However, I don't think sellers would want this. That would be unfair to Canadian sellers and also sellers who live on the coasts that could have longer cross-country shipping costs.

From a seller perspective, what I tell sellers is charge what it costs you to ship, provide great customer service, quick shipping and accurate inventory and if you can manage to have a good variety of cards, the rest doesn't matter much.

Also good point to know, over 75% of all the cards on the site are already set at the minimum price anyway.

I know this doesn't solve your issue, just wanted to give you my perspective and let you know it is something that I have looked at a lot in the past.

Thanks

[colfix87]

Originally Posted by Sportlots

I hear this a lot and I have tried to come up with something that would work.
In the end, I just give up because it gets so complicated and is still not right. The problem is this is a very complex situation with almost an infinite level of possibiities if you want to do it right. Do I just do it based on "Budget" shipping? Do I just do it based on the assumption that you are only going to buy 1 card? It just isn't practicle because hardly anyone buys just one card.

I agree it's complicated and there's probably no good solution, but a couple thoughts I had just now:

- The current shipping tables have both budget and premium options for all of the quantity buckets. My uninformed guess (I assume you could look at this on the backend) is that most sellers read "Budget" = PWE, "Premium" = Bubble mailer. I'd further assume that most sellers aren't willing to send Budget/PWE for more than 10 cards or so. That's how I think about it, at least, and I assume everyone thinks like me If that's the case, I think you might be able to get rid of Budget shipping for the higher quantity buckets and simplify the shipping table a bit.

- I float that idea (and the general idea of trying to simplify the number of buckets on the shipping tables) because I think it might be possible to help buyers by doing something similar to what you're already doing with seller icons for box shipping. As a buyer, if I'm putting together a large-ish order to ship to my box, I already know to look out for the Blue/Red checkmarks and prefer those sellers. It would take some research, but I suspect you could come up with a reasonable way to do that for direct shipping rates as well. Figure out what price range is reasonable for, say, "Affordable Budget Shipping," "Affordable Premium Shipping," "Suspiciously Cheap Budget Shipping," etc and indicate that to the buyer the same way you're already doing it for box shipping discounts.

Basically, if my assumption in the first suggestion is right, we wind up with only three buckets for budget shipping - 1, 2-4, and 5-10. Look at each seller and average all three. Maybe anything under $2 as an average rate to mail 1-10 cards in a PWE gets a special icon next to their name? You could do a similar exercise for premium shipping, but it's harder with more buckets to worry about.

I dunno, just something that popped into my mind. Wouldn't solve the problem perfectly, but might help give buyers more information at a glance. I invite my fellow sellers to point out all the horrible flaws in my thinking

[jbriskin05]

think it would be helpful to just go back to being able to just click on the seller from the search results to see their shipping policies...having to go into the card details to see each seller's postage rates slows the process down incredibly expecially when placing larger orders.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by jbriskin05

think it would be helpful to just go back to being able to just click on the seller from the search results to see their shipping policies...having to go into the card details to see each seller's postage rates slows the process down incredibly expecially when placing larger orders.

Makes sense. Let me take a look at that and see if we can provide that ability.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by colfix87

I agree it's complicated and there's probably no good solution, but a couple thoughts I had just now:

- The current shipping tables have both budget and premium options for all of the quantity buckets. My uninformed guess (I assume you could look at this on the backend) is that most sellers read "Budget" = PWE, "Premium" = Bubble mailer. I'd further assume that most sellers aren't willing to send Budget/PWE for more than 10 cards or so. That's how I think about it, at least, and I assume everyone thinks like me If that's the case, I think you might be able to get rid of Budget shipping for the higher quantity buckets and simplify the shipping table a bit.

Yes, something I have been thinking about is limiting the number of cards that can be shipped using budget. Once you get past say 8-10 cards, there really isn't much if any difference between budget and premium. Both have to be shipped in some sort of box or bubble mailer anyway at that point.

[nam812]

Originally Posted by Sportlots

Yes, something I have been thinking about is limiting the number of cards that can be shipped using budget..........

I get budget order for 10 cards fairly often, so please don't reduce that number.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by nam812

I get budget order for 10 cards fairly often, so please don't reduce that number.

How do you ship a 10 card budget package differently from a premium shipped package?

What card limit do you think has to be shipped in a bubble mailer, not an envelope or cardboard flat?

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by jbriskin05

think it would be helpful to just go back to being able to just click on the seller from the search results to see their shipping policies...having to go into the card details to see each seller's postage rates slows the process down incredibly expecially when placing larger orders.

This feature has now been added back to the new screens.

Thanks for the input!

[crazy4kinsler]

I just stumbled across this thread. Glad I saw it because I'm curious if I did something wrong.

I was on there probably 6-7 years ago when I was working on some various sets because I was told it was good for buying commons. Well, I found probably 10-15 commons. When I went to check out, the shipping was going to be like $20. It upset becuase everyone was talking about good the site was, but I can't pay more for shipping than I do for the cards themselves.

Just curious if I did something wrong.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by crazy4kinsler

I just stumbled across this thread. Glad I saw it because I'm curious if I did something wrong.

I was on there probably 6-7 years ago when I was working on some various sets because I was told it was good for buying commons. Well, I found probably 10-15 commons. When I went to check out, the shipping was going to be like $20. It upset becuase everyone was talking about good the site was, but I can't pay more for shipping than I do for the cards themselves.

Just curious if I did something wrong.

Yes, if you are buying 15 commons from 15 different sellers, that means each seller has to ship these cards to you individually. The key is to try to find as many cards as possible from as few sellers as possible. Then also look at the sellers shipping rates to compare.

My suggestion is to start from scratch, search for one of the cards and go to the "Pick A Seller" and pick the largest seller out there. Then keep the Pick a seller filter on for that seller and look for as many cards as possible from that seller.

Another option is to use the "Shopping Cart Sellers" filter at the bottom left side after you enter your search. What this filter does is filters out only sellers that you already have cards in your shopping cart with.

It can be a tedious process, a process I wish we could find a way to make easier!

[dgrimes248]

As a player collector, i loved being able to use the "search player by seller" feature on the old sportslots.

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by dgrimes248

As a player collector, i loved being able to use the "search player by seller" feature on the old sportslots.

Oh crap, you can't do that anymore?!?

[colfix87]

Originally Posted by nam812

I get budget order for 10 cards fairly often, so please don't reduce that number.

10's my cutoff for premium, I'm sure it's higher for others, my post was mostly thinking out loud.

To rephrase my suggestion without rambling: I think figuring out a way to reasonably mimic the shipping discount icons that already exist for box shipping doesn't solve the "show me the delivered cost of this card" problem, but it probably helps. Simplifying the postage tables is just a means to that end in this context.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by sthoemke

Oh crap, you can't do that anymore?!?

Yes, you can, just need to do it on the same search bar as every other search. The new way is different and may take a little to get used to, but I did tons of testing on this prior to implementation and in (almost) every case, the new way was faster.

Here is a link to a video example comparison:

Comparison Video

What isn't covered in this video is you can also "exclude" words from your search. So for example if you wanted 2018 Bowman, but didn't want to include the Chrome cards from you results, you can enter "2018 Bowman ^Chrome". The "^" sign followed by the word excludes results that have that word in it. You can exclude multiple words if you want too.

Also, here is a high level overview of all the enhancements. It is a 9+ minute video, but worth the time if you want to get caught up on all the changes:

OverView Video

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by dgrimes248

As a player collector, i loved being able to use the "search player by seller" feature on the old sportslots.

You can do this. Just search for the player. Then on the left side where the filters are, scroll down and you will see a "Pick A Seller" dropdown. This dropdown will have a list of all sellers that matched your criteria. This even better because now you can also see how many matches each seller has and sorts in order of most matches. Great if you are trying to minimize the amount of sellers you buy from.

If you want to select a specific seller, just click on the dropdown and start typing the seller ID, the system then will "find" this seller in the list for you and highlight them for you to select.

Hope this helps!

[nam812]

I still wish there was a way for buyers to see what a seller offers (it may spark a set interest they forgot they need) than to just have them do a search of my inventory based on only what they are looking for at that moment. An example would be if they could view our entire inventory on one page the same way a seller can see his own inventory report page where every set is a clickable link.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by nam812

I still wish there was a way for buyers to see what a seller offers (it may spark a set interest they forgot they need) than to just have them do a search of my inventory based on only what they are looking for at that moment. An example would be if they could view our entire inventory on one page the same way a seller can see his own inventory report page where every set is a clickable link.

They can do this. Two ways:

1) If you provide them a direct link:

https://www.sportlots.com/b/ui/searc...eller=xxxxxxxx

The xxxxxxxx = is your seller ID

2) If the buyer just clicks on the magnifying glass next to the search bar with nothing added in the search bar. The system will give them a warning that they must select a seller. On the left there will be the "Pick A Seller" dropdown. If the click on this dropdown and start typing a seller ID, it will select the one they want.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by nam812

I still wish there was a way for buyers to see what a seller offers (it may spark a set interest they forgot they need) than to just have them do a search of my inventory based on only what they are looking for at that moment. An example would be if they could view our entire inventory on one page the same way a seller can see his own inventory report page where every set is a clickable link.

You can also still use the link that is in your footer of your messages here.

[nam812]

Originally Posted by Sportlots

You can also still use the link that is in your footer of your messages here.

Yes, but they cant see every set i offer on one page, like the inventory report view gives a seller.

[Sportlots]

Originally Posted by nam812

Yes, but they cant see every set i offer on one page, like the inventory report view gives a seller.

With the new screens, they now have the filters on the left side.

Some of the larger sellers on the site will easily have well over ten thousand individual sets (largest seller has over 15,000 sets). It just isn't realistic to show a buyer that many sets. No one will browse through that much stuff.

Before the old seller screens only allowed you to do a random search, select a sport, filter on cards with pictures and filter out common (20 cent cards).

Now with full blown filters, they can do all of this, plus filter on Maker, Year, Sets (at least a subset), Team, Print Run, Relic and Auto cards. They can also filter out Fresh Inventory (huge for people who frequently buy from specific sellers) and filter out lower end conditions if they don't want to see them.

Seeing some of these filters on the left may peak their interests and start narrowing down the vast amount of inventory these sellers have down to something they can actually realistically browse through.

[dgrimes248]

Originally Posted by Sportlots

You can do this. Just search for the player. Then on the left side where the filters are, scroll down and you will see a "Pick A Seller" dropdown. This dropdown will have a list of all sellers that matched your criteria. This even better because now you can also see how many matches each seller has and sorts in order of most matches. Great if you are trying to minimize the amount of sellers you buy from.

If you want to select a specific seller, just click on the dropdown and start typing the seller ID, the system then will "find" this seller in the list for you and highlight them for you to select.

Hope this helps!

Super! Thanks

[MiggyCabby24]

Boy oh boy. I miss the compact and efficient nature of the old site. Too much scrolling and wasted space with the new design along with menus upon menus.

[3124508 on COMC]

Originally Posted by MiggyCabby24

Boy oh boy. I miss the compact and efficient nature of the old site. Too much scrolling and wasted space with the new design along with menus upon menus.

I agree. I check Sportlots like once a week and buy something maybe once every month or two, so my opinion shouldn’t count for much, but the site should’ve gotten a significant stylistic facelift with minor functionality (search/filtering) improvements. Instead, the style is still significantly outdated and the site is significantly less compact and easy to browse.

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by MiggyCabby24

Boy oh boy. I miss the compact and efficient nature of the old site. Too much scrolling and wasted space with the new design along with menus upon menus.

I'm typically a fan of change...it is what leads us to better things...but this one has been a tough adjustment, more as a seller than a buyer for me.

I just listed a bunch of 2020 Bowman Chrome...a set that there are still prospects that haven't popped yet, so pricing is pretty time consuming anyway...but the new format makes it even less efficient to check comps on what you are listing than the old format, and I didn't think that was possible.

At least in the old format, I could pop out and see every copy of a particular card listed on Sportlots on one page...now if 11 + dealers have that cad listed, the inventory is spread out over multiple pages, and when I back out to the main list, it doesn't hold my place, so If I was on card 125, or page 2, it backs me out back to page 1.

Unfortunately, I think I'll be slowing down my rate of adding inventory b/c it is just an absolute time suck.