Where is everyone?

[drobfan8]

Ok, my 2 cents... on my 2600th post!

I used to be on these forums 24/7 scouring the buy/sell/trade for anything that caught my eye, and I mean anything!
Loved it. Every Second of it!

I have only had good deals with the people on this forum and I've found most to be very genuine and kind people. Except @kiwi_in_melb who hoards all the good cards and won't sell !!!

Things that have taken me away from the boards;
- Starting and running West Oz Cards takes up a monumental amount of time behind the scenes. I don't think a lot of people realize that apart from the live shows for a few hours, that after all the fun has been had and the lights go down... breakers still have to sort, pack and send those cards out. This can literally take days in between everything else you have to do like, arrange purchasing from distributors, track and pick up shipments, list products and breaks on the website etc. All this time really takes away a lot of the enjoyment of coming to these pages and sharing the enjoyment of the hobby with others.
I work 12 hours a day, so the available time I have to see everything is minimal.. heck I only just found this thread today! A great idea would of been to tag all members in the initial thread like you do with the member competitions.

- Facebook.
This is hands down, the BIGGEST OZCT killer. The instant gratification that you get on facebook trading pages is amazing. You can post a picture of your latest acquisitions and with a few hours, you may get 200 people view it and 10-50 odd responses including offers for trade/sell etc.
Add that to the diversity of pages, ie; auction page, raffle page for cards, raffle page for boxes/memorabilia/breaks etc.. there is just so much action on there, and its lightning fast, cards move super quick. Already just over 4 months old and we have nearly hit 500 completed raffles. It's a juggernaut that I don't see stopping any time soon.

My ideas for how to bring people back to OZCT...
1- Have a raffle section. I wouldn't bother with an auction section, but people go mad for raffles.

2- overhaul of the buy/sell/trade section. - a few issues I find;

• Incorrect/misleading thread titles to entice you to look, but really not accurate with what they're advertising. ie "HIGH END" then look in there to find sub $20 cards.
  • To improve this, possibly enforce tags for the thread posts that are identified by the seller and to expand on the general search function; integrate a search function at the side like feebay, where you can tick box for certain keywords that have been identified by the seller as being in their sale thread. eg; Exquisite, Jordan auto, Gold Standard, RPA etc
• NO PRICES!!! This is a pet hate of mine. As was mentioned by Josh, I will not bother 90% of the time to ask someone what they want for a card. Unless I really want it.
  • To improve this, mandatory sale or trade value. SV$ OR/and TV$ for all cards listed.
• All fs/ft mixed in together for me turns me off looking through every post. I'm just picky I guess because I don't have a lot of time, but I would envision something like separate sections for 90's, 00's and 10's . not sure how much this would benefit others, but I would enjoy using it a bit more streamlined.
• Use a rolling banner advertisement. Not sure what they really call it.. but you know how at the bottom of some ebay stores they have that rolling banner advertising other cards thta the seller has.. that could be used here, where for a small fee? $0.10c someone could list a card in it to be rotated in the banner... OR someone could subscribe to the service and when they create a sale thread, they could nominate 1 or 2 cards to be shown directly from their thread in the banner and clicking on it links the clicker to their thread?

Well I guess thats all from me for now.
Have a good weekend.

Great post and it's so good to have another Aussie doing breaks here. Mainly because it's just great to see lots of high end broken on our shores.

No prices on cards kill me. I don't even bother. I always put a price.

I love the raffle idea. Especially if they're in the $5-$10 range. I mentioned it a while back but it's against the rules.

I'm surprised about Facebook going off. I'll have to check that out.

 

[karlsta26]

Starting to personally be a bit over this place, lots of great members have already disappeared whether getting away from the hobby/moving on to other sites/or other reasons.

The cost of breaks being done over here is also a killer for me personally compared to how much I used to do, although do find myself doing them with various guys in the US still though.

Nobody trading much at all anymore, only selling/buying and always wanting top price/bottom dollar. Ebay looks like getting more sales from me soon.

 

[GarnettFan4Life]

Starting to personally be a bit over this place, lots of great members have already disappeared whether getting away from the hobby/moving on to other sites/or other reasons.

The cost of breaks being done over here is also a killer for me personally compared to how much I used to do, although do find myself doing them with various guys in the US still though.

Nobody trading much at all anymore, only selling/buying and always wanting top price/bottom dollar. Ebay looks like getting more sales from me soon.

So a group break plus postage to AUS works out significantly cheaper than ones done here?
I don't know cause I don't do many! Signed up for my first cherry one the other day for Rockets in a NT break so see how it goes!

Just asking because I had heard Facebook groups and raffles (?) were becoming more popular but am curious as to other factors and how to keep the $$ and interest in AUS if it's still cheaper to join a U.S. Break and watch it on live stream etc

 

[drobfan8]

So a group break plus postage to AUS works out significantly cheaper than ones done here?
I don't know cause I don't do many! Signed up for my first cherry one the other day for Rockets in a NT break so see how it goes!

Just asking because I had heard Facebook groups and raffles (?) were becoming more popular but am curious as to other factors and how to keep the $$ and interest in AUS if it's still cheaper to join a U.S. Break and watch it on live stream etc

I follow a few of the US ones and the difference is that they're not for profit it seems (Blowout breaks that is). They usually participate in the breaks themselves.

I know West Oz has a job so he doesn't rely on making money, not sure what Cherry's situation is, but without a profit factor added in it's easy to see how the US breaks are cheaper. May not be by much though.

Just seems to be a lack of numbers in Australia. It's fantastic we have Cherry and West Oz but it would be great to have them selling out so they can continue to bring in product.

 

[West Oz Cards]

The USD is not being kind to us at the moment.

I participate in blowout breaks regularly, as you said, they are run at the case cost because all breaks on there have to be product purchased from Blowout, hence they're the ones making all the bank. I haven't enquired, but there has to be some sort of % sent to the breaker, or they wouldn't bother.

 

[Brian Lee]

I am not so concerned by the lack of discussions on the sport, but I am more concerned with the trend that nobody wants to trade cards anymore.... with the USD going up over the past year or so, it is no longer cheaper to buy cards directly from the US eBay, following the USPS price hike on the "package" category which greatly reduced international trade activities on US forums. This should be the time when Aussies trade amongst themselves for $1.40 and a potentially recycled bubble mailer. But nowadays, all I see are sale threads, people no longer trade for trading's sake, everybody's really specific on what they are after...

 

[mattharper85]

I am not so concerned by the lack of discussions on the sport, but I am more concerned with the trend that nobody wants to trade cards anymore.... with the USD going up over the past year or so, it is no longer cheaper to buy cards directly from the US eBay, following the USPS price hike on the "package" category which greatly reduced international trade activities on US forums. This should be the time when Aussies trade amongst themselves for $1.40 and a potentially recycled bubble mailer. But nowadays, all I see are sale threads, people no longer trade for trading's sake, everybody's really specific on what they are after...

Trade Me All Your Shaqs

 

[Brian Lee]

Trade Me All Your Shaqs

I am always happy to trade my doubles