Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

If everybody stopped complaining and left sebi and the rest of the DB team alone they would have more time to fix the issues. They know what they need to do. Let them do it. In the meantime, go outside or something. Or go back to work...like me wink

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Kammikaze wrote:

If everybody stopped complaining and left sebi and the rest of the DB team alone they would have more time to fix the issues. They know what they need to do. Let them do it. In the meantime, go outside or something. Or go back to work...like me wink

By all means, people!  Do not voice your opinions!

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

dorvaan wrote:
sebi wrote:
rixan wrote:

It was completely avoidable...just dont do the market.  They performed the same business practice you the same as you would bully them if they stood up a direct competitor to you while using all of your data to make your site remotely functional.

I have answered this above. We cannot remain in our current form.

What research or user surveying was done before deciding on the market?  I've looked back through announcements and forums, and I see nothing about it before it was announced.

I don't think anyone said they ever did surveys or research? I think the point she's making is they were going to monetize the site or shut it down because it was to much work to do for free anymore, and hooking up people that have cards and people looking for cards to buy/sell as an alternative to trade seems more natural than just charging for a membership or something.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

sebi wrote:
keitht253 wrote:

This is a big mistake.  Find some other way to monetize the site.  You get enough traffic to earn money via google ads, and you could start accepting donations.

This has been calculated and tried. It does not work.

As I said, have some faith in us, we will have proper price data soon, we do not need or want to depend on the whims of Tcgplayer.

They bullied us now, they could have bullied us at any point in this website's future. We cannot rely on them.

It seems like you were the ones trying to take them on first, and they responded how any *direct* competitor would.  You two coexisted peacefully before the marketplace.  There's no reason to expect that they would've acted in such a way without provocation. 

That said, I sincerely hope you guys come out of this stronger, since you have many users who have also invested a lot of time into the site (maintaining inventories, etc).  I still don't (and never really did) think highly of the marketplace idea, independent of its effect on your relationship with TCGplayer, but I can see it being a useful perk for some users of the site.

Last edited by keitht253 (2014-04-02 13:51:52)

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

jassi007 wrote:
dorvaan wrote:
sebi wrote:

I have answered this above. We cannot remain in our current form.

What research or user surveying was done before deciding on the market?  I've looked back through announcements and forums, and I see nothing about it before it was announced.

I don't think anyone said they ever did surveys or research? I think the point she's making is they were going to monetize the site or shut it down because it was to much work to do for free anymore, and hooking up people that have cards and people looking for cards to buy/sell as an alternative to trade seems more natural than just charging for a membership or something.

This is my point.  Typically, if you're going to start a business model, you do some research beforehand.  I'm just curious to learn the thought process.  Because it seems that it was done without research or surveying, and now has the very real potential to bite them.  I hope that it ultimately doesn't, but it's undeniable that the potential is there.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

I am sorry to hear that TCGPlayer is being a hard-on about this.  I would understand where they are coming from if customers could actually buy cards through deckbox.org.  The fact that you guys linked to them and openly confirmed that you use their pricing should clue them in to the fact that for this reason, this site increases their traffic and sales.

I think it's totally understandable that you wish to avoid legal trouble with them, and am grateful that you are seeking alternative methods to bridge the gap, rather than just abandoning the feature altogether.  Best of luck, deckbox team.

-three_toe

Last edited by three_toe (2014-04-02 13:54:52)

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Website is nearly unusable as is...

This is the most overreactive statement Ive seen. The fact that all your cards and decks are still listed and stored in once place means nothing? Trading didnt stop. Is it really that much extra work to have an extra browser window open next to deckbox to TCG or SCG or ebay or mtgprice or wherever to do a quick search of the current price of a card? Sure this is an extra step in the process but honestly, if you are that concerned about having the most current price of a card when completing a trade/sale, this should be something done regardless if a price generated automatically or an idea in your head on how much its worth.

Im honestly shocked by the amount of negativity and the lack of patience some people have.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

What resources would be required to write your own code? If you can rally your loyal DeckBox followers, perhaps a crowd-funding campaign is in order? An influx of startup cash to solve these issues and launch Deckbox into a self-sustaining future. Do it now, while the coal is hot, turn our attention to a new goal.

You have a business model your confident will work, We are your #1 resource, harness the awesome power!

Go The Distance! If you Build it, they will come...

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

While I haven't done any development on Deckbox in the past year, I have followed closely its evolution as I have to stand Sebi's moods each day as he curses at the code smile and I have advised him during the development.

Reading everything posted here just reminds me of the Diablo 3 forum posts back when they launched (eg. "They broke Diablo", "this sucks", etc.) but I can't say I'm very surprised. As a former MtG player myself, I admit the amazon prices are not close to an ideal solution.

To address some of the questions raised here, as it seems that some of you don't see the big picture.

- Deckbox is not a big company (3 people)
- the ads we had didn't support the tiny company
- donations wouldn't have been enough to support it either
- we have taken into consideration adding premium-like features, but that would have been conflicting with Wizards of the Coast and that's not a company we want to be arguing with
- we have considered many other monetisation possibilities
- the marketplace was chosen as a solution for monetisation because it makes sense and fits in the whole logic of Deckbox
- yes, we expected TcgPlayer to not be happy, but we didn't expected them to be unhappy so soon :-)

I am not trying to get your sympathy or pity, I am simply explaining why proper market research wasn't done, why we chose to add the martketplace and why we added the Amazon prices. I understand this ruins some people's trades at the moment and we are in a less than comfortable place right now, but as mentioned before, it is not a permanent solution.

So please, bear with us, we understand and we are working on it smile

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Helios52 wrote:

Website is nearly unusable as is...

This is the most overreactive statement Ive seen. The fact that all your cards and decks are still listed and stored in once place means nothing? Trading didnt stop. Is it really that much extra work to have an extra browser window open next to deckbox to TCG or SCG or ebay or mtgprice or wherever to do a quick search of the current price of a card? Sure this is an extra step in the process but honestly, if you are that concerned about having the most current price of a card when completing a trade/sale, this should be something done regardless if a price generated automatically or an idea in your head on how much its worth.

Im honestly shocked by the amount of negativity and the lack of patience some people have.

Actually, that seems like a pretty valid reaction.  If we're just going to use other browser windows to check pricing anyway, why use Deckbox at all?  Why not use one of the MANY other forums that exist.  One of the features that drew people to trading here was the instantly accessible pricing information for both sides of the trade.  That feature is currently not gone.  This makes the website amazingly less useful than it was just 24 hours ago.

Last edited by dorvaan (2014-04-02 14:03:45)

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Helios52 wrote:

Website is nearly unusable as is...

This is the most overreactive statement Ive seen. The fact that all your cards and decks are still listed and stored in once place means nothing? Trading didnt stop. Is it really that much extra work to have an extra browser window open next to deckbox to TCG or SCG or ebay or mtgprice or wherever to do a quick search of the current price of a card? Sure this is an extra step in the process but honestly, if you are that concerned about having the most current price of a card when completing a trade/sale, this should be something done regardless if a price generated automatically or an idea in your head on how much its worth.

Im honestly shocked by the amount of negativity and the lack of patience some people have.

I think one of the main points is this is up front a temporary transition state from what it was to what it will be. People aren't out of line for waiting to see what is coming next. Also I think you can appreciate Amazon's pricing information is bad. It would be better to leave pricing data out completely than have very unreliable data.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

No, a valid reaction is " Im going to hold off trading/selling for the moment until this gets fixed to an acceptable level". Saying the site is "nearly unusable" is overreactive to the everything else deckbox does that those MANY other forums do not.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Sidewayzracer wrote:

cancelled all open trades due to this pricing issue that adding the market place has caused.  Now past trades i cant track the performance of them or my collection value awesome.

Let me know when this is fixed so i can bother with this site again

Well That's incredibly rude.. These regular people have put in all their time and dedication to provide us with a well established trading service for free!
I probably wouldnt even be playing modern, OR the standard decks I wanted to play if it wasnt for deckbox trading without spending a silly amount of cash on additional cards. Deckbox is the best thing that has happened to me during my time playing MTG.

Also, why would you cancel your existing trades, is it really that difficult to open another browser to reference prices during this TCGPlayer dilemma? I feel sorry for the people that were trading were you.

I am very sad that TCGPlayer has done this to Deckbox, but their Idea is very impressive and I like shopping from them (when I cant trade for what I want) as is. However, this is just a crazy good strategy for them.

Like others have suggested, maybe we can hop on the MTGPrice/MTGStocks API data until deckbox data is a little more established...

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

@Jassi007 - I wont disagree that the choice of Amazon was not the best but in retrospect, it was probably the most reputable source Sebi could have gone with TCG no longer an option and on such short notice. To be fair, TCG could have done this at anytime, granted the market place could have pushed the situation to what it is now, but its a process of transition that would have had to take place eventually anyway.

Last edited by Helios52 (2014-04-02 14:25:06)

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Mnemonic wrote:

Also, why would you cancel your existing trades, is it really that difficult to open another browser to reference prices during this TCGPlayer dilemma? I feel sorry for the people that were trading were you.

I know, right?  HOW DID ANYONE EVER TRADE ONLINE BEFORE THIS DEVASTATING CATASTROPHE?!?!?!

Deckbox team, you could take the position of: Our service was so convenient and useful, that people forgot how to live without it...

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Helios52 wrote:

Website is nearly unusable as is...

This is the most overreactive statement Ive seen. The fact that all your cards and decks are still listed and stored in once place means nothing? Trading didnt stop. Is it really that much extra work to have an extra browser window open next to deckbox to TCG or SCG or ebay or mtgprice or wherever to do a quick search of the current price of a card? Sure this is an extra step in the process but honestly, if you are that concerned about having the most current price of a card when completing a trade/sale, this should be something done regardless if a price generated automatically or an idea in your head on how much its worth.

Im honestly shocked by the amount of negativity and the lack of patience some people have.


It's more than that, it becomes nearly impossible to find cards of a specific value to even our trades.  You have to know the value of each card independently, as you can no longer organize cards in a tradelist by price and expect any meaningful result (though if anyone wants my Promo Grave Titans for $99 I'm happy to trade those at that value).  At this point, a lot of the utility of the site's functions disappear, and it just becomes a worse version of looking through a binder, since not even the owner of the tradelist can organize to put the more valueable cards at the front of the binder, its just this chaotic mess. 

I hope the pricing issues are resolved quickly, otherwise this site's utility has entirely disappeared for trading purposes.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Yeah I don't think it's necessary to voice that this pricing thing is a huge issue.  It's pretty obvious to everyone, including the dev team.  It's also equally obvious that they couldn't continue using the TCGPlayer API with legal threats on their backs.

I'm fine with just waiting a little while to see how they fix the pricing issue.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Helios52 wrote:

No, a valid reaction is " Im going to hold off trading/selling for the moment until this gets fixed to an acceptable level". Saying the site is "nearly unusable" is overreactive to the everything else deckbox does that those MANY other forums do not.

I also think that how each person uses the site is variable.  So what is unusable for one person is perfectly fine for another.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

three_toe wrote:
Mnemonic wrote:

Also, why would you cancel your existing trades, is it really that difficult to open another browser to reference prices during this TCGPlayer dilemma? I feel sorry for the people that were trading were you.

I know, right?  HOW DID ANYONE EVER TRADE ONLINE BEFORE THIS DEVASTATING CATASTROPHE?!?!?!

Deckbox team, you could take the position of: Our service was so convenient and useful, that people forgot how to live without it...

I will be the first to admit that this is true for me.  It's a lot of the reason I'm so upset.  There was a time in my life when I didn't have a vehicle of my own.  Now that I do, if it were suddenly taken from me, yes I would live.  But you can be damned sure that I'd be amazingly annoyed. sad

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

mcnealysbaby wrote:

Why not take out your frustration on TCG's legal department instead of the guy who spends many hours of his free time creating a free website for your enjoyment and benefit?

This.  The sense of entitlement is strong in this thread.

Thank you sebi and others involved in this site for your hard work and being so frank and open with us.  Given the belligerence in the marketplace for pricing (SCG, TCG, etc.) I would sort out your options and solidify your planning before annoucing your next steps; while you're likely doing this to get some awareness and feedback, this isn't a democracy here.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

Helios52 wrote:

No, a valid reaction is " Im going to hold off trading/selling for the moment until this gets fixed to an acceptable level". Saying the site is "nearly unusable" is overreactive to the everything else deckbox does that those MANY other forums do not.

sorry I tend to gloss over hyperbolic statements on the internet, I'd like to think most people that use the internet for some time learn to ignore them. Yes of course statements like that are unreasonable, but they arent' really the point either. I understand this isn't a choice per say, the whole pricing thing, but it is unexpected, which tends to draw reactions out of people, and amazon is not a good pricing data source for magic cards. I think that is the main point people want to express, that a sudden switch of pricing data to a less than reliable source is making people more reserved about transaction on deckbox, given that it was stated up front today that this is a transition and not the new final form of pricing data. It is better, for me at least,  to regroup and see what comes next than to boldly plow ahead with inferior data. Yes I could do my own pricing with a trade partner, but I don't have anything I need to acquire pressingly to bother at this point in time. I'm not going to ignore deckbox, I'm just not going to open or accept new trades for a little bit.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

biffz0r wrote:
mcnealysbaby wrote:

Why not take out your frustration on TCG's legal department instead of the guy who spends many hours of his free time creating a free website for your enjoyment and benefit?

This.  The sense of entitlement is strong in this thread.

Thank you sebi and others involved in this site for your hard work and being so frank and open with us.  Given the belligerence in the marketplace for pricing (SCG, TCG, etc.) I would sort out your options and solidify your planning before annoucing your next steps; while you're likely doing this to get some awareness and feedback, this isn't a democracy here.

I think that pricing data is something of value to those sites. I personally wouldn't give it away either to competitors.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

laura wrote:

...yes, we expected TcgPlayer to not be happy, but we didn't expected them to be unhappy so soon :-) I am not trying to get your sympathy or pity, I am simply explaining why proper market research wasn't done, why we chose to add the martketplace and why we added the Amazon prices.

Thank you, this is a proper response to the "crisis at hand"....Just decrying TCG for being a bully and mean to you on the playground is a poor way to represent your newly founded business. No corporate entity would allow a competitor to get all its hard work for free...unless you will go on record stating that you will allow any competing site to fully index your prices and use them to undercut you? smile

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

The sense of the inevitability of TCGplayer's actions being relayed by the site's administration is a bit disturbing to me.  Take responsibility for your actions.  You all decided to take on TCGplayer, you should have been more prepared to do so and much less surprised about the outcome.  Please stop acting/responding as if you're being unfairly maligned by your users and unjustly treated by TCGplayer.

Re: Site-wide card pricing changes

laura wrote:

I understand this ruins some people's trades at the moment and we are in a less than comfortable place right now, but as mentioned before, it is not a permanent solution.

So please, bear with us, we understand and we are working on it smile

I dunno.  I think the people who are complaining should get a FULL refund.  tongue