Re: [OT] What makes a good miniatures web site

In message <ML-3.4.991748574.6966.books@babinga.dms.state.fl.us>, Roger
Books w
rites:
> 
> Pictures, pictures and more pictures.

What makes a good miniatures website, in my opinion:

1) A responsive and speedy company behind it.

You can have the greatest line of figures, with complete low and high
res shots of each miniature raw, black-washed and painted, but if it
takes me three months to get an order in and you don't respond to my
e-mails and phone calls, then to heck with you.

2) Complete catalog with accurate pricing and shipping information,
and an obvious mechanism to order.

Even if the site doesn't have a secure ordering mechanism or shopping
cart, even a simple form to type in what you want (and which ensures
there are no typos in the e-mail address, and that the buyer gets all
the info he needs, such as address and phone number) is a good thing
to have.

3) Catalog in text and ordered by category.

I don't want to be forced to download large, slow images of your
catalog (Frei Korps) to see what I want on the 17th page, nor do I
even want your catalog in text in a single large document (Pendraken)
with my interests at the bottom.  Give me category listing that allows
me to get reasonably close to what I want to see as quick as possible.

4) Images are nice, but not necessary.

Don't blow the quality of the site by concentrating on the images!
Better to have a site with only the above than anything else with
every image you'd want to see.	In lieu of a complete picture catalog,
put up several representative scans in a gallery.

A lot of people will say that if they can't see what they're buying,
they won't buy it.  I'm sure this is true for them, but if this were
the norm, most of the companies out there would be out of business.
The fact is that people are willing to at least order some samples
site unseen to get an idea of a line's qualityp, or order based on
seeing a few samples.

These are issues I've been dealing with as I review companies I've
mail ordered from.  See http://www.cowell.org/~andy/min/15mm/comp.html