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

On Tue, 05 Jun 2001 09:54:13 -0500 Andy Cowell <andy@cowell.org> writes:
>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.
>

Different horses for different courses... But a valid point.  For me,
once I see what I want, then this becomes #1, but no pictures, no buy
still stands until/unless I see them 'live and in the lead' and I think
it's the practice of many people to see them either 'live' or in
pictures
that leads them to trust "all" the figures are of the same quality,
style
(although Irregular's 'variability' does come to mind) but without some
reference for the figure maker's size/style I think many people will
find
substitutes or wait for someone else to order some...

>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
>

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