New vinyl auction site and community UPDATED 10-4!

[mrc]

damn, this is really looking great. i hope this takes off and is really successful. Fuck you ebay!

[blueeyedtheory]

This looks amazing. I love the updates you're doing, as they're very informational and they're doing a great job at getting me excited to use this site.

I will hopefully have a bunch of original t-shirts up for sale on there. I also have a feeling I'll be working more hours to cover what I'll be spending on records haha.

[desensitizedbyu]

This is getting more and more awesome!

[john]

very excited about the auction alert thing

[nickmango]

very excited about the auction alert thing

yeah, that's a really big feature that I'm super excited about. One thing that may not be that obvious at first though is that feature is almost more of a selling feature than a buying feature. I mean of course people who buy a lot want to be informed quickly an easily about auctions concerning a band they're tracking. But in actuality, who does that really help? The seller! The easier it is to find an auction, the more people know about the auction, so obviously the more people will be interested in it. That's a really great way to, one, make sure the seller gets what he deserves for the item and two, make sure the buyers out there don't miss their white whale. I guess since ebay is so big it's hard to cater to every industry. That's why they never made this feature more collectable orientated.

[Duff]

forcing people to list the exact title of the record is great. one of the things i hate about ebay is that people spam the title and keywords with bands they know people often search for or bands that typically sell for a large amount. searching for a Brand New record will actually yield results.

[monk0nuggets]

Once again, lookin' good. Everything is very clean, organized and simple.

[cj]

this is going to be awesome. thank you guys for doing this

[nickmango]

forcing people to list the exact title of the record is great. one of the things i hate about ebay is that people spam the title and keywords with bands they know people often search for or bands that typically sell for a large amount. searching for a Brand New record will actually yield results.

well you don't have to fill out that box, but the seller will definitely fill it out. You know? We're not forcing them, but if they don't, buyers won't find their auction easily. Just like you said, putting Brand New in that filter box will yield results, and that should make the seller WANT to do it, cause they know if they don't, and someone puts that name in the box, their auction won't come up.

But I think the other band names in the title help to a certain degree. That's why we have the idea of another place to put "Bands Like This One" this way if someone wants to search that way they can.

[desensitizedbyu]

forcing people to list the exact title of the record is great. one of the things i hate about ebay is that people spam the title and keywords with bands they know people often search for or bands that typically sell for a large amount. searching for a Brand New record will actually yield results.

well you don't have to fill out that box, but the seller will definitely fill it out. You know? We're not forcing them, but if they don't, buyers won't find their auction easily. Just like you said, putting Brand New in that filter box will yield results, and that should make the seller WANT to do it, cause they know if they don't, and someone puts that name in the box, their auction won't come up.

But I think the other band names in the title help to a certain degree. That's why we have the idea of another place to put "Bands Like This One" this way if someone wants to search that way they can.

Kind of like a If you like ___, you'll like this?

[nickmango]

well you don't have to fill out that box, but the seller will definitely fill it out. You know? We're not forcing them, but if they don't, buyers won't find their auction easily. Just like you said, putting Brand New in that filter box will yield results, and that should make the seller WANT to do it, cause they know if they don't, and someone puts that name in the box, their auction won't come up.

But I think the other band names in the title help to a certain degree. That's why we have the idea of another place to put "Bands Like This One" this way if someone wants to search that way they can.

Kind of like a If you like ___, you'll like this?

yeah I'm thinking it could be cool. It would just be an alternate way to search. You can always search the typical ebay way, then you can search the new style band name filter way, then if you want to search for bands that are "like" a certain band, you can do that as well. If we had 2 spots on a "create auction" page for bands who sound like this band, then we could store all that info and use it to help spread music. There's so much you could do with that information. Think about it. If we saved all that info then you could go into the "sounds like" section and type say Silent Majority in and you would get all the bands sellers thought sounded like SM. And they would want to put that info in their auction when they created it cause they know people could be searching for their auction that way. Does that make sense? I think it does hahah Just not sure cause I'm tired and sorta sick. hahah

[geezfools]

This is looking good, keep it up!

[sharkticon]

This looks better and better everyday.

One idea for the genres filter options: You could make the genres filter a drop down menu so as to not extend the length of each page. That would allow you to include more and save page space. Though it might limit the genre filtering down to one choice. Is there a way to make drop down menus multi-option select?

Seriously though. I can't wait to use this.

[nickmango]

This looks better and better everyday.

One idea for the genres filter options: You could make the genres filter a drop down menu so as to not extend the length of each page. That would allow you to include more and save page space. Though it might limit the genre filtering down to one choice. Is there a way to make drop down menus multi-option select?

Seriously though. I can't wait to use this.

If we did a drop down we would probably do like 3 of them and it would be progressive. Like the top one would be the main genres and you'd fine tune after that. But we're a little nervous about genres. When they're there you expect them to work, and we technically have no control over that. That's up to the seller. And we're trying to avoid confusion. We can ask Juan what he thinks about this. I know he noticed an issue right away during development.

Juan! Weigh in on this genre stuff. What's your opinion?

[peanutuk]

This looks great, I love the simplicity of "creating an auction" as ebay usually takes me about 5 mins per auction to list which is too much time fuckin' about !!

Will we be able to list auctions in £'s and not just $'s ?

[jhulud]

This looks better and better everyday.

One idea for the genres filter options: You could make the genres filter a drop down menu so as to not extend the length of each page. That would allow you to include more and save page space. Though it might limit the genre filtering down to one choice. Is there a way to make drop down menus multi-option select?

Seriously though. I can't wait to use this.

If we did a drop down we would probably do like 3 of them and it would be progressive. Like the top one would be the main genres and you'd fine tune after that. But we're a little nervous about genres. When they're there you expect them to work, and we technically have no control over that. That's up to the seller. And we're trying to avoid confusion. We can ask Juan what he thinks about this. I know he noticed an issue right away during development.

Juan! Weigh in on this genre stuff. What's your opinion?

The only problem that I have w/ getting deep into genre-specific categories is that there are so many out there and even if we address the main umbrella ones and some sub-genres, a few will be left out.

A compromise that I see would be something to the effect of maybe 3-4 "sub-genres" under each main one.

Example: Hardcore > SXE > Posicore > CA HC > NYHC > etc.

Just examples but gives you an idea. It would be a matter of which ones to use that we can agree on.

I agree that a lot of times categorizing a band or release as "hardcore" or "punk" it may not truly describe it. But if it's the main genre that it falls under, it is what it is.

It's worth a try to see how it can work out. It can always be adjusted as the Beta version develops and gets rolling.

Like Nick said, ultimately it will be up to the seller to label the release when putting it up.

[fromdisaster]

Will we be able to list auctions in £'s and not just $'s ?

When we launch, only USD will be supported on the site. This won't be totally horrible because PayPal handles the actual conversion for your transaction. We will definitely add support for other currencies shortly thereafter. When it's in place, you'll be able to set your default currency. All prices displayed will be converted based on current conversion rates (updated daily, every morning most likely) and bids will be converted as well.

[nickmango]

Let me just add one thing to this currency question. We want to get the site asap. That's the main goal. I know all too well that when bidding on an item, from say UK where Peanut is from, doing the math myself, to figure out what I want to bid, would be annoying as hell. This is just one of the sacrifices we're making right now just to get this baby up. But like Tom said this is an important feature that will happen soon after launch. Thanks

[mattstrike]

Kinda wish we (as a community) could steer clear of genres altogether, since they often present a lose-lose situation. However, that is not possible, so my vote would be keep the genres as wide in scope as possible.

I'd like to suggest that you create a survey for options/features/etc. that folks can fill out simply and relatively quickly. If done right, I think it could really help prioritize what should/can be added or tweaked before LP leaves beta. I'd be willing to help write up the survey if you think it would be a helpful way to get input and generate more interest in the website. Since you have very intelligently viewed & presented LP as a solution for a [specific] community, I think in turn, giving said community a focused device with which to give input would be another gesture that supports your mission (and gives you tidy, succinct information).

And, I can't say it enough; the site looks so much better than I could ever imagine. Really great work you two (and Juan!)!! Its layout is shockingly intuitive and beautifully sparse - in this world wide web of mashed-up, rollover-pop-up overload… it is a breath of sore eyes and a sight for fresh air. Keep it up!!

[nickmango]

Ok yeah I think Juan is correct here. A few sub genres and less main ones might be cool I think yeah. And what Matt said about the community being involved in the decision, I think is important as well. We're going to have a section dedicated to this, where people can vote and help with decision making. This seems like a good one to put in. Not sure when this section will be done, definitely not for launch, but it's an easy thing to make, so once it actually comes up in the queue it should be done rather quickly. And we'll just have to make the genre debate numero uno on the list.

Matt - any help would be great. We'll definitely be in touch when the time comes. Thanks!

[monk0nuggets]

I would venture to even say getting too specific with genres would be alienating potential users by making them think the site is geared toward a certain crowd. Obviously you guys have tastes leaning more toward the more hardcore side of things, but I doubt you wouldn't want jazz/classical/oldies/whatever collectors to latch onto the site as well.

[One Hundred Fifty-Two]

I would venture to even say getting too specific with genres would be alienating potential users by making them think the site is geared toward a certain crowd. Obviously you guys have tastes leaning more toward the more hardcore side of things, but I doubt you wouldn't want jazz/classical/oldies/whatever collectors to latch onto the site as well.

I personally would prefer jazz/classical/oldies/whatever to NOT be on this site.

[konk]

I'm excited about the specific genres. I don't know why ebay stopped using emo. Sure it wasn't always accurate, but it was an easy way to see everything that was "emo", and that was usually only a few pages. Browsing "punk" on ebay always yield way too many results.

I'd like a Label field in the auction creation. Not everyone puts the label in the description, and I like to be able to search by label. Also when people do a copy and paste from Wikipedia, a former or future label gives me extra search results. With cds on ebay, you can enter the UPC and it pulls the info. That's really easy, but they don't let you do it with records. Also, with the UPC in the listing, I can search for the first 5 numbers (the label) with an asterisk, and that will give me all of the releases.

[jhulud]

I like the label idea as a search result. Again it'd be up to the seller to also include that in the appropriate field.

I know it'd come in very handy for me as I am trying to get all releases put out by a few Louisville labels (Initial, Slamdek, Self Destruct).

[nickmango]

Konk - good suggestion. We're going to do the Label filter just like the band filter. It makes a lot of sense. Besides the ease of searching via labels, which I do everyday on ebay, it will allow us to collect an insane amount of data. We like data. Data tastes good.

See how easy this is? Few text messages to Juan, 10 minute meeting with Tom, and boom new feature!