What are the 3 most important things you look for in a dealer website?

In trying to improve my website, I seek input from buyers who use dealer websites, and from those who do not.

For those who do not, if you don't mind sharing your tohughts, I 'd like to understand why not.

Thanks in advance for any help you will offer.

- Mike

 

I'm trying to figure out how best to allocate what limited time I have available after work, as it's simply too hard to focus on all of the above all at once. How can I get a realistic poll if everyone checks off all of the above?

 

Thank you for the reminder . . . Return policy is 14 days, as already published on the site. However, there is an important distinction between BULLION-RELATED and BULLION items, the former being returnable, and the latter not.

 

Personally, I never cared much about the web site itself as there are only 3 things that ever mattered to me about a dealer. Number one was his reputation, I either had to know and trust him, or have him recommended to me by someone else I knew and trusted. Number two was a no questions asked return policy. And number 3 was his having the coin I wanted. If a dealer had those 3 things, then everything else typically fell into line right where it was supposed to, or it was something I never cared about in the first place.

I don't care how the web site looks or if it is easy to navigate, or if it has resource links. And I don't care about the quality of the pics because I'd never make my final decision until I saw the coin in hand anyway.

As for your question about why some do not use dealer web sites, I'd say the majority who don't use them don't because they think that on general dealer prices are too high. And frankly, some are. But there are plenty of dealers who have very fair and reasonable prices. The most common problem is that the buyers don't really know what fair and reasonable is because they do not know the market well enough. And as a dealer, there's not much you can do about that.

The other reason is that they don't know you. And they usually won't take the time to do the their own research to find out if the dealer is trustworthy and respected. Again, not much you can do about that.

 

So, if there are plenty of testimonials / reviews on the website, must those come up immediately on the home page, or is it good enough that they are on a page you have to navigate to (such as is the case on the subject website)?

 

Thanks for the added criteria. We all like reasonable prices. As Doug alluded to, reasonable in the minds of educated and uneducated buyers considering the same coin can be very far apart.

 

Agreed. I wish there was a good on-line site that reviewed coin dealers objectively.

The additional level of sophistication required for customers to leave testimonials on a website without seller intervention is more affordable to eBay. More importantly, even if the webpage stated that the testimonials left by customers were "uncut, and unedited", a potential customer would have no way of knowing if that were true.

Therefore, In this case, the testimonial page on the subject site is a hybrid, publishing unedited reviews provided by customers of the website, AND a link to the eBay feedback page as well.

 

DLRC gets a big Like from me too. Only in my wildest dreams could I achieve 10 percent of what that firm has done.

 

I couldn't agree more. Having the ability to search intuitively, efficiently, and to search many different ways is not important to every buyer, but it is definitely important to some . . . particularly if there are many items to wade through on the site.

If you haven't already checked out the site, I recommend you do, as I believe it aligns very well with your apparent preference. If you have suggestions for improvement, I'd really appreciate being able to read them.

- Mike

 

I have a terrible reputation . . . just ask my daughter. At a worldly 13 she knows more about this universe than I ever will.

If only she'd buy a coin from me, maybe she would spread the good word.

Unfortunately, she figures everything is supposed to be free, so I don't think she'll be joining my customer base.

While on the subject of free stuff, the only things I give away for free are shipping, insurance and a little grief, but man will the coins cost you!

The coin prices are high only to compensate me for the free grief I give to customers. They should really appreciate that.

The grief that repeat customers get increases exponentially with each subsequent visit. I love my repeat customers . . . I get to really unload on them. No wonder they keep coming back!

My prices are set sky high to draw visitors to the site like onlookers to a circus sideshow.

It works . . . I know it does . . . at least I imagine it does. I can just envision buyers jeering at and agruing with me through the monitors in their dens, living rooms and home offices.

I enjoy picturing them being ridiculed by their family members for arguing, fists in the air, with a computer monitor . . . gives me real satisfaction, that does.

If you didn't know enough about and respect me before, these past few minutes have really screwed up my chances of success!

Enough from the far side. My lunchbreak is nearly over . . . back to my real job :^)

- Mike at ToughCOINS