PDA

View Full Version : ShelfLife Beta Test Announcement: Very Exciting Stuff


faustx
12-03-2011, 01:46 PM
So What's ShelfLife? (Yes, Beta is still open.)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7018/6397626047_a0ccf5bd2a.jpg

ShelfLife is a new and innovative collection management and e-commerce platform for collectors. And we need your help. ShelfLife is running an exclusive Beta launch for the next 6 weeks, open only to ActionFigureNews.ca and Cybertron.ca members. Join the beta test and you can record your collections, make want lists, and help build out our data by curating catalogs.

We're offering sweet prizes for our Beta Testers, and participation will carry permanent bonuses throughout 2012 and beyond!

The current site functionality is just the tip of a very exciting iceberg. The North American launch of e-commerce will be in January 2012.

ShelfLife is the creation of Cybertron.ca member FaustX/James Chillcott and his partners.

Read on for the full story. Or if you're not into helping with the beta test, you can just sign up here (http://launch.shelflifex.com) to find out when we launch to the rest of the world. (You may however regret skipping out on the Beta…don’t say we didn’t warn you.)


The Full Story:

As many of you already know, I've been working with partners and curators for the better part of a year on a very exciting project. It’s been intense, but we’re finally ready to peel back the curtain to let you all in on what will be an exciting moment for ActionFigureNews.ca as a community, and soon, for collectors worldwide.

I present to you, ShelfLife: The Ultimate Collector's Platform.

From December 3rd until January 10th, 2012 we will be holding an invite-only Beta for ShelfLife. The Beta is open only to ActionFigureNews.ca and Cybertron.ca members and select industry types. If you’ve got an account one one these sites then as of today, you can join.

Why should you care?

Quite simply, ShelfLife is designed to solve many of the problems we encounter as collectors. The elevator pitch is that ShelfLife is a hybrid of Wikipedia and eBay...but it's actually much more than that.

For the Beta, the site has two major functionality sets: Collection Management and Curation.

Collection Management allows you to review the details of your favourite collectibles catalogs and record what you have, where you bought things, how much you paid, and when. Our detailed parts tracking system allows you to get incredibly granular about what you have and the condition of each toy. You can also denote that you want something, the details of that desire, and how much you're willing to pay for it. You're definitely going to want to do this, because what comes next is going to be pretty great.

Once the Beta is complete and we're satisfied that we’ve worked the kinks out of the core collecting and curation tools, we’ll be launching our e-commerce functionality and enabling the ability to buy and sell collectibles with an efficiency and precision never before seen. With a database full of Beta Wants and Haves, we'll automatically match buyers and sellers and notify you accordingly...all without you having to wait on auctions, check endless online lists, or waste gas checking a dozen retail stores. Monthly budgeting features and different levels of purchase commitment will enable unparalleled flexibility in your collecting habits.

If you're widely travelled in the online collecting world, you'll notice similarities between pieces of our site and many other sites. Don’t let this fool you. The long term plan for ShelfLife is quite unique, and I can personally guarantee you that this is a community you will want to be in on the ground floor with.

Registration

If you want in on the Beta, simply post in this thread with the next available number before your name, and the name of your grail item (see Rewards below) and then email us the same info at launch@shelflifex.com . We may cap the Beta depending on response, so don’t hold back. We'll send you a login within 24 hours, which will open up ShelfLife to you.

We ask simply that you not share your access with anyone else. Doing so will be grounds for a permanent banning.

Beta Tester Duties

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/6397801661_3d5eee0ed9_z.jpg

As a member of the Beta launch, your main responsibility is to use the site as much as you possibly can.

Generally, we think you'll see that the site is pretty cool, but still young. There're bound to be bugs, and we're very interested in your perspectives on how to take it from cool to indispensible. We're chasing the dream of making the perfect collecting platform first, and profits are a distant second, so tell us what you want and you just might get it.

In summary, we need you guys to do the following during the Beta:

1) Tell us what’s in your collection using the Have buttons on every catalog and product page.

2) Tell us which toys you want and how much you’d pay for them with the Want buttons.

3) Contribute missing product details and photos so that we can get closer to completing the catalogs.

Many of us have tons of photos lying around that we’ve used to sell our toys in the past. Donating these en masse to ShelfLife is one of the biggest things you can do to help the community. If you have a pile of photos that you’re too lazy to upload into ShelfLife, send'em to us zipped up, or request Dropbox access, and we’ll make it easy for you to help make the catalogues look their best.

4) Tell us of features you need, what's confusing, and what doesn't work as expected. You can send us feedback here, via the emails below, or using the Feedback button on ShelfLife.

5) Customize your main navigation in the left column of ShelfLife by clicking the pink Subscribe button in the top-right corner of catalog, product, and search pages.

6) If you're feeling ambitious or want to play a more important role in the community, apply be a curator. Details are a bit lower down.

ShelfLife can easily become the best thing that ever happened to collectors online, but we need your help to really live the dream. We won’t have time to chase you all down, so please do your best to put some time aside and really get to know the site and send feedback.

Beta Tester Rewards

To motivate you guys even more, we're putting up a prize of $250 towards purchasing the missing “grail” collectible that would be the jewel of your collection. The contest for this prize is pretty simple. Every time you do something useful within ShelfLife, you earn a ticket. At the end of the Beta, we'll randomly enter your name into a draw, once for each of your tickets, and name the winner. We'll also randomly be giving out $50 prizes to 5 other participants that can be spent on something in my personal collection. (See that list here (http://www.cybertron.ca/boards/showthread.php?t=6022)). These random giveaways will be based on who is logged in when we check into the site, so the more time you spend in ShelfLife, the better your chances are!

Generally speaking, one of our biggest goals is to make collecting as inexpensive, hassle-free, and fun as possible. Part of how we will support this goal is by making ShelfLife free for collectors, even past the Beta period. Sound good?

Here’s how it'll work:

- Buying is always free. You'll never pay a hidden 10% buyers fee again!
- Selling is free for your first 2 sales/month, or your first 10/year.
- Beyond that, selling is planned at 8%, 2% of which will go to the curator of the catalog in question.
- Want to sell your product somewhere else and record that sale on ShelfLife to update your collection? No problem.

And get this: if you add at least 25 Wants or Haves during the Beta , you won’t need to worry about transaction fees because all your 2012 sales on ShelfLife will be free! (This doesn't apply to vendors, though.)

Better eBay + Better Wikipedia + No Cost. Not a bad deal, eh?

All Beta participants will also get a ShelfLife Beta Tester badge in their accounts. What’s this badge do? I can’t reveal that just yet, but you’ll be bragging about it soon.

Curators

Wait, so what’s a curator?

Curators are very much like forum mods or Wikipedia editors. Curators build catalogs within ShelfLife. They fill in product and part details, upload photos, and write descriptions and comments for their catalogs. In return, they gain the right to charge relevant sellers a 2% levy when a product they curated is sold within ShelfLife.

Catalogs can take anywhere from 20min to a few hours to build, depending on your level of knowledge and the availability of photos. I’ve been doing it for months, and it’s pretty easy if you know the products and turn on the TV while you plug away.

You can curate from within ShelfLife using our super-detailed curation tools, or fill in a custom spreadsheet that we’ll provide if you prefer your data entry in big chunks. Curators are assigned one catalogue at a time. If you want to stake out some huge territory for yourself, you just need to move fast and get one done. We’re focusing on getting the Transformers stuff done for now, but if you want to do something else, let us know and we’ll get you set up.

You can learn more about curation here: http://www.cybertron.ca/boards/showthread.php?t=36653

And see a video about How To Be A ShelfLife Curator here: http://vimeo.com/shelflife/how-to-be-a-shelflife-curator


What Catalogues Do You Have So Far?

The ShelfLife Beta includes the following catalogs:

Transformers
Generation 1 (Series 1-7)
Classics
Classics 2.0
Generations
Botcon/TFCC
Masterpiece (USA & Takara)
United
Reveal The Shield
Hunt For the Decepticons
Prime
Energon
FansProject


Marvel
Marvel Universe
Marvel Legends

Star Wars & GIJOE

Need curators. See above!

Designer Vinyl
Super 7 Mongolion

Barbie
You guys won’t care. Lol.


By the end of the Beta, we aim to have all of the Transformers catalogs completed, and another 20 catalogs in place of other types. If there is something you want added, just ask and give us a few days. Within 3 months, we aim to have over 100 additional catalogs. The more catalogs there are in ShelfLife, the better it gets, so do your part: become a curator and earn some coin towards your future grails!

As an extra bonus for the Beta, the most active curator will receive a custom mounted G1 Insecticon, as shown here (http://www.cybertron.ca/boards/showthread.php?t=36427). If they really blow us away, we might upgrade that to a mounted G1 Megatron or something equally tasty that matches your collection.

And yes, curators will be included in the prizes mentioned earlier, and their curation activities will get them twice as many tickets!

Who's Behind ShelfLife?

My name is James Chillcott (aka FaustX).

I’ve spent the last 10 years running Advoca, an interactive agency with clients on 5 continents. In short, I know a ton about what makes web sites great.

I also happen to be a very prolific collector of Transformers, Star Wars, GIJOE, Japanese Kaiju, Designer Vinyl, Skateboards and Rock Art. eBay pisses me off, and I think we deserve a better playground. ShelfLife is designed to be the solution.

My partners are Nick Hoffman (CTO & Ruby Guru) and Hilary Gillespie (Design/HTML). They are serious collectors in their own right and experts in their fields.

In case you care, ShelfLife is being self-funded by our team at present, but we are also seeking external investment through participation in the MaRS Discovery District here in Toronto. If we line up further funding in the next few months, things will explode. If we don’t, the project will continue to grow and improve, but at a more measured pace. No matter what, we’re in this for the long haul. This is a passion project as much as a business and we won’t rest until it's perfect.

What if I’m not on Cybertron.ca?

For now, the Beta is open only to ActionFigureNews.ca and Cybertron.ca members and select industry types and media. If you think you qualify, throw us an email at launch@shelflifex.com

If you want to curate, you don’t have to wait to get in! Email us at curate@shelflifex.com

Otherwise, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and sign up to be notified of the North American launch.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6099/6397762615_5c6e887f07.jpg


What if I’m a vendor?

We really want to talk to you. We have huge plans for making inventory management within ShelfLife your ultimate tracking system. If you want to have a hand in shaping that, you need to join the Vendor Beta Program separately. Email us at vendors@shelflifex.com , and we’ll be in touch ASAP.

Providing Feedback

During the Beta, you'll be able to report problems on specific pages within the site, or simply email us at everyone@shelflifex.com

For the duration of the Beta, I'll also be making my phone (416-423-9265) and Skype (faustx06) available for anyone who wants to chat about the project and provide feedback first hand. This is your chance to influence the future of collecting online, so make sure you use it before we the gates open to the world in January!

We're working very hard to get ready for launch, but feel free to post your questions, comments, or concerns in this thread before and during the Beta. We’ll be checking daily and providing insight and assistance wherever we can. We're building this for all of us.


Still have questions?

No problem. Ask them here or from our on-site feedback buttons, and we’ll do our best to answer them promptly.


FaustX & Team ShelfLife

faustx
12-03-2011, 01:47 PM
So who's going to be the first member of the site to join the ShelfLife community?

faustx
12-03-2011, 10:55 PM
Cool, first members signed up...who's next?

pandaprime
12-04-2011, 06:11 PM
I already joined prior so I guess I beat everybody here, ha ha

aznpnoy
12-04-2011, 08:10 PM
Joined last week. =) via cybertron.ca

faustx
12-05-2011, 02:33 AM
lol, anyone over here not already a cyberton.ca participant? i have a $10 credit to my sales thread if they poke up their heads.

james

Robimus
12-05-2011, 11:36 AM
To be fair if this had launched over here at the same time in launched on Cybertron.ca I'm sure a bunch of folks would have joined from here instead of there.

That said there are members here that are not a part of Cybertron.ca so keep your eyes peeled for them incase they are interested. :)

faustx
12-05-2011, 01:38 PM
Eyes peeled Robimus!

pattycakeman
12-05-2011, 05:44 PM
#1 I dont much use cybertron.ca so dont knwo the number over there.

but I'd be willing to join up.

I dont have a "Grail" anymore since i just aquired it (Vintage Complete Grayskull)

faustx
12-11-2011, 09:51 PM
ShelfLife just broke through the 10,000 items and 2,000 products barrier! Tons of great catalogues set up and ready for collection recording. Still need more beta testers if anyone is ready to get in on the action.

James

faustx
12-16-2011, 08:02 PM
Plenty of new action figure catalogues up on ShelfLife (www.shelflifex.com) this week to help you guys track your collections. Send a note to james@shelflifex.com if you want to join the beta launch.