As collectors, we have dreams of where this hobby can go. As developers, we have parallel aspirations for Sports Card Album. We have our own visions for the future of SCA and those visions are augmented by the deafening voices of our passionate user-base. Every single day you tell us what you want. Not a day goes by without one of you asking for a new feature or suggesting a way for us to improve SCA. Today, we offer you a chance to help us push the hobby forward by investing in a “PRO” account.
Social media enables us to listen via so many different channels…Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Forums, YouTube, the list goes on. And although we can’t always respond to every communication, we are always listening.
While we have been working on fine-tuning our own program, we have been curating a list of the most commonly requested features. It takes a lot of time and money to develop these features, so we are asking you, the collector, to help us determine whether they are really worth our investment. Please note: Sports Card Album will continue to operate with all of its existing features (and several more) for free. These PRO features are for hard-core collectors who wish to enhance their hobby experience and are willing to pay a couple of bucks a month to do so.
So without further ado, let’s get into some of the features we have planned for PRO members:
Private Albums - People come to the SCA feed to see sports cards, trading cards, and sports-memorabilia. Since all images appear on our public feed, we cannot allow un-related images on SCA. However, we are flattered that many of you seem to prefer SCA over traditional image-hosting sites. Private albums will allow you to upload any image you want, without that image appearing in the public feed. PRO members will be able to designate the following:
- Image/Album is public
- Image/Album is private
- Image/Album password protected
- Image/Album accessible only via direct link
- Image/Album visible publicly within user profile, just hidden from feed
No Advertisements - This one is straight forward. We have made a conscious effort to maintain a nice-looking website, free of all the distracting and obtrusive advertisements commonly found on other sites. In fact, we only have a couple minimally-intrusive advertisements on the entire site. But PRO members won’t even have to see those.
Advanced Analytics - Hard-core collectors have been begging us for advanced analytics. Cracked-Ice and Superfractor members will be able to see how many times their cards have been viewed or clicked. They will also be able to print out spreadsheets of their albums including all relevant card statistics. We will work directly with pre-registered members to determine the final list of analysis tools. Once you pre-register, please contact us to let us know you want input into these tools.
Trading & Selling: The most popular requests are often the most challenging to implement. For example: Trading & Selling. It’s not too hard for us to implement a trading system that allows you to print out invoices and mail each other cards. It’s also not hard for us to enable you to sell cards.
But those features don’t move the hobby forward.
The biggest problem with trading or selling is not the activity itself…it’s holding both parties accountable. So the bigger question for us is, “what can we do with our software to discourage scammers and make trading/selling activities more enjoyable and stress free for collectors?”
Our answer is called the “Sports Card Album Rating System,” or “SCAR.” All of our Pro members will be able to purchase cards via SCA. Cracked-Ice and Superfractor-level members will also be able to sell cards and will each receive a personalized, hand-scrutinized, “SCAR.” In order to obtain one of these ratings, members will need to submit an online application that includes a link to their facebook profile, their forum feedback, and their ebay feedback. The more feedback a user submits, the stronger their “SCAR” can be. We will personally verify all data. This level of accountability will decrease the likelihood of anyone scamming a seller on SCA. Additionally, the fact that only paying members are able to buy/sell means that people can’t just register a fake profile to scam somebody under a fake name.
It’s impossible to prevent 100% of the risk involved in making a transaction online, but we believe our new system will significantly reduce the chances of any buyer/seller being scammed out of their precious cards or hard-earned money.
One really cool thing about selling cards through SCA will be that we won’t take ANY cut from the price of your sale. You pay your monthly subscription fee and that’s it. We won’t even get involved with the financial exchange. If a user wishes to sell a card, they will simply check a box to mark it “for sale” and they will add a price for that card (including shipping.) If a buyer likes the card, they can purchase it on the spot. By clicking the “BUY” button, the buyer will be instantly directed to PayPal where they can login to complete the transaction. Once the card has been purchased, the image of the card will then be imported into the buyer’s “Purchased” album and a copy of the image will be sent to the seller’s “Sold” album. The buyer doesn’t even need to worry about scanning the card once they’ve received it.
YouTube & WordPress Integration for Verified Accounts: Group Breakers and Local Card Shops have asked us for these features for a while. Verified accounts who subscribe to our Pro features will be able to add YouTube links to their cards so collectors can view their videos directly from the feed! This will add an element of interactivity to the feed that collectors have not experienced before. Verified accounts will also have access to custom WordPress widgets that will enable you to share your albums on your blog or website.
Plus a lot more! All Pro members will receive custom badges for their profile pic and wallpapers for their personal album URL.
Ready to take your card collecting to the next level? Click HERE to see the full list of features and then pre-register under the classification of your choice. You will not be charged until we launch the new features. Consider this our own mini Kickstarter. If you love the hobby and enjoy using Sports Card Album, please sign up!
