Original Train & Rail

I write under my second username (my other is... fx2 -what a surprise!-).Since the beginning of the Shapeways private beta launch in mid 2008, I printed railway stuff using Shapeways. Until now, it was only for myself.

Since we can't open a second shop under the same username, I used my "old" username. After several attempts where several javascripts errors were thrown -the same kind of errors that led me in the past to create my second account !-, I was able to open it!

I create some original railway scale accessories that aren't made by any manufacturer I'm aware of. I will testprint them in the new material as soon I hit the $25 min. order. they have some fine features, but I think the parts should look nice once printed, or at least be recognisable... I already printed parts in the past* with this technology.
I'm really wondering if Shapeways can be a suitable platform to sell this kind of very specialized scenery accessories or if I need to use a well-known online auction site to sell repackaged items... Future will tell.

*Shapeways didn't existed then, or maybe as top-secret early alpha under another name...

Shapeways shop first page seems to be well indexed by Google. However that's apparently not the case with the product pages.That's why I try the following below.

---Please don't mind, gg indexing experiment below---
H0 1:87 hydrant / borne d'incendie à l'échelle 1/87ème HO

Hi fx, glad to hear the shop setup process finally worked out for you. I took a look at your designs, I'd imagine accessories like those might be quite a hit with model train lovers.

Since this is more about your shop, and not so much about a particular model, I'm going to move this thread over to the Shop section of the forums.

fx:

I'm glad you were able to open your shop. We have (just today) deployed some improvements to the javascript that was a frequent cause of problems, and we've also reorganized the process with our new My Shapeways section of the site.

We'd be happy to hear your feedback on this site update; we're hoping it's a helpful improvement for our community members like you!

-Ben

@horst: This update is a good step. I think some functions, for instance the Shop sales, are now much less hidden.
I can't give you any feedbacks about the new javascript because I have no plan to open a third shop... :laughing:
Some ideas (although I'm sure other users have already given similar ideas):
I'm wondering if a fast bulk upload (x STL's in one zip file) method is in your pipeline. I would like to upload all the parts at once, and care later about writing descriptions and titles...
I think (independently of the uploading method) all uploaded parts should be "hidden" by default (the user should actively choose to make them visible to all).

A quick way to select and set some or all shop items to "not for sale" or "hidden" is needed. I can feel the trouble for a shop owner who has 200 items for sale...

A user feedback/new feature voting system is planned, if I'm right ? This could be the best method for you to know what your users/shop owners need the most. Of course this is a bit of a double edged sword as it could provide ideas to competitors, too...

fx:

We're working on streamlining the upload process this week. The first phase will be to simplify the existing upload page, and then we'll shift next week to work on multi-file uploading. (Plus or minus some time to work on other things that may arise.)

I've received similar feedback from other power users about multi-uploading, so that's clearly a current pain point, and why I'm addressing it now.

Setting a model's state to Hidden is going to get a better UI in the ongoing work, and when you use the multi-upload feature, you'll be able to set this property for the whole batch in one click.

I do have a user feature voting mechanism in the roadmap, but it's far down the line. I don't expect it to happen for many months, if even this year! The forum is my interim solution.

Thanks for the input.

-Ben

Apologies, that was me posting the above response from a test account.

-Ben