What the heck is up with the audiogon listing photos?

20 something year old web designer. 

You have to pay more to sell your high end audio gear unobscured. 

Hard to believe but true.

 Students of Marketing 101 run amok.

They will never wake up NOBODY likes these STUPID pictures they only care ABOUT THE MONEY!!!!!

They might sell more ads if they stop sabotaging them on purpose. 

I agree I don't even look at the small childish pictures.  Why doesn't Audiogon listen to the members?

ozzy

Why not simply raise the price of a base ad and not punish those who, oh I don't know... actaully want to buy gear listed on the site?

Great, now I feel like I'm explaining to Nigel Tufnel that he can just make "10" louder. This site is getting harder to take with each new "improvement".

It's simply awful.

I thought I had to purchase some sort of 3D glasses.

It's a totally artificially barrier to perception that you apparently have to pay to remove.  AKA dumb and exploitive.

I cannot believe you have to pay extra for the fisheye photo.... it is so dumb. 

Or just jump to usaudiomart.com where the pics are...pics.

I can't believe, that this passed by the senior people at Audiogon - they must have been high on Canadian weed.  

I told them long ago when they introduced this nonsense that they
obviously do not understand their customer base. As ERIK said, young programmers who do not understand how the site is used. I actually think that the complaints about reduced sales on this site are partially due to
the total confusion users experience while trying to find products.
Also notice that the number of posts complaining about the new site have not diminished. But if they don't fix it the users and dealers will go elsewhere. That too is marketing 101.

Blatant stupidity!

Thank you all for your feedback on our latest site update. We were  able to release the ability to choose between the Classic View you are used to and the new Grid View. Simply navigate to any search/browse page and click the View drop-down next to the Sort By Preferences to switch between the two. Your preference will be set via cookies; you will not be required to make the change every time you log in.

That's fine but the obscured photos is still an embarrassment and needs to be addressed.

@Admin
Yes, each of us can individually choose the more informative "Classic View" once we understand the process of getting to the selection point.
But my concern is that not all potential buyers will know this, and any listing that I put up will not get the eyeballs it would have with your prior design.  I believe that this "fisheye"/"keyhole" change is a detriment to your sales channel.

mapman"the obscured photos is still an embarrassment and needs to be addressed."

Why would this embarrass you and why does it "need" to be addressed?

Because it looks bad, reflects poorly on Audiogon as a result,  and works against the purpose of the site which is to help people buy and sell things easily.




 

If the listing of the site is intended to increase the total number of sales (and the fees that go along with those sales), the intentional downgrading of images hurts the buyer's who are essentially funding the fee structure.

From a buyer's perspective it looks like a cheap money grab by Audiogon. As if there is more interest in a few dollars made on the ad listing itself, rather than the fees collected on what could be a several thousand dollar sale given the gear listed here.

The message to sellers isn't much better. "We will intentionally degrade the quality of any images you upload unless you pay us to have them rendered undisturbed."

Win, win?