Bill Jones is the man behind one of the newest and niftiest projects in action figure collecting today, Collector-ActionFigures, a web-based application designed to give you every piece of information you'll ever need on your favorite toys. It's a community maintained database, marketplace, and photo gallery all in one, so if you've ever sought lists of all the latest releases, searched endlessly to find a rare figure for sale, or even just wanted to see pictures an old childhood memory, then Collector-ActionFigures is worth a look. I had lots of questions about this intriguing new development, so keep reading as I go straight to the source and Bill Jones tells us why collectors can no longer live without Collector-ActionFigures.

Articulated Discussion: Since it's so new, many of our readers may not be familiar with Collector-ActionFigures. What exactly is Collector-ActionFigures, and why does it need to become a daily stop for any action figure fan?

Bill Jones: Collector-ActionFigures is the first web application for action figure collectors. We call it an “application” instead of a “web site” because we’re really focused on delivering key functionality for people that will make collecting easier, more efficient and more affordable. We are a software company – not a dealer, not a manufacturer, not even a group of collectors - driven by the question “is it good for the collector?” We think that single-minded focus, fused with today’s latest Internet technology, that will enable us to deliver an application that is waaaay better than anything collectors have seen before.
     As an example of this, we have compiled the single biggest and most complete online database of action figures in the world (33,000+ and growing every day!).  We have worked hard on the structure of this information so that you can find the figures you are looking for. It really starts with that. We have 29 fields of information per figure, which really help a collector know about that figure. Because it’s such a tremendous amount of information, we’ve built the “Universe” to be Wiki-editable to capture the awesome knowledge that collectors have. Finally, since photos are so important to collectors, we really invested in that too. We have built a proprietary, computer-driven photographic process that enables us to take high-resolution, 360 degree-viewable pictures really quickly.  This is really important because we have ended up taking a TON of pictures. We can tell from the web traffic on the site, our customers love this!  You can check this out for a loose and packaged view of a MacFarlane’s Sports Picks Drew Bledsoe.
     Once you have this great Universe of figures, you can then do a lot of things. One is to identify your own collection. What has been such a pain for collectors is now a simple click “Got it.” Likewise, collectors can also click to build their “Want it” list. Once their collections are defined, then collectors can add item specific information (like condition, cost, packaging, accessories, etc.) as well as their own photos. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the Universe also has value ranges for more than 11,000 figures, so you can start seeing how cool the merging of a great price guide can be with an organized collection.
     Now, once all of that is in place, it is a pretty simple step to marking items in your collection as one you are willing to sell. Give it a price, and we’ll post it into our zero-fee marketplace. Collectors love to get new items, and many collectors will periodically sell figures too. We think today’s process is really expensive for collectors and is generally a pain, so we have made the process really simple. We still leverage PayPal for the payments, so it is secure, but the part of listing an item, finding an item, etc is a ton easier and cheaper now. (We launch the Marketplace feature in January.)
     Another example of how cool this stuff all is when it’s put together in one product is mobile access. Again, launching in January, we’ll have an iPhone application so you can carry your collection around with you. Look up any figure in the Universe, see its value, and see if there are figures like it for sale in the Universe. It’s really exciting to see how it can all be tied together to make collecting more fun and efficient. 

 

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AD: It must have been a lot of work to get such a grand endeavor up and running. Please take us through the history of creating Collector-ActionFigures from the very beginning of the creative process until now.

BJ: It HAS been a lot of work! We based the core idea on work that one of our partners had been working on for Bottle collectors. We ended up seeing that there were a number of different categories of collectors that had pretty similar needs, and that we could apply our software experience to really “raise the bar” in these different collector categories. I’m a 23-year software professional and recently ran a mobile software company. Two other of our founders are also 20+ year software veterans, so you see that most of our team aren’t actually collectors, believe it or not. While we’ve all had to learn a bunch about collecting and collectors, we have been able to pretty dispassionately look at the needs from a more objective perspective, and also with an eye toward making this a profitable software business. Far too often, the quality of the solutions for collectors has been pretty poor. That’s because it’s a ton of work, and “doing it for the love of it” only goes so far. While we have a very good free user set of functionality, we are very focused on delivering enough compelling functionality that collectors happily pay us to use it. That we have a business model that makes sense should make collectors rest easier that the time and investment they make with our application won’t go away based on the whims of the people behind it.
     We launched our first product, www.Collector-ActionFigures.com, in November 2009. We have already had one upgrade release, adding 11,000 packaged and loose values to the Universe. We will turn on the Marketplace and the iPhone application in January. We regularly survey our customers and analyze usage data to help us determine our on-going features set. We’ve come a long way, but there is lots of very cool stuff we are doing going forward.

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AD: You mentioned that action figures were the first collector market to be addressed by your company, so why did they come first?

BJ: We were attracted to the action figure category because it is vibrant, very “happening” from a cultural perspective, and pretty big. The biggest categories we looked at are coin and stamp collecting, but decided that action figures was a better fit. One thing that we were attracted to is the strong sense of community of action figure collectors. The landscape of current, quality solutions too is pretty barren compared to what we are delivering. Besides all of that, heck, a battle-damaged Stormtrooper is lots more fun to play with than some old stamp!
     As action figures is what we’ve “cut our teeth on” with regard to collecting, I think we’ll always feel an affinity for action figures. When we got started, we really had no idea about the depth and passion action figure collectors have for their hobby. And action figures are literally all over today’s popular culture scene. We all went to DragonCon in Atlanta and really had a blast with all of the collectors dressed up as Darth Vader, Egon Spengler, and Batman. What a great crowd of folks!

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AD: What can we expect from Collector-ActionFigures in the future?

BJ: We will keep trying to beat down the seemingly never-ending challenge of filling in the Universe. We’re starting to work with the manufacturers on this, but honestly, it doesn’t seem that they have a great handle on the challenge either. We will certainly need the help of the action figure community via the Wiki model.  Anyway, we think that’s just something we’ll have to keep chipping away at over time. You can also expect us to apply some of today’s newest technologies to collecting. For example, we will be looking at some interesting location and social technologies to connect collectors with information and other collectors in unique ways. You’ll see us working with established marketplaces like eBay. You see, we aren’t motivated by the transaction prices between collectors… we just want to see that the collector’s needs are best met. You can also expect us to expand beyond the action figure category in 2010.  We’ve already announced that we’ll do Collector-Bottles, but we may do other categories in 2010 as well. I understand there is a good cross-over between action figure collectors and comic book collectors…

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BJ: Just go to www.Collector-ActionFigures.com. We have some good instructional video demonstrations I encourage people to look at. You’ll get more out of your clicking around if you take a look at those videos first. Next, I’d recommend that you register with us. Not only do we unlock more functionality for you if you register, you’ll be on our mailing list, and we’ll  periodically send you an email when we make a major functional upgrade in the application. Lastly, on every page of the site, we have a “Send Us Your Feedback” link. We really do read every one of those feedback forms, and they do make a difference to our decision-making as we’re looking to invest on behalf of action figure collectors.

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Be sure to stop by Collector-ActionFigures and take a look around. I've signed up and explored a little, and I'm surprised at how functional it is. If people embrace it, then it could very easily become a hub for toy collectors online (alongside Articulated Discussion of course). Bill and his team have spent a lot of time and effort creating this "universe", so go enjoy it!

And be sure to offer a big thank you to Bill for taking some of his time to answer all our questions. If you have any other questions that spring to mind, leave them in the comments, and I'll send them along. 

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