12/19/2019 UPDATE
- Wishlist import added. You can now migrate your wish list from the old website to the new one using this link.
- Wishlists larger than 200 items may be split into multiple transfers to avoid import issues.
- If you need any help, please e-mail [email protected]!
12/18/2019 UPDATE
- International Priority Airmail (IPA) has been re-enabled. This is our least expensive international shipping option.
12/9/2019 UPDATE
It has now been a little over two weeks since we launched our new Star City Games website, and I wanted to update everyone on the status of some of the more significant issues we encountered between our internal testing process and setting things live.
However, before doing so, I’d like to first thank all of you for your patience, understanding, feedback and continued support during this transition. I would also like to thank my incredibly talented Star City Games team, who have worked tirelessly attempting to address any issues that have arisen as quickly as possible, and successfully resolving many of them.
Search
Our website currently offers, or will soon offer, four different ways to find the specific cards or products that you’re looking for. Addressing issues related to those functionalities continues to be our top priority.
- Quick Search is used when you type the name of a card into the search bar appearing atop the site. This had previously been functioning in a way that resulted in it being largely unusable, but we have resolved a significant portion of the bugs that had been creating the issue, and the items you’re searching for now correctly appear atop the list of results. Quick Search results are not currently displaying in the exact order that we want them to, but we’re continuing to refine the process.
- Category Search is used when you are want to search for cards by set or category (such as sealed product). This too had previously been functioning in a way that resulted in it being largely unusable, but it has now been updated to ensure that it is only providing you with relevant results.
- Advanced Search is currently disabled until the outstanding issues with Quick Search have been completely resolved. When our Advanced Search feature returns, it will be more robust than its predecessor.
- Deck Builder is live, but not functioning properly at the moment. This is actively being worked on, and we hope to have the issues corrected soon.
Results Display
As I previously mentioned, search results are not currently being displayed in the exact order we’re wanting them to. Some specific issues we’ve identified include:
- Although searching for “Lightning Bolt” will result in all Lightning Bolts appearing within the top search results, those results are not currently displaying alphabetically by set as we want them to (All 3rd Edition Lightning Bolts, followed by all 4th Edition Lightning Bolts, etc.).
- Different conditions of the same card from the same set are not always appearing together and/or in the correct NM / PL / HP order.
- Some versions of cards that should not be showing as being available for sale (mainly HP condition versions of some cards) are displaying with available quantities, but without an option to purchase any of them.
- Some versions of cards are not having their inventory numbers updated to reflect the fact that they have sold out; primarily Non-English Magic: The Gathering singles. In order to ensure that the majority of cards we show for sale are ones that we have available, we have temporarily disabled our Non-English Magic: The Gathering singles category until we are able to identify and fix whatever is causing the problem.
We expect to resolve all of the above results display issues over the course of the next few weeks, and will keep you updated as each is addressed.
Premium Login / Content
After we launched, several Premium members experienced issues viewing Premium content, while others reported that Premium article pages were taking too long to load. At the same time, some customers without Premium accounts let us know that they were unable to view content that should have now been free to access. The issues causing each of those problems have since been identified and resolved.
Store Credit
Shortly after launch, we learned that store credit balances over a certain dollar amount had not imported correctly from our previous system, and some of you were experiencing problems applying store credit to orders. Both of these issues were promptly prioritized, and corrected shortly afterwards.
Check Out
After we launched, some customers reported not being able to check out when trying to place an order. We discovered that this issue was occurring when one customer added an item to their shopping cart, then a second customer added the same item to their shopping cart and completed the checkout process before the first customer. Once we identified the cause of the problem, it was quickly resolved.
Account Migration
During the migration process, a small number of accounts did not migrate over to the new system correctly. This initially resulted in some of you having problems logging into your accounts, but we believe all such issues should now be resolved. Should you encounter any problems when logging into your account, please e-mail [email protected], and a member of our Technology team will contact you to try and resolve the issue.
Inventory Import
During our initial inventory import, approximately 10% of our inventory ended up not importing correctly. We identified all inventory affected by this issue, and corrected the problem shortly afterwards.
Order History
Due to some changes in the way our inventory is now organized and identified, we were unable to migrate customers’ previous order history over to the new site. As a short-term solution to this problem, we have added a link to your order history on our previous website to the page on which you can view your order history on our new website. However, we are currently exploring better long-term solutions to this issue.
Wish List
Due to the same changes in the way our inventory is now organized and identified, we were also unable to migrate wish lists from our previous website over to our new website. We know this feature is important to many of you, are actively working on a solution to the problem, and hope to have a solution in place soon.
Non-Us Shipping Options
At the moment, our budget international shipping options are not being displayed to customers with non-US addresses during the checkout process. Addressing this issue is currently one of our top priorities, and we are hoping to have the issue resolved shortly.
We Want To Hear From You
A number of you asked, “why don’t you revert back to your previous website, while you address the new website’s issues?” This is an option we discussed heavily with our Dev team. We concluded, after much research and investigation, that reverting would have caused more harm than fixing the problems that arose at launch. Thankfully, we have already been able to address many of the more significant issues mentioned above and continue to make progress on the others.
We have also received and implemented many user-suggested improvements that had not previously been on our radar. If you have any suggestions on how we may be able to further improve your Star City Games website experience, I encourage you to share them with us, along with any bug reports and/or additional thoughts related to our new website, by submitting all such feedback to [email protected].
In addition, I would also like to invite all of you to email me directly at [email protected], at any time and for any reason. While my team may work for me, we all work for you. If I am unable to assist you personally, I will make sure your email is forwarded to someone who can.
Thank You
We know that the transition from our previous website to our new one certainly didn’t go as smoothly as planned, and I accept full responsibility for having failed to meet the high standards that you have come to expect from Star City Games. We can, and will, do better, and our entire team is committed to providing you with a Star City Games website that not only meets your previous expectations, but exceeds them in every way possible.
To stay current on the status of the many improvements in the works for our new Star City Games website, please bookmark this page as a member of my team will be updating it several times a week with the latest information. We will also communicate all such updates via Twitter as well.
Thank you again for all of your patience, understanding, feedback and continued support during this transition. We appreciate it more than you’ll ever know, and are beyond fortunate to be part of such an amazing community.
<3
Pete Hoefling
President, Star City Games