The never-ending tale of how eventually we’re definitely going to reboot Trampt this year

As we approach our 10 year anniversary this summer, I’m happy to say that some major things have changed during the course of 2020. Trampt now has three co-founders (Blake, Chris, and myself) with a new corporate structure complete with shares, vesting schedules, bylaws and all that ballyhoo. On top of that we completed trademark registration for Trampt®, and introduced our new mascot Gravy.

To help us stand out in the age of ‘influencers’ and reach those collectors who no longer want to read we’ve made some investments. There’s a 4k camera I don’t know how to use, microphone mounted to a desk for some reason, mountain of tripods and lights, plus one of those ring lights you see the Tiktok kids using. I’m sure it will take about a hundred awkward AF videos to start finding a rhythm and getting more comfortable in-front of the camera, so look out for those starting on Instagram or our YouTube channel in the next few weeks. Subscribe now and beat the rush.

If you don’t know us, we’re toy collectors

In the mid-2000s when I started collecting there wasn’t much information available outside of a few blogs and message boards. Blake and I launched Trampt in the summer of 2011, with dreams of it becoming a destination platform for collectors. A single place to find information, get the latest news, have conversations, and most importantly a peer-to-peer marketplace that helps fans easily find the pieces they want. Most of those features never launched and we just went into a holding pattern until we had time.

*Ron Howard voice* We never found the time. Both of us got busy with our day-jobs and kids, and over time the site began to slowly break down. During that time I never stopped following, collecting, and generally enjoying the Art Toy scene as a fan. A ragtag group of collectors with everything to prove kept adding items to the library and managing our collections in hopes that someday Trampt would be updated.

How will this update help collectors?

While trying to find a person, company, anyone really, who could build all the back-end services needed I’ve created several fully fleshed-out versions of a Trampt “reboot”. As I’ve added, removed, and updated features we’ve essentially identified two core tenets for the site: Discover and Transact. Make it effortless to find what you might want, and once you do provide the clearest path to obtain it. That’s it.

Discovery through recommendation

There are nearly 200,000 items currently in our library which is impossible to browse, so we’re integrating a recommendation engine to help aid in discovery. As you search for items, add them to your collection, follow different artists, we’ll use this data and compare it to what other members are doing. These data points will help surface all the amazing toys, prints, and more buried deep in our catalog.

While recommendation will power the casual browsing experiences, you’ll still be able to quickly search, filter, and sort items across a variety of attributes.

The introduction of item tags

There are a million and one ways we could organize items on our site if we had the ability, and over the years ‘series’ has been a catch-all for this type of categorization. Item tags will give members more ways to discover items by size, type, themes, etc. Looking for items that were #caseexclusives? Maybe you want to quickly see all the #bearbrick1000% that were produced? Perhaps you’re not sure if you’ve collected every #dunnyholiday that’s been released? Now with item tags, we’ve got you covered.

Currently none of the items are tagged, so it will be a process for our members to help us organize these items into new ways, and more importantly for our moderators to keep these new tags under control. Either way I see it as a great opportunity for discovery.

Item detail pages built to transact

While all of these features won’t be ready day one of the reboot, we’ve spent the last year trying to optimize how collectors might think about all the items they own, are looking to buy, or are ready to sell.

On the item page you can perform a variety of actions:

• Indicate whether you have this item, are looking for it, or willing to sell it. (more below)
• Check the transaction history for this item, is it worth buying or selling right now?
• Find members looking for this item if you’re willing to sell, or places to go if you want to buy.
• Browse the associated profiles. What else has this artist made, who’s worked on the platform, other items this manufacturer has produced?
• Browse tags to discover similar items.
• Scroll through other items related to this one.

For those new to Trampt, the site operates like a wiki you can also use your knowledge to help us build a more complete inventory by updating information, or adding items missing from our catalog. We have a few ideas on how to reward members who help us maintain the site … more later.

Track your collection & sell what you don’t want

When you tap the ‘have it’ action you’ll now be able to add some additional information including quantity, price you paid, and date you purchased an item. Possibly the best new feature is indicating whether you’re willing to sell an item. This notifies you when another member creates a looking to buy listing, enabling you to make an offer and sell it.

Get notified or receive offers when looking

There are many items I’ve been looking for over the years and I’m pissed when I miss an opportunity on eBay, Facebook group, etc. When you tap the ‘looking’ action there are essentially two options. You can receive notifications when one becomes available, or you can request collectors make offers to sell you the piece they own.

Let’s start selling stuff and cleaning house

There will be two ways of selling items on Trampt. The first and easiest way to do this will be linking to a site that is selling the item. The main catalyst behind this is to allow artists, shops and manufacturers the ability to link to their existing stores without creating a lot of headache. We’ll also be pulling from a variety of sources like eBay, StockX, etc to ensure that you can find the item you’re looking for as we finish building direct selling.

Direct selling will be a huge feature for us, but unfortunately this won’t be available for launch. It requires a large services integrations to process transactions, fraud detection, and messaging system. We’re hoping that our new foundation will make direct sales a much easier feature to build, but first we really need this new foundation.

First article of 2021, but more to come

This article is quickly approaching the limit of what I would personally read, and it’s definitely beyond what I would normally want to write. However, we’re all really excited at the progress we’ve made in 2020, and looking to move beyond the day-to-day awfulness of COVID, Trump, and whatever else sucked out your will to live this year.