This Thanksgiving we are most thankful for our dedicated Zistlers who have continued to contribute to our growing community. We’ve been awed by your continued support and dedication to making Zistle a success. As you know, we are committed to keeping Zistle free for all members. However, if you enjoy using Zistle and would like to help the site to continue to grow, we’re going to start accepting donations to help with hosting, storage and other associated costs of running the site.

We wanted to offer something special to those of you who decide to donate. As a special thank-you to Zistle members who donate, we’re offering early access to a new mobile version of Zistle which allows you to easily access your collection, wantlists and tradelists on any mobile device. You can also browse the Zistle Library and get access to Zistle pricing if available for any card in the Zistle Library.

To get access, make sure to add your Zistle username into the ‘special instructions section’ of the donation form. If for some reason this doesn’t work, you can also email us (ashley or josh at zistle.com) and we will enable your account.

Mobile App Preview

From the homepage, easily navigate to your collection, wantlist, tradelist or the Zistle Library. When navigating the Zistle Library, you’ll navigate through a menu of sports, years, sets and subsets.

Once you have selected the subset that you are looking for, you can browse cards, search for cards and add cards to your collection.

To add a card to your collection or see the pricing, select the card. You can add or remove a card from your collection and see the total number that you own.

We’re excited about the new mobile version of the site. All Zistle members will still be able to access the regular Zistle site on their mobile devices. We appreciate your generosity and hope you enjoy the new mobile friendly version of the site.

Upper Deck is releasing its 2011 SP Authentic Football next Tuesday, November 22nd and we’ve rounded up a complete preview including the complete checklist courtesy of Upper Deck. All cards have been entered into the Zistle library to make it easier for you to track these cards. We’ll be adding links to blog reviews so add your posts/box breaks in the comments and of course help us make this set complete by adding scans to the Zistle Library.

In addition to this guide, Go to 2011 Upper Deck SP Authentic Football Page on Zistle or download the  2011 SP Authentic Football Preliminary Checklist courtesy of Upper Deck

SP Authentic Checklist

100 Cards – Checklist for Main set, Auto Parallel, Auto Parallel Gold,  and Auto Parallel Silver

• SP Authentic Checklist
• SP Authentic Auto Parallel 
• SP Authentic Auto Parallel Gold Numbered to 15
• SP Authentic Auto Parallel Silver Numbered to 1

Future Watch Checklist

100 Cards - Checklist for Future Watch, Future Watch Auto Parallel, Future Watch Spectrum Auto Parallel

• Future Watch (Main Set)
• Future Watch Auto Parallel (Varied #’d to)
• Future Watch Auto Spectrum Parallel (#’d to 1)

Sign of the Times Checklist

100 Cards – Checklist for the Sign of the Times Insert, Sign of the Times Parallel, Dual Auto (ST2 numbered), Triple Auto (ST3 Numbered), Quad Auto (ST4 numbered)

• Sign of the Times
• Sign of the Times Parallel (Varied #’d to)
• Sign of the Times Dual Auto (Varied #’d to)
• Sign of the Times Triple Auto (Varied #’d to)
• Sign of the Times Quad Auto (Varied #’d to)

SPX Checklist

42 Cards – Checklist for SPX insert

• SPX – (varied #’d to)

SPX Rookie Auto Jersey Checklist

Checklist for SPX Rookie Auto Jersey and SPX Auto Jersey Parallel

• SPx Rookie Auto Jersey (Varied #)
• SPx Rookie Auto Jersey Parallel (# to 30)

SP Signature Threads Auto Jersey Checklist

34 Cards – Checklist for SP Signature Threads Jersey Insert

• SP Signature Threads Jersey (Varied #’d to)

We’ve recently been working hard to make it easier to add images to the Zistle Library. Last week, we launched a new feature so you can add images by url, making it easy to add images from photo-sharing sites like Photobucket or even your own blog.

Now you can just drag images from your computer onto the Zistle site and it will instantly upload the image to Zistle.  It is so slick, I made a quick video demo to show you how it works.

Sorry for the weird watermark. We are cheap and didn’t buy the software – although we would definitely recommend screenflow to anyone. Very easy to use!

P.S. Right now this only works in the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox, when IE10 is released it should be able compatible but until then you should try out something more modern.

Drumroll please….

It is no surprise that Custom collections came in first as the most requested new feature for Zistle. You asked and we listened. Our next feature release will be custom collections!

Most collectors like to say what they are collecting. Obviously right? Whether it is a player, team or even aspecific set, many collectors focus on something that they enjoy. If for no other reason than to save some money – it’s hard to collect everything right? Now you can create as many custom collections as you’d like. They will be sport specific for now.

We’re really excited to be able to launch this new feature. Stay tuned for a sneak peek over the weekend.

If you check out our feedback page, the number one feature request is trade recommendations. We have focused a lot on trading for this next release and that includes making it easier to find trade partners.

New Trading Search

Searching for trade partners on Zistle is getting easier. First, you will notice an improved search experience in trading. In the example below, I have searched on the trading tab for ‘Celtics’. When the results are displayed, I can see which members want each card and who has it up for trade.

Instantly view trade matches

Not only will you be able to see a list of users who are trading or want the card, you will be to hover over their picture and instantly see trade matches.

It will show you matches on your wantlist, your tradelist and allow you to initiate a trade. You will be able to hover over a member icon in the trading tab as well as in your contacts.

You’ll also be able to see this information when viewing your wantlist or tradelist. In the example below, I am browsing my own wantlist and I can see which cards on my wantlist match a card up for trade. When I hover over the member’s profile pic, I can instantly see if we have enough trade matches for a trade.

Now you can just simply browse your wantlist and just mouse over any matches to see if you want to trade. This will make finding trade partners much easier.

We are making great progress toward being able to launch later this weekend. Stay tuned for updates about the launch. It will include some downtime and we will keep you updated on the blog.

Zistle Activity – See what other members are doing

Zistle needs to be more social. One of the ways that we can do that is by making member activity on the site more visible. So we’ve added activity streams to the dashboard throughout the new site that will highlight member activity.

The above example only shows new members but you will see recent activity including box breaks, new sets being added to the library, new images being added and more.

Alerts – See what you need to do

We’ve also added alerts on your dashboard to make it easier to see changes and new items that require your attention. This will include trade proposal updates, new Zistle features, contact updates, library updates and more.

Alerts tell you information that you need to know or items that require your attention. You can delete them when you are finished with that item or keep them up as long as you’d like as a reminder.

Remember, if you have feedback go to our feedback page and let us know: http://feedback.zistle.com

Yes, it’s true, we are working to make Zistle better than ever. We have been working on this release for months now and we are so excited that we just have to start giving you sneak peaks of what we are working on. Not only do we want to share with you our plans for Zistle, but we also want to get your feedback. Go to our Zistle Feedback page to suggest new features and give us ideas and vote for the ones you want the most.

Dashboard – New Look and Feel

The new Zistle will feature a more polished interface as well as a lot more features. One of the best features of the new site is that it will stretch to the size of your browser window, meaning more cards per page and more info for you to use.

Zistle Contacts

You’ve asked for more social features and we’ve heard you. Now you will be able to add trading partners or friends to your contacts. These contacts will always be listed on your dashboard for easy access. Clicking on a contact’s icon will bring you to their profile page, where you can browse their collection, wantlist and tradelist and initiate a trade.

You can also search your contacts if you know who you are looking for. Simply start typing the Zistle member’s username and a drop down will appear with matching contact names.

New and Improved Messages

We are excited to announce an improved messaging system. It is not simply a facelift (which it desperately needed), you can know bulk edit your messages and remove messages from your inbox.

We’ve also added a subject line to make it easier to have multiple messages from the same Zistle member. Clicking on the message from your inbox will show an easy to read message thread that you can respond to right within the screen.

We are pretty excited about the improvements to the messaging system. We want it to be easy to send messages to other members and we’ve hard to improve this experience.

Stay tuned for another blog post on new features coming to Zistle and let us know if you have any ideas or feedback on what you’ve seen here on our new feedback site http://feedback.zistle.com.

We are really excited to announce that we have a new feedback and help tool. Why a new tool you ask? Didn’t you already have one that worked? Why do you keep switching tools? We picked UserVoice which offers many of the same benefits that our previous tool offered: integrated single sign-on, a suggestions forum and a help library as well as some additional benefits including better response times and community voting.

Vote for New Features

One of the features that we are most excited about is the ability for Zistle members to suggest and vote on new feature ideas. All Zistle members will have 15 votes that you can use to vote for features that you or other members suggest. You will only get 15 votes however, when an idea which you voted for is either closed or implemented, you will receive those votes back. You can also choose how many votes (1-3) you want to cast for each feature. So if you REALLY want one particular feature, you can cast 3 votes.

See what we’re working on

Since Zistle started, our members have given some awesome ideas and suggestions. With our new system, you will actually be able to see what features we are working on, which ones we have planned and which user submitted ideas we have implemented.

Better Response Times

There are a few reasons why we needed to make a switch. The first was that we needed a better admin interface for answering your questions and resolving your problems. We want to be more responsive in answering your questions. Our new tool will quite literally hunt us down if we aren’t doing our job.

Get Started

If you want to get started suggesting and voting for new ideas, go to our new Feedback Site. We have seeded the new feature forum with some suggestions that were already mentioned in the previous forum but we know that there are more out there.

We are working on launching some new features soon and we would love to add some more user suggested voted. Get voting!

Thanks for your patience last night as we upgraded Zistle’s infrastructure as well as fixed several bugs. There were some issues that we needed to fix to make the overall platform more stable so that we can continue to build new features.

You should notice a few improvements as you use Zistle because of this release. First, we fixed several bugs related to trading. You can now complete a trade successfully which was not the case before. There were also some issues around trade matches not working correctly when you initiated a trade – now that is fixed as well.

We also fixed a few bugs around messaging. We will be making some more improvements to messaging and adding additional community features soon that we are really excited about. We will also be making some improvements to the Zistle Library and adding more tracking tools for your cards.

Thanks again for your patience!

Here is some stuff we have been working on. Most of these are features/bugs that Zistle members have specifically suggested or requested. We added back to features from the old zistle site that people missed - Main Set appearing on top and Adding Team in list view. We want you to know that we really do listen and implement your ideas on Zistle so keep the ideas/suggestions coming.

Main Set now appears on top and is automatically created for new sets

These were feature on Zistle before we rebuilt the site and they are finally back. Rather than having to scroll down to the middle of the long list of subsets, Main Set will automatically appear on the top rather than in alphabetical order. Also, if you are creating a new set, you no longer have to create the Main Set subset – it is automatically done for you.

Add team easily in list view

This is another feature that existed on the old Zistle and is back by popular demand. We have made it easier to quickly add team to a card in list view. In case you are new to the site – here is how it works.

In list view, when a team has not been assigned a blue ‘add team’ link will appear in the team column. If you click the link, a text box will appear where you can begin typing any part of the team name and it will auto-populate a list of matching teams.

Simply select the team from the drop-down list and just like that you have added the team. If you make a mistake and select the wrong team, you will need to flag the card in order to change it.

Making Bulk Import Cards a little more user friendly

One of our major new features for the latest release of Zistle was adding a way for users to mass import cards into the Zistle library. This was a pretty big feature for us and one that we have been talking about for a long time. I was recently trying to fix some issues with Bowman Chrome and realized that we could make importing cards a lot more user-friendly.

The first thing that we did is made the formatting guidelines for importing cards appear in a new tab rather than opening in the pop-up. If you had a question about how to format your CSV file, the link for formatting guidelines would open in the pop-up. It didn’t fit very well and to go back to the import page, the user had to close the window and start all over again. What a pain! Now, if you want to double check the formatting before importing your cards, the guidleines will display in a new tab and you can easily go back and import the cards.

Which brings us to our second improvement: Zistle will now auto-populate the year, set and subset that you are currently viewing when you are importing cards. Before, if you were adding cards to 2010 Topps Main Set and decided to bulk import, you would have to add that information again. Now that information will automatically appear although you can change it if you are not on the right subset.

One thing I noticed while I was importing cards was that occasionally I would forget to add the file before clicking submit. I would get an error and the wondow would close. What happened? Did the site break? Nope – I just forgot to add the file. I would have to click import cards again, enter in the subset again and do it all over again. Now if you forget to add the file, red text will appear notifying you that a file must be selected to continue. Whew – much easier.

Our hope is that we can give you regular updates on what we are working on behind the scenes to make Zistle. I know we can disappear sometimes working on the site and you won’t hear from us for several weeks and it isn’t always bovious what we are working on. We know you want to hear from us more often and we are working on that. Thanks for being a part of Zistle and helping us make it better.