First 5 years of service: 7.5 million cards processed
First 2 weeks of August: 0.7 million cards submitted
Normally we receive about 100,000 cards in a 2 week period. Due to our 5th Anniversary Special, we received about 7 times that in the first couple weeks of August. Last year we ran a similar special and only got about 100,000 cards. We figured we would probably get 200,000 – 300,000 cards based on the growth of the site and a slightly better promotion. Oops!
We received more cards in two weeks than we have ever processed in a 3 month period.
We had been hoping to launch the new COMC by the end of this month, but that was before we received 10% as many cards in a two week period as we had received in the previous 5 years combined. Unfortunately, we have had to put all development efforts on hold in order to increase our work force by nearly 50%.
Due Dates
Many of you have been wondering what will happen with due dates. As you may have suspected, it won’t be possible for us to process everything in just 5 weeks. That would have required hiring about 60 temp employees. Instead we have opted for a much more healthy balance of permanent full-time, part-time, and temp employees.
As a result we expect to process about 65-80% of the 5th Anniversary Specials on time. The rest will get processed as soon as we can, but they may get delayed by 2-4 weeks. We will be strategically skipping the most difficult submissions so that we can try to satisfy as many customers as possible.
5 Week Guarantee for the 5th Anniversary Special
If we miss a submission’s due date, we will discount the processing fees $5. Also, for each additional week we miss a due date we will discount an additional $5. If you would prefer to get the discount instead of getting your cards posted on time, please let us know, and we will prioritize your submissions accordingly.
4 Week Processing Blackout for September
Because of the enormous backlog, we will not offer our 4 Week processing service during the month of September. If you have stuff you are planning on sending us we will honor the 4 Week guarantee as long as the package is postmarked by this Saturday, September 1st. Any packages that are postmarked after September 1st will be given a due date of October 29th. Starting October 1st we will only allow the new One Month processing service that will cost $0.25 per item.
1 Week Processing Fee Going Up in October
We will keep the $0.35 processing fee for 1 Week service during the month of September, but on October 1st the One Week processing service will cost $0.50 per item.
Are you going to do the one-week for case-breakers we discussed at the National?
I love this idea, but we won’t roll out that option immediately. Once we get things running more consistently, we will consider introducing a bulk rate for the One Week service.
Huh, what? The cat is out of the bag, and I look forward to hearing more about this. A note to all, though: COMC is still a pretty narrow channel so if multiple sellers send in their case breaks it’s going to make everything look like 2012 Topps Series 1.
What about graded/slabbed cards, oversized cards? Will that processing fee be .50 cents per card on October 1st? And what will be the new storage fee?
We will keep the old $0.75 “Special Sized” service in place until October. Then we will start allowing those items to go through our new “One Week” service at $0.50 each starting October 1st.
The new storage fee with increased free storage is already in place and will kick in on September 1st.
Sounds good Tim. Thank you!
Glad to hear the promotions was such a success. Hopefully our items will post on time. We’ll post some items to you guys before September 1st. Sadly other than some graded cards we plan to send in once the fees reduce these will probably be the last cards we submit until there is a future special promotional rate. Beyond that let’s hope for the sake of everyone concerned that more buyers arrive on the scene to gobble up these cards. I’d welcome the chance to deal with some new blood on the site. It seems more and more lately that reasonable offers sent our way….or the acceptance of them by some of the same old guard are at an all time low.
Hard to decipher, but even after the National I’m having a great month! I hope future promotions don’t sacrifice the quality of service we’ve come to expect from COMC though š
Dude its a nickel. Build the nickel into your price and you are OK. The rise from .25 to .75 will mean the feeding frenzy for everything at .25 will go away.
“Dude” (wow am I back in the 80’s again?) it is 15 cents (for the week service).
My staff can do the same work on our other channels for less than 50 cents a card so it doesn’t make much sence to pay COMC more than I would pay my guys. For the sake of COMC I hope most others don’t have that luxury and so the site should be fine.
I hope that is the last promotion COMC has….I am fine with the processing fees and its just millions of more cards to drive down prices.
Lee it probably will be the last one for awhile. That would be fine with us as this is a great channel to flip and pick up stuff for our local buyers. We can post our stuff elsewhere and continue to flip/buy here. I think many collectors/flippers/dealers can do quite well here without ever sending a card in. We’d love to support the site by sending in more of our inventory. But once the new fees kick in we’ll support it other ways.
Dude, you can send your lesser stuff in for a quarter a card. The 50 cents for one-week is steep and I told Tim as such at the national. I think there will be a solution down the line.
Jimmy most of our lesser stuff gets bundled into lots and sold locally. We did send in a bunch during this promo because at about 17 cents per card it made it worth it, especially with the 75 cent threshold on storage fees. Hopefully they will take what you and others say about 50 cents to heart. However as with most things I think the bottom line for them will come when they view their revenue stream in a few months and see if it is working. If people continue to pay 50 cents then they will have no incentive to rethink it. The one thing I think I can be confident in is that they won’t sit by with stubborn arms folded and watch the site go down in flames. If it isn’t working they will at least try something else.
Also might be that they don’t WANT people sending stuff in at the week threshold. 30 days takes the pressure off them. So they might be happy seeing a drop in those submissions.
Well my strategy has been send cards from new products in for the 1 week processing and the rest for one month. I just sent in 400 Topps Chrome baseball for the one week, it’ll sell better. I haven’t lost yet, but I don’t do this professionally yet so its not like its my bread and butter. I feel bad for the full time hobby shop guys, the manufacturers have been asking you to pay more for less for years now.
Jimmy you are right about the new products. 90 percent of our business is vintage. The rest this stuff we take in when we buy out inventories. If we had gotten mixed up in the new product box game we would have been out of business years ago along with 90 percent of shops across America.
While I am sure some new and unique material is included in the huge influx of cards you are receiving, you have basically just added to an existing problem. Of the over 8 million cards you have processed in 5 years, almost 5 million are still at your site. More and more of the same cards are getting added which is driving the prices down. Since you don’t offer the ability to see how many of a specific card has been sold either in a specific time or since the beginning of your business, it is impossible to tell if the backlog of any particular card will ever sell. Adding more cards will not fix this issue.
Can you add an inquiry so that we can see what has actually sold and for what average price? This type of inquiry would allow sellers to determine which cards to send in and how to price exisiting cards to help move them.
Statistically we’re increasing in size by about 100% every six months. We don’t expect that trend to continue forever, but while it does then mathematically we’ll always have more cards for sale than total sold. If you look at total consigned BV vs. total purchased BV it gives a better picture: $38.640M consigned and $24.524M bought – about 60%.
Thanks,
Jeremy
I’d like to know how many cards purchased are being shipped off the site. Otherwise I would have to assume that a large portion of those cards “bought” are going back and forth between the same 3-4 port flippers. Everytime they flip a port the cards are purchased. But then the cards continue to sit until the port is flipped again.
What about the suggestion for a search capability to see what how many of a specific card has actually sold and the average sale price. Ebay offers this ability when you start to list an item for sale. It allows you to make a reasonable decision on whether to list it or not and what to charge. In your case it would prove your assertion that cards are moving or confirm mine that most are sitting.
I hope you guys can get back to development soon! I have not seen the service I am used to, but with this it is understandable. But I would appreciate it if you would answer my emails!
Hi, Nate.
I’m sorry that your emails have not been attended to more propmtly. We definitely hope to get back to more site development soon too, and we’re increasing our customer service staff to make sure that any questions or issues are dealt with more swiftly.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Tim,
This post is disappointing but understandable. There’s only so much that your staff can get done, and hiring temps to meet the deadline creates its own set of issues.
I’d like to know if you’re considering focusing on a single box at a time for folks who submitted multiple boxes. I submitted 3, and all 3 are showing as being 10 percent complete right now. If you focused on one at a time, you could save at least one $5 missed-deadline fee and I’d be able to price my cards in 550-count batches instead of having 1,600 dumped on me at once.
That’s a win-win in my book.
So you mention that the pricing change will take effect immediately, but give no time frame for the site developmental changes that were the reason you raised prices. You simply stated that you have put all development on hold until your hire more people. I really hope this doesn’t turn into one of those empty promises like the extended search functions that have “been coming soon” for the past 2 years.
This is a concern for me as well. The nightmare on Beckett (saw them change the site 3 times during our time there…often with fee increases) has me raising the Spokien Eyebrow at what is happening here. With every change made there the site got worse.
So many promises were made each time. The site when from 150+ dealers to probably 80 now and most of those are not happy. The last change occured at the beginning of the year. To date many of the glitches that caused us to leave have STILL not been fixed. The funny thing though is that at least one dealer there is on a mission do change how COMC listings appear on Amazon….though that dealer regularly is under the false impression he has the right and power to dictate how others should do things.
COMC won that race (though Beckett is on now as well…finally) and for the most part has been a much more stable platform that has delivered results.
HOWEVER…. I too am concerned with this trend of delays in launching (though I would much rather they delay than rush it out if it isn’t ready)…delays in processing and now…fees going up before any of the proposed promises have been delivered.
Sort of piggybacking on one of Triple A’s concerns and I am sure many others. Can you provide any color around details for advertising and ways to bring in more buyers to the site?
That’s all I have for now.
Hi, shamrockcards.
As mentioned previously, we’ve inked a deal to appear in every issue of every major Beckett publication over the next year. That’s a good start, and we have more aggressive advertisement plans on the horizon (slowed down a little by the subject of this blog post).
Thanks,
Jeremy
“We will keep the old $0.75 āSpecial Sizedā service in place until October. Then we will start allowing those items to go through our new āOne Weekā service at $0.50 each starting October 1st.”
I should have waited another month I guess. I was recently charged $54 for 27 graded cards for 1 week service (that’s the default charge if you send with a 1 week order?). I’d suggest noting it on the submission form.
I’m going to take a break from submitting. Seems like regulars are getting put on the backburner. Let you guys do some catching up.
Thats a bummer. Maximoose your one of my favorite sellers.
I assumed orders might be held up when I submitted mine at the national. Not a big deal.
I’ve picked up a lot of great cards on the site and have sold a fair amount as well. Enjoying what you guys are doing for the hobby – keep up the good work. I’m guessing there are a few cards I will need in the new crop!
For me, you guys represent an excellent deal even with the new price increase. The fees are comparable to listing with eBay (.50 BIN/BO up to 10 days, .10 per week for .99 auction, or .25 per week over $1.00) and the most important thing is you do all the work for me! I send you my cards – you scan, list, offer a storefront, ship, and deal with customers for me. I’ve sold about 80% of what I have sent in (only been selling around five weeks) – the kicker is that I usually get more than I would on eBay. The only work I do is looking for ways to spend my money from sales! I wonder if people griped this much when a can of Coke went from .50 to .75 in the vending machines.
I think this is all comical lately, Ive been here for over 4 years and have sold over 38,000 cards so I’ve seen this site go through a lot. Tim your shocked about the volume you received for the promo, Why, you knew everyone was gonna jump on that deal with the prices being increased soon. Funny the week after the announcing of the price increase your looking to hire 10 new employees.Odds are they’ll be let go within the year, have you noticed all of the increased Classifieds of people blowing everything out at half off? Its to help cover the already crazy fees that are just going up and to cash out or send cards that they purchased before the shipping fee increase.
Ebay is currently offering all sports memorabilia related items (Cards, Pics, Ect..) free listing for the rest of the year, cause they too see an opportunity for them to steal your once loyal sellers.
It recently took me 3 weeks to get funds put back in my account for items I returned, after 4 emails to 2 different employees, and 3 phone calls it finally got done. I also have multiple issues with getting a reply to any emails I have, where did the customer service go? More employees and no one can respond to all emails in a timely matter?
More and more issues with the servers as well lately? Now because of the promo your not accepting any new submissions for the month? Can’t handle the backlog? Seems like a lot of issues turning the wrong way for COMC, instead of positive?
But at the same time you feel you guys got to get out there and advertise more with Beckett and shows? Now that your prices have gone up do you honestly think people are gonna jump all over the website like they did back in the day? People already have a hard time sending there inventory to someone else that’s is a state known for a lot of Rain, who’s also gonna hold it and make defect notes for extra pennies that aren’t really issues to the average collector?
Your already having bottle neck issues? In the next few months your gonna wonder where is all the backlog, it’s on ebay, congrats you got less work now for your employees and already lost to many great sellers that are gonna be hard to get back.
Word.
I wish Ebay would allow Google Checkout so we could sell there again…We could live with most of their arsenine policies but having to use Paypal is a dealbreaker.
Paypal can be a pain at times, but they don’t charge you +20% to cashout when you want it like COMC, oh and another $1.00 for amounts under $250, I like having a debit card I can use whenever I want to and not worry about an employee taking days to transfer funds to my account.
There have been tons of classified ads recently, but they have been littered with stale unsellable cards, cards price 100-150% of book and other such gimmicks. There have been a handful of good deals over the past month.
Turning off submissions for the month of September strikes me as a bad idea. COMC cannot afford to lose the opportunity to bring on new sellers to expand the offering and presence of the site.
Hi, Reno_Sportscards.
Thanks for letting us know how you feel.
-Jeremy
Wait 25-50% of submissions are going to be late and you offer 5 whole dollars off!?? Keep it classy Comc, keep it classy. You basically lied when you ran this special because you knew there was NO way you could have it done but you collected peoples money and cards. Well done.
Wow, I think the right thing to do would be to eat your own dog food and honor the 50% off if a deadline is missed. You can’t change the terms after the fact. You have us all by the balls because we shipped you our cards in good faith. Not expecting a landslide of cards after announcing a price increase is bad management. I have another question I can never get answered. You have millions of dollars worth of our cards. What type of security do you have? Do you have insurance that would cover our cards in case of disaster. What do you have in place that would prevent a temp from walking out the doors with a pocket full of my cards?
They have responded to me personally on the insurance topic, they state they do have insurance for all of our cards…. they also state that they video record the opening of every single package. I have both of these statements on record, I hope for their sake it is true.
Raising prices while simultaneously breaking promises (it really can’t be spun any other way) is a sure fire way to lose business. Sad to see this mismanagement of a great card avenue lead to this.
Hello, Kurt.
I’m not sure where you heard of a “50%” figure. Our blog post about the ad didn’t mention any specific consequence of not hitting the deadline, so if we actually were trying to be jerks about it we’d just tell everyone ‘tough luck’, which we aren’t.
Classically our policy on missing dates is to discount the batch to the next-most-expensive service level, but there isn’t a precedent for us doing a sale like this so we felt 9% off the initial price per late week was a fair compromise.
Please contact us if you have any questions about security, we’re happy to talk with you. We have contracts with two separate insurance agencies, one of which specializes exclusively in collectibles. We are insured against all loss including theft, and we conduct extensive screenings of all employees, temp or otherwise, through a private firm. Our facility is under 24-hour sonic and visual surveillance through multiple redundant security systems.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Lets do a little analogy role play Jeremy…
I’m a local fruit vendor and you are a regular customer of mine, my apples are usually priced at 50 cents but one day I reward your faithfulness to me by saying “gimme a quarter today and I’ll give you two apples tomorrow”…. The next day comes and you show up on your lunch break to get your apple, I tell you I ran out of apples and give you a nickle of your 25 cents back, you show up again after work and still no apples, you get a little frustrated and let out an exhaustive sigh… To which I then reply “I didnt TELL you about our new fruit tax, you’re lucky I even gave you a nickle, you’ll get your apple when I have time”. How would you then feel as a customer knowing that this relationship you built with someone you thought yiu could trust was really sort of a jerk?
For what it’s worth, whoameye55@gmail, one difference in your analogy is that the “jerk” is essentially shutting down what I assume is a profitable segment of his business for a month to clear the backlog of the low-cost, likely no-profit special. Once that’s done, he’ll be able to proceed with the site upgrades.
And he’s doing this at a most inopportune time. I mean, he just made a splash at The National and has made a strong move into Beckett advertising.
So in the process of trying to deal with these issues, he’s taking the chance that he’s alienating new customers before they even start.
It’s a risky move, but from my perspective everything was done with the best intentions and COMC is working to make the best of a bad situation.
If I were that bitter about the situation, I’d look to get off the site ASAP. I don’t think this is worth getting so worked up over.
Well said drvic
Take it a step further with the fruit analogy…
Would you pick the time that you are telling people they have to wait to also tell them that next month the same service would cost more. Perhaps in the past you told them that along with apples you wanted to be able to sell oranges…so to get that going the price of produce would rise. Now you are saying… “I don’t know when I am going to be able to sell you oranges but I am going to start charging you as if I already was selling them”….bad timing. And IMO a different issue than the delays which are as I said understandable. COMC has never failed to meet their deadlines for me. Several times getting stuff done a day or two early. So I thank them for the $5 off if it comes to that. I don’t expect more.
Drvic,
I have no doubts that they have good intentions, I know they’re not out screw anybody and they want to see this site succeed as much as we do. My doubts lie primarily in the timing of their business model implementation. And secondarily in their perceived arrogance, which can pose a HUGE problem down the line, there is a very fine line between prideful confidence and snarky arrogance.
A few VERY applicable CS quotes that they should put in their next business meeting slide…
-The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer.
Peter Drucker
-Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
Bill Gates
-It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.
Henry Ford
-We donāt want to push our ideas on to customers, we simply want to make what they want.
Laura Ashley
One other point…..shouldn’t info like this be sent via email. Not everyone checks this blog or the facebook page.
Washington law forbids us from doing mass emailings to anyone who has not signed up for our mailing list. Anyone who has signed up for our blog’s mailing list should have also received this post in an email.
Thanks,
Jeremy
TAS,
I dont doubt that he’s a nice guy, being in CS I would ceratinly think he needs to be. I have never met him in person, but my perception from the culmination of responses in this blog have been less than one would hope to aspire to in the CS field. What good could have possibly come from the snarky comment about the “fine print”? It served no purpose but to let some of his own frustration out, and in this business you really cant let the customer see your frustration.
wow, i have never seen so much whining in my life. go sell your stuff on ebay. i don’t think you need to eat your own dog food at all. i had a post on here about all the problems i had on ebay recently as a buyer that was taken off probably to keep from disparaging ebay but i would never go back there to sell even without fees its not for me i been spoiled. i don’t see comc as backing off their promises or any of that and i would be the first to say it as gretsch knows well. i think comc did us all a favor with the recent discount so i sent in 2000 cards like everyone else. so they underestimated the volume is that a crime? i strongly object to the accusations on here if you think you can do better on ebay or beckett more power to you i don’t see it. summer is always slower around here and my sales per year still are going up.its amazing how things have grown in really just 4 years and then to hear these empty complaints about due dates, sad. maybe if you are not selling and can’t compete you are doing something wrong i know i have not had any problems and last time i looked my discount rate was around 44 percent. this is a creative enterprize and new innovations take time and thought so to see a few delays is fine with me. if anything i buy some on ebay and sell here at quite a nice turnaround so when you go to another site its just more for us here and i hope comc continues for a long time just the way you are regardless of a few dealers comments. thanks for a great job at comc there is nothing wrong with what you are doing and i am sure the majority here are quite happy.
AGREED……Alot of whiners on here and people looking for something for free ..COMC should not honor the 50% off thing,if you dont like that it may take an extra week or two,Too bad,all you have to do is make a call and they will send you your cards back(which I am guessing that you wont)…COMC made one mistake. It was running a special in which i doubt that they are making any money on(Lets all hope that they do not ever run a special again They do not need to)..I think they succumbed to all the idiots that beg for specials
1 of the things I always liked about this blog is that members here could discuss things without childish name calling. Perhaps with all of the other changes that is changing to?
on the topic I understand the reasons for the delays in processing. The fee increases a non starter for us because we can do it ourselves for less. Most people are upset with the timing of the feet increase not coinciding with the launch of the new website. That is what they told us was going to happen
Fee Not feet lol
Dang voice to text phone. We’ve beaten this horse to death now it’s time for us to sit back with popcorn and enjoy the show try and keep it respectful guys
Thanks, sportsheroes; really appreciate your kind words. =)
-Jeremy
An important thing to remember is that this is not Us (being the unhappy customers) vs. Them (being COMC). This is a unique scenario with being a consignment service in that WE (sellers and comc) both have a vested stake in the success of the site, we are voicing our displeasure because we want to see progress…. I view it like this
COMC and sellers are dual owners in a 50/50 profit sharing business, the model was already created in that COMC would provide the avenue and sellers would provide the product. Then one day COMC says we now want 60% because we are improving the avenue, this is wrong because both partners wold benefit from avenue improvements, only now COMC wants a bigge cut. Then, this is where it gets really bad… COMC says we want a 60% cut now and we are not going to improve the avenue for a while.
I mean, you’re obviously entitled to your opinion, but I completely disagree. What would you do differently? How might they, in the face of what’s going on, handle this better? It can’t be changed what has already happened. The root cause of the delay is too much business. It is what it is.
That said, I agree with Lee’s sentiment earlier. Although I’m happy to take advantage of processing specials, it does change the mix of what gets submitted. I imagine they’ll recoup the loss with the analytics they’ll get as a result.
What would I do differently? I wouldnt screw my business partner by taking a bigger portion of the cut before I improved the avenue.
I think everyone is sympathetic to them simply not being able to process the unexpected amount of cards on time, those are problems that as a business owner you don’t mind having… Rapid growth isnt a bad thing, until you mismanage it.
We are upset about the timing of the implementation of the the pricing increases, they’re asking us to give more without upholding their end of the original agreement.
And personally, this statement by Jeremy really upsets me
“so if we actually were trying to be jerks about it weād just tell everyone ātough luckā, which we arenāt.”
This is arrogant and offensive, it puts a bad taste in our mouths to tell your customers “We cant meet our promise, and you’re lucky we give you anything at all” ….. Customers are alowed to voice their displeasure with the company, and while it is certainly legal for companies to voice their displeasure with customers it is certainly not a wise move.
Whoameye55… I don’t think Jeremy meant for it to come off that way. The few times I have had a chance to talk with him he has always been helpful and respectful and I know he works his tail off for this site. But yes, he probably could have gotten his point across with a better choice of words.
Thanks, TAS. I imagine this won’t be the last time my somewhat offbeat sense of humor doesn’t translate well in comment form. I never mean to offend anyone but you’re quite right that I should have given my exact phrasing a second edit.
Jeremy
Jeremy I wish you guys would have an edit button here. Would not only clean up typos but I think at one time or another all of us wish we could take back something that was written in the heat of the moment.
Good call AAA sportscards do you remember how big of a ass I made of myself when all this was going down. You would have thought I was back on the sauce. Just passion.
Does each box from the 5th Anniversary Special count as its own submission? If a person submitted four 550-count boxes, would their discount for a missed deadline be $5 or $20?
I was just curious about the cut off date for the price increase. If I am reading this correctly, as long as it’s post marked by last day of September, were are good for the .20 processing, but if it’s post marked 1 october then it’s the .25 processing. And also due to the surplus in inventory waiting to be added, anything that is set it after 1 september will have a post date of 29 october.
I think the COMC management is doing a great job. Regarding previously mentioned comments about prior sales history, I think adding a sales rank to each item in its respective category (like Amazon does) would prevent sellers from sending in cards that will likely never sell.
Also, I’m not sure if COMC advertises on the sports card forums but I can say from experience it’s has a heck of an ROI.
Good luck guys.
I’d say they are recouping the loss by jacking up the fees without delivering the new site at the same time as it was outlined previously.
I’m not particularly thrilled with the fees but I think we should give them a break. Anybody who sells online, whether it is eBay, Amazon or COMC, should expect fees to perpetually increase. It’s unfortunate but necessary for the company to continue to grow. The sellers who accept this fact and adapt will survive, the whiners will eventually die out.
Regarding the new site delay, trust me, you’d rather have a functional site launched late than a malfunctioning site launch early. Most new customers will only give this site a few minutes before they leave and if the site is full of glitches, they will bounce.
Johnny regardling your last paragraph…. not sure if you were on Beckett or not but they are the #1 case study for how a poorly timed, poorly planned and poorly executed launch of a site can lead to a near death experience. They might recover, but will never be what they were or could have been. I am glad COMC didn’t rush this.
Agreed.
I saw the Beta of the new site at The National, and I’m convinced I can make money here. My situation might be different from many — I’m not in the card business full-time and I don’t even do shows — but I think the changes can be positive, especially based on some things Tim explained to me that I hadn’t read or properly digested before.
I’ve done very limited flipping with marginal success, but it will pay off in the long run. I don’t need cash right away, so I can be patient while my cards go up and while it takes them time to sell. My mostly early 70s-era cards tend to sell because I’m very sensitive to condition and price accordingly, and I think a number of buyers appreciate that.
I have enjoyed my overall experience with COMC the past two years, but unfortunately a lot has transpired the past month that will have me moving more volume to Ebay the rest of this year. How can COMC implement the largest fee increase EVER at the same time their largest competitor allows you to list any card for free. Pretty easy decision even without a details P&L to figure out the more profitable option to move your cards.
For me, COMC has been great for that $1-5 card that isn’t worth the time and effort to throw on Ebay. For $.25 – $.35 you could get these cards listed on COMC for three months and if priced right the card would likely sell. Even if a year later some didn’t sell you were still making money on COMC. Now it looks like millions of cards are about to flood the site which will only drive down prices for every seller. At the same time listing prices are on the rise, COMC is saying we are in over our head with submissions and buyers are about to see a huge increase in prices for every card due to the new shipping fees. I might be missing something here but I would be very worried about my short and long term prospects as a business.
I don’t care if they never run a shipping special again. We can use this site to our advantage without ever sending in another card. Everyone has their own internal threshold for how much they are willing to pay for things.. that applies to most things in life, including paying someone or a site to do labor for them. I don’t begrudge COMC for trying to raise more revenue…it is the timing of it that 20+ years of business experience has me shaking my head.
COMC is known for several things from a sellers perspective …. Among them are #1 excellent service, #2 a fairly stable website and #3 fairly high fees to produce #’s 1 and 2.
When you have standards and a reputation for good customer service and then suddenly deadlines are not being met, emails are not being returned, a new site launch is delayed and then on top of it a fee increase is pushed through at the same time, folks have good reason to be upset. Like it or not when people come to expect something from a business and at some point that business fails to deliver on those expectations, with good reason or not people are going to take a step back.
The main risk COMC always must manage is that TRUST is the key to their survival. They are holding millions of cards and soon other goods. If public trust in the site begins to fail they are going fail very very quickly. Pushing a fee increase at a time when I have failed to deliver to my customers expectations is not how I would ask for their understanding. ….but maybe as someone else posted above, there is a touch of arrogance that makes them feel as though they do not need our understanding because we’ll just accept it and continue on.
I want them to take their time and get the new site right. I want them to make sure they not only get these huge hoards of cards listed but get them listed with as few mistakes as possible. I want them to do what they can to grow their brand. Doing so will benefit buyers and sellers.
Have a good holiday everyone. Have a pile of orders here to fill and then my staff gets a paid day off Monday so we are clearing out for weekend as quickly as we can.
Current pros vs. cons as of THIS DAY
Pros vs. Cons
Old vs. New
(a few new pros can be added if and when the new improved features come out)
Pros old:
Excellent customer service
Oustanding communication with sellers
Open to ideas, humble, delivered service based off of popular customer feedback
Cheap fees
Would release completed orders early if they were done (4 week service sometimes only took 3 weeks)
Cons old:
Slow site to load at times
Slow to make corrections
Various programming bugs and glitches
Promises of new features coming soon, that never came
Pros new:
Great customer service
Great imorovement on corrections
Open line of communication with customers
Improved programming reliability
Cons new:
Not as open to acting on customer feedback, stubborn
Poorly timed blog posts emitting important details
Comments by staff that can be perceived as arrogant
Rising fees
Major site outages
Promises of new features coming soon still continue
Rising process fees
Not able to meet deadlines
Unnecessary condition notes have increased exponentially, some believe due to potential for profit maximizing
Dear COMC,
I am angry. I want to list my cards for next to nothing, I want my cards processed immediately and I don’t want other people sending in the same cards as me and driving down the prices.
As a generally unhappy person, I consider myself a great teacher and would like you to think of me in the same way. I am sending you a list of condescending customer service quotes that I would like you to repeat as a mantra.
Even though you have built the best site for buying and selling cards, I still feel like I know more than you so I will continue to be outraged by everything you say or do in order to prevent you from getting complacent. Please change nothing and everything about your site simultaneously. It’s a simple request.
I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head Bruce!
Nothing is better to showcase your character than to write a condescending message which calls somebody condescending… Bring intelligent counterpoints to the discussion, or check your ego at the door.
And that, is indeed, a simple request.
Whoameye55,
Do you even sell on this site? You seem to be the only person accusing COMC of trying to outright screw people and of other crimes against card collecting humanity. Seems to me that you have two choices: 1) stay here and help to build COMC into the best site on the internet to sell cards or 2) Take your tissue box and yourself to a different card selling forum and leave us alone. I truly hope that you stay and make the best of it.
I have been on COMC for four years and there have been a multitude of changes as they moved forward. I was not a fan of many of the changes, but instead of throwing up my hands I figured out what if any adjustments that I needed to make in order to remain successful in selling on COMC. It takes time, hard work and some risk taking. If you have been involved with Ebay since the late 1990’s the amount of changes on that site have been astronomical yet many sellers are constantly reinventing themselves to be successful after each change.
Yes, I do sell here. I’m sorry that you view my criticism as blashpemy, if you look through and dissect my comments I never once have accused COMC of “crimes against card collecting humanity”, or even anything close to it.
I would love to have an intelligent point counterpoint on this issue, but it seems that some here just view my criticism as unjust. I do not share that sentiment, and feel that my criticism is warranted.
As a seller, I feel that I have a vested interest in the success of this site, and view it as my duty to procide input, both good and bad, about the decisions that are being made. One of the great things about this place is that you know those in charge ARE listening. I offer criticism and praise with the hope that it will help the direction of the site. I do not intend to leave COMC, but the changes coming are massive and will have an effect on every seller here. Again, my criticisms are not profane, they are constructive in nature. I’d love to keep the conversation flowing, because the more we talk about it the more info. on buyer/seller sentiment Tim and the crew will have.
Whoameye55,
I have a lot of passion and interest in seeing the COMC site succeed and I did not catch that you were serious about improving the site from your posts. I apologize for my misunderstanding and I would love to chime in on a few points:
I believe COMC made a serious tactical error in offering such an inexpensive National Convention Processing Special. Maybe this was an attempt to fan the flames (while taking too much customer input) of their early posts that outlined the site changes and increased costs. I want to see COMC succeed long-term so I have some patience if it takes a few extra weeks to normalize the ship after receiving 700,000 cards to process. I think that it is a bad idea for COMC to suspend new processing in the month of September.
I have listed over 17,000 cards on COMC and have not had a processing delay in at least three years (I recall that was a processing special too) so I see their performance as quite good. The recent COMC notification that many of the National Special processing would be late was not received well by many.
I did not take the COMC responses as arrogant and rude as you did, but no two people will see things alike.
If you were involved with Ebay in the early days you would remember the rash of site outages and gaffes. COMC is continuing to grow from a small start up venture and Murphy has reared his head many times in the past month.
COMC just cannot be a successful business with $.25 per card + 20% if people sell just low dollar cards. I am convinced that their rates are a bargain because they scan, research, list, market,receive order, receive payment, pack and ship without me ever lifting a finger. I travel quite a bit with my job so this is a perfect solution for me versus Ebay where I would sometimes not be able to ship in a timely manner. I am not thrilled with the increased costs, but I will adjust my business model of what cards are worth sending to COMC.
I am not a fan of nearly every vintage card receiving a condition note. The scan will show the centering of a card, I should not have to pay extra for COMC to write Off-Center under the description.
Hope this is helpful and constructive.
Thanks for your response, I can’t say I disagree with you on any of the topics you touched on.
I think Tim and the crew would like to do a few things differently, every business makes a few mistakes along the way, they do a great job of keeping the lines of communication open and that is not something that should go overlooked.
Most of the decisions they make are great in theory, just either not well executed or are things where the devil hides in the details.
For instance,
In regards to them not being able to be a successful business by operating in the .25 cent card market, I whole heartedly agee! It’s just as easy for them to list a $100 card as it is a .25 cent card…. they profit .21 cents from the low value card and over $20 for the $100 card, and the $100 is likely to sell quicker. Tim and the crew have even said multiple times from the start, that they’re target card is $1 or more. So what did they do to correct operating at a loss by spending all day on a box full of 1990’s commons? They made listing a card .35 cents more expensive (in theory), listing a card went from .20 to .55 and after shipping and cash outs made it unreasonable to send in cards if you were not planning on selling them for .75 cents or more. What do I think of this? I think it’s BRILLIANT, but as mentioned earlier, the devil lies in the details…. it is not right to tack on an additional .25 cents to the price that the average non-flipping customer sees of every card that has already been paid for, those cards should be grandfathered in.
In addition, I think it would be very beneficial to the business model to try to get a bigger volume of mid-high end card on the site, this is really where the bread and butter is for them… the margins are much greater, but they just don’t have the inventory. I think they should offer an incentive, either by way way of lowering the processing fees and/or cash out fees for mid-high end cards. Sure they would lower their margins, but the added inventory of mid-high end cards will bring in more customers. The ideas they have coming with a promo to case breakers of new product is a great one, but at this point we have all been promised so much for so long without seeing any results that I know at least I am cautious to believe them. Which brings me to my next note, please don’t tell us “it’s coming soon”, look for it “this summer”, then completely forget about it, poor taste.
Also, I have to mention this one again because it is such a BIG principally wrong move and they have still not set a date or even a rough estimate for a date for the new site launch. But is WRONG WRONG WRONG for them to raise prices before upholding their agreement of delivering an improved site.
Anywho, those are just a couple of the things I like and dislike about this place. Many other were listed in this thread as well. Hopefully Tim and the crew read my comments as they are intended, to improve the user experience.
You’re ignoring a few concepts that have been established. First, you’re tying profitability to the cashout fee, which are almost mutually exclusive. I’ve never cashed out, but to say I’ve never made COMC any money is ridiculous.
Every card, to COMC, is the same. As a consignment company, they make money on the taking in and sending out of a card. The value of the card has a negligible effect (insurance for both the warehouse and shipping on one hand, storage fee and cash-out fee if cashed out on the other). They don’t care that I done screwed up and sent in the wrong monster box, the one with 2012 Topps Series 1 base. Eventually they will sell. (About 10 per day, so in about two years they will all be gone, except of course it will slow down.) In the meantime, I have no cash flow with those. My bad.
Second, a $100 card isn’t necessarily more likely to sell than a 25-cent card. The high-end market is still really illiquid here, although over time I’m sure it will get better. Probably the dumbest thing I do is send new-release high-end stuff here, but I know that it improves the site’s portfolio, and eventually people will discover they can find nice things here to buy. And I’ll add that when the high-end stuff does sell, it usually gets full book because of the type of buyer who is interested in those things.
Although I don’t think they’ve said their target card is the >$1 market, I think it would make the most sense. If that were true, though, they wouldn’t be incentivizing sellers with free storage below 75 cents. I think what has been discovered is that a non-collector doesn’t differentiate and is happy to pay $4 shipped for just about anything ā it’s $4! Someone bought a Yadier Molina card from me the other day after the collision. After Melky Cabrera was suspended, someone picked up a few commons of his. They were probably outsiders who wanted the conversation piece. There are a ton of sports fans who don’t collect cards under normal circumstances. COMC has bridged that gap.
COMC is not “raising” the price of cards. The free-shipping concept works when buying things remotely (whether mail order, through the phone or online). I can’t wait for this to be implemented.
The user experience is fine. What we’re seeing is a case study in why not every user can handle transparency. When you buy something on eBay and the seller decides to wait an extra day to ship something, he probably doesn’t tell you, and you probably don’t notice. It’s positive feedback and five stars all around. Just like a message board, the comments on a blog post are not representative of the COMC user base at large. The summer slowdown one should expect when selling cards has been less pronounced this year, which scares me because I’m going to be awfully busy keeping up with my sales this fall.
Thanks for keeping the conversation flowing Joel,
My train of thought on the cash out is this, eventually COMC will get their 20% cut of EVERYTHING sold, because eventually a seller will cash out. The only exception to this is the slight savings you would get from taking a BO coupon. You may defer that 20% by buying more inventory, and that person who’s card you bought may do the same, but eventually it will either get cashed out or provide COMC funds with investment funds in the interim. So, in that sense, it absolutely does make a (big) difference in the profitability of employee man hours of small value vs. large value cards.
This above paragraph all ties in with my point of $100 cards being more likely to sell, and this is simply from personal experience on the site. But, unless your a sole flipper, if you’re trying to defer that 20% cash out you’ll likely be looking for a PC card. So that card that you can pick up on eBay for $100 you might be willing to pay $110 for here because the alternative is to turn that $100 into $80 and then buy it for $100… in other words, even though you’re spending $10 more for the card, you’re still saving $10. (confusing, I know, hopefully that made sense)
I understand the idea behind the consumer psychology of free shipping, and think that it is a very smart move by COMC. It would be much smarter if they found someway to make shipping completely free instead of 2.99 for unlimited cards, but I don’t see a way they can do that. However, it will undoubtedly effect the type of cards sent in. Which isn’t a bad thing, unless you’re one of the sellers here who are stuck with a giant inventory of low value cards.
What do you think of
-Sellers being stuck with giant inventories of .25 cent cards that will now be viewed to that average customer as a .50 cent card? Do you honestly believe they will be bought at the same rate? I understand your point about the non-flipper/collector not blinking an eye at the increase, but I believe the percentage of savvy collectors that would have bought that card at .25 cents, but not .50 cents, outweighs that of the “conversational sports enthusiasts” or “niece of a former minor league ball player who wants a card of her uncle”
– COMC asking us to pay the increased processing before they implement the site changes they promised?
– The increased amount of unnecessary condition notes?
You’re a nice enough guy, and all I’m trying to do is accuse you of bad math. Let’s use some numbers here that I will say are fake because I don’t want them to be considered it as fact.
Let’s say hypothetically:
I’ve sent $6,910 to the site
I’ve done $96,370.58 in sales
I have a zero balance
I retire and sell my remaining port for $60,000 (no, it’s not actually for sale)
This would mean I’d end up with a $41,090 profit on $156,370,58 in sales and $12,000 in fees. I would be happy paying 8% in fees. And the thing is, my port’s value goes up at a faster rate than my sales do, because I flip cards and ports. (There’s also the cost of procuring the cards I’ve sent in, which is far less than $41,090, for the guy who asked whether you can make money on this site. Oh yes you can.) This means that 8% figure only serves to go down over time.
It’s like the Hotel COMC. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave ā without paying 20%. But it’s only how much money you have when you leave that you then pay 20%. Anything you flip while inside the Hotel COMC stays there. If it doesn’t make sense, look at your own numbers and do the math.
As far as taking BO gift certs or cards to flip elsewhere, those are even better than cashing out if you’re willing to do the legwork. There are plenty of arbitrage opportunities flipping in both directions, just like at thepit.com 10 years ago.
The new COMC site launch was suppose to be today. At the National, Tim took a few minutes to walk me through the look and feel of the new site. I use to say that the seller should have the ability to offer free shipping on the cards of their choosing. Now that the postage has been added into the price (and increased to $.25 per card) I am still not sure how I feel about that change. I will wait and see the impact on my sales.
I would like COMC to find a way to promote sending in ultra hot cards like Mike Trout Rookies. Maybe they could offer free One Week processing for an abbreviated list of hot cards that would sell instantly for good money. This would help to offset Ebay’s timing advantage.
Joel,
I’m still not sure I’m following the math. That all makes sense from a flippers perspective, for YOU that works. However I never questioned the potential profitability for the seller, I questioned the potential profitability for COMC.
Your statement only serves to proves my point, eventually COMC will get a 20% cut of whatever the card was initially sold for, it doesn’t matter how many generations of flipping it goes through. They will all either end up getting charged the 20% cash out fee, or will remain on the site forever. With that, since it takes the same amount of man hours for COMC staff to put a .25 cent card into the system as it does a $100 card it would suffice to say they do not make the same margins on every card despite it’s value… they make much more on high end cards, and should market towards them by lowering profit margins in order to increase inventory by ways of offering lower cash out fees for higher end cards.
Your theory is flawed by the reality of what actually does sell. Close to 50% of my card sales are $1 or less and less than 5% were $10 or higher. You must also have read something different than I did as the fee increase has not started yet, it will October 1. I would assume the new site will be up and hopefully running by then.
I wonder how many 4 week processing orders they are going to get near the end of the month.. Since…Any 4 week orders postmarked after September 1st are going to get a due date of October 29th…. if folks were to send in anything else to this site the best bargain would be to put it in the mail around September 24th. Gives it a week to get there before October 1st when the new fee spike kicks in.
Cards that will sell for $100 are treated differently and take significantly more time. They are removed from the rest of the order during the sort, placed into protective top loaders, scanned separately, and stored in a different part of our facility.
cardsrus,
5% of your total card sales were $10 or higher, but what percentage of your cards are priced $10 or higher? You probably have a much greater percentage of cards priced under $10.
My theory is only based off of what sales. But it doesn’t matter if it sells once, or 20 times, COMC will still get 20% of the amount that it first sells for. And for whatever doesn’t sell, they’ll get a penny a month for. You’re right about only profiting off of what gets sold, but even if they sell a considerable amount of cards that are under $1, the margins on a higher end card are so much larger that it would make them more money if they were to sell one $20 card a month then if they were to sell 30 $1 cards. Now you can do some quick math and immediately draw a different conclusion, but you can’t ignore the man hours it takes to list those 30 cards vs. that 1.
The processing fee going up in October is a moot point, since they’re not allowing submissions in September. It’s essentially going up immediately for the 4 week service, and going up in October for the 1 week service.
The above math with 1 $20 card vs. 30 $1 cards might be a little off, but it’s still close.
COMC profit from 1 $20 card= $4.20
COMC profit from 30 $1 cards= $12
difference= $7.80
man hours to scan and list 1 card= 1 minute
man hours to scan and list 30 cards= 30 minutes
difference= 29 minutes
$10 an hour = 16 cents a minute.
difference of $4.64 in man hours subtracted from COMC profit from 30 $1 cards= $7.36
So it’s basically $4 profit for 1 $20 card and $7 profit for 30 $1 cards.
Margins on 30 $20 cards would mean a $120 profit vs. a $7 profit, again assuming they all are priced accordingly and sell.
If they were to decrease cashout fees for cards sold $20 and over to 10% cashout it would significantly increase interesting inventory that would drive new users to the site, many more cards would be submitted and they would still make healthy margins when compared to low end cards.
COMC is much better suited to market and advertise towards the mid-higher end card market.
Chad,
Thanks for jumping into the conversation and providing some insight. I don’t doubt that a $100 card would be treated a little differently, but even after factoring in the added labor (maybe it would take 3x as long to handle a $100 card then it would a $1 card?) the margins on a $100 card vs. a $1 are still huge. High dollar cards would definitely bring in new customers and, I believe, that COMC would stand to make more money even with a lowered cashout fee for those type of cards.
As it stands now, it would cost the seller roughly $12 to sell that $100 card on eBay, and it would cost him roughly $20 to sell it here.
A $300 sell on eBay would equal $30 in fees on eBay and $90 here… whoa!
That’s a pretty big difference, sellers don’t overlook that.
I feel it is a large part to do with why there are so few high dollar cards priced realistically on this site. The current advantage that COMC has over eBay is cards priced $15 and under.
eBay understands that items that sell for more make them more money in return, they adjust their fees accordingly.
Here’s where the edit button would come in handy š
My math was obviously off on the fees on COMC, it’s $60 in fees not $90, which is still twice as much as eBay… While having somebody scan and list your card for you is certainly convenient, it’s not enough to justify a $30 loss
Correct. That is why we won’t cash out. Even if we use the money to buy a card for $100 and only sell it back here for $100…we are only out the shipping fee which turns out to be far less than 20%. COMC is happy. The reason the 20% is in place is to deter cashouts.
Do any sellers actually make a profit on this site? If so, I would love to hear some suggestions on how to actually make money from selling my cards. I understand that some may not want to share their “secrets” with the rest of us, but I think it would be beneficial for COMC to provide tips for sellers, and some examples of successful selling strategies, especially for small time sellers.
Seriously though, does anyone make a profit on this site?
No it’s more for fun. If they tell you they do there lying. They may say they made $50,000 last year but $45,000 of it was fees. If flipping is done on a large scale theres money to be made. You would have to throw alot at it. You throw a couple $100 in the account and try to make money not possible.
Look at swag cards and rookies and jerseys. If anyone would be making money it would be them. They got lots of stuffs. There jumping ship, so to say theres money to be made would be a ly.
I make money here and do very well.Why in gods name would i send in 100-200 cards every Friday if I didn’t it,wouldnt make alot of sense…First and foremost research every card that you send in if there is alot of them dont send it in.
Great response, Lee. Exactly what I do, and I’m making money, too. I’m learning from my mistakes and honing in on different ways to make even more money.
I suppose if you would Dissect a frog evertime you sent in a card you probably could or if you where really luck on case breaks. I was commenting on the average joe that has other things to do. Not stare at cards all day.
We make money buy taking what we sell here, buying vintage and local related stuff to put in our shop and getting better value that way. We do buy some stuff with the intention of flipping but we learned long ago that cashing out was pointless. At worse if we sell a card for $5, we can buy something here, put it in the store locally and get $7. So by the time the shipping is calculated we still clear our original sale price plus a bit extra. Trying to make a living while paying that 20% cashout fee I can’t see working very well. But it probably does for some.
Money can absolutely be made on this site if you know what you are doing. I have made money in my four years and also greatly increased my personal collection. The formula to success is simple: sell cards that people want for the price that they want to pay. Flippers that understand hot cards and what they sell for can make good money. You have to be willing to take risks and understand what the market will bear.
If you want to be a flipper be patient to find the right deal and when the deal is good enough be quick and don’t try to lowball because other savvy flippers are probably targeting the same card.
Most of all have fun doing it.
While tiger is right. Do not plan to cash out that money. U are better off buying a high end card and having it shipped to u and selling it on a different site. I do think I remember reading that COMC may change the cash out fee that would make the site more profitable.
Thanks for the input. I appreciate your comments.
I work full time and am primarily a collector of vintage cards. I do not have the time or energy to set up a shop nor set up at local card shows. I tried EBay but gave it up due to the effort required to scan images of my cards, generate the listings, and settle with customers after auctions concluded. So COMC continues to be a perfect for my needs.
These are my statistics:
Year Total Sales # Sold Sold BV Average BV % Off
2012 $1,680.55 314 $4,322.50 $13.85 $0.61
2011 $2,058.08 549 $6,459.95 $11.79 $0.68
2010 $1,411.35 521 $4,980.45 $9.56 $0.72
2009 $915.60 534 $4,460.60 $8.35 $0.79
Twice, I have cashed out $1000.00 and will do so again sometime this year.
My secrets? I buy cards that are “better than what I own on sale” when I find them at shows and at local card stores. I consign the lesser condition condition cards to COMC in batches every few months. I price my cards to offer “best value” for a potential buyer compard to the cards offered by other dealers at the same time. Daily, I’ll check “Recently Added” cards and buy and update cards I own accordingly. Rarely, I’ll buy and flip a card when I can mark the card at twice the price and still offer “best value”.
It seems to me if you are primarily into cards as a business, COMC may not be the best for you. If you own a store, if you are full time card dealer, or your inventory and interests are in high end investment grade cards, then you’ll probably take your business elsewhere. But if you are a casual hobbyist looking for a way to subsidize your collection while doing a real job and living a real life, COMC is just fine and higher fees make little difference.
Thanks qz7cbz,
When you buy cards at shows or at stores, do you have a % in mind that you need to buy the card at in order to make money on COMC?
Ok cats in been a while for me. As you all no because of the fee hikes I now have all my cards in my home. 3 easy steps to solve this problem
Step 1 – Jeremy take a vacation, your fustration is not welcome.
Step 2 – If COMC is in fact giving us a better site to do bussiness. Then hold the fees till the site is up.
Step 3 – If we all stop posting Jeremey can get his hands dirty and get some cards proccessed.
I did leave this site because I found better ways to sell my cards. That doesn’t mean this is not a good way to get your cards seen by alot of people. I guess the best advice I have for the general flipper like I was is to put all your cards in “not for sale” and wait it out. You have no storage fees that way. COMC is a great place to store your cards. Climate controled, secerity, and it cost you nothing if your cards are already on the site. Sit on them till this all blows over or just leave them there forever, you can always see a picture of them and see there price. Do you no Beckett charges $9 month for one sport, COMC free once your cards are on the site. It is the best storage facility in the world in my opionon. Thanks for reading
If I ever send anymore cards in to COMC it will be for storage only. Storage units are pricey and so is insurance and I dont get to see a picture and price of my cards, everyday if I want to. [edited – please keep it clean]
I just wanted to leave a positive post, because overall I feel very positively about COMC. While some of the concerns voiced do have some merit, no company is run perfectly all the time. Except Apple Inc., J\K. COMC communicates with the users better than any company I have ever dealt with, they come off as genuine and honest to me. I feel their vision with the price increases, and decreases, don’t forget the decreases, is a good vision, and if it doesn’t work they will adjust. I am really hoping the shipping fee structure change does work out and bring in more buyers, I have faith that it will when combined with the additional advertising. It does get a little tough to take when you have cards priced below what they sell on ebay every day, and they sit here for weeks.
Keep up the good work COMC, keep your sanity while working long hours.
Darin, despite some of my concerns expressed here I agree with you. I do believe they are smart enough to find a way to make it work. The interim growing pains are still frustrating at times.
On my way out the door I wanted to check out some traffic numbers. The Alexa results for COMC are shocking. Especially when compared with another “third tier” card selling site that has been around longer ( I wont mention it hereby name because I don’t know if doing so will violate the rules here) but it is a site that tied into another site that deals in graded cards. Their numbers, while still way behind COMC are trending up…. Here are the results for checkoutmycards.com http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/checkoutmycards.com#
What do you guys make of these numbers?
I’m starting to get a little scared as a seller on this site. I understand the fee’s should go up, but $0.25 a card is a little rough in my mind. I know fee’s always go up, but I felt $0.20 was a decent price per card. I have also bought a lot of cards on this site that aren’t worth much “Book Value” and I have a strong feeling those cards are going to be hurt when the fee’s go up. When I send in cards from now on, I’m going to have to make sure I can make at least $1.00 on each card just to keep where I need to be.
Also, I hate how much we lose when we need to cash out on this site. It’s a lot of money we sellers lose. I know you want the money to stay on the site, but man it can really hurt us smaller guys in the end.
Look I love the site, but please be careful with the fee structure. You don’t want to have 7.5 million cards in stock and nobody buying them anymore, and then no more cards coming in because of the fees.
Since you guys are buking up on submissions any plans for a Black Friday to Christmas shipping special to level off the inventory?
I’d expect a free shipping promotion because by then it will be $2.99 unlimited already. Maybe universal 10% off plus free shipping.
Hi shamrockcards.
A Black Friday special is something folks should expect. The exact form it’ll take isn’t set in stone yet.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Very good to hear! Thanks Jeremy!
Better watch out….the big bad wolf on another site is whining to Amazon about how COMC listings are laid out….
what? I’m curious to know this one…
If you can send me a message on facebook (click on my name here) I will explain.
what if you let us price the cards you have done before you hit 100%. Like when it 35% done we can put prices on those cards. That would make it easier on all the people waiting for it to get done. you can have it set up where 25% 50% 75% 100% you get to price them and start making money. Just a thought
I don’t think the percentage is how many of the cards are done. I think assigning a item number to the card is what gets it to 35% because that’s where it stays for most of the time when you do the 4-week service. More or less, all the cards in the batch seem to be processed together.