Category Archives: collecting

10 X the traffic = some site hiccups

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Let’s start with the good news: we are getting TEN TIMES our normal traffic today!

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This means we have the necessary traffic to reach our goal of increasing sales by 10 times (as part of the previously announced “Perfect 10 Black Friday Special”).

As for the not so good news, as you may have noticed, there have been some site issues today.  Please know that we are working very hard to resolve them all and expect to be fully up to speed very soon!

Even so, please don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Relations Department if you need help with anything.  You can reach us until midnight tonight at staff@comc.com or by 1-800-517-3540. Here are our Extended Customer Service Hours. Thank you for your patience!

Canadian collector launches site Eh!

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Barry from London, Ontario worked together with my brother Toby to launch a new site that combines game data with sports cards. The site is cleaverly named ScoreboardEh.com.

Here is a quick overview of the site’s concept.

ScoreboardEh is designed to highlight the day to day stars of the game and their cards. Each morning I’ll reveal the contents of one pack of cards. I’ll write about the cards I find and the players they feature. I’ll also write about the other cards of the same players that I have available in my ScoreboardEh store at CheckOutMyCards.com.

Here are a few of the cards for sale from ScoreboardEh.
2008-09 Collector's Choice Prime Reserve Gold #23 - Carey Price - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com 2006-07 Beehive Wood #19 - Sidney Crosby - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com
2007-08 Upper Deck MVP One on One Autographs #OAJW - Olli Jokinen Stephen Weiss - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com
2007-08 Upper Deck MVP One on One Autographs #OAJW - Olli Jokinen Stephen Weiss - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Counteroffers are Live!

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I finally got an opportunity this weekend to polish off the counteroffer functionality and push it live. It was an immediate hit. This has nearly eliminated the rejected offers, and it seems to have increased the total number of offers. Maybe people aren’t as shy about making offers if they know that the offers can be countered?

Today there was a perfect example of your site enabling collectors to do what they love… haggling over prices.
:-)

GrahamsCards sent a $47.50 offer for 35 cards in my LowPriceCards account. The original asking price was right around $90. I countered by asking just under $70. GrahamsCards countered my proposal by offering $60. I countered again with a $65 proposal, and GrahamsCards accepted my proposal.

Here are a couple of the cards that were included in the transaction.
2007 SAGE National Convention National Heroes Jerseys #NH2 - Adrian Peterson - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com
2004 National Trading Card Day #PP6 - Eli Manning - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com 2007 Topps #287 - Brady Quinn RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

To my knowledge, CheckOutMyCards.com is the only site that allows buyers to make a single offer on multiple cards and let the buyer and seller haggle back and forth over the price. This was truly a beautify interaction to watch. This is only a small taste of the many innovations that CheckOutMyCards.com will be bringing to the online sports card community in the near future.

A fun reason to collect

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I like to collect cards of players who I have played basketball with or against.

Jeff Hagen was a freshman at Hopkins High School in MN when I was a senior.
2005-06 Topps Chrome #249 - Jeff Hagen DL RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Kris Humphries also went to Hopkins High School, and I played against him many times at open gyms.
2004-05 Topps Chrome #179 - Kris Humphries RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Hiram Fuller played a few games at South Sound Athletics with the Club Seattle pro-am team that I played with for several years.
2005-06 Topps Chrome #229 - Hiram Fuller DL RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Doug Christie also played a few games with my Club Seattle team when we played in a league at his al-ammeter Rainier Beach last summer.
2002-03 Topps Chrome Refractors #68 - Doug Christie - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Martell Webster played on another team in that same league at Rainier Beach.
2005-06 Topps Chrome #192 - Martell Webster RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Jamal Crawford asked me to play with his team in a tournament at Green Lake after playing against him at the Redmond Athletic Club several times a few summers ago. My Club Seattle team also faced off against Jamal in several other Seattle area tournaments and leagues. Jamal is one of the nicest guys I have ever met!
2000-01 Topps Tip-Off #132 - Jamal Crawford RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Will Conroy was also on our team at Green Lake. He had just graduated from the University of Washington at the time.
2005-06 Topps Chrome #223 - Will Conroy DL RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Brandon Roy was our coach for the tournament. He couldn’t play because he was going to be a senior at the University of Washington.
2006-07 Bowman Sterling #68 - Brandon Roy JSY RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Nate Robinson dunked on me during that tournament. :-(
2005-06 SP Signature Edition Rookie GRAPHiti #NR - Nate Robinson/100 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Shawn Kemp took my spot in the championship game at Green Lake, and Nate Robinson’s team crushed us. We only lost by 2 points on a last second shot by Nate when we faced them earlier in the tournament.
1995-96 Finest Mystery Borderless Refractors/Gold #M4 - Shawn Kemp - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Kevin Garnett… well almost. He often played noon ball at Northwest Athletic Club in MN during the lock-out of 1998-99. My brother had played against him several times, so he got me into the club during one of my lunch breaks. After a long wait I only had time for one more game, and it would be against Kevin’s team. Unfortunately, there was only one spot left, and it was between my brother and me to shoot for it. I and still annoyed that he didn’t just let me play. The dork out shot me for the last spot, and I never got my chance to play against Kevin. He used to live about 3 miles from where I grew up in Minnesota, but now he is off to Boston where he and Ray Allen are going to win a championship for the Celtics.
1995-96 Topps Draft Redemption #5 - Kevin Garnett - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Note: All of the images for this post were added by simply copying the HTML code generated by the “grab this card” feature I just added to all the card details pages on CheckOutMyCards.com. You are welcome to do this with any of your blogs or eBay listings.

Wisdom from a 14 year old…

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John is Julia’s little brother. A month ago he got to come with us to the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland. While at the convention he got a bunch of cards that we added to his account on CheckOutMyCards.com so that he could play with the site.

Over the last week many of his cards have sold, and this got John excited to find more cards to put on our site. So he started searching eBay, and this is what he found.
My Ex-Husbands Cards for sale…

This was his response.

“According to eBay, guys with cards shouldn’t cheat on their wives.”
- John Neumann

Sell your cards & SAVE $ by meeting us at a show!

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For those of you in the Pacific Northwest, there are some card shows coming up, and the CHECKOUTMYCARDS.com team will be there! See below for dates, times, and locations. Come out and see us!

SHOW DISCOUNTS
Interested in selling your cards on CHECKOUTMYCARDS.com? Meeting us at a show is an easy and cost effective way to do just that. You will receive the following discounted price:

  • $0.20 / Card for 25 or more cards from the exact same set/insert set/parallel set
  • $0.30 / Card for 25 or more cards from the same player
  • $0.40 / Card for or all other cards (25 card minimum)

(Our standard price for adding cards to the site: $0.50 / Card)

SHOW DATES/TIMES

September 8th, 2007
Saturday: 10am-4pm
Totem Lake Mall
12500 Totem Lake Blvd
Kirkland, WA 98034
Directions to Totem Lake Mall

September 15th, 2007
Saturday: 11am-6pm
Jantzen Beach Supercenter
1405 Jantzen Beach Center
Portland, OR 97217
Directions to Jantzen Beach Supercenter

September 22nd, 2007
Saturday: 10am-3pm
Meridian Park School
175th and Meridian
Shoreline, WA
Directions to Meridian Park School

Show and information courtesy of Twin Oaks Shows .

Let us know if you plan on being at one of the shows. We hope to see you there!
~The CHECKOUTMYCARDS.com Team

Making waves at the NSCC with my little brother!

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At the National Sports Collectors Convention we picked up some cards that are sure to be collector’s items.

Thanks to Upper Deck, we were able to obtain the following:
2007 Upper Deck National Sports Collectors Convention #1 - Tim Getsch/1 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com 2007 Upper Deck National Sports Collectors Convention #2 - Julia Getsch/1 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com 2007 Upper Deck National Sports Collectors Convention #3 - John Neumann/1 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

It’s the CHECKOUTMYCARDS.com team!

In case you’re wondering, John Neumann is my little brother who joined our team for the week. I flew from Seattle to Minneapolis where Johnny lives, picked him up, and together we made the drive to Cleveland! His help was invaluable. If he lived closer we would recruit him!

In fact, while at the convention, he was recruited for and quoted in a Beckett article!

“I just want to collect cards,” said John Neumann. “I don’t care what sport or who the player is. I just want to add relevant cards to my collection, even if the cards are of Barry Bonds.”

As a buyer/seller on our site, you’ll be seeing more of Johnny!

Check out Johnny’s cards for sale

Julia

Portland Card Show This Weekend!

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Hey, Everyone!

On Friday we are going live with new features that will enable you (the public) to sell your cards on our site!

All day Saturday and Sunday we are going to be at the card show at the Jantzen Beach Super Center Shopping Mall in Portland, OR.

All you Portland people, come see us!

We look forward to meeting you!

The CheckOutMyCards.com Staff

Why Ads?

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Our goal has always been to create the premier buying and selling experience for sports cards. So we have tried to keep the site as clean and simple as possible. Ultimately we have attracted a lot of people, and we are one of the fastest growing sports card web sites (maybe the fastest).

  • Last month we more than tripled our traffic.
  • We have been averaging 4% growth per day.
  • In the first 3 days of July we had more traffic than the entire month of April.

This is great, but it also has a cost. We will likely need to buy more servers soon, and we will have to pay for more bandwidth. In order to offer the best buying and selling experience, we need to keep our costs down so that the overhead for using the system is kept as low as possible.

So, we are experimenting to see how effective ads might be towards offsetting some of our expenses, but we are very concerned with keeping our customers happy. Please let us know what you think about the ads. You can either leave a comment on the blog or send mail to staff@checkoumycards.com.

Currently we only list ads on our search page, but we will likely also put ads on the card details pages and on the home page.