Greetings from the COMC Team.  We wanted to take a moment to remind everyone a bit early that next week Monday is a very special day in the USA: Memorial Day.  As a national holiday, our doors will be closed on that day and as such:

Customer Service will be closed Monday, May 27th & will reopen Tuesday, May 28th at 8 a.m. PST.

Don’t worry though; we will be back in the full swing of things early Tuesday morning!  If you need to contact over the holiday, feel free to contact us via staff@comc.com and one of our Customer Service Agents will get back to you as quickly as we can when we return.

We hope you all have a beautiful holiday if you’re in the states and feel free to celebrate even if you aren’t within the borders.  There will be barbecues,  parades, and services to attend on that day; so what are your holiday plans?  Feel free to leave a comment below and tell us how you will spend your day away from work!

Redemptions.

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We’ve all gotten them in a pack of cards, at one point or another. You’re anticipating a big hit, expecting something really awesome and cool as promised on the wrapper and…boom. There it is. Like the blue screen of death (kids, ask your parents) there it is, staring you in the face. A nondescript card with a little bit of text detailing something that could be potentially awesome, with something that needs to be scratched off.

Granted, these days you can go to the card company’s website, get the redemption process started and hope that something comes back to you…in a year. Maybe. And, what are the chances that you’ll get that card they promised? What if that player bails on the company? Or the company decides to go with someone else? Or (as happened to me earlier this year) the player gets cut by the team after his 2nd arrest during training camp?

Sometimes you get lucky…in that you get what’s actually been promised. Sometimes, you just get whatever the card company had laying around as a replacement.

Feel free to share your best/worst redemption stories. Go ahead and name names, point fingers, vent, yell, then tell us what you think would make the redemption process a more positive one for you.

The second change is to our List view.   Compared to the past, this view is now centered on the page rather than being stretched all across the page, the pictures are enlarged, and it is much more streamlined.  The crispness allows for very easy comparison of prices along the right hand side.

While not every change we make to the site is a big one, we hope these two adjustments will make your experience at COMC.com even easier.

Why Use Different  Views:

• Details: This is our standard view.  You can see a large picture of the card, what the name of the card is, and at what price it is listed.  This is the perfect view for the collector who wants to browse and shop through the images on the site.
• List: While List is very similar to the Details view, it has one very distinct advantage: all of the cards have their details laid out horizontally.  This allows a collector to pick through cards with multiple parallels and variants with ease.  Along with that, when you are looking to fill out your sets, this view clearly organizes your search.
• Thumb: If you just want to see the cards, this is the view for you.   If you know the player card you are looking for, it is really easy to go through these little photos and pick out exactly which card you need to finish your collection.
• Text: A view for the hardcore set collectors. Just about every fact you could need is listed about the cards on the site, and comparison of price is a snap.  And without pictures, one can very quickly sort through numerous cards from a wide range of sports.

So tell us; Why do you use the different views on the site?  Leave us a comment below and let us know.  Keep following us on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our new Google+ page for more exciting ways to check out collectibles on the site!

In celebration of the upcoming laps, we are hosting a little contest!  Just go onto our site, find an item that is Indy 500 or Cocacola 600 related, and tell us in the comments the item number and why that card gets your blood pumping faster than a 600 hundred horse power engine!

Then, this coming Friday, we will pick the user who has best captured the feeling and award them $10 of store credit.  It’s fun and easy, and we look forward to hearing great stories about the cards on our site.

Oh, and because we want to know: Who’s going to be watching the races this weekend and who do you think is going to win?!

When you click here in you Inventory manager you will see the option “Submit for Grading.”  That will bring up….

When you click on the Beckett Grading service…..

You will be asked to declare the value of the card so that we can properly insure it.  Once you click continue, the next thing you will see is…

…the option to select either our Monthly or Weekly Service.  You will not only be able to see when your cards will be shipped to Beckett, but you will also see when you can expect them back fresh, graded, and slabbed!

So what happens once you’re done?  Easy!  The card will be taken out of your account and prepared for shipment to Beckett.  During the time in which your card is in Beckett’s care, you will be able to see which cards you selected for grading by going to your Dashboard and clicking on “Grading Submissions” under the Buyer Menu.

Then, a few weeks later when your card has been returned to us, your graded card will be put through for One Day processing (this is part of the service and will not incur an additional fee), given a new ID number and new scan, and placed back into your account.

Pretty amazing if you have cards in your Inventory that demand a grade!  But what if you have these cards at home that are begging for the same treatment?  We are ready to serve that need as well.  When you go into the new Submission Wizard, you will see an option to submit cards for grading….

Though we don’t charge anything up front for processing for this service, the only thing you will be able to do with the item once we process it is submit it for one of the supported grading services.  Whenever you do you’ll be asked to pay the normal grading submission fee.  The rest works just as if it had been in your inventory all along.

We look forward to helping you get the most out of the cards you want graded.   Keep following us on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our new Google+ page, and please tell us what you think of the new service, and how we can make it even better for you!

HOW IT WORKS

Have any package shipped to your COMC Mailbox instead of directly to you.  We’ll open the items in your Mailbox on a monthly basis and put them all into one large batch for you with One Week processing, or you can choose to have them opened and processed at any time.  You save money on shipping fees since you don’t have to pay once for the item to be mailed to you and once more to mail it to COMC, and you save on minimum processing charges by bundling multiple small packages together into one consignment batch.

Ship to:
COMC.com Mailbox
c/o [Your Username]
6727 – 185^th Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052
United States

Cost for a Mailbox: Free!
As an introductory rate, we aren’t charging anything for Mailbox creation or maintenance while we ramp up the service.  There’s no extra step for getting started either – your Mailbox is created automatically when we receive something addressed to your COMC Mailbox.  Additionally, we will never charge for un-used / empty Mailboxes.

Processing Service Levels Available: One Week or One Day ($5 minimum on all services)
When we receive a package, we will send you an email notifying you of your Mailbox delivery. You may either wait for us to process your Mailbox items on our standard monthly basis with One Week service (we will open Mailboxes once a month; at that time we will start to process all items in the Mailbox as One Week items) or you may choose to expedite the due date by responding to the email and indicating One Week or One Day processing for all the contents of that Mailbox. There is no additional cost to opening your Mailbox early, however our standard $5 minimums still apply and the items will be subject to all normal processing costs.  To prevent potential errors, users may not split Mailbox items up into different service levels.

Restrictions

• Requests for One Day processing of Mailbox items must be received by 11:00am PST of the day before you would like your items uploaded (i.e. if you email us at 3:00pm on Tuesday requesting One Day service for your Mailbox items, we will upload your items by the end of the day on Thursday).
• This service is currently for cards only, no comics or other memorabilia.
• We will provide a picture of the package contents, and we will count the number of items in the package, but we are not able to identify any items that have not been processed yet.
• If there appear to be any irregularities with the order, the user will be responsible for contacting COMC promptly; costs to return items to the original shipper or to return items to the account holder unprocessed will be assumed by the COMC account holder.
• Other processing service levels beyond One Week and One Day are not available for Mailbox items at this time.
• Graded cards will not incur an additional $5 minimum fee if they are processed at the same time as standard cards, although they will be billed at the regular oversized item processing rate of $2.00/item for One Week or $3.00/item for One Day.
• International users of the Mailbox service will be responsible for any duties / border-crossing fees associated with any Mailbox items received.
• Users should be aware of any external deadlines (ebay return deadlines for example) and proactively request an early open date if package contents need to verify contents by a certain time.

We’re excited to be offering this new service to further improve your collecting experience.  Like many of our great features, this one grew organically from the community.  We’d specifically like to thank cocoscards for engaging with us when we were in Edmonton.  We appreciate our users’ feedback, as your input has led to some of the innovations now available on COMC.com.  Keep following us on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our new Google+ page!

We got a lot of great suggestions from COMC users on Facebook and Twitter after our last call out, and after conferring with the COMC processing team, we’ve put together a list of those players that are making noise and news in the sporting world, as well as a few sets we feel are going to generate a lot of interest.

Starling Marte

• Klay Thompson
• Stephen Curry
• Shelby Miller
• Matt Harvey
• John Buck
• Jean Segura
• Starling Marte
• Austin Meadows
• Mark Appel
• 2013 Topps Museum Collection (Baseball) – All
• 2013 Bowman (Baseball) – All
• 2012-13 Panini Past & Present (Basketball) – All
• 2012-13 Panini Momentum (Basketball) – All
• 2012-13 Panini Preferred (Basketball) – All
• Any 2013 Football
• Any 2013 Leaf products – except “Best Of…”

And our special Hot Theme this time around?

Seeing as we don’t have any hockey on the Hot List this time around, even though the NHL playoffs have entered the 2nd round, we decided that we’ll make hockey the Hot Theme. So, we’ll be accepting any 2012-13 hockey products as part of this Hot List.

So what does being on the Hot List mean?

COMC wants to encourage our users to get these hot cards into your accounts to offer for sale as quickly as possible, so starting today, any cards from these players or sets will qualify for our “Hot List Special” processing.

With this service, you will receive One Day processing at the One Week price:
$0.50 per raw trading card and $1.00 per graded, encased, or jumbo card.

Stephen Curry

How to Submit Hot List Items for Consignment:

• Clearly write “Hot List Special” on the outer mailing package and/or the address label.
• $5 minimum batch fee (We recommend submitting 10+ items.)
• 200 item maximum per week
• Must be postmarked by May 29th, 2013
• Must be mailed to our US address (Our Canadian warehouse currently only supports One Month service.)
• Any submissions received on a Friday or Saturday may not be processed until the following Monday.
• Submissions with non-Hot List items mixed in will be downgraded to One Week service.

You are welcome to submit Hot List batches at the same time that you submit other batches with different service levels, even if they’re mailed in the same package, but please make sure that each batch is clearly separated and labeled, and that “Hot List Special” is written on the outside of the mailing package and/or mailing label.

Thanks for your input for this new Hot List, and watch our Facebook, Twitter, and new Google+ pages for the call for the next Hot List in a week!

As many of you have noticed, we have a new way to enter your submission information on the COMC website. Some of you have already started using this new Submit Items process, and we hope that you’ve found it easy to use. For those of you who haven’t checked it out yet, we’d like to use this opportunity to tell you more about it and hopefully answer some of your questions.

Q. Why the new process?

A. As COMC continues to grow, we’ve been actively looking for more opportunities for you to submit your items. We’ve added a second office in Canada, increased the number of shows that we attend so you can drop off submissions in person, and, in the very near future, you’ll even be able to submit items to your COMC account at select local card shops. We want submissions to be easy and convenient; increasing the number of submission services and locations is a big part of that.

As we find new ways to get your items into COMC, however, we do want to standardize the process and the paperwork so that we can receive and process all of your items as accurately and efficiently as possible. As we continue to move into comics, memorabilia, and other new-to-COMC types of collectibles, this standardization will become even more important.

This new Submit Items process is designed to be extremely user-friendly, and will be compatible with all of the product lines that we accept. It enables you to easily print Submission Slips with detailed information and barcodes for each item type and service level. Just print and include one with each portion of your order and we’ll take care of the rest.

Q. Any big changes I should know about?

A. The new Submit Items process still asks you to break down your submission by service level (One Month, One Week, etc.).  You’ll also need to separate your submission by item type, for example:

• Standard Size Trading Cards
• Oversized Trading Cards
• Standard Size Gaming Cards
• Oversized Gaming Cards

After telling us what types of items you’re sending us and what service level you want, you’ll then tell us how many of each item you’re sending us. You can specify whether your quantity is approximate or exact, and you can break larger quantities down into smaller quantities we’re referring to as Groups. For example, if you’re sending us three smaller card boxes inside a larger mailing box, you’ll want to consider each of the smaller boxes as a separate Group, as if you’re sending three boxes of 400 each rather than one box of 1200. (See the video above for a demonstration.)

You’ll get a Submission Slip for each Group/Item Type/Service Level, which you’ll include with each group of items that you submit. When we process your shipment, each Group will be separated into its own batch and given its own transaction number. So if you send in a shipment comprised of both regular and graded cards, it will be processed as two separate transactions instead of one. Please be aware that just like when you combine service levels within a single shipment, each transaction will be subject to its own minimum batch fee – so you’ll want to make sure that you send enough of each item type to meet each minimum.

There are a few other changes as well:

• New pricing structure for graded and oversized cards
• More submission location options, including a list of upcoming shows that we’ll be attending, in case you’d like to drop off your items in person and save shipping costs.

Q. Why has the cost of processing Graded Cards increased for One Month service?

We are laying the groundwork for our new drop-off locations.  All of our non-bulk services factor in the cost of shipping the items to us from a drop-off location.  We decided not to offer a different rate for people mailing One Month items to us instead of dropping them off because we want to encourage them to visit a local drop-off location instead.

We expect to have 10-15 permanent drop-off locations spread across the US and Canada by by the end of this year, and we hope to add hundreds more over the next couple years.

Q. I noticed some new service level options. What are these new “Bulk” services?

Many of you have been asking for additional service level choices that don’t quite fall in line with our normal One Month/One Week/One Day options, and we’re pleased to announce some new options:

Bulk Ten Week offers our lowest processing rates for those of you who value economy over speed (some restrictions apply). Bulk Two Week offers a nice sweet spot between our normal One Month and One Week services – affordable and quick. And we even have a Bulk Two Day service if you need it. Please be aware that all Bulk services have a $100 minimum batch fee, and while they may not fit your needs if you only have a few items to send in, we hope you’ll take advantage of these new services for your larger submissions. Here’s the bulk pricing chart:

These are new, additional options.  Our processing fees have not changed for standard size items. 

So that’s the new Submit Items process. You’ll note in the video that the old method is still active, but we’re phasing that out very soon. If you have any additional questions or thoughts about submitting items, please let us know in the comments below. Thanks!

* The following restrictions apply to the Bulk 10 Week service:
- Items must be grouped in lots of 100 or more items from the exact same set.
- No penny sleeves
- No serial numbered items
- No vintage (pre-1980)

As always, these are the players and sets that are currently hot in sports card circles, as determined by COMC users on Facebook and Twitter, as well as the COMC processing team. This latest list includes several baseball players that are making headlines, as well as one of the hottest players in the NBA playoffs.

Tony Cingrani
Nolan Arenado
Bryce Harper
Matt Moore
Stephen Curry
2013 Bowman Baseball (Parallels and Autos only)
2013 Topps Tribute Baseball
2012-13 Fleer Retro Hockey
2012-13 Panini Prizm  – Any Sport (Parallels and Autos only)
2012-13 Panini Preferred Basketball

And our special Hot Theme this time around?

Even though the baseball season is off to a great start, and NBA and NHL playoffs are underway, we know that some of you (and frankly, some of us) still have football on the brain. So in honor of last week’s NFL Draft, any of the new 2013 Football products that have just been released will also be part of this Hot List.

So what does being on the Hot List mean?

COMC wants to encourage our users to get these hot cards into your accounts to offer for sale as quickly as possible, so starting today, any cards from these players or sets will qualify for our “Hot List Special” processing.

With this service, you will receive One Day processing at the One Week price:
$0.50 per raw trading card and $0.75 per graded, encased, or jumbo card.

How to Submit Hot List Items for Consignment:
* Clearly write “Hot List Special” on the outer mailing package and/or the address label.
* $5 minimum batch fee (We recommend submitting 10+ items.)
* 200 item maximum per week
* Must be postmarked by May 15th, 2013
* Must be mailed to our US address (Our Canadian warehouse currently only supports One Month service.)
* Any submissions received on a Friday or Saturday may not be processed until the following Monday.
* Submissions with non-Hot List items mixed in will be downgraded to One Week service.

You are welcome to submit Hot List batches at the same time that you submit other batches with different service levels, even if they’re mailed in the same package, but please make sure that each batch is clearly separated and labeled, and that “Hot List Special” is written on the outside of the mailing package and/or mailing label.

Thanks for your input for this new Hot List, and watch our Facebook page for the call for the next Hot List in a week!

The 43rd Sportcard and Memorabilia Expo – Toronto, ON – May 3rd to 5th
We say “continent” as COMC will be in Toronto for the Expo – Sam Kassam from our Canadian Office and our Shipping Supervisor Geoff Holland will be manning the booth all weekend, telling everyone about COMC and accepting submissions of up to 5,000 cards, so people can take advantage of our Canadian Spring Promotion.

White Plains Sports Card Show “Spring Fever Show” – White Plains, NY – May 3rd to 5th
That same weekend, Senior Account Manager Steve Hollander and Account Manager Nathan Richards will be in attendance, taking submissions of up to 1,000 cards per customer and talking with anyone and everyone.

Bonsor Sports Collectors Show – Burnaby, BC – May 26th
Sam Kassam will be in attendance and will be accepting submissions.

Our spring is looking incredible, and we’ll have more shows to check out, more news to share, and more great deals for buyers and sellers…keep checking our blog for more details as they come, and be sure to follow along at Twitter and Facebook!