Manic Monday

Posted on April 28, 2010 by

If there was ever such a thing as a figurative ‘perfect storm’, it happened here earlier this week. So I’ll get into that in a bit.

But first off, COMC wants to apologize for any issues on any accounts that had processing due dates of this past Monday, April 26. We are sincerely sorry for the confusion stemming from that incredibly hectic night.

Coby Stephen Lewison

Flash back to the previous day, when the ‘perfect storm’ was in its infancy stage. That’s when one of our primary reviewers, Brent Lewison, became a father for the third time as Coby Stephen Lewison was born.

Flash forward to Monday, when — wouldn’t you know it, with one of our key team members out, we had 20,248 cards scheduled to go live. That is the most cards we have ever had due on the same day in the history of the company.

To make things more interesting, Mondays are traditionally our busiest shipping days because of the backup from the weekend. This Monday was no different from normal accept it was our busiest shipping day in two weeks and second busiest shipping day in a month.

As if those circumstances weren’t problematic enough, with more that 20,000 cards due by midnight, we were also attempting to alter the image upload process. Keeping with the luck of the day, we somehow had a breakdown of our normal imaging process (which explains why some of your images didn’t trickle in until after deadline). The storm was in full effect at this point, for sure.

So, to recap, a baby was born (congrats Brent!), a company record was broken, the shipping team was maxed out, and the most unfortunate of computer issues occurred at the most inopportune time. Suffice to say, it was a 24 hours to remember (or forget, if you’re Jeff Maeda, Mark Boyer, or Jade Aspiras!). They were here until midnight trying to get as much stuff on the site as possible.

A little side note here is that COMC’s streak of consecutive days without missing a deadline was snapped at 144. Not quite Ripken- or Gehrig-esque, but we did deem it fairly impressive. Oh well, streaks are made to be broken. … We just wish it wouldn’t have come at the cost of some of you. Again, our apologies.

Volunteers needed for card identification

Posted on April 28, 2010 by

For the members of our Identification department, asking them to be an authority on every set for every sport (or non-sport) ever made is impossible. There’s bound to be cards that fall through the cracks of even their seemingly endless supply of knowledge.

That’s why COMC is seeking folks who are willing to, on occasion, be contacted for their expertise. Whether it be oddball football cards from the 1950s, over-sized basketball cards, hard-to-find pre-WWII baseball cards, or especially non-sport cards, you likely have a niche we don’t.

If so, and you don’t mind being bothered from time to time, contact us with your user name and specific area of expertise and we’ll get in touch with you.

COMC would like to thank any potential volunteers in advance for your assistance!

I just bought item #2,000,000

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Tim Getsch @ COMC

Item #2,000,000 was added 4/15/2010 1:50:19 PM by Jade Aspiras from BBCards4Sale

Item #1,000,000 was added 6/29/2009 1:42:04 PM. That means that we added 1,000,000 cards to the site in 290 days. This is an average of 3,448 new cards on the site every single day of the week.

Check out other major milestones

Quarterly growth trend continues

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Tim Getsch @ COMC

Here are our 2010 Q1 stats.

ddearing passes 100K mark

Posted on April 9, 2010 by

Dan Dearing seemingly leaves nothing to chance and always has a game plan. When you juggle as many duties as Dearing, goal-setting becomes a necessity.

In Dearing’s case, he achieves them almost as quickly as he sets them.

Case in point: in a little more than six months as a seller on COMC, ddearing has eclipsed $100,000 in terms of the total book value of his listed cards. That puts him in rare company, as only eight others have reached the mark.

The journey started last August, when Dearing learned of COMC (through a mention on Blowoutcards.com). He immediately spent — get this — “three to four hours that night on the site, reading through the entire history of blog posts in order to learn about the legitamacy of the company.”

Once he was content in his findings, Dearing actually made this 100K barrier a target. He officially became a seller a month later … and the rest is history.

“I just realized that for $400 in monthly rental fees (Dearing has approximately 40,000 cards listed), I could save a lot of time not having to drive to shows and pay the table fees — which all of that would total about $400 anyway,” said the Jacksonville resident. “This way, I get to spend way more time with my wife and son, and I sell as much a month on the site as I probably would at the shows.”

Doing shows has become second-nature for Dearing, who made his debut as a seller in the fifth grade. His father would handle the supply and table fees, with the understanding that Dearing would have to learn how to keep records of his sales. This essentially taught Dearing the practice of bookkeeping.

Twenty-two years later, Dearing is the owner and president of a financial services company.

“I would split the profits with my dad, and I remember thinking that $300 is a lot for a kid my age,” Dearing recalls.

Dearing did shows through high school, where he was a multi-sport letterwinner for prestigous The Bolles School, ranked in 2005 by Sports Illustrated as having one of the top 10 athletic programs in the country.

From there, Dearing played football and competed in track and field (where he even raced against Randy Moss in the 200 meters at the Southern Conference championships) at Davidson College in Charlotte, N.C. After two seasons, he transferred to SEC track power Florida and competed in the decathlon.

Dearing, a Gator season-ticket holder, has continued his love for the sport as Bolles’ track and field coach. He also has carried out a childhood pursuit of Andre Dawson cards. But in typical Dearing fashion, the itensity is full throttle: Dearing only buys serial-numbered Dawson jersey cards that are numbered the same as Dawson’s jersey number (8).

“I probably have about 150 to 200 of just those,” said Dearing, laughing. “I doubt there’s a lot of collections like that out there.”

Probably not. Nor are there a lot of more successful COMC sellers than Dearing either.

Cards_For_Alzheimers now accepting donations

Posted on April 6, 2010 by

COMC staffer Dave has seen the crippling effects of Alzheimer’s first-hand. His mother was diagnosed with the disease seven years ago.

To help raise funds, as well as awareness for the disease, Dave recently created an account title Cards_For_Alzheimers. With 100 percent of the (post-cashout fee) proceeds, he plans on writing a check for the The Alzheimer’s Association, Western and Central Washington State Chapter — a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit organization.

“I just thought, ‘What can I do to help’,” Dave recalls thinking a couple years back. “I just look at all the hard work my dad has done as her caregiver. A lot of people don’t realize what it takes.”

In Dave’s account are everything from straight-out-of-the-box 2008 Upper Deck Heroes cards to common cards to even some cards donated from a friend. The lot went live last week, with all cards listed at High Beckett value. Beginning Wednesday, and approximately once a week until they sell, Dave plans on reducing the prices by 10%. This account will not accept any offers. Be sure to buy up the cards before the price drops too much and the cards disappear.

One of the featured cards is a Pat Burrell jersey card, which is No. 5 of 5. With no book value, Dave has it listed at $20. It’s one of the 1,700 or so cards Dave has up for sale, and he says that when you purchase any of them you’ll be helping a great cause.

Dave and fellow COMC employees have volunteered to handle all of the processing for future card submissions to this account, and COMC in turn is waiving the listing and storage fees. Simply send in a box (or boxes) of cards earmarked ‘Cards_For_Alzheimers’ and we’ll handle the rest. (While COMC is not currently issuing donation receipts, it is in the early stages of formalizing a tracking system for charitable donations. Stay tuned for further details… )