Jason Banks had no idea of his impact on the ultimate future of COMC. Back in early 2008, he was just trying to capitalize on a business model he deemed unique and also potentially lucrative for him.
Having won approximately 100 auctions on eBay, he decided to have them sent directly to COMC’s address. The problem was, COMC was using a mailbox service at the time – and was used to receiving just a few packages per day. So when 100 or so packages arrived, the mailbox service quickly put a kibosh on this practice.
This situation, of course, led to the company leasing commercial space in Overlake Business Center (a business development we’re still located in, just down the street and in a bigger building). It goes to show that one person truly can make a difference!
As for Banks, his cardshark account is ranked second on our top buyers list. But he’s easily the largest flipper on the site (having purchased more than $100K BV with the sole purpose of re-selling on the site rather than requesting shipment on the cards). This has made him 9th on the top sellers list.
“My focus is to flip cards,” said Banks, who runs an intellectual property (domain names, etc.) business in Boynton Beach, Florida. “It’s just like the stock market, with diversification being the key.”
Banks, a former Florida state trooper and a City of Miami Beach police officer who has a law degree from the University of Miami, grew up in a house filled with Lenny Dykstra memorabilia.
“My dad was a huge fan and he just went crazy buying cards,” said the 46-year-old. “He’d send them out in the mail and they’d come back signed.”
When considering COMC, Banks recalls being initially struck by the background of COMC CEO Tim Getsch. “What really impressed me was Tim’s history with Microsoft. Anyone that had that handle (on site development) was going to do a very good job with the site.”
While there are some pros to people being able to buy and resell immediately, I feel they are outweighed by the cons. This leaves the true collector having to pay much more for cards (if they can afford them). As a result I have started using this site less and going back to other sites.
I respect his enterpreneurial spirit but I will not pay full BV (as most of his cards seem to be priced) for cards that are not ‘hot’ cards. Even if I need them for sets (such as one of his cards) I will find them elsewhere.
Thanks for the feedback. Yes there are pros and cost to allowing people to buy and sell immediately. There are many strategies used by different people attempting to flip cards. Cardshark does tend to set high prices when flipping, but that is not necessarily the case with all flippers.
In any case, the main reason we encourage flipping is that it is a safeguard against the bottom falling out of the market. On many other sites the only way sellers can compete is by dropping the prices. Eventually everything is virtually free or sellers just give up and stop using the service. On our site, sellers can buy up the competition to keep the market fair.
And this happens all the time. You can do all right here without ever sending a single card in. If you ever see a card in which 90% of them are half-book or higher, except for one seller selling for 75% off book or more, flip that card! Most likely that lower price is a result of the bulk listing tool or poor submission instructions 🙂 Always search for the cards most recently added to the site. You can find tons of steals. I bet that is what cardshark does, along with countless others.
With all due respect, this sounds like empty rhetoric to me. The number of sellers on the site has grown at a higher rate than the number of buyers. In addition, buyers have become more sophisticated. The result on both counts has been lower prices for the same card. The true collector is finding better deals here every day as sellers (myself included) continue to undercut each other, and not by just a penny (myself excluded ;)).
What you’re essentially saying is you won’t buy his cards, and you’re well within your rights to do so. Perhaps with the National coming up this weekend we may see an imbalance between supply and demand, thus driving up sales, but it won’t last. This site will continue to be the place to buy the $1-$100 card.
If you can find cards outside of Sportlots, where you can’t see them and have to pay individual shipping per seller, at a lower price, go buy them. This is the best place to buy cards with clear scans and easy, unified shipping, period.