Monthly Archives: October 2011

#1 Trading Card Seller on Amazon

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For a long time I have admired how Amazon has changed the way people buy and sell goods. They have been a pioneer is so many ways.

A couple weeks ago I felt honored to get a call from Amazon. They are working to beef up their trading card listings and were asking us to start selling some of our inventory on their website. We talked through what was necessary to make it happen and decided to give it a try with just a small portion of our inventory.

On Friday afternoon our account went live, and it took 2 days for them to upload our sampling of 600,000 items.

Here is what happened to Amazon’s Trading Card category over the last 24 hours.

Saturday 7PM, COMC is #3

Sunday 12AM, COMC is #2

Sunday 3PM, COMC is #1

Orders starting to come in
In our first day we already hit a glitch due to David Freese’s recent popularity… Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals. One of David’s cards sold on both Amazon and COMC.com at the same time. I had to pay top dollar to buy the last one that was remaining on COMC.com to replace the one that sold on Amazon.
2009 Topps #643 - David Freese RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

We are currently working out the kinks, and as we get the process more automated, we will opening it up so that COMC sellers have the option to have some or all of their inventory listed on Amazon as well.

How to Package Your Cards

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DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU
A couple of weeks ago a box of cards came in damaged– corners crushed after the box had a rough time of it in the mail. It was unfortunate and troubling to report the damage to the seller. We’d like to tell everyone: Take time to pack your cards so they will be well-protected in the mail.

ENSURE SAFETY & COST EFFECTIVENESS
Pack the cards in a box of an appropriate size. The cards don’t necessarily need to be sleeved, but snug the cards up with foam or peanuts. If you use newspaper as stuffing, then the cards should be sleeved.
Then place your box of cards in a larger box, (box-in-a-box). Fill with padding (again– foam, peanuts, or newspaper) to secure it so that nothing moves or shifts when you hold it closed and shake it. Even when sending in small batches, use a secondary outer box or thick outer envelope with appropriate padding for security.

 
THE RIGHT WAY

Excellent job underway

Excellent job underway

Newspaper….also great for packing

Newspaper….also great for packing

Ready to seal and ship!

Ready to seal and ship!

 
THE WRONG WAY

Not so much

Not so much

Uh…..

Uh…..

Where is Steve? – Show Calendar

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Some of you may know the name Steve Hollander. He’s one of our longest-tenured employees, on board with COMC from its earliest days. In addition to being one of our first customers (he still sells on the site under the username SteveSC), Steve now handles a lot of responsibilities for us including Card Show drop-offs. Steve travels all over to various card shows, and if you find his booth you can drop off your COMC batches right there with him and save on postage. Card Show drop-offs are getting so popular, we thought it best to put up a convenient guide to where you can find Steve over the coming months.

Where’s Steve?

Steve Hollander

Oct 8th Portland, OR (Jantzen Beach)
Oct 14th – 16th Chantilly, VA
Oct 22nd Vancouver, BC *
Nov 5th Portland, OR (Jantzen Beach)
Nov 11th – 13th Toronto, ON *
Nov 12th – 13th Shoreline, WA **
Nov 18th – 20th Chicago, IL

* Drop-offs will not be accepted in Canada. We will however provide instructions for how to ship to us.

** Heather Hollander and Jon Anderson will be at this show since Steve will be out of town.

Look for Steve at his booth, wearing a Check Out My Cards shirt. He’s happy to take your drop-offs and answer any questions you may have about COMC.

A couple of notes about card drop-offs: Dropped off cards will still be charged our normal processing rates. We’ll ask you to fill out a receipt where you can indicate what processing service you would like. We prefer that you follow the instructions online to fund your account by mail or with a credit card. Please pack your cards carefully and appropriately in a box (no binders, no loose cards).

Black Friday is on the Way

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The holidays are rapidly approaching, and with it Black Friday. Make sure you’re ready, and we will too. Get your cards to us by October 26th, and we’ll make sure they’re on the site by Thanksgiving with our standard 4-week processing fee of only 20 cents per card. If you are using USPS Priority Mail to ship to us, try to get the package in the mail by Saturday, October 22nd.

Black Friday is our busiest day of the year, and we will be offering another Shipping Special to celebrate! While we don’t have the details outlined yet, they’ll be announced next month. Be sure to get your cards in!