$1,000,000 Mark Broken

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Congratulations to SwagCards! A year ago SwagCards let us know that he was going to be the first seller to cross the million dollar mark, and yesterday he became the first seller with more than $1 Million dollars worth of book value on consignment with us.

Here is an interesting comparison of our top seller board from today vs. two years ago.

Notice that the #10 seller today has more book value than the #1 seller two years ago.

eaglescards and baseballcardsetc are the only accounts that have been able maintain a footing the Top 10 list.

Rookies_n_Jerseys is an account to keep a close eye on. He only started consigning cards with us 6 months ago, and his account is half way to the million dollar mark.

27 thoughts on “$1,000,000 Mark Broken”

  3. Cards are only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it, Beckett values have been obsolete since the internet explosion.

  4. I think Sales Dollars would be most relevant.Total Sales, average sales, inventory count are numbers that having meaning. BV does not.

    Of course, I’m talking more about all of the rankings on the Top Sellers page.

    • If we did that it would be easy to game the number. You just need to buy/sell cards between two accounts and you jack your ratings up artificially.

      • I concur with what Tim says. If it was based on sales, it would be real easy to make your sales look ridiculously high by bouncing cards between accounts. I think the BV way is the only way to go even if it is not the most accurate numbers.

  6. TheDivaHalleyCards is here to play this game as well and she WILL be noticed in big ways over the next few months. FYI I’m buying right NOW who wants my money? Go take a look at my wanted ad and let’s make a deal boys, boys, boys.

  7. why would a full time business want to advertise their sales figures $$ wise…/

    There might be some who would do it but we certainly would not. That is private info between us, our accountant and the IRS.

      • Let me answer it this way…. anytime you receive money for goods or services you are supposed to report it…
        But… you can also write off all of the fees…. costs of postage and packaging supplies…if you keep track of what you paid for the card you can deduct that cost vs the amount it sold for so you are only taxed based on the profit made. If you travel to shows and save your gas receipts you can write that off..along with meals eaten to and from.

        Basically if you are a one man operation and your accountant is creative unless you sell in huge amounts you can probably get away with no tax. But YES you should at least file.

        Now if you have employees as we do it becomes a whoooolllleeee other wad of Score wrappers

  9. CONGRATULATIONS to SwagCards and COMC! I’ve bought and sold from Swag several times and am proud to help him achieve this lofty goal.

    I disagree that book value has no purpose. I’ve been a card dealer of some sort for over 25 years. Every dealer and the majority of collectors has always operated on percentages of guide. Of my last 240 sales on COMC, 239 of the cards had a book value. Cards without a book value are extremely difficult to sell, even when they are true 1 of 1’s. That’s why I would ask Tim to implore the Beckett folks to put some sort of book value on EVERY card, even when they are “too scarce” to price. My house is “unique” and yet, Zillow.com can put some theoretical price on every house in America.

    I would point out that there is a HIGH BECKETT price and a LOW BECKETT price, and that the theoretical value of a card in decent condition is BETWEEN the two values. The Low Beckett is typically 3/8 to 1/2 of High Beckett. About 2/3 of the cards on the site have an asking price that is between Low and High Beckett.

    It’s true that there are many cards on COMC where the asking price is 90% or more off of Beckett, but there are over a million different cards on the site. Only about 1% of the cards on the site have an asking price that low. And they tend to be the same cards month after month, year after year. I contend that if a card is frequently offered for sale at 90% off guide, then the guide on that set or player needs to be adjusted, not every card in existence.

    The guide price is imperfect, but it’s an objective way to keep score. Where the price is most useful is judging relative value, not absolute value. A port with $200,000 book value is generally twice as good as a port with $100,000 book value, and about half as good as a port with $400,000 book value. But an individual card which books for $10 might actually sell for $10, or it might sell as low as 50 cents.

    The fact that COMC lists book value is one of the most useful aspects of the site. If someone on eBay had 50 cards for sale, it used to take me an hour to figure out all of the book values of the cards, and my bids were always some percentage of guide. Now on COMC I can sort the entire site by guide price or percentage off guide. In 14 years on eBay, I bought and sold about 10,000 items. In less than 2 years on COMC, I’ve bought and sold about 33,000 items. This is largely possible because COMC lists guide value.

    It’s true that there is no $1,000,0000 pile of cash which corresponds to Swag’s port, but putting together a “Million Dollar Port” through hard work and clean living is a lofty and honorable goal. CONGRATULATIONS once again!

    Oh, and to the guy who asked if you need to file taxes on COMC income, Schedule C is your friend.

  10. I laugh every time I get the monthly Beckett adjusted price email update through COMC. For me, it’s always one or two random cards that have moved 15 cents. Beckett serves as a reference point for this community, despite their ability to accurately reflect true market value. If Beckett was interested in projecting true market value they would coordinate with, and use the resources such as this site and ebay. It’s clear to me that they have no interest in doing this. That being said, it serves it’s purpose as the reference point that it is. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

    • you are exactly right egan. for example. How can those collector’s choice platinum hockey cards book at $100 and not be adjusted downward the last decade?

  11. Congrats, Swag! I knew you’d get to this point. What’s your next goal? Very awesome!

    As for book value as a measuring stick, I have faith that Tim and his crew are right; this is the safest and most objective way to do it. You can still “game” your numbers, but you have to spend MONEY to actually do it, and you do so knowing the value you add to your port is hollow. This is different from just being able to spend TIME moving stuff back and forth between yours and your buddies’ ports.

    As for cards that are too scarce to price, this is a conundrum that is almost as old as serial numbering cards. This is my 21st year on the dealer side of the table, which follows 6 years of attending shows as a collector, so I’ve seen a few things some folks might not have been around to see.

    I wonder if anyone else remembers the Beckett C.H.A.R.T.? For a brief period of time, I’d say around the market surge of Lebron James’ rookie year, perhaps a little after, Beckett actually DID put a price on every card. They used a system in which a serial numbered card of such and such player or unlisted star or semistar or common was worth this much low book and this much high book if it was serial numbered to this many copies and was made prior to (I believe) 2004…and this much if it was made 2004 or later. I LOVED the chart. But the manufacturers and big wax dealers CRUSHED it as fast as they could. Why? An unintended consequence of the chart was that wax buyers started shredding cheap packs left and right looking for cards with low serial numbers, but conversely, stopped buying as much of the expensive packs. Who wants to spend $100 a pack instead of a $1 a pack if a card of Scott Rolen serial numbered to 15 is going to book for $20 either way? So the C.H.A.R.T. was short lived, even if it’s intent was awesome. From that point forward, Beckett has left it to the individual buyers and sellers of low serial numbered cards to use due diligence to place a value on the card, even though the lack of an “objective and reputable third party” has definitely made it much harder to sell low serial numbered cards. By the way, can anybody else remember what the acronym C.H.A.R.T. stood for? That much I’ve forgotten. Perhaps it is time for a new C.H.A.R.T. system? Until somebody comes up with one that actually works, cards that are price N/A must continue to not count towards bv.

    So to recap, BV is the way to keep track of ports, and cards NA cannot count towards BV.

    Sincerely
    Affordablecards

  12. I need to free up some moeny and will be posting a port sale ad soon. Facts all cards are either a GU, AU, or RC card. Over 90% of them are of either current star players or current HOF’ers. 207 cards every single one has a BV. Total value of my port $2218 giving the average card a value of $10.71. Bottom line not a junk port like so many I’ve personally seen. I will post again shortly after the ad goes up. I’m either going to make more money piecing my port out or someone has a HIGH QUALITY PORT. FYI I have the lowest prices on the site ready to get into a pricing war with this diva bring it on. TheDivaHalleyCards http://​www.checkoutmycards.com/Users/​TheDivaHalleyCards

      • TheDivaHalleyCards will be posting a port sale ad SOON. Time to take a look at a few of the pieces in my port 2004 Leaf Limited Team Threads Jersey Number #10 M.Schmidt/J.Thome #12/100 Book Price: $12.50 – $30.00, 2009 Topps Legends Commemorative Patch #LPR62
        Johnny Mize 1946 MLB All-Star Game Book Price: $10.00 – $25.00, 1994-95 Finest #286
        Jason Kidd RC (Rookie Card) Book Price: $8.00 – $20.00! TheDivaHalleyCards has the least expensive cards on COMC come check me out before the port sale ad goes live to get the best deals. I need money for a major shopping trip thus I’m willing to listen to reasonable offers before I put my port up for a bidding war.http://www.checkoutmycards.com/Users/TheDivaHalleyCards,sd

  13. What good is have $1 million in inventory? To me that says you aren’t turning it (high prices) and/or the card you have are not desirable.

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