Today we implemented a new policy to help cut down on unwanted offers. We can tweak the details, but here is now the system currently works.
When you want to make an offer to a particular seller we look at your offer history over the past 90 days. Specifically, we look at all of your offers that the seller has rejected. Then we look at each item in those rejected offers. We consider a counter offer different from an offer that is explicitly rejected.
If you are about to make a new offer that includes an item that has been in 3 or more rejected offers, we will display 3 strikes just beneath the Remove link for that item, and we will prevent your offer from going through until that item has been removed from the offer. See the picture below for an example.
As a default, I agree with this decision, but I would like the ability to turn this off (not on a buyer level but in general). I’m sure others feel differently.
Also, will this be retroactive to offers already made or take effect immediately starting now?
Not sure if I like this idea. Back and fourth offers can add up quick when your haggling with someone over Ports or grouping cards together to purchase as a lot. I know I’ve made more than 3 offers on a card within 90 days and the transaction still got completed. I think 5 strikes and 30 day period is more reasonable.
Have there been that many complaints of buyers recieving to many offers on a card from a individual? Will you have the option to turn this on/off?
Just to clarify, a counteroffer will not count as a strike so negotiations will still be able to go back and forth as long as both parties are still interested in working out a deal.
Thank you!!!
This is a horrible new policy and way too ebay-ish. You guys are better than ebay. If sellers don’t like an offer, just reject it, it’s pretty basic. I think a good compromise would be to allow for some sort of comments (80 characters) that can be attached with an offer. Sometimes I’ve been only a few dollars off a seller’s counter offer and I send an offer with all the remaining funds in my account. If I would have been able to explain this, then they could have considered this instead assuming that I’m countering with an odd number for no good reason. When do the 3 strikes expire? after 30 days like ebay?
Allowing comments would be too eBay-ish. I’d rather have radio buttons to select from if we’re going to allow communication. We can’t even refrain from personal attacks on the COMC blog (well, some of us can), I can’t imagine what it would be like in the privacy of messages.
Also, this creates more overhead for COMC that doesn’t directly support their business model. Finally, a fee I’m not in favor of 😉
When I receive an offer for a funny amount, I assume it’s because it’s all the buyer has. I do this too when I make an offer sometimes.
The new rule is fine but I think we should all have a clean slate as of now going forward would be more fair and accurate not to count past offers when there was no rule, not alwasy the buyer being unreasonable, but I also see the sellers point as well kind of a catch 22 that is why both side should be compromisable and more reasonable. Some sellers bring this on themselves, with some extremely high pricing and no negotiating skills. I am all for fair game on both sides but seems like this could have been avoided if everyone would try to help each other, this hobby is an american pastime, if it is all about money, then this is not the right hobby for you. No hard feelings overall, just think if we all tried harder to bend a little more business would get done.
The definition of a strike should be very limited and clear, probably to *only* an outright rejection by a seller. Otherwise, this whole thing casts a shadow of uncertainty over how much bargaining and counter-offering may be done.
One of the awesome unique features of COMC is being able to offer on a basket of items, and sometimes it takes a while before a buyer and seller can agree on the basket and price. I would hate for this 3 strike policy to interfere with that back and forth bargaining process. So make the definition limited and obvious for everyone.
Some actions should NOT be strikes:
1) a counteroffer by a seller which is rejected (or ignored) by the buyer
2) a counteroffer from a seller which is countered by the buyer. No counteroffering should directly result in a strike.
Instead, for a strike to be issued, it should require the seller to reject an offer outright.
The seller should be able to see how many strikes are involved too, not just the buyer, that way it is clear when a buyer is offering a “final bid,” as it were. There are times I wish I could tell a seller that this is my Final Offer, and this may be one way to sort of achieve that.
Hi, CMB. A counteroffer by a seller which is rejected by the buyer will not count as a strike, and a counteroffer itself by either party will not count as a strike.
Thanks,
-Jeremy
Thanks for the clarification, Jeremy. Outright rejections by sellers are quite rare, so this 3 strike policy should work out nicely, especially since sellers would be entirely free to avoid ever giving out a strike, should they desire.
For those that don’t understand the problem, imagine that a buyer keeps submitting 30 offers on the same card that a seller keeps declining. Right now, there are two ways to prevent this, but both are rather ill-suited to the problem. First, the seller can just raise the price so that it compels higher offers (since 50% offers are the minimum). Second, the seller can purchase the upgrade to specify what percentage offers are acceptable. But this policy would apply to all listings, and not just the problematic ones. So the 3 strike rule is a nice solution, a specific answer for a specific problem.
And the Offer function on COMC is completely awesome, by the way. It allows sellers to have two price points (one for COMC and one for Amazon sales), but most importantly, it allows buyers to ask for a better deal when buying a large basket of cards. That’s just basic economics, folks. The offer function (and especially on baskets) is one of the best features COMC has!
Man, those are good points, too. I hope it’s not a waste of a comment to say that I don’t have a strong opinion about this either way. There are a lot of variables present, and I’ll work within the constraints of whatever COMC designs for us.
I tested this last night, and I’m wrong on one point – if you offer a price, the seller counters, and you decline, it does currently count as a “strike”. I’ll talk to Tim and see if there’s any way we can tweak the code on this.
I would rather have the option of blocking a certain buyer from making offers. It seems that this would resolve the recent problem without being so disruptive to the buyer, especially since so many sellers price their cards with offers in mind.
This would work well both ways, for buyers and sellers. Its now happened 3 times that I made a 50% offer, was rejected, made an offer in between my last and the ask price and when I was willing to pay the sellers ask price to get a deal done, the seller INCREASED the asking price.
Should be able to turn off the ability for people to make offers if you are unwilling to accept anything other than your list price. Sellers and buyers being able to block the other would be very helpful.
I have to say this is kinda sad. What if a seller needs funds and later decides to take the lower offer of a potential buyer. Or what if the buyer puts up a post saying taking all offers. If that buyer has been told no 3 times before it stops the seller from getting that sale from that buyer later on. And then there are the sellers that don’t respond to offers. Will this be considered a strike?
This is a good point. I’m concerned that this three-strike limit is an overreaction to outliers on the site.
I think I’m in agreement the BEST way to handle for everyone is to give sellers the option to “blacklist” a specific buyer. That is turn off the ability to submit offers from a specific user at the sellers discretion. It takes care of joels point not to make rules just for the outliers.
I agree with the above point. I think as long as you have the ability to select a user to not receive offers from, the overall problem is solved without having to overhaul the whole offer system. This way it is up to each individual user, who they want to deal with and who they don’t.
The vast majority of this change, is because of one user, and that is pretty ridiculous as COMC has the power, and one idiotic member messing with everyone day after day, shouldn’t have to change the overall way the site works. It can however, provide a good alternative should any “divas” arrive onto the site in the future. The 3 strikes is a little too confusing for the average user imo, too many rules, too many ebay-like similarities aren’t the best for customers. Very simple to just block a member, if one wants to.
Some people need to get realistic with their pricing. I hate the offer option and wished people would just list the cards at the price they are willing to take…the cards would move quicker and less storage fees they would have to pay.
Maybe it is just me, but there is something dishonest with someone listing a card for twice the price they are willing to accept…
I agree. It would be easier for me to manage my account if there were no offers at all. However, if buyers tend to avoid sellers that do this, then the market is self-correcting. No clue how to determine whether this happens. As much as I tend to worry about the overall health of COMC, I tend to let this issue sort itself out.
I would like to see them get rid of offers altogether. It’s a huge hassle for both buyers and sellers. I’ve had sales for 75 cents that involved 4 or 5 offers back and forth. It’s a waste of everybody’s time. Make prices firm and the market will correct itself.
Removing offer functionality would have significant consequences. Receiving offers is the only reliable way right now to sell a card if someone else lists the same card in the same condition at a lower cost. Without offers, sellers would have even more incentive than they do now to battle each other for the lowest prices on their cards. Moreover, any cards priced significantly higher than the lowest on the site would almost never sell.
All things considered, you are only going to sell cards if you make sure they are priced as low as anyone else’s or respond to offers. Making sure your cards are priced competitively is far more time consuming than rejecting every offer you receive, so handling offers seems to be the more user-friendly sales method.
As it stands now, we do have the option of ignoring any offers we want or paying $15 per month to automate our offer criteria. A choice among these options is surely better than shutting offers down altogether.
I have turned $240 in to $1400+ all because of offers both as a buyer and seller. It is not a hassle at all for some of us. =-) The markets can’t correct itself without the ability to barter a little.
This is a joke. If I put a high dollar value card on I almost always immediately get several offers for half that I will not take but when I get a better offer I might be inclined to accept it. With what you propose I may never see those offers. I think this is a terrible policy change. I think the offer system allows for quicker sales instead of having to keep changing your pricing to find the one buyer at that magic moment when you lower the price to what they will pay.I also think for the same reason the offer system helps to get the optimal sale price. With the strike sytem the card goes out of play and you may have to lower the price more than needed. I think it’s bad for comc for just these reasons. The more money we make the more potential they make. Overall a bad business model.
Hi, John. I think we may have explained it poorly – you do not accumulate “strikes” for rejecting offers. It is the buyers who accumulate strikes for having their offers rejected. No matter how many offers you decline you can still receive more offers from different folks. The strike system is so that if you tell the same buyer “no” three times, that one individual buyer can’t make any more offers on that one individual card for 90 days.
Jeremy, great explanation. Thanks for taking the time to respond this is much better than what I initially thought.
SO because someone thinks their items are worth more than they really are, you punish buyers for trying to get a decent price on things? Doesnt seem very smart. Are you TRYING to push people toward ebay? COMC does well because its a system that isnt broken. Why try to fix it? If a person makes 3 offers that are rejected, why not allow the SELLER the option of blocking them after the 3rd rejection? Let the seller be responsible for the SELLERS account and the SELLERS items.
Tom if someone “thinks their items are more than they are worth” then getting a bunch of lowball offers isn’t going to change their mind. I am with you as I’d be happy to block a few buyers without having to go through 3 strikes to keep them from offering on a specific item. But it has nothing to do with the neverending debate on whether sellers have the right to price cards at whatever levels they wish.
I don’t like this Some sellers you can send offers and they just decline with no counter. That’s where the issue is. So us buyers will try to send another offer . I agree either the seller puts a block on that buyer or put not accepting offers. But i think when you signed up for this site you knew what the offer system was so you price accordingly. This system is to Ebayish.
That is a good point. If a user knows they only have one more offer remaining, they may put a more reasonable offer in. This only targets to a certain type of buyer on here, the typical low baller. There are a few of them, and that is fine, sometimes people need money or have some dead inventory, etc. However, when someone lowballs on the same card over and over and over again, that is where it gets to the point that something needs to be done. Thus a 3 strike limit, or the ability to block someone are each better than nothing.
I don’t like the suggestion to block specific buyers. How would you like it if some of the bigger sellers on here blocked you for whatever reason, maybe even by mistake (confusing your username with another)? This will not always be happening to “the other guy.”
As a bigger seller on here, I have no reason to block anybody…except the certain few that do the same thing over and over. If you don’t want to be blocked don’t continuously give crappy offers over and over again. As of right now, out of the thousands and thousands of users, I would block one as of this moment. I would possibly have another two or three and that is it. I even accept some lowball offers now and again, so I wouldn’t have a desire to block the occassional lowballer. This would only be for the certain person that does the same stuff over and over, wants the hottest cards for nothing, etc.
As far as blocking by mistake, that wouldn’t happen as I know exactly who it is who sends the offers in. I would think each seller knows who is their “problem” offer sender. If a seller wanted to block me as a buyer for whatever reason, fine, but I seriously doubt that people would just block others without any good reason to do so. That is less money possibly being made. The % is going to be so small of users that are actually blocked, if you are going to be on that list….there is a reason for it.
The site would be very stale without the ability to send and recieve offers. Instead of rebuilding the wheel why not just get rid of the problem?
I must be in the minority here, I do not believe in the three strike system at all! Putting restrictions on buyers is never a good idea, especially rules that may keep newer or future customers away. Is it really that big of a deal to counter and offer or simply ignore it?
There is no way to contact a seller through this site, except to leave an offer, correct?
There have been 1-2 examples on this site where I felt the asking price of a low print run item (BV= N/A) was extremely over market value for that issue and player and even half off (which seems to be some sort of magic site threshold) would be too much. I don’t consider myself a low baller, as I watch prices on ebay and other trade sites pretty closely if it is something I want and tend to offer a reasonable price reflective of similar real sales. For example, there is a AU/GU card on ebay at $150 OBO and the same card w/ diff. serial number or very similar card has sold in the $40-60 range at least 8-10 times. The seller wants $100 minimum and I have yet to see one top the $60 range and that is when they were brand new. To me, that is not a reasonable asking price.
I would have liked to be able to at least offer the COMC seller what I felt was a reasonable price that was occasionally less than half of asking price. However I am sure in most cases that offering someone a reasonable price, who is asking an unreasonable price to begin with, gets you nowhere.
It depends on the seller. My PC cards are overpriced because I don’t really want to sell them (“check out my cards,” literally), but everybody does have their price, you know what I mean?
seems like the ability to contact a seller to ask a question would eliminate a lot of these issues, wouldnt it?
It would solve some problems and create more. The reason I sell stuff here that I otherwise could sell on eBay is because I don’t have to answer questions. It’s not a house. It’s a card. You get an awesome picture of the front and back. You can see from other sellers whether it’s priced competitively. And on top of it you can make an offer if you still think the price is too high. More automation means more volume.
I’ve struck out already…has anyone else? Personally I hate it..people are on here trying to sell cards..don’t make things more complicated than they need to be…run some processing specials rather than adding these goofy tools
After hearing that the strikes really only apply when the offer is rejected, not when it’s countered, I think this is generally a pretty good addition. I’ve had issues with certain users like everyone else, but this method sounds like it should do a pretty good job of filtering bad offers out while still giving the sellers pretty ample control over their interactions. Really the only way this could deter potential negotiations for cards that sellers are generally willing to haggle on would be if the sellers get a little clumsy with it all and start rejecting offers rather than trying to arrive on a fair price. It feels like the ball is still very much in the sellers court with all this, with the added perk of shutting down negotiations on cards that the seller isn’t really prepared to go any lower on. Rejections are going to send a stronger message now, which is probably reasonably useful considering the site’s communication is basically sign language anyway. It’s just up to the sellers now to realize that this works somewhat differently now and react accordingly.
As a relatively new seller on this site I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here so far. I believe the COMC is trying to satisfy all concerns with this policy. From my short experience I have not had the problems detailed by some sellers. My reason for joining this site is to sell cards that I no longer want, this site is awesome at giving me a vehicle to do that. One thing I find really enjoyable is to try and price my cards in a reasonable and competitive way. I have rejected some offers which I thought were way to low for some of my higher end cards. I guess since I am still building my inventory offers have never caused me an issue. All in all I am really having a blast on this site and thank the COMC staff!
Plain and simple here, this is one of the worst idea’s YET! It totally takes away any kind of haggling especially when a counter offer counts as a strike. Just plain BAD IDEA! Why wouldn’t you guys direct your att. towards something more important like fixing the port sales limit, condtion notes,website upgrades,ect just seems like a waste of time
Hi, Buymore. Just wanted to clarify – a counteroffer does not count as a strike.
Thanks!
Jeremy
It did Yesterday!!!
Hm. I just tested this a bit and you’re right – it is counting a counteroffer as a strike currently. Let me talk to Tim about this right away; that’s not how the feature is supposed to function at all.
-Jeremy
As for your mention of the port sales, I believe they will be the demise of this site down the road.
Selling Ports: It has become a joke , the same few guys are selling a couple ports a week filled with junk and 1995 and 1996 collectors choice hockey cards to beef up port value( COMC you guys need to realize that there is no value to those cards and the ones that book $100 really book for like $6). I cant imagine port sales were implemented for people to be doing this…Imagine a new guy buys one of those garbage ports for $100 gets them in the mail and as time goes by he realizes he did not get $800 in card value but rather $400. We will never see him again.
Buying Ports: Bottom line The same few big guys are buying all of the non-garbage ports and killing the smaller and medium sellers by undercutting everything since they do not have any processing fees invested.(I am not a small seller I am a top 50 BV seller and until these port sales change Beginning in July I will be buying some of the larger ports as well).
Simple solution:You limit Sellers/Buyers to be able to buy one port or sell one port every 60 days.No exceptions
I realize the shady people will try to get around the rules but you just readjust again.
Actually from what I see people buying ports list cards at prices much higher than we would ever consider listing them.
Not at all its usually the 3 people that famously undercut by a penny
I don’t know… We’ve sold a half dozen ports here in the 85-90% off range. Then I’ve checked the prices asked for those cards and they seem to range from full book to maybe 60% off. We don’t worry about being undercut. The interesting question would be what the average percentage of book value modern cards sell for on this site. I would guess that average % would be 70% off. Obviously there are major exeptions but based on the number of cards I see here at 80-90% off it seems may people feel that is the price point that it takes to move stuff. These same cards we could get half book on when we were on the Beckett Marketplace. COMC is a different animal in many ways. I’ve got no problem keeping my prices competitive here.. I am thrilled my staff no longer has to field excessive offers from a couple of well known lowballers.
Port sales was just a example its not even that big of a deal to me as if the port is loaded with tons of junk like them hockey cards or just a bunch of beat up vintage then i dont even give it a second look and neither should you. There are many many other things that time could have been spent on like the recent slow down of the site i noticed over the last two days that it seems when a card sells it do not dissapper right away and as for the 3 strikes it reminds me a bit of the so called upgrade that comc did about a year and a half ago when they decided it was a good idea to show the original owner of a card. That upgrade flopped and was down with in a few days and after the backlash that this will bring i think the same should happen. I just hate how if you counter or you reject a offer it counts as a strike,how is that fair to the buyer if they don’t want to pay the crazy counter offer????
To touch on that point, I LOVED it when I could see who the original owner of the card was. For me, more information is better, not worse.
And, really, this highlights the original point quite nicely: This site can’t be everything to everyone. You can’t make this an option (either of these features) because it makes the experience inconsistent.
So COMC has to decide what to include or not to include. In what ways should COMC “protect” us from each other? (One way is not allowing offers below 50%. Another is prohibiting contact between users, although if you use the same user name here as elsewhere online it’s very easy to do it offline. I get pinged all the time.)
How individual users feel about this is similar to how they feel politically. Some want the government more involved, some less, with one side not understanding how the other side can feel a certain way. It’s the same thing here.
LMAO YOU WOULD JOEL!!!
i like but maybe a week period, just due to the fact that as a seller- my perspective on the card could change overnight then i could discount all cards and the guy wanting that card would be shutout
I don’t think strike three prevents a buyer from buying your cards if you change the price..simply from making an offer on them.
I don’t really have a problem with it.
As a seller, ive only countered maybe 3 times over the last year plus ive been selling. Except those 3 times, I generally will always take 50% offers. My cards are listed here to sell, not to showcase
As a buyer, the offer I send is basically what im looking to pay. If the counter is a little higher, ill sometimes bite, matters.
To expand, if my offer is countered much higher than I want to pay, im done. Don’t like playing games.
I don’t consider the chronic lowballers customers and therefore have no problem with blocking them. I wish it didn’t take three strikes and that the block would be total but I’ll take what we can get
Thrilled with this. Thank you COMC for listening. Nuff said.
I’ve given this a tremendous amount of thought over the last couple of days. As a seller, I am absolutely against this three strikes policy. As a buyer, I am absolutely against this three strikes policy.
It looks like the policy is a well-intentioned, but misguided attempt to curb problem behaviors from a handful of rude “buyers” to appease an even smaller handful of loudly complaining sellers. I could probably write ten pages on this issue in the abstract, and ten more based on my own experiences both as a seller and as a buyer. The bottom line is anything that inhibits the flow of cards HAS to bad for the site, right? By preventing offers from being made on cards, even by the same ridiculous buyers who think if they just keep offering the same amount over and over again we’ll change our minds and accept their absurd offer, aren’t we hurting our chances of keeping cards flowing overall?
If someone could explain to me how this three strikes policy legitimately makes the site better, I’d love to hear it, but fellow sellers complaining about having to do the “work” associated with selling their cards to the customers who want to buy the cards for as little as they possibly can isn’t enough. Believe me, I know how annoying it is to deal with these problem “buyers”, but they’re part of the “deal” if you’re serious about selling cards on COMC. The offer system the way it is now WORKS, and has worked for me the entire time I’ve been on the site. It isn’t broken. Don’t fix it.
Really bad idea. As a buyer if you put restrictions on my negotiating process if will buy my cards somewhere else. Period.
If a seller outright declines your first offer (strike one) it tells you one of two things…Either your offer was so low it wasn’t worthy of a counteroffer or the seller is not interested in doing business with you and at perhaps you move on to another seller. All of you who think this is a bad idea should keep that in mind. The only people who are going to be impacted by this are people who either lowball from the buying end or aren’t interested in dealing as a seller from the selling end. You get three chances to make a reasonable offer. And if the seller counters you then you still get to negotiate without receiving a strike.
Seriously folks…if I make an offer that I believe is legit and the seller doesn’t counter and just rejects…I don’t waste time offering on their cards again.
Do you know anything about the negotiating process [especially one set up with virtually no communication between buyer and seller]? The first price given by a buyer is gonna be the lowest and then the seller counters with a higher price and so on. I don’t understand this term “low baller” at all…if you don’t want to have a bidding war for your cards go somewhere else! I have a problem with this three strikes and your out because without this communication option sometimes it takes more than three bids to win an item and i don’t feel like i should be penalized for this.
In case this isn’t clear (and I’m not singling you out), every buyer and every seller uses the site in a different way. As soon as you start speaking on behalf of other users, and I know I am guilty of this too, you’re going to be misrepresenting them. It’s fine to say how you use the site, and how you would like to be, but you can’t use a generalization and tell someone that that is how it is supposed to be.
I agree with you Joelhitshow but i am not speaking for every buyer. i am just trying to explain how this is going to directly effect my use of this website.
Unless I am not understanding Jeremy, once the seller counter offers, the strike system does not count a reject as a strike anymore. So if the seller is actually negotiating with you, you do not have a need to be concerned. I hope that is the case because I personally want no part of this new system.
In that scenario it would never be counted as a strike in the first place. The seller’s decision is accept/reject/counter/let expire when an offer is received. Only if the seller chooses “reject” does it count as a strike.
There is no “bidding process” here.
To finish my thought..since there is no bidding process here.. there is no “Bidding war”
I fail to see the issue with this.. If a seller outright rejects your offer without a counteroffer THREE TIMES…why would you try a fourth time?
Yankee this placed is called checkoutmycards not negotiatemycards…I price my cards to sell, I take into account the supply,the demand,the condition of said card, how much i have invested in it and set a price that I want or need for the card. Now if someone sends an offer that is close i will accept or counter but a 50% offer answers your question (that is lowball) in which I may just reject because again I am not here to negotiate I am here to sell cards.This is also why when i make a lowball offer for a card to flip and someone rejects it outright i do not send another or get upset about it….I guess i could do like many other sellers and just double my prices and accept all 50% offers……..But lowball offers do have some value,They are nice when you get one for an undesired card or some ragtag parallel or a card that there is a zillion on the site.
Its also not called buymycards. its a place for people to check out what you have and try to pick cards up for prices that are reasonable. Ive seen hundreds of cards on here priced like the seller has brain damage. Just because this place is an alternative to ebay doesnt mean people will suddenly start paying 4-5x more than they can get the same card for on here. This place is the alternative for the things that dont sell on ebay. The set fillers, base cards, low end inserts and player collectors dream
Tom as others have stated…this place to YOU may be a place for things that don’t sell on Ebay.. I admit my company hasn’t touched Ebay since they forced Paypal on everyone and having been on Beckett for so long we saw no need for Ebay anyway. So to us for example the goings on at Ebay have no meaning or impact to us. Also…and I say this as a seller who usually sells items at 70% off or more…what you consider reasonable and what a seller does may very mean two different things. “Brain Damage” has nothing to do with it. Tolerance of others is a key to good business and life in general. You may not agree with others pricing but that doesn’t make it wrong.
While we’re on the subject of tweaking the offer system, I would like to be able to automatically accept offers if they fit one of several criteria:
* The offer is a certain percentage of asking price (for example, I might accept an offer if the offer price is at least 75% of my asking price)
* The offer is at least a certain percentage of guide, if the card has a guide price (for example, I might accept an offer if the offer is at least 25% of guide)
* The offer price gives me a certain amount of profit, in percentage (for example, I might accept an offer if the offer is at least double what I paid for the item).
* The offer price gives me a certain amount of profit, in raw dollars (for example, I might accept an offer if my profit is at least $1 more than I paid for the item).
I’d also like to be able to override the COMC “cost” field, so that I could include my own cost. So if I pay $50 for a card and submit it to COMC, I could enter $50 as the cost of the card. In addition, I would like to be able to add to the cost field the fees I pay to COMC for processing and storing that card.
Another feature that I think would be generally useful is if we had the ability to subdivide our ports into several smaller ports. I have about 30,000 cards on COMC. Some of them I’d take 50% off the asking price and some I’d rather price at the lowest price I’d take, and take 0% off the asking price. But the COMC auto-accept feature requires that I put the same auto-accept (as a percentage of asking price) on every single card.
You see this with the ads all the time. “50% off on cards which book for less than $10 but are priced at least $2, except for baseball and football which are 35% off if they book for less than $5 and are priced at least $1, unless it’s a jersey or auto priced at 97 cents, in which case the price is final”.
Honestly, it would be much, much simpler if that seller could simply separate the cards he’s willing to take 50% off from the cards he’s willing to take 0% off. This would also make it easier to make mini port grab bags of $500 to $1000 BV that would sell for $50 to $150 or so, without breaking up a monster port with $100,000 or more in book value.
As for buyers who are worried that this new feature will affect them, I feel your pain, but I’m pretty sure this rule is directed at one particular individual who is abusing the COMC offer system. I don’t have much of a problem with this individual myself, but they have made 105 offers on my cards, resulting in exactly one sale of one card ($10 book value) for $1. They always offer 50% of asking price, no matter what the asking price is, and always on rookies, jerseys, autos, or $10 or higher BV cards. If I counter their offer, they simply offer 50% of asking price. If I reject the offer, they simply make a new offer. If I let the offer expire, they make the same offer again after it expires.
That person will say that it’s just their business model, but it seems like an incredible waste of time. On average this person has profited less than 1 cent per offer they’ve made on my cards. So I love and appreciate all of my customers (including this particular individual), but some customers are easier to love and appreciate than others.
I’ve been hoping for that “mini port” feature to happen for a long time for the exact reasons you gave. I think it would be very useful.
Hi everyone. I wanted to let folks know that there was a bug with our initial implementation of this feature – counteroffers WERE causing strikes which was not intended. Thanks to Buymore for helping us notice this issue. It is now resolved, and if there are any further problems please let us know.
To summarize: Strikes only affect buyers who have made more than three rejected offers on the same card. They will not be able to make a fourth offer on that card until 90 days from the date of the first strike. A counteroffer does not count as a rejection, and if a buyer declines a seller’s counteroffer that doesn’t count as a strike either.
The “Make an Offer ” feature is intended to be a tool to allow buyers and sellers to see if they can make a deal. The new “strike” function isn’t meant to hinder that at all, it simply is a safeguard to prevent offers from being spammed thoughtlessly or used as a way to harass.
Thanks for the vibrant discussion, everyone. We love that we can count on folks letting us know how they feel.
Cheers!
Jeremy
Jeremy thank you very much for this!
Thanks Jeremy, still not the greatest upgrade but much better now that it is polished!
Just to be clear on the new process, once a counter offer is made the strike system does not count any rejects. It only counts as a strike on the initial buyer’s offer if it is rejected outright. And do offers attempted that are not high enough to meet the sellers minimum offer count as a strike?
Can’t answer part two but part one..correct. Basically if the seller counters your first offer the the strike process goes away. That’s why I don’t understand the angst about this from some. If a seller outright rejects your offer twice without a counteroffer, why continue to make offers. Chances are the seller is not interested in negotiating. in 99% of cases we’ll counter even it is just a dime off our price on something we don’t want to sell for less. At least to us we are telling the buyer we appreciate their looking at our stuff.
Im tired of the sellers that counter .01 lower than their asking price. Seriously? THAT is a waste of people’s time. If you dont want to accept lower prices, then dont. Set it up so that the minimum offer is in place. If your card is 25.00 and I offer 12.50, I understand, but if I offer 18-19 and you counter with 24.95 or something like that, it makes you look [edited by COMC mods. Let’s keep it respectful.]. There needs to be some things in place for SELLERS that dont know how to deal with customers.
Obviously the seller is telling you that he cant accept any lower than that price,why would that upset you.You have to remember one thing, if he sells you that card for $20 it is really $16 he is selling it for since COMC gets their 20%.
Let’s not mess with what is not broken. The offer system does not need modification. The tough decision to permanently ban ONE individual is what would bring sanity back to many sellers.
The 3 strikes must not be working because I have received 3 of the same lowball offer from her on two cards since the new policy was posted.
Hi, Tigers1984ws. 3 offers rejected should be the maximum for any individual card, please let us know if you receive a 4th. Also, if you countered any of the offers then that specific offer you countered won’t count as a strike even if you later reject their counter to your counter.
When I make offers, I dont keep a running list of who I made offers to. With all of the sellers on here, I search for the cards I need, not for the sellers that might have it. I might make someone the same offer several times unintentionally. I wish buyers had the option of blocking sellers that consistently overprice their cards and refuse to take anything less than full BV or are completely unwilling to negotiate something reasonable.
So you don’t want to take responsibility for your own actions (IE Keeping a list of those pesky sellers you feel are unreasonable) but you feel you are the all knowing of what prices are “overpriced” and what dealers are unwilling to negotiate something YOU feel is “reasonable” ? I am seriously trying to understand you. I see lots of cards on here higher than I want to pay. Doesn’t mean the dealer is not “reasonable” or that someone else won’t come along and pay what they want.
Let me give you one bit of advice…and this is coming from someone who has made selling cards, coins, antiques and stamps a full time occupation for over 20 years and who employs several full ad part time workers… To 99% of users on here this is a part time job/hobby. It is cardboard (and other substances) that have no real value in substance other than perhaps to insulate your home or keep it warm via fire. This is not sellers jacking up the prices of baby formula while you have a newborn or anything else “REALLY IMPORTANT” I mean come on… You want that shiny flashy Big Joe Mcool RC limited to 15 and the seller won’t come down on his price. Let’s face it… Karma Willing you are still going to wake up tomorrow, still have food o your table at dinner time and life will go on. Sportscards are a luxury. Period. For us we made a choice to depend our futures on the ability to buy and sell them (and other things) but even we realize what we are buying and selling are not going to change the world and therefore are not worthy of getting upset or frustrated over.
Not talking about a hot card that sells at full book. Talking about an insert that books for 15.00, regularly sells for 2-3.00 and the seller is asking for 12.00. Not talking about big name stars or the top rookies either. Just regular cards.
It is simple,just dont buy it….who cares……..Every card cant be a steal for you. When you walk into a Best Buy and a laptop is $850 you have a choice to buy it or not,it is pointless to call the manager and tell him that Tom thinks the price is to high.When it is yours then you can dictate the price.
Not looking for steals either. Im a set builder. Im just stating the opposite side of the sellers that talk about buyers that are cheap and want to constantly offer 50% of their asking price.
I understand Tom………..One thing, even though I rarely accept 50% offers I do not get mad or am offended by them.I am still appreciative of anyone looking at my stuff.
If it is a habitual 50% buyer then I just don”t counter
Im sure theres plenty of sellers that do nothing but offer the lowest possible price. Just seems like if you wont accept a certain % off, why not just have it set up that way? Ive made offers and gotten the “Seller doesnt accept offers of more than 15% off”
I respect people’s bottom line, I just wish more of them would use it.
I understand your point though Lee.
Hi Tom! You’re certainly welcome to make any offer on any of my cards. The reason some sellers might counter your offer with about the same as their original asking price probably has to do with the way COMC handles rejected offers.
If an offer is rejected, you won’t get a notification on your dashboard, and you might not realize that the offer has been rejected. If they counter at 1 cent below their original asking price, then the counteroffer will appear on your dashboard. So you still have an opportunity to buy without fishing the offer out of your rejected offer pile.
I understand where you’re coming from, but looking through this thread you can see that some buyers expect a dealer to wheel and deal, and some buyers think that every seller should just price their card at the lowest price they’d take in the first place.
Personally, I’d like to see some system where a buyer can see some of their bidding history with a particular dealer. If I bought 500 cards in the past from dealer x for 50% off their asking price, and I bought 3 cards from dealer y for 0% off their asking price, that would be useful information to see when I’m buying.
I would like this, too. I have to either keep my own records (which I do but they aren’t reliable) or treat everyone the same. Both of these options are not as good as if I could see my history.
The big black hole of course is how often the buyer has paid full price. Sometimes you can tell. (You might sell 10 cards from a set and then receive an offer for five more from that same set.) Other times, you can’t. Having to treat every offer as if it were in a vacuum probably isn’t the best approach. The only good thing is that this is something we all have to deal with so at least the playing field is level, even if it’s underwater.
To others’ points, we all use the site for different reasons, and it is logically impossible for the site to do everything that we all want. I think it does a pretty good job at pleasing as many people as possible as often as possible.
The offer history helps with that to some extent. Would be nice to be able to sort by “accepted offers” and perhaps by “% off of original prices”. Our buying pool is small so keeping track isn’t too hard.
We have six sellers we buy from regularly because we know their price points meet our needs. None of them are the larger sellers on the site. I think the biggest has around 3500 cards in their port. Beyond that we’ll make the occasional offer to others if it is something that catches our eye.
Right now, my Offer History is about 400 pages long, contains about 20,000 offers, and is almost impossible to glean any useful information out of. The individual offers don’t tell me which dealers accepted 50% discounts and which were rejecting 10% discounts.
The offers made from buyers only show actual offers. If someone purchased 500 cards from me at full price, and then offered 50% on one card, I have no way of knowing that they’ve been a good customer. Even poking around the offer history, it might take 1/2 an hour to figure out if they’d ever purchased from me before (especially if their userid starts with a letter that’s in the middle of the alphabet). I’m not going to make the effort.
It would be nice to have this information, both as a buyer and as a seller. In the past, I got the impression that it was mostly a matter of manpower and bandwidth which prevented them from giving us a more detailed transaction history with a particular member. Maybe there were some philosophical reasons as well, but my impression is that it was mostly logistics.
So, if they’re willing and able to track how many times I’ve made an offer on a particular card in the past, they should be able (if not willing) to let me know how many times I’ve done business with a particular user in the past as well.
If you use Gmail for COMC, you can search by username. That only tells you how many offers you’ve received, of course, not whether you accepted them or whether they’ve paid full price.
This was what I was talking about before, though I probably could have expressed myself better.
COMC needs to have a way for buyers to block sellers that they regularly get denials from or people whose counteroffer is .01 less than their selling price. Would probably help sellers if there was an option to not allow people to make offers. I know when I want something, especially a common for a set, Im not going to pay .75 for it. I’d throw an offer of 40 cents since thats as low as I can go pretty much, but I get a counter of .72 or .73 sometimes. Why use the ability to take offers if you arent interested in doing so?
Sellers need to be able to block stingy sellers and sellers need to be able to block cheap buyers. would eliminate a lot of problems.
Tom…first of all it is nice to see you posting without name calling.
The people you see who have automatic thresholds pay an extra monthly fee for the ability to block lowball offers. Most users on this site will not or cannot pay extra fees on top of all the others COMC already charges and are left to respond to those low offers manually.
I dont have an auto threshold because i have thousands of cards and will take low offers on cards that have been sitting in my port for 2 years
That makes sense as well. We usually will “port sale” at 85-92% off stuff we don’t want to look at anymore. The minimum threshold tool MIGHT be useful to us if we could do it on a card by card basis but I think as it is currently set up it is a blanket percentage.
90 days way too long maybe more like 30 days max or maybe get one strike back every two weeks so you can maybe make another offer if cards are still available and you have more money in account. Sometimes it takes awhile to get a deal done.
Many sellers try to sell their cards in very good to good to poor condition for full book value, or near that. That’s asinine! Instead of this 3 strike deal, COMC should implement a personal message board. On this board..the potential buyer can thoroughly explain why they’re offering half or whatever percentage, off the asking price. SELLERS: it’s all about condition, color, and centering, in my opinion, and not the card/player itself. That’s why I’ve backed off buying cards. All these sellers take advantage of particular cards, but I take in account condition first and foremost! As a seller myself, I’m here to make money. If a potential buyer offers a reasonable offer..I’ll accept. I’ve seen other sellers cards sit for years because they want full book, yet their cards look like roadkill. You (sellers) should be ashamed of yourselves!! I personally have bought cards just to lower their price due to their condition, just to prove a point. When I make offers its because as an avid collector, I know what cards are going for, regardless of what a book states or for whatever other reason. I truly love this hobby, some others take full advantage of it. Market value will always and forever override book value. Book value is just a point of reference. C’mon, thought you knew!
PS..shout out to Jeremy and the whole COMC crew!! Peace.
Thanks for the shout out, and for participating in shaping the site. =)
-Jeremy
This has to be one of the worst ideas ever for a great site.
Just ignore the offer, reject, or if the first time someone has offered on your cards counter.
When I sell a port and an offer comes in I am willing to accept I counter all other offers $2.00 above the one I am accepting. This is only to free up there money with out an outright rejection. People seem to get upset when you try to deal with them after an outright rejection. Yes certain buyers I just reject there offer if not even in the ball park of what I will take. However, many times the counter offer is accepted before I finish countering.
I rejected the buyer of my last two ports ten times what they have bought but that is part of your selling model that works. I was very happy with the last two deals and feel we both made out.
Every deal is not right for everyone, but there is the right deal out there at some point.
I have to put a dislike on this one (Thumbs Down.)
ByronsCards
In Addition, I very seldom price my cards above 80% unless I send them to comc myself; however, many for this policy offer half of what I say I will take. I place an ad and state what I will take a certain minimum and yet they offer half and they are for this. How I make my offers, I go from a to z seeing cards I like and make an offer. I have learn must who just outright reject and avoid them. Does who raise their price and then send a counter offer equals automatic rejection and they are on here. So, yes I may forget your acceptance policy now and than but if you do not like the offer ignore it and tie there money up. I have several sellers I buy from that will accept (say five out of ten offers) and leave the rest hanging there. Sometimes they will accept more later. I am not that big of a seller and have had to scroll through a long list of offers; however, as a seller I get to choose how to respond. The biggest point is very simple: Not wanting the low-ball offers is as little as $15.00 a month away.
After a few days, I still don’t know how I feel. Here is what I have noticed:
Offer received — declined.
Second offer received — declined.
Third offer received — declined.
Buyer pays full price.
I’m not learning a lesson here. I’m essentially being rewarded for being an ass. Now, of course there are those who don’t try again after being declined the first time, but those buyers have been doing that ALREADY. This particular policy change? In terms of dollars and sense I am not seeing a downside. Controversial, I know.
Now, Tim, et al, have the data, rather than this anecdotal jazz from me. Curious if others have had the same experience.
Hah, I used the wrong “cents/sense.” Don’t mind me. Too much coffee.
I have not had anyone make 3 offers yet on the same card, but this does nothing to combat what I consider the true problem – buyers who relentlessly low ball on a multitude of cards. I have decined several offers from 1 buyer on several cards, but never more than 1 offer per card. Nothing to prevent buyers from sending lowball offers on every single card I have for sale.
I am and have been a buyer and collector only. In the last 3 months I estimate I spent between $4500 to $4800 on cards from COMC. Today I ran into the 3 strike rule. On April 27th before I even heard of this policy and almost a month before it went into effect I made a bid of $13.40 on a $20.00 non discounted card. I was rejected. I then made a $15.00 bid on this card and was rejected. My thinking was this person must be swamped and is just rejecting everything. The next day the card I wanted was still showing. Trying to start negotiations again because this was just my starting point and some how that card survived the feeding frenzy I made the same $15.00 offer. I was rejected. Note, not once was I given a counter offer. I put the card on my watch list and forgot about it. The seller had a sale. I checked out this card again and it was now listed at $25.00. ($5.00 over book value) I ignored it
Today the seller had a 50% off sale. His promo even had a bad feel. It went something like this,” for those of you last week who could not do simple math and figure out 40% off by dividing by ten and multiplying by six this is easier. JUST TAKE HALF OFF THE LISTED PRICE,” or something to this effect.
Ignoring the negative vibe from this seller I checked and my card was still listed, imagine that. I could now get the $20.00 card for $10.00. I made my bid and was shown I had 3 strikes. I checked my history back to May 20th around when this policy went into effect and could not find any bids on the card. I continued to search until I found the offers on April 27th and 28th, well before any of us heard of this policy so it is retroactive. This is unjust to begin with.How can I be held accountable for a policy that did not apply a month ago.
My conclusion is that this sellers cards are still available because he rejected everyone and we all have 3 strikes.
Now here comes the hard part and I doubt very much that COMC will even let this be posted. I have made my last purchase from this site because of this policy. I have sat at my computer at 3am and bought autographed cards from all 6 Sutter brothers and 1 nephew who played in the NHL.
On another night I bought 54 autographed cards out of the 63 NASCAR drivers who have raced in the Sprint Cup this year. Thank you Rosco-P-Coltrane.
I had a great time but I will take my business elsewhere.
Robert
Thank you for this great website. I’m trying to understand some more posts but I cant get your web site to display appropriately in my Opera Browser. Cheers again.
Well, I’m new here (found this place about a month ago) and just ran into this 3 strike limit. Had no idea what it was since there isn’t a search feature on the site and this isn’t listed in the FAQ’s. This should really be posted in the FAQ section. Had to actually google to find a link to this here. I did see “1 strike” on a card at one point but had no idea what it meant. Ended up getting the card but don’t remember the details.
So anyway, I had 8 or 9 cards from 1 seller and sent a low offer to start out assuming they’d counter with a more reasonable price closer to the actual value and what I’d really pay. Flat out rejection. Okay, maybe he felt insulted so I bumped by offer up 20% and resent. Again flat out rejection. Weird, no counter again. So again, I bumped my offer this time by 16% and resent thinking this time the seller has to be satisfied. My ending offer was just 15% lower than the actual list price he wanted for the whole lot. No go, rejection. 3 times with no counter offer which had me baffled. At least let me know what you want with a counter. A simple counter with the same max list price or 1% off would’ve quickly told me no discount. Ended up finding all my cards elsewhere at the price I wanted except for 1 card. Went back to just pay this seller his list price for that card and be done with it only to run into the 3 strikes rule. Well, his list price is actually higher than what I value the card at but was willing to pay it since it’s the last card in the set I need but now I can’t for 3 months. Not paying the higher prices the others who have this card want so basically nobody gets any of my money for this card and COMC doesn’t get their fees.
After reading this entire blog about this I gather there was/is 1 person just spamming multiple sellers with low ball offers on everything just seeing what gets a hit. I can see where this would get annoying and time consuming. I love hearing that “bing” on my phone when I send out multiple offers. I actually get excited wondering if my offer was good enough. If I was a seller getting dozens or hundreds of offers a day I could see getting weary of the lowest possible offer over and over but maybe that’s just part of being a seller. i have to agree with a couple points above.
1 – 3 months is WAY too long. A week maybe? A month, sure but 3 months? That to me means that card from that person is just off the table. Doubt it’ll still be available.
2 – giving sellers the option to add a buyer to their own personal list could work as long as it isn’t used for evil (j/k). flat out banning a buyer from sending you an offer just cuts out more money you MIGHT make if maybe 1 out of 10 offers is one you liked. Maybe a list where you could add a buyer and then also select the minimum % off offer you’d accept from that buyer? Say 1 person sends dozens of offers over and over at 50% off and you never accept them and now you’re tired of having to check your email from this person every 5 minutes. Add this single buyer to a list and say only offers up to 20% off will be sent to you from this seller. Would that be better instead of an outright ban?
Like joel mentioned above 3 offers all rejected, 4th offer for full price. That’s exactly what i tried to do but now I can’t. I’m new here so still figuring things out. Just a little background, I only build sets. I don’t care about specific teams or focus on certain players. I’m not flipping anything. Everything I buy comes to me for my collection.
Hi, Douglass. Thanks for your input, I appreciate you sharing your experience. While you can’t make an offer on a card with three strikes – even an offer for full price – you can still use the ‘buy now’ button to buy any card. If you would like to pay full price for a card with three strikes, you are always free to do that.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Jeremy, thanks for the response. I didn’t even think about the “buy now” option. Figured I was just out of luck for that particular card. Perfect. Just bought it and added it to my inventory waiting for shipment. So that really solves the whole issue of 3 strikes. If all offers get rejected and you still want it just pay full price. I would still suggest adding this to the FAQ page though. This is something that needs to be explained to new people. I fully understand it was my screw up by not understanding the rules but then I did have to Google just to find a link back to this site explaining the rule.
FYI: another insert set completed with that purchase