Mark Anderson joins COMC

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We have a very important announcement today.  The renowned Mark Anderson is joining the COMC team in the newly created position of Seller Advocate!  This is big news for COMC, and the timing couldn’t be better with our upcoming launch of The Vault, our new service for high end items.  There are many reasons why you should be thrilled we now have Mark on our roster.

For the past 12 years, Mark has been the Director of Grading for Beckett Grading Service (BGS), a service well-trusted to handle high end items.  He is a leading authority on card authenticity and grading, and had a significant role in building BGS’s positive reputation for processing, assessing, and caring for high end collectibles.

Having spent over 15 years with Beckett, Mark is well-established within the sports card community. We look forward to his assistance in strengthening our connections and building partnerships within our industry.

Mark also has a strong background as a card, comic, and coin dealer.  We are thrilled to have someone of his caliber help us take these offerings to the next level.

With the launch of The Vault, COMC is stepping up its game.  Whereas, previously we’ve been the niche for buying and selling $1-$100 cards.  As we progress to handling more $1,000 cards, and even $10,000 cards, the game changes.  Mark is another strategic piece in ensuring we hit this one out of the park.

Purposefully, Mark is in the position of Seller Advocate.  He loves our service and has been using us for years. Having been a seller – both on and off COMC – Mark knows the in-and-outs of selling, and will provide another high-level viewpoint on how to best understand and meet the needs of our sellers.  His explicit job will be to help facilitate and implement new opportunities on behalf of our sellers.  In this role, he will be in close contact with you.  Feel free to reach out to him and welcome him to the team at manderson@comc.com.

Even from our early beginnings, when Check Out My Cards was run from our garage, there has always been a drive to bring together the latest technologies and the best people in a mix that would support and revolutionize the sports card industry.  We’ve worked hard to be the safe and easy way to buy and sell collectibles, through our unique and fun online consignment model.  Today, we’ve taken a big step to further establish this reputation.

Mark will be at The National Sports Collectors Convention with us in Chicago and is looking forward to meeting you on our behalf.  Please stop by and say hi.

Live Q & A  with Tim and Mark

On Saturday, August 3rd, from 3 – 4 p.m. CST, during The National, we will be having a live Q & A with Tim and Mark on our Facebook page and Twitter.  Leave a question for Tim and Mark on our Facebook page during that time, or send us a question on Twitter with the hashtag #comcmark, and Tim and Mark will respond and interact with you.

As always, we ask that you stay tuned to our blog for the latest COMC news and be sure to join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

14 thoughts on “Mark Anderson joins COMC”

  1. Congratulations on your hiring of Mark, a good friend as well as one of the true “good guys” in the industry.

    • Thanks! We did our homework, and he comes with high recommendation. His integrity helped establish a great reputation for the Beckett Grading Service, and integrity is absolutely critical for everything we do. So we couldn’t be more happy that he has joined our team.

  2. Mark Anderson was one of the only people left in Beckett management who was trustworthy. Your star is on the rise … congratulations! This will make waves across the hobby!

  5. One of my greatest frustrations at COMC has been the extremely inconsistent handling of vintage cards. Perhaps Mark could take a role in putting together an effective quality control process and improving the the procedures for handling vintage material.

    • This is one of many goals. Mark will be able to create procedures to ensure consistency. This will be extremely important as we start to get in much more valuable vintage items with our new Vault service.

    • Hi Bob, Vintage material is actually one of the areas we will likely be tackling first, and one I am very excited about as a dedicated Vintage collector. If you have other specific ideas (other than actual handling of the items), please feel free to let me know, and if you are at the NSCC please stop by and say hello!

      Mark

      • Mark,
        I urge you to scan newly added items for the 50’s or 60’s and just look at what is there. Between the inconsistency of newly graded items, the lack of any logic in which items get reviewed and which don’t and the existing huge volume of cards which were added under all kinds of different vintage programs, the problems should leap of the screen at you. As for solutions, I don’t think COMC can continue to piecemeal the program. Pick a process and apply it with some logic. If you choose to review one of a specific card, review ALL of them. When the current process was announced, it was stated that all existing cards would be looked at over a year or so. Some have been reviewed but there is no apparent plan nor is there any way to know if or when cards will be reviewed.

        I am no expert in vintage cards but I have looked at hundreds of thousands of cards over the years. I understand there is a great deal of variance in how different people look at the same card. But, what I have seen on COMC is just too inconsistent and frequently unfair. There is no reasonable appeal process if you disagree with a decision unless you want to pay $2 per card. I have tried to complain about a couple of specific cards but just got more frustrated with each response.

        Good luck in your new position. I hope you are able to help with the handling of vintage cards.

  6. Congratulations and welcome!

    One thing I’d like is the ability to cross-post Vault Eligible items (and other COMC items, selected by the seller) to eBay, similar to the way that items can be cross-posted to Amazon.

    That way the seller could have the best of both worlds. Their items would have large clear scans and access to millions of customers, but they also wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle of packing and shipping the items.

    At present, an eBay Anchor Store costs $179.99 to $199.99 per month, which comes with 2500 free listings per month. After that, each additional item is 5 cents per month. Final value fees are 9% and Paypal fees are whatever Paypal fees are.

    COMC should be able to open an eBay store and cross post items to eBay (Fixed Price) for, say, 10 cents per item per month, and then count eBay sales like an offer from Amazon, with a 15% or 20% discount.

    • This is a really good idea, especially in light with all the new photo rules on eBay.

      Initially the cross-listing with eBay seemed like a lot of work with little upside. But the Vault looks as if it will close that gap. There are plenty of consignment sellers on eBay already. This is no different.

  7. Plus, COMC has very favorable terms compared to other consignment sellers. Some consignment sellers take 50% to 65% of the sales price, or even 100% if the sale doesn’t meet their minimum. Also, a lot of them don’t have any special knowledge about the collectibles market. They take one digital pic from 20 feet away, post the item at auction in the wrong category for 99 cents with no reserve, charge $15 for shipping, and call it a day.

    COMC can easily compete with the average eBay “Selling Assistant”, both in terms of price and quality of service. I know selling assistants who have racked up tens of millions of dollars in sales in various collectible fields. As COMC branches out into comics, coins, memorabilia, collectible magazines and who knows what else, they can easily carve out a niche for themselves. And it wouldn’t take much more effort than they’re expending right now.

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