Hello COMC Nation! We’re into the 2nd week since we began our transition to the new COMC and it’s been an interesting time around our offices. We’re busy working on our card catalog, but realized it’s been too long since we gave everyone an update on what’s been going on at COMC.com.
Progress
Right now we’re over 66% of the way through basic catalog creation for items currently listed on COMC. We expect to have 90% of the basic data complete in less than a month. Some of the data on the website is inaccurate, primarily player names, and we’re actively fixing descriptions while we create the catalog and process new submissions.
The best way to help us meet our goal of complete data by next month is by playing the Ultimate Card # Race. This Challenge provides us with card numbers which, above all other Challenges, speeds up our ability to identify items and create the new catalog.
Fast Track Your Inventory
We just introduced a feature that enables sellers to make items in their portfolio easier to find by potential buyers. If you have items for sale on the site, you’re now able to speed up their catalog creation by playing Challenges in the new Fast Track mode.
On the main Challenges page, check the box at the top of the screen that says “Fast Track My Inventory” to display items from your inventory first. Not only does it let you provide data on your items, it also bumps up the priority of Fast Tracked items you provided answers for to get asked to other contributors playing Challenges.
Please note there are some exceptions to Fast Track mode. It’s not available for items in your inventory for which:
- Data was already collected from that particular Challenge.
- We don’t yet have enough data on an item to include it in that Challenge. For example, a card won’t get queued up in a Card # Challenge if we haven’t yet assigned it a prefix.
Processing Delays
Consignment processing has experienced slowdowns since the transition on April 1st. We are prioritizing catalog creation in order to process items so they can have complete data on the site. Premium processing should be back to normal next week and Basic processing will be running full speed sometime next month.
To help with the delays, we are still honoring our long-standing policy of applying a 50% discount on fees for late deposits when items are added to your account.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call or email customer service.
Once again, we cannot sufficiently state our gratitude to you, our community, and advocates. Your response has been amazing, and we wouldn’t be here without you! Thank you for completing Challenges, submitting suggestions, and participating in community dialog on our Blog, our Facebook page, and through Twitter.
What is the progress for the edits that we are doing on our own cards in our port….what kind of turnaround time can we expect thank you
Hi, Greg. Those edits are being queued and will be reviewed, but the timing will depend on our progress made in catching up on processing and in building out the rest of the new catalog. Our goal is still 90%+ data by the end of this month and we expect the edits will be a big part of that.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Thank you for providing the rationale behind the importance of the card numbers …..obviously on the surface to most of us did not make a lot of sense …..now it does ….that’s the kind of information I know that I’ve been looking for and I’m sure many others have also….. keep up the great work
Thanks for the update, and I agree that it’s helpful to know why the card numbers in particular are so important – I didn’t really get it before.
I second Greg’s question about the port edits, and I also have a few of my own:
1. Is it somehow less helpful to complete the individual sport card # challenges than the “ultimate” one? I buy and sell almost entirely baseball on the site, so I am much more motivated to get those done. Plus, I’m a lot more familiar with baseball cards than any others, so I can do them more quickly, find them less of a chore, etc.
2. Since you are able to fast-track cards by seller, are you also able to do this by year? I am probably not alone in saying that I most want to see the 2014 cards available and listed accurately on the site, and I would be motivated to burn through those if they were somehow prioritized.
3. It would also be nice to see minor-league cards have the *lowest* priority, but I understand there might not be any way to “set those aside”.
Thanks for the update. I’ll suffer through this rocky bit, the future improvements sound great.
Thanks for the update! What is the current status of cards that were sent to Beckett for grading? Should we still expect them back on their expected due date and what is the status of this option going forward?
CRAP. I wish I could cancel my order and send it to PSA somehow. I had totally forgotten about this. I sense a lot of 4s in my future instead of 5s and 6s 🙁
Thanks for the continued updates! BTW, I still think it is a problem in the challenges that we cannot review/correct the last card in a group. We can correct all the other cards, but if we get the last one wrong, we’re just out of luck. That is my one suggestion for improvements to the Challenge system.
Does the 50% discount also cover the beta test items that have been in limbo for well over a year?
I’m very new. I loved the site initially(eventhough i don’t make $). Now I don’t like, why don’t you send the challenges to Chinese farmers and have your site functional already.
Even if you blacklist me idc. This is not right.
Will the RC rookie card search filter becoming back eventually?
Yes, as well as searches for memorabilia and autographs. Thanks!
Jeremy
Super! Thank you for replying
Why would Tim send the Challenges to Chinese farmers? Perhaps some of those farmers have a COMC account which would mean more exposure. You might be on to something young Jedi warrior.
Chinese farmers? Forgetting the obvious racial stereotype of such a comment, why would you advocate for not only outsourcing but also unfair labor practices?
Beckett as another example of ineptness went to India to get their rockstar workforce…and we see how well they are doing…
“Beckett as another example of ineptness went to India to get their rockstar workforce”……For Real?, that was a joke, wasn’t it?
No… they outsourced their customer service and IT department to India and I believe their new owner came from there too. India is another country with horrible workers rights. I am no union guy but for those folks… I wish they had something!
And “rockstar” is a nicer way than saying incompetent/inept/ignorant….
Wow…So they probably wouldn’t need to know anything about Don Mossi or Earl Francis?
I’m sorry, just on my drunk rant. Excuse me again guys. Sorry Tim.
Chuck probably not.. Bill James covered Don Mossi pretty well. Francis was a mediocre pitcher who got himself a WS ring with the 1960 Pirates.
Probably just Beckett trolls posting anyway…..
I have noticed more and more information added. It’s still not enough but I do see it going in the right direction.
Tim,
This is not what we, as seller and buyers, joined COMC for…..chaos and missed opportunities. All the time we have to spend helping COMC to not become a failure, the confusing and time consuming games and “challenges”, cards that should be offered at critical times are delayed well beyond the small window to make a profit, items that I planned months ago to have processed at a timely period (just one very important instance – Nathan MacKinnnon), I just had over 100 cards that were finally processed that should have been done over a week ago and now they cannot even be brought up on a search to sell. I have to spend my valuable time filling in missing data and hope whoever is reviewing my items have time to ok them to offer for sale before the season is over…….the name is missing for crying out loud on the few I have got to and that’s why a person doing a search for that player will not even know I have it for sale.
Having said all that and they are just a few of the frustrating things that I’ve had to experience the past several weeks, I have two suggestions for you Tim: 1 – Quit thanking everyone or whoever is helping you, myself included, like we are part of a volunteer park cleanup crew! We are customers that are losing money and using our valuable time helping your endeavor. Just keep us informed with good honest timelines of what to expect in a timely manner. 2 – Try to come up with a better compensation other than a free months card rent. A few months and other compensation for those that are giving up there time and getting you out of a tight bind and less for those that don’t or can’t help with your “challenges” and other games.
If this seems like a diatribe I cannot apologize but feel bad I have to do it. After having gone through 2-3 years of literal hell with Beckett’s site with no explanations for their ineptness, I really thought this was going to be fun at COMC. It was at first, and a great idea but not well thought out…meaning IMHO you bit off way too much too soon. I sincerely hope you are a success with COMC because you seem like a very sincere, ambitious and hard-working young man. I have been in this “game” well over 30 years and would like the last few years in the hobby to be enjoyable and make a few bucks for seven grandchildren I enjoy. I have too much “stuff” to move so my children don’t have to put up with the hassle of getting rid of it. Good luck and hopes you get this done sooner than later. I hope all the major players on this site can stick it out a bit longer so your wishes come true about the plans for this site.
Respectfully submitted with frustration,
Ken
I agree with you Ken.i have spent a lot of money to have all my cards added to the site and now i have to wait for my cards to go through a challenge or i have to do the work myself either way isn’t fair to me, in the end i will be losing money for a few months because of these changes. About 35 % of my cards i paid for the 1 week service within the last year and it makes me sick that i have to do all the work that was done already months ago. i can careless about my storage fees for the month. how about compensate us better than that since all of us are losing money for awhile. What i cant figure out is why couldn’t they leave the site alone and create a new data base that is based off of the new submissions for the time being and then have there employees fix the rest rather than turn to everyone else on here. I know they could of had the data brought over and corrected rather than go this route.That way then everyone who sells on this site wont be losing money.
I want to thank cBraund, secondbase, wphill02, styelz68, and all the others that really went above and beyond. Those numbers are phenomenal. It’s people like you that will ensure the success of COMC’s.
I have a business account (sublimessportscards), and a personal account (wadeboggscollection), and the two combined are approaching 200,000 collectively so I know first hand how much time and effort goes into these challenges. Although my money/credit take is around $50 total, it fails in comparison to what others have made. I tell myself that the money awarded is not my primary concern. My primary concern is to help get the site back to normal as quickly as possible. I was worried about sales, but I figure once this is all sorted out, sales will be better than ever. Not to talk out of both sides of my mouth, but I think the $1 per 1000 was working pretty well, and would like to see it return because it served as a nice incentive. I feel that a flat $.10 per 100 would work even better. Why put goals in place, just be happy people can spend time on challenges here and there. The $5 for 10,000 puts a goal out of reach for some and actually deters participation. This is a fact because I have visited with other COMC members. I was able to convince a co-worker into working on challenges to get his badge and he is only a buyer. The money was ultimately what drove him to the challenges and he used it to purchase a few more cards before using the rest for shipping.
I read about all the angry, upset, sad, confused, or whatever “poor me” word you can chose, here on this blog, at Blowout, and other forums and wish they could see the depth of what has happened over the last 4 months. Everyone acts like they have so much to lose. Yea, it sucks a little right now but would have you been happier with the other alternatives? Alternative #1, the site is bought by Beckett, and they destroy it. Alternative #2, COMC dies and we all have our cards returned forever from now.
Personally I’d like to see us all pull together and trust that Tim will do what is best for his company, because ultimately that will be what is best for both the sellers and buyers here on COMC’s.
Could the top 10 or 20 contributors get a different badge? Maybe bolder, brighter or different color, or star burst around it. Different levels at say 100,000, 250,000, 500,000, 1,000,000. Something to give them bragging rights. I already take the badge in consideration when making a purchase or taking an offer. I guess I like to support those who help to support me.
Even though I could carry on and on about all this, I have challenges to work on. I find it to be more useful than complaining.
Thank You, Nate
Please keep us updated!
Those are good callouts. Those are the sellers I look at first when I have my buying hat on. I really appreciate that there is a way to identify our stronger community members. The tag cloud of user names in the blog is OK, but it just means someone talks a lot. (LOL look how big my name is.) But the badges? Not only are they helping, but helping in the time of greatest need.
Teenagers, college kids and people with a lot of time are stronger community members? I make a point of doing 1 0r 2 challenges a day to help and have 9000 total points…I do not have time to do more what with Having a daughter, 3 businesses to run, a girlfriend, 2 parents I help, working out, my friends and some hobbies. That makes me a weaker community member?
Dude, all of you guys that have pretty much volunteered to that enormous degree should be getting things like free pricing and discounted submission rates for as long as this guy owns this company. While he certainly appears to be a nice man and is no doubt a hard-working self starter, he owns a business that is stationed (from what I recall) across the street from Microsoft’s corporate headquarters. That’s probably not the cheapest area for what is essentially a warehouse. He can compensate you guys with more than an internet trinket with a new color and you all deserve more than that.
From the business standpoint you (not the gentleman I quoted) could blame Tim for having a model that was reliant on an entity he had no control over and that frankly after many years he didn’t seem to see this as a possibility and got blind sided. In addition to that I think they should have prioritized players when rebuilding their data, in the 4 thousand or so entries I put in maybe 50 of those items would sell for more than a dollar. I put in the number for a 1990 score Gary Clark at least half a dozen times in the card number challenge for instance. But aside from that they have really gotten a lot back onto the site since their switch over and the guy is clearly putting hours in and keeping everyone updated very regularly. The reality is they get dealt a tough hand and they are at the very least putting in gross amounts of effort to improve their situation.
I’d just like to see another update!!!
The last “challenge” ended almost 48 hours ago, last update was about 72 hours ago, and I’m sure many are not participating in anticipation of a new “payout”. I’m also still trying do do as much as possible in my spare time each evening but it would really be nice to know where everything stands. We all know we need the card numbers but without everyone doing the challenges it will take weeks so please put out an update for those who will only participate based on the “reward, pay, discount, etc. so we can move this along.
I’d also like to say nice work Chad B, Stylez68, secondbase, and wphill02. It’s amazing what you guys are doing/have done.
We made a few announcement on Facebook just a little while ago:
1: Due to popular demand, we are going to bring back rewards of $1 per 1000 points earned in the COMC Challenge! Keep following our facebook page for our notification of when we switch it back on… it’ll be soon, and it will be for a limited time only!
2: It will be even better, since you can earn Store Credit while focusing on your own items in Fast-Track mode. Also, the rewards will pay out instantly! Need an extra dollar for a shipment request? Just earn 1000 points!
3: And to our Challenge superstars, any user who earns a lifetime total of 1,000,000 points or more will be given an exclusive red contributor badge to commemorate your amazing dedication and generosity to COMC!
We appreciate everyone who has done even one Challenge on the site – you’re all helping to create something that we hope will be a huge benefit to the whole hobby.
https://www.facebook.com/COMC/posts/10152045252002113?stream_ref=10
Thanks for the update Moe!
Thanks for letting us know Moe! I actually don’t do the Facebook, will you post a new blog here to let the non-Facebook users know when the new challenges start? Also, just curious because I didn’t see the answer in the other blog post, when are the payouts for the last challenge (5 for 10,000) going to hit user’s accounts? Again, thanks to you guys for the updates and I know this site will kick butt after we get through this transition.
We’ll post something here when the new challenges start, and the payments from the last challenge should be going out shortly. The web team is tweaking the software so the payments go out automatically.
I don’t care if COMC is owned by Bill Gates. I’m happy to contribute to make the site better. I earned my badge before they started paying cash prizes, and I’d be glad to contribute in the future if COMC were to develop some sort of collectibles Wiki.
How much does millionaire Jimmy Wales pay people to write Wikipedia articles? How much does billionaire Jeff Bezos pay people to write product reviews on Amazon? How much does billionaire Mark Zuckerberg pay folks to post pictures of their cat on Facebook? There are two pay schedules. Jack, and Squat.
I’m touched by other people’s concern over my compensation package. It might put some of their minds to ease to realize that anyone who racks up 20,000 points in all of these challenges will get unlimited access to the COMC Suggested Retail Values, when that feature goes live.
Let’s assume this is worth $10 per month. The 10 year Treasury yield is about 2.5%. Which means that you would have to invest $4,800 in Treasuries in order to match the income stream necessary to purchase this service.
That would be the equivalent of 24 cents per COMC point. At an average rate of 100 points per 3 minutes, that would be the equivalent of $480 per hour that COMC is paying us in kind for our services.
So, I finally land a high-paying job in the high-tech sports collectibles field, and now you want to ship my job off to slave labor in China? Phooey.
If you want to see who is on a sports card, you might consider using a method I developed in the pre-internet days. Step 1 is to look at the card. Then go to the next card and repeat step 1.
Thanks for love BigRed! It is appreciated. I, like everyone else, just want to see COMC back up and running at full speed with the new catalog in place as soon as possible. And, of course, the store credit prizes are great too. It seems like the most work got done several weeks ago, when you paid $1 per 1,000, plus $100 to each of the top 10 earners. I think if you did the $1 per 1,000 and spread the other awards out, say the top 20 get $50, or the top 30 get $40, or the top 50 get $20, something like that. Then everyone has a shot at some prizes.
On another note….I’ve noticed when I’m putting in the card numbers I get the same card several times and some times it’s as many as 6-8 times. Is that because each card individually, regardless of whether or not it’s a duplicate, has to be typed in? For example…there’s probably around 500 Shaq 1992 Topps RCs. Does each of those 500 card numbers have to be typed in for each card or is it just “one and done”?
Thanks
cBraund
I think it is one and done. The subsequent times might be the “test” to make sure you’re giving good answers.
the same card over and over is to make sure you are entering correct data.
Thanks also to Nathan and Joel for the kind words!
Any chance there will be a special badge for those who contribute behind the scenes? I didn’t think or care much about a COMC badge but after reading others post how it would perhaps influence their buying habits I think I would be interested in one now.
By behind the scenes I mean for like people like me who would click on a specific card to report an error. I was doing that quite a bit on the non sports comic card side by identifying artists on sketch cards that were listed as unknown. I did this for both my cards and other collectors cards as well to help them out.
All that info is now gone with my comic sketch cards and I can only assume with others as well. I have asked if at some point will that info come back but not sure I ever received an answer. The comic card sketch stuff was never listed with Beckett so not sure why all that info disappeared in the first place and I am really hoping it will come back at some point.
Thanks
I liken it to barnacles on a ship 🙁 When the Beckett ship went down and COMC had to rebuild from scratch, that means they have a new hull now.
David, I know you can get the other badge for 1mil points now (which I don’t think I will ever reach due to time like so many other people) just doing what I can when I can to move the process along faster , however, I would just like to say thank you!. I send in non-sports cards etc. all the time that I have no idea what they are, so someone like you adding this info is invaluable. So Thank you and so many other people for adding this much needed info to help make the site more informative/valuable for us all!
I’m having an issue with the Challenges: two or three times I’ve almost completed the challenge but it glitches at #49 (of 50).
And there’s NOTHING I can do to get to #50.
Help!
I am seeing the same thing. I believe the info is submitted individually, so the data is getting captured, I just don’t think the point calculation is done at the end. I am seeing this with the Print Run Hunt challenge when I am doing my own inventory.
Hi, 77ncaachamps. Several other community members have experienced this as well, it seems to be happening only in “Fast Track” mode. Our devs are expecting to get a fix up this morning. Thanks for letting us know!
-Jeremy
That seems to be working now.
If I have items in my inventory where every piece of data is populated except the player name, should those cards be presented to me in the Player Name challenge in Fast Track mode?
Thanks,
Tim
It worked for the first two then now, I completed two challenges and they both awarded ZERO points.
I’m going to stop and check back tonight.
I’ll let you know if it happens again.
Re: Card Number Challenge
If a card is ST9, should we enter + for multiple numbers or 9 for the card number of that subset?
I’ve received three ZEROS because of this issue, I believe.
Need suggestions please. Being the processing is taking much longer than before, because of the current situation, the cards I planned to offer for sale because they are hot at this time( Mackinnon and others) looks as though I will miss the selling window where decent profits are made. I have many hockey cards being processed now that I would like to offer before it’s too late. I would appreciate anyone at COMC to give me hope that there is a way to get those cards in the marketplace. It may be difficult but the COMC/Beckett conflict threw a monkey wrench in my selling strategy for sure.
Thanks in advance,
MrMint
If it provides any solace, you’re not alone. It doesn’t make it OK of course, but at least we’re all in this together.
I appreciate your thoughts but I was hoping maybe COMC could provide us with a specific venue to give sellers an opportunity to let others know what will be available. That way if someone is interested in a certain player they could check back more often as processing releases items with specific sellers. Maybe Tim can create a “Coming Soon” list to access. The columns could be seller, player to be available and maybe a brief description such as rookies, jerseys, autos etc. This would be temporary, of course, but at least an effort by COMC to ease our pain in the interim.