Monthly Archives: October 2019

COMC on the Haunted Road: Toronto Fall Expo

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Happy Halloween COMC Nation!

2014 RRParks Halloween Trick or Treat - Promos #2 - Witch - Courtesy of COMC.com

Tomb whom it may concern:  COMC is on the dark and winding road to the Fall Expo! We are returning from the afterlife to reappear once again at the 58th Sportcard & Memorabilia Expo on November 15th, 16th, & 17th at the International Convention Centre at 6900 Airport Road in Mississauga, Ontario!

We will be eating leftover candy and monitoring paranormal activity at Booth #3300 in between the Upper Deck and the Autograph Pavilion.  In attendance will be Geoff “Don’t Call Me Steve” Holland, Boo-Barry, and Jim “The Wizard of” Osborn.  We will be conducting the usual morbid events and perhaps will surprise you with a few other fang-tasticly unexpected things.

Free Giveaways!

Stop by the COMC Lair each day of the Expo for a free treat – One per customer per day, while supplies last.

Prize Wheel!

The spirits of hockey greats lie within the cardboard in our display case.  Spin the COMC Prize Wheel to determine which portal you’ll open and grasp an entry to win one of these 20 prizes!  To qualify for this hair-raising experience you must have a COMC account. All participants will receive a COMC branded miniature coffin in the shape of a storage box (while supplies last).

Winners will be drawn the week of November 17th and the results will be SCREAMED on our Facebook page and our “blob”post

Games for the Kids!

All little Goblins, Witches, and Skull Troopers (Yes, that’s a Fortnite reference) accompanied by a COMC account holding “mummy” or daddy can spin-to-win prizes that magically appear (while supplies last).  The chilling details will be announced at the show!

Drop Off Consignments Accepted!

As always, we’ll be accepting your drop-off submissions of cardboard, candy corn, and caramel apples!

Please read the instruction below to help facilitate a smooth hand-off without any scares.  There is a ominous submission limit of 10,000 cards per account.  We will gladly accept more than 10K cards, but those over and above will have their due date extended by a full moon cycle (one extra month).

1) All submissions must have complete, accurate, & spook-tacular paperwork by using our evil Submission Wizard.  Use the Expo drop-off location option on step 5 of the submission wizard to magically expedite processing.  You will receive a hard copy receipt to acknowledge your drop off.

2) Ensure your submission is packed securely so it doesn’t arrive in a gruesome state.  We strongly recommend one row boxes (400ct, 550ct, 666ct, 800ct) instead of the multi-row boxes (such as 1600ct or 3200ct).  For large submissions, multiple single row boxes can used, marked 1 of X, 2 of X.

3) The cut-off time for accepting submissions at the show will be Sunday, November 17th at 3:00PM local time. After that, we vanish into the night.

4) Please allow up to 10 calendar days for consignments submitted at the Fall Expo to reach our Haunted House in Burnaby.  Your show submission will be entered into your account during the the week of November 24th to 30th.

As always we are devilishly happy to answer any questions you have about COMC.  Our Creepy Customer Service Team is available at staff@comc.com to answer those questions leading up to the Expo.  Bats all folks!

Stay Connected! Here’s What You’ve Missed on Social Media..

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We entered 2019 with a vision: We wanted to bring COMC to the forefront of the most popular social media circles within the trading the card hobby and continue our goal of globally uniting collectors. In doing so, we wanted to connect and engage with current and past COMC members and users, and introduce our service to a new wave of collectors who may have heard of us, or saw our cards on eBay, but were unfamiliar with who we were and the features we offer on our platform.

Over the past 10 months we’ve tailored our social media content based off of feedback from our followers. Our followers told us that they wanted more transparency, such as which players sell the best, what super high-end items have sold recently on COMC, and how to use our service. In response, we’ve created recurring series on Instagram and Facebook tailored towards flipping successes and top selling players of the week.

Not the least bit surprising, we’ve also found out that collectors simply want to see cool and unique cards fill up their timelines! With that, we’ve found new opportunities to get some of the more unique and trending cards from our consignors in front of more buyer’s eyes than ever before.

If you’re not following us on social media, here’s what you’re missing out on:

Instagram:

Recent Inventory Drops 

A sneak peak at some of the most desirable recently added cards to the COMC Marketplace featuring top selling and current trending players.

Top Selling NFL Players of the Week

Sundays in the Fall & Winter are not just packed with sports – they’re also the busiest day of the week for buying and selling trading cards. In this weekly series we crunch the numbers and show our followers who in the NFL sold the most items for week, and recommend some items worth considering!

COMC to eBay Flip of the Week

COMC Members know that there is no better way to buy cards than with a COMC account. There’s also no easier way to flip cards online! In this weekly series, we showcase the top flipping success of the week by showcasing an item that was bought on COMC that later sold via eBay for a huge gain!

Twitter

Monday Morning Discussion

We kick off every week with our Monday Morning Discussion, where we pull no punches and ask the hard-hitting questions about the hobby and the world of sports. One of our recent more fiery discussions was regarding limited release products and how they can be better allocated among collectors:

Our Favorite Rookie Cards

Earlier this year we replaced the #DailyCheckout with our new daily afternoon series “Our Favorite Rookie Cards”. This series gives us the opportunity to feature hot new rookie cards, and reminisce to the cards of yesterday either captured the hearts of the hobby, or stand out for their tremendous set design.

Facebook

Weekly NFL Pick ‘ Em Contest:
Win $20 COMC Credit!

Each week we pit our followers against one another in an epic 100+ player NFL Pick ‘Em contest. If you can pick a winner and get closest to the tie breaker, we have $20 COMC Credit with your name on it!

This is just a small taste of the type of content that you can find across all of our social media pages. We didn’t even have time to get into the other contests & giveaway that you can catch on a regular basis across all three platforms (hint hint).

We’re always open to suggestions for the type of content you’d like to see, so feel free to drop a comment below with your thoughts and suggestions!

Catch COMC in California at Trade Fest II!!

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Hello COMC Nation!

We’re happy to announce we’ve added another stop to our upcoming shows calendar! Later this month on October 25th & 26th you’ll be able to catch us at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for Trade Fest II hosted by The Bullpen!

We had a fantastic time at the first Trade Fest event and can’t wait to return! Our team will be available both days to accept your drop-off submissions and answer any questions you may have about our service!

Prepping your drop-off consignment:

Here are some helpful tips in order to have a quick and easy drop-off experience:

  1. All submissions must have complete and accurate printed paperwork by using our Submission Wizard. 
  2. Ensure your submission is packed securely.  We strongly recommend one row boxes instead of multi-row boxes (such as 1600ct or 3200ct).  For large submissions, multiple single row boxes can be used, labelled 1 of X, 2 of X, etc.
  3. Please allow up to five business days for consignments submitted at Tradefest to reach our Redmond, Washington headquarters.

As always, we are more than happy to answer any questions you have about COMC. Our Customer Service Team is available at staff@comc.com to answer any questions you may have leading up to the event.

L’Anti Expo (Montreal) Dice Roll Prize Winners!

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We had a great time in Montreal this year eating smoked meat sandwiches and poutine, visiting local card stores, and meeting the people who use COMC for their buying and selling needs.  We thank-you for your continued support. 

Without further adieu, here are the winners of the dice roll contest from Anti-Expo 2019:

Grand Prize:

(Roll a 3, 4, 5, or 6) – 2018-19 Upper Deck Canvas #C223 Jesperi Kotkaniemi – TGLON2662
(Roll a 15, 16, 17, or 18) – 2019 Topps #US250 Ronald Acuna Jr. – starbuckqc


Secondary Prizes:

(roll a 7) –  2014-15 Upper Deck Exclusives #462 Phillip Danault #021/100 – JonathanVaillancourt
(roll a 8) – 2015-16 Upper Deck Canvas #C244 Guy Lafleur – Nilan
(roll a 9) – 2013-14 Panini Prizm Autograph #A-GA Brendan Gallagher – kevbou34
(roll a 10) – 2015-16 Upper Deck MVP #276 Max Domi – jpizzuti
(roll an 11) – 2016-17 Upper Deck MVP Thomas Chabot – omnious
(roll a 12) – 2016-17 Upper Deck SPx Extreme Black Holo-Shield #EB-SM Sean Monahan – BigFrankie88
(roll a 13) – 2017-18 Upper Deck #247 Brock Boeser – Anto93poirier
(roll a 14) – 2018-19 Upper Deck #451 Andrei Svechnikov – Burno8421210
 
 
To claim your prize, contact staff@comc.com with your name and username before December 8, 2019.
 
 
Our next show is the Twin Oaks Sports Card and Collectible Show at Mall 205 in Portland Oregon on Saturday, October 12th.
 
 
To view the remaining 2019 shows COMC will be in attendence, check out our show calendar here.

2019 COMC Pack League Fantasy Baseball Team Results

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Earlier this year we introduced you to our latest iteration of fantasy sports meets trading card collecting concept when we presented our 2019 Topps Opening Day Fantasy Pack Team. If you missed that blog, you can check it out here and learn about this fun and unique way to play fantasy sports using packs of trading cards! Today we want to share with you how our team did now that the 2019 MLB regular season has concluded.

If you remembered how scoring works, or read the blog linked above, you’d know that points are calculated as WINS. The ultimate goal of the game is to have more wins than the other players in your league if you’re playing with friends. If you’re playing alone, the goal is to have more wins than any team in the Major Leagues this season.

Scoring System:

Hitting Scoring 
Every 40 runs = +1 win
Every 15 Home Runs = +1 win
Every 15 Stolen Bases = +1 win
Every 30 RBI’s = +1 win
Every 50 walks = +1 win

Pitching Scoring:
 Every 5 Wins = +3 Wins
Every 5 losses = -1 Win
Every 5 Saves = +1 Win
Every 75 Strikeouts = +1 Win

The 2019 COMC Fantasy Baseball Team & Results

Designated Hitter: Mark Trumbo (Missed 2/3rds of the season, replaced by bench player Max Muncy)
Catcher: J.T. Realmuto (5 Wins)
First Base: Anthony Rizzo  (7 Wins)
Second Base: Gleyber Torres  (8 Wins)
Short Stop: Francisco Lindor (6 Wins)
Third Base: Rafael Devers  (9 Wins)
Outfield: Ronald Acuna (11 Wins)
Outfield: Mike Trout (10 Wins)
Outfield: Mitch Haniger  (Missed 2/3rds of the season, replaced by bench player Juan Soto)

Pitching Staff

SP: Justin Verlander (14 Wins)
SP: Gerrit Cole (12 Wins)
SP: Trevor Bauer (7 Wins)
SP: Blake Snell (3 Wins)
SP: Jacob Degrom (8 Wins)
Closer: Edwin Diaz  (5 Wins)

Bench:

Hitter: Juan Soto (9 points)
Hitter: Max Muncy  (8 points)
Hitter: Whit Merrifield
Pitcher: Dereck Rodriguez
Pitcher: German Marquez

All in all, our team put up a total of 122 wins, which is six wins above the all-time record of 116 set by the 2001 Seattle Mariners. Our win total is a little bit inflated thanks to the stellar performances of Verlander and Cole, as well as our team being stacked with top-tier talent on rookie contracts. For that reason, in future years, we’ll propose a rule to the salary cap where all players on a rookie contract will automatically be bumped to $5 million.

We know that some readers of the COMC Blog were  also playing along at home. How did your teams do this season? Did you beat us? If you weren’t playing along, have you found a different way  to turn your trading card collecting experience into a game? We want to hear about it! Drop a comment below and let us know!

“It Sold for WHAT?!?” – Six Ronald Acuna Cards That You’ll Never Be Able to Find at These Prices!

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Over the course of our 12 plus year existence, we’ve seen A LOT of cards. In many cases, we first saw a superstar’s cards long before they became a household name. As a result, this lends itself to some pretty hilarious completed sales in our historical sales history. Whether these buyers are cardboard Nostradamus’s, or simply happened to pick up a card before it’s value skyrocketed into oblivion, one thing is for sure: they got a crazy good deal!

In our previous installments we’ve shown you Mike Trout Trading Cards that now the grace the nose-bleed section of the high-end of our hobby, Giannis Antetokounmpo rookie cards that sold for just a fraction of their present day value, and Christian Yelich cards that sold for prices that would make you as sad as Miami Marlins fan.

We’ve scoured our sales data and are ready to unleash our next wave of cards that make for some pretty good laughs. We don’t need to talk up the greatness of Ronald Acuna Jr. If you’ve been following baseball at all, you know that the 21 year old is on a meteoric rise to super stardom. At this point the only question is whether or not his rookie cards will reach Trout-esque levels in the next 2-3 years!

Let’s get right into how silly the trading card industry can be with just a little bit of hindsight:

2017 Bowman – Chrome Prospects – Gold Shimmer Refractor #BCP127

A great debate in our hobby will always rage about non-original Bowman Chrome parallels. Whether you like ‘Shimmers’ or hate them, we can all agree that for $145 this Gold Shimmer numbered to 50 copies of Acuna’s first Bowman Chrome would be an absolute steal present day. BGS 9.5 copies of this card have sold for around $500, and that’s before the huge September bump the Acuna market saw.

2017 Bowman – Chrome Prospect Autographs #CPA-RA

Were you one of the five lucky collectors who were able to snag this card for under $160 on the COMC Marketplace? How about the collector who bought the very first one to hit our marketplace for $53.07? It’s very likely that we’ll never see a $50 Ronald Acuna Jr. autograph of any kind on the COMC Marketplace in a very long time, if ever again. BGS 9.5 copies of this base auto are now selling for around $1500. While they still have a long way to go to reach the levels of Mike Trout’s 1st Bowman Auto, they’re still up 10x from the last copy to sell on the COMC Marketplace!

2017 Bowman – Chrome Prospect Autographs – Blue Refractor /150

Oh, you thought we were done with Acuna’s 1st Bowman Autos? Not yet! Had you been able to predict the future, and had $500.99 to spend on COMC on 7-7-2017, you could have been the lucky (notice all of those 7’s!) owner of this beautiful tried-and-true blue gem! This card recently fetched nearly $11,000 earlier this month at auction. We can’t imagine where this card will be if Acuna and the young Atlanta Braves team is able to bring a championship back to Georgia.

2018 Panini Flawless – Rookie Dual Patch Autographs #RDP-22

Similar to the argument about non-traditional Bowman Chrome parallels, another argument in the hobby rages on about unlicensed cards. With Topps having an exclusivity agreement with the MLB, Panini and other manufacturers are relegated to creating cards that do not infringe on MLB copyrights such as team logos. Even without the logos, Acuna’s Panini cards are still trending upwards, with this encased Flawless auto numbered to 25 being sold for nearly double what the COMC buyer originally paid for it just three months ago.

2018 Topps #698.2 – Back Behind Back Variation

Without question this is one of the hottest trading cards on the planet today, and probably will be for a very long time. With Acuna posed in a follow through swing, and it being an extremely tough pull out of a Topps Series 2 product, it has all the makings of an iconic trading card. While the card is a short print, we have seen significant volume of the card bought and sold, with over 50 total copies changing hands. One thing is for sure, nobody is acquiring this card for under $50 anymore, and the two lucky individuals who were able to get their hands on one for under $25.00 certainly have a story to tell around the hobby!

2018 Topps Update #US250.3 – SSP White Jersey Variation

As rare as the 2018 Topps Series 2 Bat Behind Back SP Variation is, there is an even more elusive Acuna Jr. rookie card – the super short printed white jersey variation from 2018 Update! This is a card that is rarely seen in the wild that most collectors aren’t even aware it exists! The card has already found it’s home in the high-end section of the hobby, where raw copies have recently sold at auction for nearly $2,000! Not a bad come-up for the two COMC buyers who were able to snap this card up for 1/3rd of that price just three months ago!

Now we want to hear from you! What Ronald Acuna Jr. trading cards did you not hold onto just quite long enough? Do you have a stash worth the equivalent of a new sports car that you’re hoping will one day be worth a new house or boat? Share your best investment and #collectfail stories with us!