Category Archives: interview

Our Team on Victory Road!

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COMC is proud to announce that one of the members of our identification team, James Good, will be competing in the Pokemon Trading Card Game World Championships, taking place in Vancouver, BC. James is one of 180 players in his division who qualified to play in this prestigious event, running from August 9th – 11th.

COMC’s Champion Trainer

An avid collector of sports and gaming cards, James made the decision to play Pokemon competitively last year and never looked back, playing in nearly 40 events this competitive season while accumulating championship points along the way.

No matter where he’s playing, James always represents his city and team.

The Pokemon Company International plays host to thousands of events worldwide as players bring their best 60-card deck to battle in an effort to gain championship points and improve their ranking. Players build decks around different pokemon types, such as dragon or electric pokemon, each having a different strategies for victory.  In order to qualify for the World Championship, a player needs to earn 400 championship points…not an easy task by any means.

Victory After Victory

James’ season began last fall with the Battle Roads series, where he earned 51 out of a maximum 90 points including besting a field of 50+ to capture his first Battle Roads victory. Since then, he has continued to collect the needed championship points in tournament after tournament.

“I started to feel real good about my prospects of earning a Worlds invite at that point,” James recalled.

Consistently shrugged off by other more established players as having “beginner’s luck”, he made a firm statement to his detractors. During the City Championship Series, held from November through January, he showed that he belonged by netting 150 of a maximum 200 possible points. He brought home two trophies, one of which he earned by going undefeated throughout Swiss and playoff rounds in Portland, Or.

James plans his next play while squaring off in the finals of Spring Regionals

Final Showdown

James earned his invitation to the Pokemon Trading Card Game World Championship by finishing 13th in a recent “last chance” qualifier tournament. In spectacular and nail biting fashion, James finished 4-1 earning 50 points. This put his total at 425 for the season and successfully punched his ticket to go to Vancouver and play in the World Championship.

“What drives my passion in competitive card games is a mindset that with enough hard work and dedication I can be the best in the world,” James explained. “ I’m thrilled to be in a position to be playing for a World Championship, but I’m not just settling for that honor. I want to be a World Champion, that’s the aspiration of every great competitor.”

Talking With Tim: Beckett Subscriptions

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Hello COMC Nation. The past week has seen a significant shift at COMC.com with the introduction of Beckett Subscriptions and changes in when Beckett Book Value data is visible.

These adjustments generated a lot of attention, and we received a lot of constructive feedback from our users. We’ve worked on responding to your questions and concerns via our Blog and other social media channels, and recently Tim sat down to discuss some of the most common questions in greater detail.

0:26 Why Did COMC stop displaying Beckett Book Values?

3:15 How are the subscription level prices determined?

3:42 What is included in my Beckett Subscription?

5:51 Why is a Beckett Subscription $31/month and not $10?

6:55 Why doesn’t BV follow a card?

8:42 Can we have a subscription for a team?

9:24 Will there be bundle deals available?

9:51 Will this kill flipping?

11:36 Will this harm casual buyers?

13:19 Why so many changes so quickly?

Hopefully, this better explains this new situation and the direction that COMC is going.  Please feel free to leave your comments below and discuss today’s video.  Also, be sure to keep following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ for further updates as we get closer and closer to The National!

Cards_For_Alzheimers now accepting donations

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COMC staffer Dave has seen the crippling effects of Alzheimer’s first-hand. His mother was diagnosed with the disease seven years ago.
2008 Upper Deck Heroes Jersey Light Blue #16 - Cal Ripken Jr./200 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com
To help raise funds, as well as awareness for the disease, Dave recently created an account title Cards_For_Alzheimers. With 100 percent of the (post-cashout fee) proceeds, he plans on writing a check for the The Alzheimer’s Association, Western and Central Washington State Chapter — a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit organization.

“I just thought, ‘What can I do to help’,” Dave recalls thinking a couple years back. “I just look at all the hard work my dad has done as her caregiver. A lot of people don’t realize what it takes.”

In Dave’s account are everything from straight-out-of-the-box 2008 Upper Deck Heroes cards to common cards to even some cards donated from a friend. The lot went live last week, with all cards listed at High Beckett value. Beginning Wednesday, and approximately once a week until they sell, Dave plans on reducing the prices by 10%. This account will not accept any offers. Be sure to buy up the cards before the price drops too much and the cards disappear.

2008 Upper Deck Heroes Patch Purple #137 - Pat Burrell/5 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com
One of the featured cards is a Pat Burrell jersey card, which is No. 5 of 5. With no book value, Dave has it listed at $20. It’s one of the 1,700 or so cards Dave has up for sale, and he says that when you purchase any of them you’ll be helping a great cause.

Dave and fellow COMC employees have volunteered  to handle all of the processing for future card submissions to this account, and COMC in turn is waiving the listing and storage fees. Simply send in a box (or boxes) of cards earmarked ‘Cards_For_Alzheimers’ and we’ll handle the rest. (While COMC is not currently issuing donation receipts, it is in the early stages of formalizing a tracking system for charitable donations. Stay tuned for further details… )

2008 Upper Deck Heroes Autographs Black #31 - Ryan Theriot/50 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com 2007 Upper Deck #918 - Tim Lincecum RC (Rookie Card) - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Making waves at the NSCC with my little brother!

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At the National Sports Collectors Convention we picked up some cards that are sure to be collector’s items.

Thanks to Upper Deck, we were able to obtain the following:
2007 Upper Deck National Sports Collectors Convention #1 - Tim Getsch/1 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com 2007 Upper Deck National Sports Collectors Convention #2 - Julia Getsch/1 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com 2007 Upper Deck National Sports Collectors Convention #3 - John Neumann/1 - Courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

It’s the COMC.com team!

In case you’re wondering, John Neumann is my little brother who joined our team for the week. I flew from Seattle to Minneapolis where Johnny lives, picked him up, and together we made the drive to Cleveland! His help was invaluable. If he lived closer we would recruit him!

In fact, while at the convention, he was recruited for and quoted in a Beckett article!

“I just want to collect cards,” said John Neumann. “I don’t care what sport or who the player is. I just want to add relevant cards to my collection, even if the cards are of Barry Bonds.”

As a buyer/seller on our site, you’ll be seeing more of Johnny.

Julia

Picked up by SportsCollectorsDaily.com

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Wow, the folks over at SportsCollectorsDaily.com really stay on top of the industry. Within 48 hours of our article in the seattlest.com, they had pinged us and posted a nice summary of the article.

Start-Up Sports Card Site Op Knows Tech Side