Category Archives: new features

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!

An Apology To Our Most Important Partners

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Hello COMC Nation. On Tuesday, July 9th, Beckett book values became no longer available for free on COMC.com. For the last 6 years, Beckett has been gracious in allowing us to provide their data to you, but the time has come where they are no longer able to extend this service through COMC.  Because we realize this tool is valuable to many of our users, we designed the ability to purchase Beckett subscriptions using COMC Store Credit, allowing our users to continue viewing book values while browsing items on the site.  Additionally, we are branching into offering our own COMC sales history as an added benefit.  As always, we are listening to you, your feedback, and truly care about you and the hobby.  While we are a business, we are also collectors, and we are passionate about building an awesome space for buyers, sellers, and flippers.

Learning From Our Mistakes

Through this, we realize an area in which we can improve as a company is communication, and we have taken steps to do that.  In this case, we should have communicated more clearly and repeatedly with you about these impending changes, and we apologize for that oversight.  Going forward, we now have a plan to build into every new site feature when and how we will communicate changes to our customers.  In the haste of making this necessary change to the site, we overlooked ensuring we communicated it well to you. We’re very sorry, will do better next time, and have already altered our system to do so.

Sales History

The loss of free book values on the site is, understandably, going to be a somewhat difficult transition for many users.  However, we are committed to our customers, and are working to provide a tool to aid you in your purchases and sales.  We are in the process of launching a new tool that will display historical sales data of actual sales on our site.  With access to this information, we believe that you will be able to even more accurately see what your cards are worth on the market.

This new tool is in its beta stages and we want your input on this new service.  For the time being, when you click on the asking price of a card, you can spend a History Point to see the historical data of the item.  Right now, this includes how many are currently on the site, how many have sold on COMC, and the highest price the card has ever sold and shipped for.

Why Do I Have To Answer Questions to Get History Points?

One of the first questions we were asked about the Sales History tool was why a user needed to answer questions in order to earn historical data points.  As some of you have guessed, one of the reasons Beckett has decided to no longer provide book values on COMC for free is because our site could be scraped for that data by various programs and that data could be used and sold to other sites.

The Sales History that we provide to our users falls under a similar category.  If the data is simply provided on the site, it can be scraped and that data sold.  In order to protect this data, our initial method is the COMC IQ Test, a sort of CAPTCHA which proves that the user is human and allows them to earn the credit needed to conduct healthy buying and selling practices.

How can we make Sales History better?

We want to make this feature available as quickly as possible and we want it to provide the value our customers need.  To do that, we need the help of our most important partners: you.  Our site exists to encourage users to enjoy collecting, easily sell items, and flip items to make money and have fun.

Please, tell us how we can make our new Sales History tool better for you.  We need to protect this information, but we want it to be more accessible and useful to our users.  What other sorts of information should be displayed?  Do you have a good idea for where the data should be displayed to make it easier for you to utilize it?  Is there an easier better way for us to protect this data while still making it more easily accessible?

Flippers

We understand this change is having a big impact on you, but we are not abandoning you.  Flipping is one of the unique things about COMC, and you are in important part of our ecosystem.  In light of this change, we are brainstorming ways to support you and give you the tools you need to do what you do.   In considering our new Sales History tool, what information and functionality could best help you get the job done?

New Cost

We are committed to making COMC an enjoyable place to buy and sell collectibles online. We always strive to keep costs down for our customers. Some issues, such as the loss of Beckett book values, are out of our control. We designed a way for our users to link their Beckett OPG accounts and purchase subscriptions with Store Credit to provide our users with the option of viewing book values while browsing COMC. We’re working hard to find creative ways to adjust to the loss of book values on the site and your input and ideas are invaluable as we continue to do so.

We Are In This Together

We eagerly look forward to your ideas on how to make this tool easier to use.  Please leave your thoughts in the comments below or send your suggestions to our Customer Service team.    As a final note, if you send us an email within the next 24 hours with the subject “Discussions with Tim,” concerning your thoughts on either the Beckett Subscription feature or our Sales History feature, your feedback may be featured in Tim’s upcoming video.

Most importantly, however, we want to take this opportunity to express our dedication to you: our buyers, sellers, and flippers. COMC is nothing without you. We are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to improve the experience of buying and selling collectibles for all of our users. Whatever direction we take, or obstacle we face, we will never compromise our commitment to you.

Moving forward, we hope you will continue to give us your input, ideas, and concerns. We’re fortunate to have customers who are as passionate about COMC as we are. Our service is only great because of you and will only get better with you by our side.

Thank you for partnering with us for 6 amazing years.

Launching Beckett Subscriptions

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***Post updated based on feedback.***

Hello COMC Nation,

Today we are launching the changes we announced back in October regarding how we will handle and manage Beckett Book Values with the launch of COMC.com.  As we’ve grown as a company, our partnership with Beckett has had to change.  With this change, we’ve been able to provide features like our Grading through COMC service.  Unfortunately, as we’ve grown and our inventory has gotten larger, our inventory has become too large to give away the Beckett Book Value data as we had in the past.  As it’s Beckett’s business to supply pricing data, we can’t simply give away a third of their data for free.  Yet it is important to us to find a solution that works for all parties.  We hope you understand, and we are working hard to innovate and continue to make COMC a great place to buy, sell, and flip.  While this may be a difficult change, we won’t stay here as a company, and there will be some positives.  We will continue to listen to you and come up with creative ways of helping you enjoy the hobby.  This step can perhaps move us away from book prices determining asking prices and truly let the market decide.

Starting today, users will be able to purchase and utilize their Beckett Subscriptions directly through COMC.

Now when you look at cards on the site, you should see this:

Bryce Harper

The Subscribe link now displays next to Beckett BV. When selected, it leads you to a page to purchase a Beckett subscription through COMC:

Click to Enlarge

On this screen, you will have the option to purchase the level of service that best meets your needs as a buyer or seller.  If you only need to know the value of a single card, player, or sport, you’re covered.  If you like to shop for all kinds of cards, you’ll want to consider a Total Access subscription, which grants you full access to the millions of items listed in Beckett’s Online Price Guide.  All subscriptions purchased on COMC will also be accessible on Beckett.com.

Existing OPG Subscription

What if you already have a Beckett OPG subscription?  As you can see in the photo above, you can link your current subscription to your COMC account to view the book values for all the COMC listings to which you’re currently subscribed to.  After clicking the link, a popup will display requesting you to log in to your current Beckett account.  Once successful, your accounts will be linked and any subscriptions purchased on either site will be reflected in both your Beckett and COMC accounts.

Physical Beckett Guide

There’s another option if you’re “old-school” and still want to have that physical copy of the Beckett Guide. If you choose the “Dynamic Duo” option, you’ll have access to the OPG as well as receive your physical copy in the mail. So, you’ll have your Beckett access however you need.

Consignors

Finally, to all our consignors  don’t worry. You still have the ability to see Beckett book values for items you submitted to COMC as it’s built into the cost of our processing services.

While this is a big change, we have something else waiting in the on-deck circle that we’re just about ready to announce, which we hope will be a game-changer. Tim is busy working on it right now.  Stay tuned for details, and in the meantime, feel free to leave us your thoughts in the comments below and stay in touch by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

COMC Tackles Redemptions

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Redemptions. Trading card collectors have a complicated relationship with these little inserts. They could be a case hit, a stunning autograph, or something much greater. No matter what they represent, however, they all have one thing in common: the WAIT. But we at COMC don’t believe you should have to wait for everything, so we thought we’d do something about it with a never-before-seen service to help with redemption cards.

Redeemed Card

In the past, COMC dealt with redemptions by simply not dealing with them. If an unredeemed card was sent to us, it promptly got sent back to its owner as our service wasn’t designed to handle them. That all changes today, because all unscratched redemption cards will now be accepted for processing and sale via COMC.com.

What happens when a Redemption card is sent to us? Those cards will be sent to our redemption handling team who will begin the redemption process on your behalf. The redemption code will be stored in our system and the scratched card will continue through our normal submission process.

When submitting batches with redemption cards to COMC, we ask that you pack them in the front of your submission and note on your submission slip that redemptions are enclosed. If an expired redemption card is included, we will attempt to redeem it through the manufacturer’s website. If the code is rejected, the item will be put into the user’s returns.

Once the scratched redemption card is on our site, it may be purchased and sold just as any other item on COMC with a few exceptions:

  • Redemption cards cannot be made Vault Eligible. Once fulfilled, the new card will be scanned for Vault Eligibility.
  • Redemption cards cannot be shipped.  Once fulfilled, the new card will replace the redemption card in the user’s account and may then be added to a shipment.
  • All sales of redemption cards are final.  No returns will be allowed for these items.

Please be aware that fulfillment of these cards may take manufacturers months or even years. In the event they substitute a different item for a redemption, the sale is still considered final and the item cannot be exchanged.

You may be wondering how we address redemptions that involve items other than single cards, such as lithographs, unopened packs, or game used jerseys. These items will be handled on a case by case basis and the owner of the redemption card will be contacted about how they would like the redemption to be handled.

A few final notes:

  • Items not currently supported on COMC will be added to the Beta service.  As we continue to expand offerings on the site, these items will become eligible to list at a later date.
  • Hobby store pack exchange redemptions, such as Topps Spring Fever redemptions, will be rejected because COMC is unable to redeem them.
  • Contest Redemption Cards such as the Famous Fabrics Beetles Signature Drawing will not be accepted as these redemption cards only represent a chance to receive an item.
  • Redemptions such as Topps Finest Rookie Redemptions and Panini XRCs will be listed as unannounced on the site. These items will be updated with more details once they are announced.

We are really excited to hear your thoughts on this new service.  We constantly strive to provide a better and safer way to buy and sell and we believe our service has the right stuff to make it happen.  Feel free to tell us what you think in the comments below and keep up with all the COMC happenings on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

The Vault Interview: Part Two

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Welcome back to the second part of The Vault Interview.  If you missed Tim and Nathans discussion about the more general questions, check out Part One.  In this episode, Tim and Nathan will finish up answering the second portion of our users questions regarding the seller/buyer specific parts of The Vault.

So, feel free to get comfortable as Nathan and Tim continue the discussion on The Vault.


YouTube link

In case you don’t have time for the whole video, here are the time-stamps with the questions being answered:

0:25 How will Vault items be secured?
1:56 Where will Vault items be stored?
2:36 Who will have access to Vault items?
3:20 Will the Vault be climate-controlled?
3:43 How will COMC protect against buyer fraud?
5:32 How will COMC’s cashout work with the Vault?
9:28 Will funds from Vault sales be available immediately?
10:47 What cashout options will the Vault have?
11:40 How will the 5% buyer deposit on Vault items work?
14:50 Will Vault sellers have access to COMC promotions?
15:20 Will the Vauly require a separate sign in?
17:40 How will buyers be able to pay for Vault items?
20:54 How will Vault items be shipped?

Now that all of your submitted questions have been answered, does the service make sense?  Are there any lingering questions we can answer for you?  Most importantly, are you as psyched as we are to unveil The Vault at Nationals?  Feel free to discuss and ask in the comments below and keep following us on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our new Google+ page.

The Vault Interview: Part One

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The moment that we have all awaited has finally arrived!  Tim sat down with Nathan yesterday to answer your questions about the Vault service, and when we got done compiling the list, we realized that there were just too many to answer in one video.  So, this first video will answer your general questions and the second will answer your seller questions.

So sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the first of a two part series: The Vault Interview!

In case you don’t have time for the whole video, here are the time-stamps with the questions being answered:

0:48      Please describe COMC’s “Vault” service
2:50      What items are eligible for Vault service?
5:50      How will Vault items be seen?
7:00      How will Vault commission fees work?
9:30      Will Vault items be listed on Amazon.com?
11:20    How will offers work with Vault items?
12:04    Will Vault items be listed on Amazon.com? (cont.)
13:17    Will the Vault service be required?
14:30    What items will be displayed at shows?

After seeing the video, what are your thoughts about the service?  Are there any other general questions that you need us to answer?  Feel free to discuss and ask in the comments below and keep following us on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our new Google+ page.

The Vault Goes To Print

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As many of you can tell, the last few weeks at COMC have been very exciting.  Thanks to your continued support and suggestions, we are finally preparing to launch our newest service: The Vault.  We believe that this new service will over time become a major asset to the hobby, and we aim to provide it.

So our first order of business is to make sure as many people as possible know about The Vault.  To that end, I would like to present the ad that will be appearing in Beckett in the weeks leading up to The Nationals:

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Traditionally, COMC has been the home of $1-100 items and we will continue to offer the same amazing service to that market.  Now, the time has arrived to help our buyers and sellers find a better, safer way to handle the online sale of the big ticket collectibles.  To get the word out, we would like to ask for your help.

Last week, we launched a Facebook contest to have you folks share our Apples To Oranges comparison.  Congratulations to Aaron Dragland who won that contest!  This was a smashing success and we have been contacted by many new users who were brought to us through your efforts.

So, let’s get the word out to even more folks this time around!  From June 13th until June 19th, we want to see how many shares we can get of this announcement.  Every user who shares this image on their Facebook page will be entered into a drawing.  The pot will be worth $5 + $.25 for each share this image has received!  The winner will be announced on June 20th on Facebook.

So tell us, what do you think of this ad?  Please leave your comments below and keep following us on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our new Google+ page.  Don’t forget to Share us on Facebook for a chance to win the contest!

As a special bonus, as many of you know, tomorrow we will be releasing the first part of a two part video interview with Tim talking about the new Vault service.  There were so many questions that we wanted to answer, we decided we would split it into a section talking about general questions and a section about seller specific questions.  Here are a couple of photos from the filming as a sneak peek!

photo %282%29 photo %283%29

COMC: Making the Grade

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Recently, as many of you have noticed, COMC launched its new Grading Service.  That means it is a perfect time for a blog post to answer some of your questions and talk about some of the feedback we have received.   First, let’s see what it looks like!

When you click here in you Inventory manager you will see the option “Submit for Grading.”  That will bring up….

gradingblogpost02

When you click on the Beckett Grading service…..

gradingblogpost03

You will be asked to declare the value of the card so that we can properly insure it.  Once you click continue, the next thing you will see is…

gradingblogpost04

…the option to select either our Monthly or Weekly Service.  You will not only be able to see when your cards will be shipped to Beckett, but you will also see when you can expect them back fresh, graded, and slabbed!

So what happens once you’re done?  Easy!  The card will be taken out of your account and prepared for shipment to Beckett.  During the time in which your card is in Beckett’s care, you will be able to see which cards you selected for grading by going to your Dashboard and clicking on “Grading Submissions” under the Buyer Menu.

Then, a few weeks later when your card has been returned to us, your graded card will be put through for One Day processing (this is part of the service and will not incur an additional fee), given a new ID number and new scan, and placed back into your account.

Pretty amazing if you have cards in your Inventory that demand a grade!  But what if you have these cards at home that are begging for the same treatment?  We are ready to serve that need as well.  When you go into the new Submission Wizard, you will see an option to submit cards for grading….

gradingblogpost05

Though we don’t charge anything up front for processing for this service, the only thing you will be able to do with the item once we process it is submit it for one of the supported grading services.  Whenever you do you’ll be asked to pay the normal grading submission fee.  The rest works just as if it had been in your inventory all along.

We look forward to helping you get the most out of the cards you want graded.   Keep following us on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our new Google+ page, and please tell us what you think of the new service, and how we can make it even better for you!

Announcing the COMC Mailbox service!

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COMC is proud to announce our latest service to help empower collectors: the COMC Mailbox!  Many folks have asked us over the years if they can buy on other sites or participate in a group break and have the items shipped directly to us to make things simpler and to save money.  Additionally, we’ve talked to international customers who have had difficulty buying from American sites due to the expense of tracking packages across borders.  A number of collectors have been interested in a 3rd party verification service for trades and purchases – a neutral service that can film packages being opened and verify contents.  People running group breaks have noted the potential benefit in shipping one large package full of many different participants’ items to a single address rather than mailing out everything individually.  The COMC Mailbox service is designed to serve all of these needs:
– Purchases from other sites
– Group breaks
– Proxy shipments to international customers
– Forum trades
– Many other potential uses

HOW IT WORKS

Have any package shipped to your COMC Mailbox instead of directly to you.  We’ll open the items in your Mailbox on a monthly basis and put them all into one large batch for you with One Week processing, or you can choose to have them opened and processed at any time.  You save money on shipping fees since you don’t have to pay once for the item to be mailed to you and once more to mail it to COMC, and you save on minimum processing charges by bundling multiple small packages together into one consignment batch.

Ship to:
COMC.com Mailbox
c/o [Your Username]
6727 – 185th Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052
United States

Cost for a Mailbox: Free!
As an introductory rate, we aren’t charging anything for Mailbox creation or maintenance while we ramp up the service.  There’s no extra step for getting started either – your Mailbox is created automatically when we receive something addressed to your COMC Mailbox.  Additionally, we will never charge for un-used / empty Mailboxes.

Processing Service Levels Available: One Week ($0.50/card) or One Day ($2/card); $5 minimum on all services.
When we receive a package, we will send you an email notifying you of your Mailbox delivery. You may either wait for us to process your Mailbox items on our standard monthly basis with One Week service (we will open Mailboxes once a month; at that time we will start to process all items in the Mailbox as One Week items) or you may choose to expedite the due date by responding to the email and indicating One Week or One Day processing for all the contents of that Mailbox. There is no additional cost to opening your Mailbox early, however our standard $5 minimums still apply and the items will be subject to all normal processing costs.  To prevent potential errors, users may not split Mailbox items up into different service levels.

Restrictions

  • Requests for One Day processing of Mailbox items must be received by 11:00am PST of the day before you would like your items uploaded (i.e. if you email us at 3:00pm on Tuesday requesting One Day service for your Mailbox items, we will upload your items by the end of the day on Thursday).
  • This service is currently for cards only, no comics or other memorabilia.
  • We will provide a picture of the package contents, and we will count the number of items in the package, but we are not able to identify any items that have not been processed yet.
  • If there appear to be any irregularities with the order, the user will be responsible for contacting COMC promptly; costs to return items to the original shipper or to return items to the account holder unprocessed will be assumed by the COMC account holder.
  • Other processing service levels beyond One Week and One Day are not available for Mailbox items at this time.
  • Graded cards will not incur an additional $5 minimum fee if they are processed at the same time as standard cards, although they will be billed at the regular oversized item processing rate of $2.00/item for One Week or $3.00/item for One Day.
  • International users of the Mailbox service will be responsible for any duties / border-crossing fees associated with any Mailbox items received.
  • Users should be aware of any external deadlines (ebay return deadlines for example) and proactively request an early open date if package contents need to verify contents by a certain time.

We’re excited to be offering this new service to further improve your collecting experience.  Like many of our great features, this one grew organically from the community.  We’d specifically like to thank cocoscards for engaging with us when we were in Edmonton.  We appreciate our users’ feedback, as your input has led to some of the innovations now available on COMC.com.  Keep following us on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our new Google+ page!

New “Submit Items” Process

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Greetings, COMC community!

As many of you have noticed, we have a new way to enter your submission information on the COMC website. Some of you have already started using this new Submit Items process, and we hope that you’ve found it easy to use. For those of you who haven’t checked it out yet, we’d like to use this opportunity to tell you more about it and hopefully answer some of your questions.

Q. Why the new process?

A. As COMC continues to grow, we’ve been actively looking for more opportunities for you to submit your items. We’ve added a second office in Canada, increased the number of shows that we attend so you can drop off submissions in person, and, in the very near future, you’ll even be able to submit items to your COMC account at select local card shops. We want submissions to be easy and convenient; increasing the number of submission services and locations is a big part of that.

As we find new ways to get your items into COMC, however, we do want to standardize the process and the paperwork so that we can receive and process all of your items as accurately and efficiently as possible. As we continue to move into comics, memorabilia, and other new-to-COMC types of collectibles, this standardization will become even more important.

This new Submit Items process is designed to be extremely user-friendly, and will be compatible with all of the product lines that we accept. It enables you to easily print Submission Slips with detailed information and barcodes for each item type and service level. Just print and include one with each portion of your order and we’ll take care of the rest.

Q. Any big changes I should know about?

A. The new Submit Items process still asks you to break down your submission by service level (One Month, One Week, etc.).  You’ll also need to separate your submission by item type, for example:

  • Standard Size Trading Cards
  • Oversized Trading Cards
  • Standard Size Gaming Cards
  • Oversized Gaming Cards

After telling us what types of items you’re sending us and what service level you want, you’ll then tell us how many of each item you’re sending us. You can specify whether your quantity is approximate or exact, and you can break larger quantities down into smaller quantities we’re referring to as Groups. For example, if you’re sending us three smaller card boxes inside a larger mailing box, you’ll want to consider each of the smaller boxes as a separate Group, as if you’re sending three boxes of 400 each rather than one box of 1200. (See the video above for a demonstration.)

You’ll get a Submission Slip for each Group/Item Type/Service Level, which you’ll include with each group of items that you submit. When we process your shipment, each Group will be separated into its own batch and given its own transaction number. So if you send in a shipment comprised of both regular and graded cards, it will be processed as two separate transactions instead of one. Please be aware that just like when you combine service levels within a single shipment, each transaction will be subject to its own minimum batch fee – so you’ll want to make sure that you send enough of each item type to meet each minimum.

There are a few other changes as well:

  • New pricing structure for graded and oversized cards
  • More submission location options, including a list of upcoming shows that we’ll be attending, in case you’d like to drop off your items in person and save shipping costs.

Q. Why has the cost of processing Graded Cards increased for One Month service?

We are laying the groundwork for our new drop-off locations.  All of our non-bulk services factor in the cost of shipping the items to us from a drop-off location.  We decided not to offer a different rate for people mailing One Month items to us instead of dropping them off because we want to encourage them to visit a local drop-off location instead.

We expect to have 10-15 permanent drop-off locations spread across the US and Canada by by the end of this year, and we hope to add hundreds more over the next couple years.

Q. I noticed some new service level options. What are these new “Bulk” services?

Many of you have been asking for additional service level choices that don’t quite fall in line with our normal One Month/One Week/One Day options, and we’re pleased to announce some new options:

Bulk Ten Week offers our lowest processing rates for those of you who value economy over speed (some restrictions apply). Bulk Two Week offers a nice sweet spot between our normal One Month and One Week services – affordable and quick. And we even have a Bulk Two Day service if you need it. Please be aware that all Bulk services have a $100 minimum batch fee, and while they may not fit your needs if you only have a few items to send in, we hope you’ll take advantage of these new services for your larger submissions. Here’s the bulk pricing chart:

BULK TEN WEEK

BULK TWO WEEK

BULK TWO DAY
Standard Size Trading or Gaming Cards

20¢ per item *

35¢ per item

$1.50 per item
Oversize Trading or Gaming Cards

50¢ per item

$1.00 per item

$2.00 per item

These are new, additional options.  Our processing fees have not changed for standard size items. 

So that’s the new Submit Items process. You’ll note in the video that the old method is still active, but we’re phasing that out very soon. If you have any additional questions or thoughts about submitting items, please let us know in the comments below. Thanks!

* The following restrictions apply to the Bulk 10 Week service:
– Items must be grouped in lots of 100 or more items from the exact same set.
– No penny sleeves
– No serial numbered items
– No vintage (pre-1980)