CheckOutMyCards.com Questions, Suggestions & Testimonials

[DaClyde]

Originally Posted by Cactuspies

off the topic of comc's customer service and packing skills (sort of), I have been wondering if anyone here has gone the route of listing a card from their port on ebay or somewhere else for that matter (amazon, sportlots, etc) If so did it work out? Was the selling price better than what you were listing on comc? Was the shipping done in a timely manner and were there any complaints? I'm guessing that only high end cards would be worthwhile for listing somewhere else.

I sell on Sportlots and am using my September Sportlots income to pay the submission fees for a lot of 83 cards I just send into COMC. I do OK on Sportlots, but it's almost entirely low end stuff. I rarely manage to unload a card listed for more than $5, so I'm moving those over to COMC.

And with Sportlots, a problem I've had is that I travel a lot for work, and since I have to do all my own shipping and order processing at Sportlots, I have to put my inventory on hold for a week at a time whenever I leave. As a result, I'm not able to sell anything that month. That REALLY bites when I've added inventory for a set that has been newly added to the Sportlots database because all new sets with new listings get posted on their weekly "Latest Sets" page. I've had a case where I had several Japanese, minor league and oddball sets added to the system, only then to have to go on the road for 2 weeks and have to suspend my account. So now there are lots of sets getting more exposure, but all of my cards are now unavailable because I'm not home to ship them. Which means I make almost nothing that month after fees, due to extremely low order volume.

I'm hoping COMC can make up for that since my inventory can always be online. It's definitely not as timely as adding to Sportlots, but we'll see how the sales work out. As I've helped expand the capacity of Sportlots to accomodate Japanese sets, I'm hoping to help COMC do the same (since Beckett stopped including new Japanese sets as of about 2004).

[tedsports]

I love the concept of COMC. It works out perfectly for me...but I think my usage is different than most COMC users.

I simply do not have time to do a lot of cards on ebay(only more expensive stuff when I have it).

COMC is great if you have the time to just sit back and let them do the work....and are not as concerned about how fast you get your money or your cards if purchasing. It has been great for me as I can send stuff in that has sat around for years and not have to lift a finger.

I currently have about 11,000 cards available for sale-Will soon have about 17,000 as I just sent in another 6000. After I make some more sales I will send in about another 5000 cards. My only "expense" is that I started by sending in, I believe, $150 for the first batch.

For the buying side of things- I have only bought and taken delivery of a few things, but I agree that the way things are stored, packed, and shipped are a concern.

[mwheeler27]

Originally Posted by tedsports

I love the concept of COMC. It works out perfectly for me...but I think my usage is different than most COMC users.

I currently have about 11,000 cards available for sale-Will soon have about 17,000 as I just sent in another 6000. After I make some more sales I will send in about another 5000 cards. My only "expense" is that I started by sending in, I believe, $150 for the first batch.

Do you worry at all about the $170 per month it will cost you to have 17,000 cards listed on the site, or do you think your monthly sales will easily take care of this "storage" fee?

[Cactuspies]

I think I may have confused everyone here. I currently have nearly everything thing I own on COMC at this point (april 2008 was when I started). I use sportsbuy and amazon for the stuff that I don't send in to COMC, I am always happy when something moves from those places. My real question was, has anyone tried to sell one of their cards which is listed on COMC on one of the other sites out there. I'm sure that more exposure is good, but there seems to be a lot at risk, such as the card selling to someone else on COMC, the shipping take a long time, etc. Just tossing it out there. I have not seen many or any postings that have gone too deep into this method.

[ohiomike]

Originally Posted by DaClyde

I sell on Sportlots and am using my September Sportlots income to pay the submission fees for a lot of 83 cards I just send into COMC. I do OK on Sportlots, but it's almost entirely low end stuff. I rarely manage to unload a card listed for more than $5, so I'm moving those over to COMC.

And with Sportlots, a problem I've had is that I travel a lot for work, and since I have to do all my own shipping and order processing at Sportlots, I have to put my inventory on hold for a week at a time whenever I leave. As a result, I'm not able to sell anything that month. That REALLY bites when I've added inventory for a set that has been newly added to the Sportlots database because all new sets with new listings get posted on their weekly "Latest Sets" page. I've had a case where I had several Japanese, minor league and oddball sets added to the system, only then to have to go on the road for 2 weeks and have to suspend my account. So now there are lots of sets getting more exposure, but all of my cards are now unavailable because I'm not home to ship them. Which means I make almost nothing that month after fees, due to extremely low order volume.

I'm hoping COMC can make up for that since my inventory can always be online. It's definitely not as timely as adding to Sportlots, but we'll see how the sales work out. As I've helped expand the capacity of Sportlots to accomodate Japanese sets, I'm hoping to help COMC do the same (since Beckett stopped including new Japanese sets as of about 2004).

That has been my basic philosophy over the past year on COMC and almost 2 years on Sportlots... put the low end / set builder stuff on sportlots and the mid-range / higher end stuff on COMC. The two sites work pretty well in covering what the other one lacks. The key to being successful on sportlots is having a TON of inventory, inventory that others don't have, and lots of time to process the daily orders. Their fees are pretty reasonable if you can manage $100 or more in sales each month, considering there is absolutely no upfront risk involved. Since I joined in Feb '08, I've never had a month of sales less than $100, and have had months as high as $600. But I also worked hard to get a lot of inventory listed early, and try to add new stuff every week. Sportlots and COMC work very well between them to cover probably 90% of the cards I'd want to sell. Ebay is still around for bulk items as well as cards that are hot and spiking in price for a short period of time, and ebay is always there for the quick sales if you find yourself needing them. But I'd say in the last 2 years I've cut back in volume on ebay to about 20-25% of where I used to be... and not only has business been better but the hobby has been more fun as a result.

[tedsports]

Originally Posted by mwheeler27

Do you worry at all about the $170 per month it will cost you to have 17,000 cards listed on the site, or do you think your monthly sales will easily take care of this "storage" fee?

I do have to admit that I am rethinking the storage fee thing. At first, I felt that my sales would easily take care of it, which they have. I have not kept track exactly, but I would say the last few months I have averaged about $400-$500 per month in sales. Just this past week, I think my storage fee was about $75. When I first started sending things in, I was not opposed to the storage fee. Now that I am paying it, of course, I do not like it......but to me in the short term it is worth it.

The last 30-45 days or so, I have been going in, using the bulk editing tool, and reducing pricing to continue to move stuff out. I will never be as low priced as others on comc as I do not feel the need to "dump" base star players for 92% off and stuff like that.

I am looking at a move next year and will not pay a moving company to move all this stuff. I have been paying for climate controlled storage for the last three years-so I am getting away from that with COMC. Not to mention I have been giving a bunch of stuff to the neighbor kids. Moved to Houston about 3 years ago and moved close to 750,000 cards down here....amazing how happy you can make kids with some Bagwells and Biggios!!

Anyways, I just keep manuevering my pricing to keep things moving, offset the storage fees, send more stuff in. I really like my results so far with so little time invested. I am now ready to start taking some of my "profits" out for the holidays.

[DaClyde]

Originally Posted by Cactuspies

My real question was, has anyone tried to sell one of their cards which is listed on COMC on one of the other sites out there. I'm sure that more exposure is good, but there seems to be a lot at risk, such as the card selling to someone else on COMC, the shipping take a long time, etc.

If you had multiple copies of the card I could understand seeing how it would do on multiple sites, but if a single card is listed in your COMC account...you don't have posession of the card to sell anywhere else. Just seems like a huge risk to list a card on COMC and then attempt to sell it outside the system at the same time.

I've already made that mistake by accidentally trading a card from my Sportlots inventory over on TheBench, and then not removing it from Sportlots fast enough, so someone attempted to buy the card. As a result, I took a ding on my order filling accuracy because I had to refund the sale.

[hockeycards]

I think I may have confused everyone here. I currently have nearly everything thing I own on COMC at this point (april 2008 was when I started). I use sportsbuy and amazon for the stuff that I don't send in to COMC, I am always happy when something moves from those places. My real question was, has anyone tried to sell one of their cards which is listed on COMC on one of the other sites out there. I'm sure that more exposure is good, but there seems to be a lot at risk, such as the card selling to someone else on COMC, the shipping take a long time, etc. Just tossing it out there. I have not seen many or any postings that have gone too deep into this method.

i sold some of my cards from my comc inventory on ebay a while ago without any problems. maybe their shipping isn't as good for large quantities, but single cards are shipped in sleeve, top loader and bubble mailer. that's what i would be doing anyway.

[sportsheroes]

Originally Posted by Cactuspies

off the topic of comc's customer service and packing skills (sort of), I have been wondering if anyone here has gone the route of listing a card from their port on ebay or somewhere else for that matter (amazon, sportlots, etc) If so did it work out? Was the selling price better than what you were listing on comc? Was the shipping done in a timely manner and were there any complaints? I'm guessing that only high end cards would be worthwhile for listing somewhere else.

i think you miss this part of the service, if you have a big card on comc it should show up in a google search, eventually, and give you that big exposure. then there is the issue of putting a big card on another site, if its ebay you have less time or more costly fees and therefore more risk. even if they are giving more favorable rates the whole point is to push the card into an auction where it will sell at some price and make ebay money even if you were unhappy with the selling price. and the bigger the selling price their fee just goes up. the time element is putting the squeeze on you to sell where at comc you have to pay a penny a month after 3 months. when it comes to comparing costs as far as fees on ebay or sportslots vs. a penny a month its not even close. If more ebayers knew we were here we would sell more big cards. its just a matter of time. the whole point of selling on comc is not buying shipping materials, spending 8 hours a day packaging cards and scanning them, collecting from buyers and then paying huge ebay and paypal fees. and even on big cards you could have buyer problems where they downgrade your seller rating because they thought you charged too much for shipping or didn't give it free.

[sportsheroes]

if you are shipping right from comc you should be ok if you sent the card in to comc to begin with but if you are flipping it without seeing it thats a little tougher especially a bulk shipping. selling the same card twice on both sites how often does that happen? actually its not a bad idea for more exposure i just hate giving ebay the sale when i want everyone on comc. i like sportsbuy but its just more of the same quality problems with cards you can't inspect in person.