Black Friday Special COMC :)

[jcmel323]

Never Before Deals – Black Friday Only - November 23rd



FOR BUYERS - BETTER than FREE shipping!

We will not only offer free shipping, we will actually give buyers $0.10 store credit for every item that they purchase & ship on Black Friday (10 item minimum, must be in Simplified Buying Mode).



FOR SELLERS - RESTOCK your merchandise for FREE!

For every item sold and shipped on Black Friday, we will give you $0.25 of FREE processing! We will send you a processing voucher that can be used on our One Month, One Week, or One Day services.



FROM SELLERS TO BUYERS – Black Friday Sales!

We are creating a new Classified Ad type that is called a “Sale”. Starting next Friday, we will let you create a “Black Friday Sale” for FREE. A “Sale” is not just a Classified Ad, it will actually adjust your visible asking prices so that people browsing the site will see SALE stickers with your lowered prices. Sales will be very easy to create, you just specify a base discount percentage, and then we let you customize the discount percentage for any of your items.



We expect the combinations of these specials to create a record setting buying frenzy. Don’t miss out. Get your items on the site in time for Black Friday!



PROCESSING DEADLINES

We must receive your submissions by the following dates in order for them to be on the site for Black Friday.

Thursday, Nov. 8th – Black Friday Processing Special: 2 Week Service (only $0.25/card)

Thursday, Nov. 15th – One Week Service

Wednesday, Nov. 21st – One Day Service



As a consignment service, we count on you to stock COMC with quality products at compelling prices, and you are doing a great job! We can tell because our team is shipping out nearly 5,000 cards per day. However, we are not stopping there. To attract even more buyers, we are launching our largest online and print ad campaigns ever, including Beckett, Facebook, Google, Bing, and more!

[37Jetson]

Count me as excited about these promotions! This will allow me to buy a bunch of cards for my Tigers PC.

[colls69]

This sounds great.

Jcmel,

Are you an employee of COMC? I dont see anything about this on their blog

[jlcherry2477]

Originally Posted by colls69

This sounds great.

Jcmel,

Are you an employee of COMC? I dont see anything about this on their blog

I received the same email a couple days ago...

[dirtydistance]

Originally Posted by colls69

This sounds great.

Jcmel,

Are you an employee of COMC? I dont see anything about this on their blog

got the email as well..gonna send in a couple hundred new cards as well as finally price the nearly 3,000 cards I have waiting for attention in my account..hope to get some store credit on black friday

Also be prepared for some of my pricier cards to get slashed on that day....

[colls69]

Alright I have the email too. Thanks guys!

[cjw916]

Does anyone know if the special starts at midnight Pacific Standard Time since they are based out of Washington? Just curious.

[aric88]

I am really excited about this promotion both as a buyer and a seller. The .25 cent back for each item sold is really interesting especially for low priced items. I plan on slashing my prices significantly to attract some sales, probably using the classified ad function they talk about in the email. I'm really hoping for the buying frenzy they speculate.

As a buyer, I can't freaking wait. There are a ton of cards on my needs list in that .25-.50 cent range that with the normal shipping charge just aren't worth picking up. With this deal I plan on knocking a big chunk of those out.

[colls69]

Yeah this should be crazy. I have love to buy and sell so I don't think I'm going to balance it out and control myself. I'll probably end up using up any credit I get in one day.

[aric88]

So, I had this great game plan for this promotion and worked all last night getting the cards together. After sleeping on it, I realized a big hole in my strategy. Let me know what you guys think.

I have a 4 row box full of low dollar inserts and stars, the kind of stuff you would see in a .25 cent bin at a card show. I have already picked over this stuff and sent to COMC everything that could sell for .50 cents or more, leaving this junk. Now I would be tickled to get .10 cents a piece for these, especially if it means little work on my part.

My plan was to send about 1600 cards at the 25 cent rate to be processed in time for black friday. My cost would be $400 plus shipping. I would then list these cards with a sale price of .10 cents. With the promotion, these cards would be essentially free to the buyer as they would get a .10 cent credit for every purchase. I'm thinking people will go around and scoop up everything priced at 10 cents or less because they are essentially free cards, shipped for free. I would get $400 in future listing credit from the promotion plus $160+ in store credit from the sales for my $420 investment.

Here's the problem...in order for me to get the .25 cent listing credit per the promotion, the item has to be bought AND shipped on black friday. So if a flipper came along and purchased all my .10 cent cards for resale and doesn't ship them....it appears I will not receive the promotional listing credit, leaving me at a .15 cent loss per item.

[Tarheel]

I'm excited about these specials also, but I'm also curious how the details will shake out. For example, it says that your account must be set for "Simplified Buying Mode". I wonder if it will allow for making offers. I have a few cards sitting in my cart which I'll be buying at the posted price when the sale goes live, but a few others that still need to drop in price some before I'll bite.

[JohnAndrew]

Originally Posted by aric88

Here's the problem...in order for me to get the .25 cent listing credit per the promotion, the item has to be bought AND shipped on black friday. So if a flipper came along and purchased all my .10 cent cards for resale and doesn't ship them....it appears I will not receive the promotional listing credit, leaving me at a .15 cent loss per item.

That's how I understand it. Super-cheap cards like that tend to be bought in large quantities and flipped for nickels and dimes -- all while collecting dust (metaphorically speaking) in the warehouse

[mrwalken]

Originally Posted by aric88

I would then list these cards with a sale price of .10 cents. With the promotion, these cards would be essentially free to the buyer as they would get a .10 cent credit for every purchase.

Pretty sure this is wrong. The 10 cent credit only applies to the price after 25 cents has been added in for shipping. So, essentially, the sale is just reducing the shipping price from 25 cents to 15 cents (and removing the $2.99 flat charge). I think there is a little bit too much "hide the ball" going on with the way the sale is being pitched.

[aric88]

Originally Posted by mrwalken

Pretty sure this is wrong. The 10 cent credit only applies to the price after 25 cents has been added in for shipping. So, essentially, the sale is just reducing the shipping price from 25 cents to 15 cents (and removing the $2.99 flat charge). I think there is a little bit too much "hide the ball" going on with the way the sale is being pitched.

Aw man....after thinking about it some more I bet you are right. Ugh, that really ticks me off.

"Better than free shipping....except it's still .15 cents...when it used to be 10 cents."

There goes that game plan.

[Dacubs]

I still packed up about 300 cards to send in...even if they don't do well on black friday, i get them listed in 2 weeks instead of a month

[mrwalken]

Originally Posted by aric88

Aw man....after thinking about it some more I bet you are right. Ugh, that really ticks me off.

"Better than free shipping....except it's still .15 cents...when it used to be 10 cents."

There goes that game plan.

I think the special is comparable to last year's ($4.95 for the first 20 cards, 11 cents for each additional card). And with the vouchers given to sellers, I expect big price drops and big sales. I just think the wording about the free shipping and 10 cent refund could have been improved.

[Tarheel]

Originally Posted by mrwalken

I think the special is comparable to last year's ($4.95 for the first 20 cards, 11 cents for each additional card). And with the vouchers given to sellers, I expect big price drops and big sales. I just think the wording about the free shipping and 10 cent refund could have been improved.

I think everyone should keep in mind that this was just a "Sneak Peak" email sent out to sellers. The idea is to encourage you to get your cards processed and priced before Black Friday. I expect that we will see more clear details when the offer is made public on their blog.

[tdbaseballcards]

I hope that they have a deal on shipping for cards you currently have, but haven't shipped yet (not just cards you buy that day). I have a bunch of cards that I am waiting to have shipped, but the shipping price is a bit crazy right now.

[hundley]

Originally Posted by aric88

Here's the problem...in order for me to get the .25 cent listing credit per the promotion, the item has to be bought AND shipped on black friday. So if a flipper came along and purchased all my .10 cent cards for resale and doesn't ship them....it appears I will not receive the promotional listing credit, leaving me at a .15 cent loss per item.

Yeah, the odds of dedicated buyers picking up even a fraction of those cards is pretty remote. If you're going to be selling cards like that in bulk, the majority of the cards in question are almost definitely going to be picked up by flippers.

[aric88]

Originally Posted by mrwalken

I think the special is comparable to last year's ($4.95 for the first 20 cards, 11 cents for each additional card). And with the vouchers given to sellers, I expect big price drops and big sales. I just think the wording about the free shipping and 10 cent refund could have been improved.

Just heard back from comc via email. The promotion is just how you speculated. The "free shipping" only refers to the 3 flat shipping fee. Each item will still cost an additional 25 cents.

[premium1981]

At least they are trying. I have personally not been impressed with the "new" website up to this point. I was expecting big things after some of the announcements that were made. They have made some adjustments and are continuing to do so, so hopefully more changes are coming. I have not been sending anything in, or buying much lately. I have just been hovering to see which direction this site is going. This email was a good step in the right direction. Clever way of helping buyers and sellers. As long as they follow through with their aggressive advertising. More buyers need to be brought in. Looking forward to black friday. Hoping it will put a breath of fresh air into the entire site.

[Tarheel]

Originally Posted by aric88

Just heard back from comc via email. The promotion is just how you speculated. The "free shipping" only refers to the 3 flat shipping fee. Each item will still cost an additional 25 cents.

This is what I was expecting, since they said you must be in Simplified Shipping Mode. So no $3 shipping fee and $.10 credit back on each. Since you have to pay the $.25 surcharge for each card, that comes to $.15 shipping on each.

My next question is if this will work with making offers. Of course the offer would have to be accepted that same day, but will you still get the special shipping deal if you ship on Friday?

[checkoutmydeals]

It should work on offers, as long as the offer is accepted on that day.

Note that they are going to have a new type of ad, called a "sale", where the marked down price just automatically appears as the offer price of the card.

So, say you have a card with a book value of $2 and you are asking $1.

On the old site, you could offer 50 cents.

On the new site, they would add in 25 cents handling, so you could offer 75 cents (50 cents + 25 cents).

If you offer less than 75 cents, you will get a note in red: "The minimum for this offer is $0.75"

But, under the new system, if the seller is running a 50% off "sale" (that is, they will automatically accept 50% off), the card would have $1.25 crossed out ($1 asking price plus 25 cents handling) and $0.75 cents (50 cents asking price plus 25 cents handling) listed as the asking price.

Either way, on Black Friday, a person could then offer 75 cents, get the card and then get rebated 10 cents. Then the seller gets 50 cents plus a rebate of 25 cents.

As with most things COMC, it's complicated to explain, but hopefully, it will make more sense in real life.

[checkoutmydeals]

We are creating a new Classified Ad type that is called a “Sale”. Starting next Friday, we will let you create a “Black Friday Sale” for FREE. A “Sale” is not just a Classified Ad, it will actually adjust your visible asking prices so that people browsing the site will see SALE stickers with your lowered prices.

Isn't that today? Are they still doing this?

[mrwalken]

I would also like an update on when the old checkoutmycards.com is being retired because that will affect my pricing strategy for black friday and afterwards.