Checkoutmycards.com

[drfunke]

Originally Posted by pskell02

You can't knock them for doing it and it doesn't make me think any less of them. Its a marketing move that they would be dumb not to use. Its no different than any other business out there, show the public what they want/need to see to get you to buy into their product. Simple marketing 101.

I agree that it's their prerogative, but I can and do knock them for it. And you're right that they're using a common tactic of marketing.

But to me, there's a fine line between *highlighting* a strength of your product (the amount of sales you generate for each seller) and *exaggerating* that strength. Listing sales by book value is a lot closer to the second one. Honestly, which sellers actually care how much book value they move? The only number sellers are interested in are the *actual* sales numbers.

COMC is welcome to do it however they want. I'm just expressing my opinion that I don't like it. It makes me think they have something to hide (even if they don't). If they are only generating sales at a 95% discount, then their service isn't very valuable - but it's impossible to tell from the data that they share.

[mwheeler27]

drfunke,

Did you checkout my last two posts? If so, do you still feel the same way? How would you suggest they account for all the cards that are sold that don't have book values?

I think the only way they could do this would be to list total dollars sold and leave off total BV sold. It might be fairly impossible to have both columns on there and have them mean something when considering all the non-bv items being sold.

[cardsrus1]

Originally Posted by drfunke

Sad. I was hoping that i was just being too cynical and that there was some legitimate explanation. Kinda slimy move by the management, if you ask me. I can understand their motivation, but it doesn't make me trust their service as a seller.

There is likely some legal reasons for not showing exact sales, it would likely bring up privacy issues. As Matt stated, their biggest issue to fix is shipping. As things are now I am out at the end of the month. If I did not have 2000 cards waiting to be uploaded I would stick around longer. It is not worth the $200 gamble to hope they can fix things. I made over $1000 in my first two months and less than $100 in the last month since the changes. I do not really need to explain that there is a serious problem.

[drfunke]

Originally Posted by mwheeler27

Not that I'm looking for more competition, but I thought I'd post my current stats to help you maybe trust their services from a seller's point of view.

General Account Info
Items in Inventory 5,785
Total Book Value $76,574.15
Items w/o Book Price 547
Total Asking Price $111,751.07
Items w/o Asking Price 2
Items Not for Sale 7
Items Ready to Ship 9
Total Sales $9,189.82
Items Sold 539
Items Purchased 1,010
Items Added to the Site 5,314

The "Total Sales" line item is the dollar amount I have sold. You compare that to my "sold BV", (of which I have never done before), which equates to $11,360 or 80.9% of BV is what I have sold my cards for. That's only a 19.1% discount! (You can find the $11,360 when looking up "sellers" on the COMC website).

What you will need to realize though, and this could be another very valid reason they don't do it, I have sold a lot of cards that don't have book values because they are "too scarce for pricing".

I hope this helps you and others as it actually shed some light on things for me as well.

Thanks for sharing the info. Very enlightening, and I think the more people who join, the better for those who know what they're doing (so no worries about the competition!). It's all about having a big enough selection to attract buyers to COMC as the first buying destination, right?

[pskell02]

At this point I believe it is more about fixing the shipping issue than card selection. I was using the site to buy a lot of inserts and base cards to finish off sets while grabbing a few higher end cards when I saw something I liked (i.e. the dual Pirate Exquisite auto I bought from Matt). With the new shipping policy, I refuse to do that anymore. I have about 100 cards ready to ship that I am considering relisting because it would not be cost effective for me to have them shipped to me. I could buy full sets (base and inserts) on ebay for less than it would cost to have those few cards sent to me.

But the supply is there and is fantastic. The demand will continue to dip if changes aren't made.

[pskell02]

Matt, I was curious about something with your cards. Do you make a detailed list of everything you have sent in? I would be hesitant to send in some of the stuff that you have without having some kind of documentation showing what was sent.

[drfunke]

Originally Posted by mwheeler27

drfunke,

Did you checkout my last two posts? If so, do you still feel the same way? How would you suggest they account for all the cards that are sold that don't have book values?

I think the only way they could do this would be to list total dollars sold and leave off total BV sold. It might be fairly impossible to have both columns on there and have them mean something when considering all the non-bv items being sold.

Thanks for the enlightened discussion. I take your point of view particularly seriously because you are obviously speaking with your actions - you have already entrusted a fairly sizable chunk of cards to COMC.

As for 'unpriced items', I think the issue you bring up is one that makes using the actual sales price even more imperative. As it stands now, 'unpriced' cards simply aren't accounted for the the publicly reported sales figures for each seller AT ALL. I can't see how that's preferable.

Basically, my original point was that I had no way of knowing, from the info provided by COMC, how much the cards being sold on COMC were generally being discounted off of book price. A good suggestion to COMC if they're not actively trying to hide the information, could be to keep the two current pricing columns and add one more (avg. discount off of book price). Since 'unpriced' cards don't have a book price, they wouldn't be accounted for and we'd get a very clear picture how strong the sales channel is. Again, COMC doesn't have to do anything it doesn't want to - I'm just expressing that as a potential client, that type of information would go a long way to helping me jump aboard.

[kocsportscards]

Looking to sell out on COMC:
Items in Inventory 789
Total Book Value $3,165.00
Total Asking Price $545.70

Anyone interseted in buying me out of my entire inventory, I would be willing to take half of my asking price for a one shot deal. Great opportunity for flippers.
KOCSPORTSCARDS's Cards - CheckOutMyCards.com

[ohiomike]

NOTE - I moved this here from another thread that got moved to an area where it won't likely be seen much again. I think this is still a very important topic and I'd like for it be be seen by those who care to read through it.

Originally Posted by ND3

Seems everyone is up in arms about the shipping rates (haven't read through this thread in a while). All of us seasoned ebay vets know the exact cost of shipping. I will admit I have an issue paying $12 for a shipment of cards sent via priority mail when I know that it only costs $4.85 to mail. The rest of the cost is covering the service of Tim's gang going through of your inventory plucking what you want shipped. Sure it is not as easy of a task as well all think.

I think the issue we have surrounds bulk orders of hundreds of cards. It more has to do with the perceptions of buyers too. When there was a shipping cap, any buyer could buy and buy knowing that the cost per card for shipping would eventually not factor into the price of the card if, say 100 cards, were already purchased. But nobody wants to pay 25 cents for a card that books for 50 cents to fill a set when they would have to end up paying 40 or 50 cents after shipping, or close to full book. In theory, these set builders would otherwise be buying dozens of cards at a time. But why buy them on COMC when you can find 1-2 sellers on sportlots with the same cards both priced less and end up paying less in shipping? The perception right now is that shipping costs or out of line, and perception is all that matters when it comes to potential customers.

But in reality, the bigger issue is not when having orders shipped where shipping costs charged are twice the actual postage or less... it's when people (like myself currently) have 400 or more cards to ship. A 400 card order will cost me nearly $75 to ship. They will use a flat rate box and mostly recycled materials to ship it, which means the total cost they have (outside of labor) would be about $12. Also based on my past experience it will take them over a week to get it shipped out. So all in all, I will be paying 6 times the actual shipping cost and have to wait 10-14 days to receive my order. I can't imagine any ebay seller being able to survive with that kind of shipping policy. And that is who COMC is competing with, ebay/sportlots/etc sellers. And yes, there are advantages to buying on COMC that buyers wouldn't have on those other sites... but that really doesn't matter. If the perception is that the shipping costs are too high, buyers simply will choose to shop elsewhere... especially when most COMC sellers are probably asking more than average ebay prices for their cards for mid to high book value cards, and the low book value cards (cards priced under $1.00) are the least cost effective to buy on COMC given the shipping costs.

I personally accept the charges because I am a seller who benefits from not having to pay the 20% fee by purchasing the hundreds of cards that I want shipped. Buyers who don't have that benefit have no real reason to justify paying such high shipping prices. Why should they be worried about COMC's labor costs?? Not their problem. And besides, those labor costs would be paid regardless of whether the employee was pulling cards during their shift or not. I highly doubt they have a stable of hourly employees that ONLY get paid when they are pulling cards, and otherwise sit around the offices without pay waiting for the next order to be placed. Labor costs for pulling cards in a full service consignment site should be part of the costs to sellers seeing as its 100% necessary for the consignment process we are paying for to work. Buyers should not be footing this bill. I could go on and on (and I kind of already have ) about this topic... but nobody wants to read that much on the topic, apparently including the COMC staff who have yet to really address this issue in the forum after several weeks of fairly constant complaints on the topic... and that worries me.

[CaptainBOHICA]

this is exactly why im not buying in mass anymore...