COMC flipping thread

[swarmee]

I've been on COMC (just sent in another batch of 400 cards) for probably six months now, and have done a little of the flipping (and a lot of the Challenges) in order to pay for my submission fees. I also bought one port from another user, and have sold a few from that group. I've never blown out my discounts since I'm lowest on site or better condition than cheapest, but always accept up to 20% off and listen to offers of 50% off, and have accepted some of them.
Here are some of my flips:
1998 Shannon Sharpe printing plate Was $25.25 SOLD $35 *Unidentified player when I bought it; saw it was Shannon Sharpe and had them list his name; made it easier to sell*
Jameis Winston baseball card Was $9.25 SOLD $8.80 *Should have priced it higher knowing I was lowest on site*
Sean Manaea printing plate Was $8.00 SOLD $12.50
Silk Sitting Bull card Was $7.04 SOLD $18
Justin Upton Auto card Was $6.25 SOLD $7.35
1973 Topps Hank Aaron Was $5.85 SOLD $6.50
Kris Bryant insert Was $4.81 SOLD 2.96 *Bought before the site got flooded, now cheapest is $8*
1963 Roger Maris WS card Was $2.69 SOLD $3.30
1911 Washington Monument Was $2.65 SOLD $3.75
1997 Silver Dan Marino Was $2.17 SOLD $5.90 *part of port purchase*
1997 Bowman Best Chipper Jones Was $1.81 SOLD $2.00
1962 Jell-O Kubek Was $1.75 SOLD $7.50
Early Flag/Indian tobacco cards Were $1 each SOLD $2.25 each

The other cards I've sold were all from the port which I acquired for a dime and re-sold for a dime; still have 200 or so cards from that group. So for those that think there's not bargains on the site, I have found many. You just have to know what cards are worth and jump on them when they get listed undervalued.

I haven't bought anything since Shrove Tuesday since I gave up online purchases for Lent. I've actually done good so far and haven't bought a thing. Hopefully some of you are getting the deals since I've opted out until Easter.

[bn2cardz]

I have been curious about COMC for all my newer cards. When sending in cards do you do all the research prior to sending in cards to come up with a value or do you purely guess? For instance you said you sent in 400 cards did you just assume an average for the lot, or did you go through all 400 and come up with prices prior to sending them in?

[swarmee]

For my new lot, I approximated their value at $2.50 each. However, before sending cards in, definitely check their site to see if they're already on site, and how much they're listed/sold for. If the card is under $1, it's probably not worth mailing in. The reason a $1 list price card isn't worth sending in is that it costs 25cents to scan/list, then they add 25cents to the price of the card that you see in the selling price. So they grab at least 50 cents per card plus 20% of the money you get into your account if you pay yourself instead of buying additional cards in their cashout fee. So your $1 card may cost 60-70 cents to sell, netting you 30 cents. Of course, with a lot of cards, it's better to sell them and get 30 cents than have them live in a box you never look at... ;-)

If it's over $50/card, you have to use the $1 service, but they get loaded within a week, so it's not too bad.

How do you see what other cards sold for on site? Go to the Challenges tab and start playing some of the "card identification" games. Most of them take about 3-5 minutes to gain 100 points, which will then allow you to price 100 items for free. After getting 1,000 points (10 complete/accurate games), you get $1 loaded to your account. *If you average 3mins per game, you make $2 in store credit per hour* But it's actually paying you, compared to Candy Crush Saga or Farmville. ;-)

After 20,000 points, you can click a button on site and see all the sales prices for all cards.

I have earned $165 in the challenges so far (they pop up randomly, so you've got to check the site page regularly), but they have paid for all my submissions so far.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by swarmee

How do you see what other cards sold for on site? Go to the Challenges tab and start playing some of the "card identification" games. Most of them take about 3-5 minutes to gain 100 points, which will then allow you to price 100 items for free. After getting 1,000 points (10 complete/accurate games), you get $1 loaded to your account. *If you average 3mins per game, you make $2 in store credit per hour* But it's actually paying you, compared to Candy Crush Saga or Farmville. ;-)

I have seen the challenges and things, but I don't get into that. I don't even get into the Candy Crush or other facebook things. The reason I would send my cards to COMC is because I don't want to do the work, so I am not going to do extra work to see prices (especially if I can see ebay sold items just as easily).


I was just thinking of sending a box of all my limited inserts, game used, autos and throwing an estimate (without looking up each card) and then letting them post them up.
At that point they will give me estimates to list them at right? Or will I still have to do the research on that?

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

At that point they will give me estimates to list them at right? Or will I still have to do the research on that?

The estimate when you mail is really only about deciding the value of the insurance you want to use to insure the cards through the mail; it isn't used any further.

You will still have to price all cards individually; nice thing is, once you've sent in a card, it will tell you what the cards on site are all priced at. So if you want to sell "fast", undercut those prices. If you can wait, price at the lowest. Some people will continually update their card prices to remain lowest on site, but you can just put all your cards on sale 20% off or wait for people to offer you a little less through their offer process.

The main reason for looking at sales information before mailing all the cards in, is sunk costs. If there are already 8 of that card on site, and only two have sold in 4 years of sales history, you probably don't want to send that card in. Cards from brand new releases will also go from one copy on site to 30+ in a couple of months when all the group breakers mail theirs in and have them processed. So the prices drop drastically after the cards have been on site two months, because there is so much more supply.

Putting 1990s-2000s inserts in COMC is probably a good idea, because of all the player collectors still looking for their guy.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by swarmee

The estimate when you mail is really only about deciding the value of the insurance you want to use to insure the cards through the mail; it isn't used any further.

You will still have to price all cards individually; nice thing is, once you've sent in a card, it will tell you what the cards on site are all priced at. So if you want to sell "fast", undercut those prices. If you can wait, price at the lowest. Some people will continually update their card prices to remain lowest on site, but you can just put all your cards on sale 20% off or wait for people to offer you a little less through their offer process.

The main reason for looking at sales information before mailing all the cards in, is sunk costs. If there are already 8 of that card on site, and only two have sold in 4 years of sales history, you probably don't want to send that card in. Cards from brand new releases will also go from one copy on site to 30+ in a couple of months when all the group breakers mail theirs in and have them processed. So the prices drop drastically after the cards have been on site two months, because there is so much more supply.

Putting 1990s-2000s inserts in COMC is probably a good idea, because of all the player collectors still looking for their guy.

Thank you this was very helpful information. Some of the cards are group break cards (just wanted to try it out recently) yet I can't find some of those on COMC (a couple Smoltz Auto Patches) so I figured those would be ok to send in. Yet most of the cards are early 2000, late 90s, inserts that I accumulated back when I was more into newer cards, yet at this point just don't feel like going through the boxes and scan each card and research prices and put out ebay listings so I thought COMC would be a good alternative.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

Thank you this was very helpful information.

Yeah, my goal is to inform, not challenge you not to send cards in. Definitely send cards in; start with a couple of hundred, and then see what happens. Those are just my lessons learned from six months on being on the site and reading the COMC board over at blowoutcards forums.

It's good for selling $2-20 cards that you don't want to list individually on eBay. But for like the 1989 Fleer Randy Johnson rookie (blacked out ad), they might have 100+ on site with the cheapest being 53cents. That means the seller is really only getting 3 cents off the cards after paying the 50 cents fees. After selling some cards, you'll get the hang of what sells and what sits. Some people use their free sales weeks (Black Friday, Christmas/Boxing Day, Spring Cleaning?, National) to put all their cards on sale 20-75% off. Those are the days that you use your store credit to buy back in on cheaper cards and reprice for higher (flip). I normally scour the most recently added cards, and pick off the ones I see as undervalued.