VCP price change

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

We will be restructuring our membership and implementing a fee increase. There will be two VIP membership types:

Silver Membership 12.99 p/month 129.90 p/year
Gold Membership 17.99 p/month 179.90 p/year

The only difference in site features between both member types is the ability to view links to past auctions/images, seller, buyer and bid count. These features will be available to Gold members only.

Right now every VIP is in the GOLD membership which is where you will stay until your current term expires. You can take advantage of this offer by adding up to 5 years of membership at the current $99.99 a year rate. To do this log in at VCP and in the My VCP pull down is "Account" here there is a button to add a year.

At the launch of VCP two years ago, we had a total of 150,000 price records that only covered baseball up to the year 1959. Today we have over 1.5 million records and now covering baseball, basketball, football, hockey, boxing and non-sports up to the year 1989. Our cost of operating has increased considerably since our inception as we now have 3 servers to effectively run the website and we are not very far from having to do a major upgrade on our server package. We now have about 300,000 images of cards from past auction and adding about 35,000 new ones every month.

In the coming weeks you will notice a yellow alert icon near your username in your user navigation bar. You'll need to click it to select a member type you would like to be so when your term renews it will be charged the appropriate amount.

Thank you very much for your support and for solidifying VintageCardPrices.com as the authoritative sports card price guide.

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Posted By: Mark T

That's a big increase...

Have you thought about what members may do, like maybe go over to competitors sites to avoid the higher price or have they also increased the membership fees?

I am not saying it not worth the increase but with these economic times collectors may not be able to afford it.

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Posted By: B D

1) if you save $224.99 on just ONE transaction per year you made money!

and

2) Is there really competition!





ok guys-

here is 9 phrases your wives use!


http://www.flixxy.com/9-phrases-women-use.htm



BcD

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

The price increase is $3.00 a month

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Posted By: quan

lots of starbucks are closing down...maybe there's a correlation.

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Posted By: E, Daniel

Also not trying to be a whinger, but though I maintain a VCP membership month by month I have felt all along the fees to be ridiculously high at current rates....and I definitely won't be continuing the service at the new prices.

Daniel

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Posted By: Mark T

i was using the current monthly $9.99 as a guide....


alright now guys, i was just asking a question and making a statement (IMHO)...don't bite my head off (<:

also: $3.00 adds up here and there.... IMHO

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Posted By: Anthony S.

My grande Starbucks coffee was $1.75 this morning. Though the sugar shakers still suck. Always clogged.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Why is something touted to be affordably-priced always compared to "the cost of a cup of coffee"? Whenever those commercials come on for sponsoring needy children/animals, this line is always thrown out as some sort of defense for the prices they charge.

And, by the way $3.00/month isn't that much more.

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Posted By: Matt

"The price increase is $3.00 a month"

Bobby - isn't what currently costs $9.99 a month now going to cost $17.99 a month?

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Posted By: Mark T

I pay $9.99 now and price for the Gold (which is what every member has now) will go up to $17.99.

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Posted By: B D

I will pay the difference for you if you tell me where to go to get a coffee drink for under $3.00 in sunny nothern Ca?

BcD

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

That is why we are offering to members to lock in the price now by extending the term of their membership up to 5 years if you want.

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Posted By: quan

geez bobby edited his starbucks comment so my reply made no sense

anyways it's not about the $3 increase or whatever...i had a monthly membership for over 1+ years, so if i was smart or cared i would've just switched to the yearly and save i guess...but the point is we're being charged extra for stuff that used to be free, that's where the beef is.

wasn't a yearly membership $100? and now for everything it's $180? i don't really use vcp for prices these days for prices anyways, since no one really overpays anymore partly because of the econ and also because they have access to info such as VCP. i just keep track of scans etc and see the fun stuff like holders getting crossed to higher holders or altered cards getting into # holders...the fun stuff.

edit: bcd vietnamese/thai coffee can be had for around $2, even up in nocal prolly. send me the $80 and i'll re-up with bobby for 1 year.

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Posted By: Anthony S.

That's exactly where I got the coffee, sunny Northern California. Though today, it's cold foggy crapville Summer in San Francisco. But it's 1.75 for the drip. Latte is probably pushing 3 bucks.

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Posted By: B D

I love it! love the condensed milk but your people never make the French roast in decaf and the regular makes me go bonkers!

The set registry craze has cooled off but on modern Vintage Q it's pretty hot right now. check 52 Topps for example:

BcD

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

"your people"?

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

As far as services we have been here for 2 years and anyone that is a member has seen the site grow over time. And we continue to expand the features and function of the site. We are almost finished with a new feature that will blow your mind. It is being tested by 10 people and the feed back has been great. We still have a long ways to go but are always moving forward and getting better. This price increase is going to make it possible to move the site forward.

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Posted By: Dave F

I guess just my opinion, but 9.99 to 17.99 in today's economy just isn't good business. As much as I like having the flexiblity of looking up cards through VCP, I don't think i'll be renewing at that rate either. If one takes the lower grade membership (still a $3.00 increase) your still paying more and getting less.

And I know i'm a poor boy by most folks standards on this board, but to committ to five years now at $500 isn't going to make much sense either with the unknown of the country's state in economics right now.

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Posted By: Mike C

I don't think the economy has much to do with today's card prices. The items that I have been watching keep going up.

I think the bigger issue is the lack of product on Ebay as everything appears to be moving to Buy It Now. Personally, I joined VCP two months ago (I just started in the hobby again in the beginning of the year) and haven't overpaid through BIN. Also, auction houses seem to have more product. It's just a really good tool.

Regardless of that, people will pay for something that they want.

Is $180 too much? Not for me because I probably saved that and then some.

And I don't drink coffee!

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Posted By: Steve Murray

My initial reaction was WTF! But then I was getting it second and third hand.

At first I heard that our current one year subscription would be shortened to accomodate the change. That has been proven false.

While I understand that the change was posted on VCP I have never read the posts there. It would have been better to launch this change simultaneously here with there.

This is a very valuable service that I will continue. I will likely take advantage of the extension offer.

Bobby, thanks for the explanation.


"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." James Madison

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Posted By: Keith O'Leary

I'm trying to understand Bobby. I can extend my current Gold Membership for a year a 1 time charge of 99.99 which is less than 9.99 per month?

http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f92/vwtdi55/53%20card%20baseball%20collection/

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Posted By: Tim

At first I was shocked by this price increase. But without knowing how much VCP's operating costs have increased and the number of subscribers they have to offset those costs I can't begrudge them.

I'm sure they looked at those numbers and settled on the two plans that will son be offered.

This site has been extremely valuable to someone like myself relatively new to vintage cards.

I'll probably renew for two years at the current rate as you get almost two years for the price of one.

Bobby how long do we have to renew at $99 a year?

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Posted By: Anonymous

I don't use the service, but this increase is at least being done above-board as opposed to say a "fee usage" increase in the small print like many banks and financial institutions do. And if I read everything correctly you could extend your current membership up to 5 years at the current rate....so you could buy next year's membership now, or two years, etc up to 5. That seems pretty fair, though I might not be too willing to send my money for a 5 year subscription to a company that has only been in business for 2.

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Posted By: JimB

VCP has been a very valuable resource for me. I would hate to see it go away. That said, this is a pretty dramatic price increase. 80% in one shot is going to lose some folks. I would think it would be better to bring the whole group along with less dramatic increases. If you lose half of your customers, your revenue increase will only be 40% for example. And then they are gone (most likely to the competition). Slow and steady is the key.
Good luck,
JimB
P.S. I can be hired as a business consultant for the price of one gold membership

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Posted By: Shawn

I'm out....

Creating two options for subscribers is not about covering costs... Its a business move, plain and simple. Almost doubling the fees for the same subscription I had before is out of line in my opinion. It would appear to me that the price increase for the Gold Membership would cover the costs of the Silver Membership. YOU ARE getting less options for the Silver than you had with the original membership. Something is awry and it is not the "3 servers". The end of the month timing for this revelation is quite intriguing also.

Shawn

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Posted By: Jason

I decided to quit. I don't get enough value for the sort of things I collect anyways as it is. Not really knock on VCP. Just the way it goes.

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Posted By: josh

I used to be a member of VCP and found it very useful but I then cancelled after I found myself not utilizing it that much. I now have joined
cardpricer.com and it is half the price for the same thing.

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

Bottom line when we first launched more then 2 years ago our fee was $9.99 a month $99.99 a year. And for that fee you got the following services.

1. Baseball 1860-1959
2. My Collection: To track it like a stock portfolio
3. You had access to set information of about 350 sets that we coverd.
4. We had about 8,000 images of cards on the site.
5. Covering eBay listings only

Since then here are the add ons and improvements added to the site with out any fee increase.

1. Want List with email alerts
2. Baseball expanded to 1989
3. Football to 1989
4. Basketball to 1989
5. Hockey to 1989
6. Boxing to 1989
7. Golf to 1989
8. Non-sports to 1989
9. We now cover 10 auction houses besides eBay.
10. GIN system (Get it now) listed through out the site for ongoing live auctions.
11. Market Report covering all sports updated daily.
12. Seller, Buyer, Bids and image saved from every auction
13. Live Listings feature to see the card on you WL that are available.

I can keep going on and on with what we have added to the site since we started. And we have some great new features that will be in the site very shortly. One is the new price grid that will show the average price instead of the last one sold. New and enhanced searches to make it faster to find the card you are looking for. The last one I can not let out of the bag yet but guaranteed it is going to make your life much easier in your pursuit to collect cards.

I think the increased features is worth a few bucks and for the SILVER membership you get everything except for the bid history and image. The bid history will show up in the SILVER membership until the link dies out.



**Fixed a date to change it from 1960 to 1860

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Posted By: barrysloate

Hi Bobby- I love the site and use it fairly often. And I appreciate all the features you have added. A couple of thoughts:

Very few collectors will use all those features; I don't care about basketball, hockey, etc., and not sure I want to pay extra for things I won't use.

Also, if this thread is any indicator of your market in general, it hasn't been received well. Maybe you could find another way to do this. We'll all allow you one do-over.

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

So the bottom line is the site is going to be the same way for all the SILVER members as it was the start of this year for $3.00 more a month.

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Posted By: Matt

That VCP initially didn't cover any of that other stuff means you recognized that's not what most people wanted. If the revenue from adding all of those areas isn't covering the costs they incur, why not get rid of them? Personally, you could jettison everything on that list save for numbers 9 & 12 and I wouldn't care.

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Posted By: Richard

Bobby - I'm paying month to month right now. Can I sign up for a year gold for $99 or am I screwed?

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

Anyone can add a YEAR to there membership or more up to 5 will have the GOLD level membership for as long as they decide. It makes no difference if you are a monthly, yearly or not even a VIP paying member.

To do this log in and the the MY VCP pull down on the right go to account. Here there should be a button that says "Add a Year". If that is not there then click on the Sign up and follow the screens.

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Posted By: Tim

How long do we have to add years for $99 each? When will this option be taken away?

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Posted By: Bobby Binder

The new price structure should be in place the next week or two.

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Posted By: Tim

Please let us know when you know what our deadline for signing up is.

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Posted By: Peter_Spaeth

It's a valuable service at a reasonable fee, if Bobby's costs have increased because of expanded services, or even if he wants to try to earn more, that's OK by me.

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Posted By: Shawn

You will not believe this...

My wife just told me that Oprah emailed her to inform her of a price increase to the magazine subscription "O". The email reads as follows: "Do to price increases in the economy, we here at "O" magazine have decided to raise the yearly subscription fee. But wait! We here at "O" have two new membership offers to better suit your needs. The first is what we call the "Lean Subscription", instead of your normal "O" magazine you will now receive a chopped down version. If you so choose the "Lean Subscription" the magazine will exclude the index and all photos for a great price of $23.40. That is only an increase of thirty percent... Not bad!

Our second offer is the "Chunky Subscription", here you will receive the magazine you are used to getting plus there will be a surprise inside! We here at "O" cannot reveal what the surprise will be, but it will be well worth paying the extra money. If you so choose to go with the "Chunky Subscription" you will now have to pay the low price of $32.40. That is only an eighty percent increase... Not bad!

Thank you very much for your support.

PS. If you would like to receive the same "O" magazine for the same price you have always paid, we will allow you to pay in advance, your choice of 1-20 years.
Oprah"

This blew my mind!
Shawn

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Posted By: TFerg

"The last one I can not let out of the bag yet but guaranteed it is going to make your life much easier in your pursuit to collect cards."


I used the beta version as one of the test subjects, and it's a nice function that may keep some of the defectors from dropping their memberships. He may be further ahead to "let the cat out of the bag", unless it's not going to be ready in a timely manner.

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Posted By: Dave F

I'm a bit confused Bobby. I thought you said members could keep their current rate of $99 a year IF they paid up for a five year period. Can you do less? That's what it is sounding like now. Can I add another $99 service when my subscription ends at the end of December? Or at that rate am I going to have to sign up for five years?

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Posted By: Marc S.

added much great functionality and many new features which attract a wider breadth of collectors, but, frankly, I do not utilize 90% of those new features, and being compelled to have to pay an 80% increase for those features [for the same level of service] is not an attractive model for me. I don't catalogue my collection with VCP, I don't collect anything but pre-war baseball, except for a few markets whereby I don't worry about price, which means I only use it to gauge prices on some of the issues I collect -- to get accurate ranges of prices, since I'm more of a type than a set collector. Do I derive $216- of value per year from that service? I don't think so -- especially since I (like many of us here) am not a hugely rational collector anyway.

Good luck with the business, Bobby -- may you have great success.

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Posted By: Rob D.

The price increase is $3.00 a month

Better spin: Only 10 cents more a day!

Best spin: Less than a half-cent more per hour!

Heck, I feel guilty not being asked to pay more.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

I applaud the price increase.


I don't subscribe to VCP, I pay what I want for the cards I buy. The ones I'm after aren't offered very often, and holding myself to what some guide suggests, notwithstanding how current and accurate it may be, would only hinder my collecting efforts.


As I see it some folks will pay more. Great! That's fewer dollars chasing the cards I want. Those cards won't be bought with good information, it will take dollars. And the VCP folks will have a few less.


I started to post the first response, but held my piece for a while... I do think that the product that is offered has a fair degree of accuracy, just so long as the information is used with knowledge of what it is and how it was gathered, rather than blindly followed.

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Posted By: Dave F

Shawn-

You failed to mention which "O" magazine subcription you went with.



I'm not trying to sway anyone to drop VCP, that's just going to end up being my own decision. I just can't fathom many business types that can in this "recession" say they are upping prices by 80% for the same service. VCP is a great tool. It is not however a barrel of oil.

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Posted By: Bruce Dorskind

We applaud Mr. Binder for his price increase.

VCP provides significant value added.

If the average VCP "gold member" spends only $10,000 per year on
cards, VCP is certainly sure to save said member 2% and thus pay
for itself.

The total cost of a new gold membership amounts to no more than dinner
for 2 at a mid-priced Manhattan Restaurant or 1/3 the price of a 2009 Yankee
single game field box seat

VCP has to add functionality in order to become more valuable to
the serious collector and investor. Finally, the VCP subscription price is far far
less than any investment newsletter, and considerably less than the best of
the coin price newsletters

Keep up the great work Mr. Binder.



Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List

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Posted By: Mark T

"If the average VCP "gold member" spends only $10,000 per year on
cards, VCP is certainly sure to save said member 2% and thus pay
for itself."


The average Member does NOT spend $10,000 per year on cards, that figure is way off. I can guarantee that!!!!

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Posted By: Brian

Bruces,

I heard you don't even offer to pay for dinner so not sure how you would know, but how many "limos" would that membership buy? My guess is at least 6 trips by your standards....

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Posted By: Rob D.

Bruce and Frank: three peas in a pod

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Posted By: Bruce Dorskind

Mark

What would "guess" the average gold member spends per year on cards?

Don't forget all the members who spend 5, 10 or 100 times $10,000 per
year on cards.

Remember the average price of an item in an REA auction or the major Mastro
auctions is well in excess of $5000 per card.

We would guess that if someone was spending $100 a year to monitor market
price movements they would be spending at least 100 times that much in the market.

We would welcome your response.

Any thoughts Bobbie? Have you surveyed your full year gold members on card expenditure?


Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List