Moving On...from Beckett to COMC

[smtjoy]

Good luck on your new venture Mark!

Glad you feel like many of us out there about the BCCG cards and why I will not use Beckett because of it.

[buymycards]

COMC has some very good features, especially if you are interested in newer cards, insert sets, etc. I have had success selling newer stuff and I have made some good deals on purchases. I like the website and they are always improving the features.

As far as pre-war cards, if you think the BIN prices on ebay are high, take a look at the prices on COMC and you will fall over laughing. You can make offers, but the asking prices are so high that I don't even make offers any more.

Rick

[Rich Klein]

There are a ton of parallels with Beckett circa 1990 and COMC circa 2013 and those are in a good way.

I've actually written thet for my sports collectors daily column - so look out for future columns as well.

RIch

[glchen]

Good luck, Mark, and best wishes in your new venture. I always appreciated your help with my Beckett submissions, so COMC has made a great hire. I've never used Check Out My Cards before, but have always heard good things about it. Take care.

[Taxman]

Good Luck Mark, great to talk during the National.

Kirk

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by buymycards

COMC has some very good features, especially if you are interested in newer cards, insert sets, etc. I have had success selling newer stuff and I have made some good deals on purchases. I like the website and they are always improving the features.

As far as pre-war cards, if you think the BIN prices on ebay are high, take a look at the prices on COMC and you will fall over laughing. You can make offers, but the asking prices are so high that I don't even make offers any more.

Rick

Rick pretty much nailed it. The site is great for modern cards. Really great for finding singles to complete your sets. I've found the site to be very well organized, and very user friendly.

I also love their customer service. They have a no questions asked return policy, so long as a card is in the same condition it was sent in, they will issue a full refund. I've only had to do a few returns, but they've always been prompt in answering my email inquiries, and refunds are fast.

But vintage cards...? The prices are crazy. Of course, that's the sellers, not comc itself. However, if comc could attract more collectors of vintage and pre-war cards, I could see it competing with Ebay. I can't speak to the fees they charge sellers, as I've only bought, but I think it's something our members should at least look into (I have no vested interest in the site, by the way. I am just a collector looking for more options)

[conor912]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

I can't speak to the fees they charge sellers

Last I checked, it was 20%.

I used COMC a couple times when they were starting out but stopped because the extra fees were adding up too fast. They charged a handling fee of $.25 per card to get your card out of their storage along with what I remember as $3 plus $.25 per card shipping which made buying lots completely cost prohibitive. Maybe the prices have gone down since. I also agree they are missing out on a lot of potential vintage business.

That said, their customer service was great and the interface of their site is unrivaled.

[ethicsprof]

wishing you all the best in your new position at comc.
Barry

[GehrigFan]

Originally Posted by buymycards

COMC has some very good features, especially if you are interested in newer cards, insert sets, etc. I have had success selling newer stuff and I have made some good deals on purchases. I like the website and they are always improving the features.

As far as pre-war cards, if you think the BIN prices on ebay are high, take a look at the prices on COMC and you will fall over laughing. You can make offers, but the asking prices are so high that I don't even make offers any more.

Rick

Rick - I totally agree about the high pricing. One part of my role is to go through and find cards that are way too highly priced and get them to knock the price down. I will say from experience that a lot of the vintage dealers put a price on their cards that is double what they really want. Since you can make offers as low as half price, some sellers just price their cards at twice what they will accept. I know this from experience as a user - I put all my shiny new stuff on the site, sell it, and then use the money to make offers on pre-war HOFers. I've picked up everything from Allen and Ginter HOFers to a Buchner Gold Coin Jimmy Ryan (who should be in the HOF!), about 4 different Walter Johnsons, and so on - all at half the listed price.

I am not planning on going after high end $1000+ vintage (for now) but rather want to build the pre-1970 vintage cards selection to make it a place for you to easily put cards on the site that you would normally ebay. The difference is that with COMC, you don't do any work. We scan the cards at up to 36X zoom, front and back, store the cards in a secure, insured facility, put them on the site, you set your price, and when they sell, we fulfill and ship the cards out, For buyers, it doesn't matter if you buy 100 cards from 100 sellers, we ship them all so you save hundreds of dollars by paying just one shipping cost, which I believe is $3 plus 25 cents per card. You can also use the credit you get for selling and buy other cards you want and thus skip the 20% fee. So personally, I don't care if I theoretically "overpay" on a pre war HOFer a little bit, if all I'm using to buy it is a bunch of cards I don't want in the first place. I have heavily upgraded my collection by doing this over the last 3 years.

Mark