I completely agree with casebreaker. I am one of those many users that send in a lot of Game-Used and Autographed cards. Maybe reduce it to $.5 if not free.
Yeah the auto/memorabilia is kind of harsh, but other than that it is good policy.
I understand that you are targeting bigger sellers which is fine, but I would like to see the bulk processing option made a little more friendly for smaller sellers. If you changed the number of products per box from 5 to 10, it would help *a lot* and it would not add much processing time. I am really struggling trying to work my shipments into the current promotion. Also, I would like to see this changed to a price per card (9 or 10 cents) rather than having to jam as many cards as I can into a 550 box.
Thank you for the suggestions. These are some good ideas.
I don’t mind paying the 10-cent game used/auto fee, because the improved search functionality means more people will find the cards more quickly, which means they will sell for more money. The only loser is the bargain hunter, and that’s fine with me.
I just listed a Tebow/McCoy Topps RPA /25 on eBay. I’d have preferred to have shipped it to you guys for $5 to sell here. Good work on this. This removes the barrier to having higher end newly released cards on COMC.
Other suggestions seem fine. Will chime in on others’ comments below if I think of something else.
If you’re going to have a meta data column, would it be possible for COMC users to tag the product? If we could tag a set as “memorabilia” or “auto” that would take the pressure off you guys to do it. You could also have tags for “Hall Of Fame” or “500 Home Run Club” that could go with a player. Individual cards might also be tagged with the team information.
Tim, a suggestion i would like to see, is some sort of message board, or a way for me to tell other buyers and sellers that i am having a sale or going to be accepting all my offers, i usually make a large sum of my sales by doing these kinds of sales on other message boards.
Also i am starting to like the overnight processing even more. it makes it nice if you want to get something in when certain cards are hot!
We are actually considering adding a feature where sellers could advertise promotions that they are running. We won’t likely do this through a generic message board that could end up being flooded with spam. Instead it would be baked into the site and something that would stay clean and should generate a lot of traffic.
Tread lightly here, but I like the way you think here, Tim. There’s no shortage of message boards out there that talk about COMC. Take a look at what enabling comments has done to the news stories on Yahoo!. Kinda scary.
One possible solution would be if sellers could add a short message of maybe 50 to 80 characters which would appear next to their user id somewhere on the site – possibly next to their cards, or possibly on a “specials” page.
One feature I’d like to see is the ability for sellers to opt out of the best offer feature and for their cards to be identified with a “FIRM” icon. Then those sellers could list their rock-bottom price and not be bothered with offers.
Possibly you could combine the two – say I will accept 50% offers on all of my cards for the next 2 days. Say I have a card marked $2. That card could have the regular price of $2 crossed out with $1 in red and a “FIRM” icon next to the price.
These suggestions are exactly in line with the kind of services we want to provide with the “Premium Seller” option.
I understand the “special handling” for GU/Autos but have you evaluated processing non-GU/Autos? Did that cost go down and if so, maybe only add $0.05 instead of $0.10. Sometimes it is easier to combat higher fees if you can show you took the time to see if related charges can be reduced. I know I RAN here from the auction site because of the lower fees here so overall I am not thrilled, but I understand business too.
Fewer cards being sent in means higher selling prices for the rest of us. The ratio of sellers to buyers is only increasing, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
So is the reason I fell in love with this site going to be extinct? When I found COMC, I thought it was great to send in some cards and see what happened and if they could sell, great. I am a small collector that only has a few thousand cards in my collection. I have just over a thousand cards on the site. Is COMC becomming tailored to the “big time” collectors who make a living at card collecting? If so, fine, but please be up front and tell us. I’d still like to think that I can send in 50 or 100 cards from time to time and enjoy following the cards to see what is selling, play with prices, flip some cards etc. But if the “Mom and Pop” shops (small collectors) are gonna be devoured by the “Big Box” stores (store owners, brokers, major collectors), please tell us now. Here’s hoping COMC is still a safe and happy place for the “small fish in the big pond”.
Well said ….HabsFan24 …..ditto for me!!!
I don’t think the site can become profitable if it does not cater to the large sellers. I don’t see why you can’t keep doing what you’re doing here, though. There are so many measures in place that keep the playing field level. There is so much money to be made by flipping cards that people blindly mark down 90%.
I really like the ideas except for the extra fees for GU/Auto cards. You’ve managed to carve a nice niche with the site here and I think that one idea may not be the best idea.
Realistically… people are looking for players or sets. They aren’t collecting just GU cards or just autos. It’s looking for a prospect, a star player etc.
The Bulk Processing idea is a nice idea. I’ll probably send in more now because of that one.
I am also liking the Premium seller account option. As I continue to add cards, this could be a great option for me.
i hope the price increase on the game used and autograph cards does not happen. it would definitely reduce the amount of them that i send in, it is a large jump interms of percentage of increase. also i don’t understand the difference in difficulty between caring for a regular card and that of an autographed of game used. it will also make figuring out what i owe on my batches more difficult. i understand a higher processing cost on oversized cards, but i think that this change would cause alot of desirable cards to not be sent in due to the cost of processing. i hope you guys reconsider.
Adding 10 cents per card for relic/autograph cards is simply put a horrendous idea. 95% or more of these would require no additional handling than any other card, and for the 5% that fall outside of this range (super thick cards, booklets, etc) you could simply process those under the ‘special size’ rate that you propose.
Having Relic/Autographs categorized to be searchable seems like it should be an extremely simple matter of adding an extra column to your data entry and using a special 2-3 letter tag. Seems like it should add maybe an extra 2-3 seconds… certainly not enough to warrant an 66% increase in processing fees for standard rate processing. The last time this idea was proposed it was almost unanimously rejected by the sellers on the site. I don’t see that being any different now.
Honestly, I’d just as soon not see these types of cards categorized and searchable if it means such a substantial increase in standard processing fees. If these extra fees are truly needed to cover the added costs of this kind of categorization then my advice would be to scrap the idea. While it would be nice to have these be seachable, they sell just fine as it is, and the enhancement just doesn’t add enough value for sellers to justify the fee hike.
I am intrigued by a ‘premium seller’ account, and could see how that would be beneficial, but I’d hope that this is completely optional for the sellers that wish to upgrade regardless of their sales level. Forcing an extra $100 a month on sellers that don’t like this idea simply because they sell a lot or have a lot of inventory is the quickest way to drive your top sellers off the site. I think if you confirm that this is an optional upgrade, it would ease several sellers minds.
I like the prices cuts for graded card processing. I would like the ability to quickly search for GU/AU cards.
I would like to see shorter turnaround times on cards and the processing fees at least stay the same. Instead of.25 per card for 3 weeks, how about.25 for 1 week turnaround.
I’d also like to see the cash out fee % be reduced. Even with the option of buying a blowoutcards gift certificate, some sellers don’t always want to buy more cards with their earnings, but would rather have the cash. The option for them right now is to pay the 20% fee.
I agree with ohiomike. Raising gu/auto’s