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Ebay V. COMC... Fees analyzed.

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tonsofcommons

Active member
Aug 20, 2008
6,102
13
Iowa
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

DaClyde said:
Sending too many cards to COMC will cause an imbalance in the planet, resulting in a pronounced wobble that will cause things to fall off the top shelves in your house.

HAHA!
 

Jester

New member
Mar 31, 2011
11
0
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

tonsofcommons said:
I made a spreadsheet comparing the two if anyone is interested in seeing it

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... y=CKfkrp4K

Things that I took in to account

Each transaction on ebay would be an individual transaction (no combined shipping)
50% of the items would sell each month, with an average selling price of $1 each, so 50 cent average sale

Any suggestions to the spreadsheet is appreciated.

That spreadsheet is awesome! I've been working on something similar myself (I work for COMC), but I've also been factoring the value of time since the whole point of COMC is that it's "the site that does all the work". A rough estimate has the amount of work going into scanning 500 cards front and back, identifying, listing, and shipping them to be about 30 hours. At $7.25/hour (federal minimum wage) that's equivalent to a little over $200 in labor saved (before income tax. After taxes probably more like $20 but hey, whatcha gonna do?). =)

DaClyde said:
Sending too many cards to COMC will cause an imbalance in the planet, resulting in a pronounced wobble that will cause things to fall off the top shelves in your house.
Pff-ff-ff-ff :lol:

-J
 

Jastermereel

Active member
Dec 20, 2008
3,343
0
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

Selling 50% of your items each month is really optimistic (on COMC).
 

tonsofcommons

Active member
Aug 20, 2008
6,102
13
Iowa
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

I like to aim high!

Just used it as a jumping point.
 

markakis8

Active member
Oct 31, 2008
12,081
2
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

Jastermereel said:
Selling 50% of your items each month is really optimistic (on COMC).

I'm curious, with your current inventory....how many offers AND sales do you average daily? I only ask b/c I have about 1/10th of what you have.
 

Jastermereel

Active member
Dec 20, 2008
3,343
0
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

Well they have uploaded about 5500/6500 cards I sent in for the special. I've priced about 2000 of those (still about 3500 to price). When stuff is freshly listed you get a lot more offers/sales. My prices are pretty fair, so I sell a lot more stuff straight out rather than through offers. I reject about 80% of offers.
 

tonsofcommons

Active member
Aug 20, 2008
6,102
13
Iowa
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

What price level are the cards you are selling? Do you do a percentage of BV? If so, what % do you use?
 

markakis8

Active member
Oct 31, 2008
12,081
2
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

tonsofcommons said:
What price level are the cards you are selling? Do you do a percentage of BV? If so, what % do you use?

i know it may hurt some of my sales on COMC b/c they use BV as a basis, but I NEVER EVER go by BV. I go by what I know I can get for the card. Period.

Beckett just never keeps up with current sales. The mark a price on a card and move on. Sure they might change prices by player if one gets hot, but that's about it.
 

Jastermereel

Active member
Dec 20, 2008
3,343
0
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

I go by what I think the card is worth.
 

tonsofcommons

Active member
Aug 20, 2008
6,102
13
Iowa
Re: Another COMC thread... Talk me out of sending cards to them.

Ah, ok. Wasn't sure how you guys did it.
 

MansGame

Active member
Sep 25, 2009
15,324
20
Dallas, TX
Very very very interesting excel model... are you in banking or finance? I am and I love seeing things like this... anyways, looks like COMCs has a better fee system BUT eBay is a much larger leader when it comes to actual market and getting your item out there... that is until COMCs become better known IMO.
 

CollectorsCorner

Super Moderator
Feb 13, 2009
30,779
0
I just looked up my fees for this month paypal/shipping/eBay etc and I pay less than 20% for eBay. Your scale definitely works on cheap cards but I don't see it holding true when you are selling bigger cards.

I also buy and sell on COMC and I sell junk so that I can buy nicer cards to flip on eBay. Never have and never will cash out so I do enjoy what they offer.
 

saraceno21

New member
Oct 18, 2012
38
0
It would be good if the agreement that COMC has with Beckett allows for Beckett to have the prices cards sell for on the site to help them adjust book prices accordingly.
 

DaClyde

Well-known member
Jan 17, 2010
1,614
58
Huntsville, AL
It would be good if the agreement that COMC has with Beckett allows for Beckett to have the prices cards sell for on the site to help them adjust book prices accordingly.

I bet they do get that data, and they likely ignore anything that doesn't support the inflated values they endorse.
 
Apr 23, 2012
405
0
New Orleans
I'm sure Beckett could get the data if they were interested... but they can barely get their publications out, let alone update their pricing model.

COMC on the other hand is a tech-savvy company with motivated management, and they now own a few years of fairly reliable pricing data. It would be a huge project and I don't think it fits their business model... but it would be great to see them work with it, or license it to someone who would.

I would think they have some sense of the value of all the data, since they do not provide any completed sales info on the site.
 

Bob Loblaw

Active member
Aug 21, 2008
11,213
2
Bright House Field
I have a problem with paying them $200 up front to take 1000 "$2" cards.

Your model didn't, I don't think, account for any potential profit made on S/H through eBay. Charging even $2.50 per allows a minimal profit of about $.25-.30 after paypal and ebay fees.
 

tonsofcommons

Active member
Aug 20, 2008
6,102
13
Iowa
This is just a model. There are many variables that I didn't take in to account.

The model does not take in to account potential profit from shipping (see note with shipping that it is at cost).

I think that COMC is fairly well known among collectors. Where they may not be well known is novice collectors and non collectors looking for cards for collectors.
[MENTION=3754]MansGame[/MENTION]. Neither, sales, but I have a degree in accounting and the accounting firm I worked for out of college loved Excel, so I retained that love.

Also, something that this model doesn't take in to account is the time savings to not have to manage your own sales. You just send the cards away and forget it. I will gladly pay the listing fee to not have to screw with it. My time is worth more than the listing fees.

Just did some checking and if you average $5, you are still better to go with COMC, but as the average sales price gets higher, Ebay starts to make more sense.

For low end inserts and rare stuff, I still think that COMC is the best route.

I just see a substantial increase in the amount I get for cards on COMC compared to what I would get on Ebay.

Best examples from the 11 days that I have had cards live...

Curtis Keaton 2000 Topps MVP parallel- $6. Probably wouldn't have gotten a 99 cent bid on Ebay
Nick Foles UD Letter Auto- $40. Ebay last one sold for $30
Topps Blacks going for $3-$5. Aren't getting that on Ebay.

Just some examples.

Still feel ebay has a place, but COMC is well worth the upfront cost.
 

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