Questions regarding creating a site similar to sportslots

prospectorgems · Nov 10, 2011

I put this on the hobby board because I feel as though it is related.

I have noticed lately that quite a few people have been complaining about sportlots on this board and a few other boards about the lack of loading new checklists and the use of the site.

I was thinking of looking into creating a site similar to sportslots with a very user friendly site, old and new checklists and possibly a lower minimum selling point for each card.

I would like some opinions on this idea for those of you that have used sportslots or contemplated on using it. Do you think there would be a market for it? I know that COMC has taken over the market on lower end cards, but with fees and such, sending your base cards to COMC, in my opinion, be a waste of money.

I also wonder how much time it would take to maintain a site like this because there are going to be disputes with people not receiving their cards or damaged cards from sellers.

hofmichael · Nov 10, 2011

I would use it if it were more user friendly and current.I am currently a Sportlots seller now.I would think if successful it would become a full time job.

braden · Nov 10, 2011

I sell on Sportlots (well, list on Sportlots- sales are sporadic at best) and am constantly frustrated. The biggest downfall is the lack of an easy search function once you're in a seller's inventory. Often I'll find a card or two I need from a seller and get frustrated trying to find a few more and just pooch the entire order.

prospectorgems · Nov 10, 2011

Thanks for your comments. I do feel as though it may become a full time job and if it did I would be sure to have a crew to assist with it.

Anyone else want to chime in?

miguelcabrera · Nov 10, 2011

braden said:
I sell on Sportlots (well, list on Sportlots- sales are sporadic at best) and am constantly frustrated. The biggest downfall is the lack of an easy search function once you're in a seller's inventory. Often I'll find a card or two I need from a seller and get frustrated trying to find a few more and just pooch the entire order.

this

mjbuchanan80 · Nov 10, 2011

I have also thought about doing this exact same thing. Right now it's kinda of on the back-burner while I explore more of a justcommons.com business model.

The hardest part by far is acquiring the checklists and databasing the info. The # of hours Max has spent creating the lists is probably mind blowing. I have had conversations with him and he spends a majority of his time on customer service, fixing errors, and loading new checklists. The bummer about all of this you you don't get to really handle/look at cards as part of the business - it's all data.

Austin · Nov 10, 2011

I'd use your new site.
Sportlots is a pain in the ass to navigate, and as a set collector, it sucks paying 18 cents each for several crappy 1992 Topps or 1988 Score commons I need.

cgilmo · Nov 10, 2011

I'm actually cooking something up.

rymflaherty · Nov 10, 2011

I'd check a site like that out.
I love the idea of COMC - but as a seller I still can;t see how it makes much sense, so I've never sent anything in.
I just started scanning everything by team in my photobucket with most cards listed $.25-1.00. All that's really done is help me organize things, because I haven;t sold a damn thing lol......so I'd be interested in finding a site like you described to buy/sell stuff.
To me it felt like a shame to have cards just sitting in boxes that other's could use and I was trying to think of some way to sell them outside Ebay.

MojoDan · Nov 10, 2011

cgilmo said:
I'm actually cooking something up.

I'm interested now

mchenrycards · Nov 10, 2011

More user friendly would be great!!

My feeling is that the cost to sell on there is prohibitive if you only sell a few cards a month. Its crazy to pay that large of a seller fee if you only happen to sell a few cards per month. I know they do that to get you to list more cards but so many of the sets are diluted with many many copies of the same cards is stupid t try and list allot.

A more user friendly site with fair seller fees would draw a good number of sellers and buyer!!

cgilmo · Nov 10, 2011

my take on a sports card market place is that the fees for the casual user isn't the problem

The lack of understanding of the niche is.

The lack of understanding that the people who sell on your site are ESSENTIAL to keeping your site running is important as well. When my stuff gets running it will have a similar fee structure to ebay. People who list at a level that is more than casual will recieve discounts immediately and the discounts keep getting better with volume.

I am also planning to do discounts for items listed on release day, as well as cafeteria style plans. I've got some good ideas, can't wait to use them.

bouwob · Nov 10, 2011

checklists are killer to a site especially for bulk sellers. I deal strictly with nolan ryan (I do not sell anything) but have likely 1300 doubles. last thing I want to do is go through each card in the checklist to match it up.

rsmath · Nov 11, 2011

prospectorgems said:
Do you think there would be a market for it? I know that COMC has taken over the market on lower end cards, but with fees and such, sending your base cards to COMC, in my opinion, be a waste of money.

I also wonder how much time it would take to maintain a site like this because there are going to be disputes with people not receiving their cards or damaged cards from sellers.

My market for sportlots is to sell off duplicates I don't need (or inserts I don't care for) and to buy commons to finish up sets I"m working on. I definitely thing there is room for a competitor in the set-building market.

I really don't like mrmem's because it's very expensive commons when you go from 25 cents to 40 cents a common or minor star (18cents each plus reasonable shipping works for me for sportlots) and COMC is shipping ripoff city starting at $3.00 and 25 cents for each additional card.

I like the fairly automated dispute resolution that sportlots uses - start with automation like sportlots or ebay with a facility for manual resolution beyond some point (where you or a staffer can look over the case and make a final sale if the buyer and seller cant' resolve through automated communication). You may need manpower for monitoring email communications just to make sure no funny stuff is
going on. The sportlots site owner was unaware until I notified him about a scammer who tried to scam me but failed through a combination of placing an unpaid order and sending me a site message communication and I don't know if that scammer was able to rip off other sellers before the sportlots site owner closed his account and cancelled the orders.

If gilmore is going to do something similar to sportlots, I hope he considers set-builders rather than make another ebay that is really not set up for set builders to get commons to finish sets.

Edit: it would also be great to have a section for multisport sets - i'm having a tough time finishing off my UD superstars set (and probably will when I am ready to buy the final cards for my UD world of sports) - sportlots prohibits multisport sets on their site even despite the fact they are sports-related.

Mrpokey · Nov 11, 2011

I personally would like a site thats a mix of COMC and Sportlots. Something along the lines of sending your cards in (COMC) and having them scanned for you, but instead of paying the fee's up front, pay them after each sale, maybe a percentage or something. I have tons of cards I'd love to send to COMC, but paying shipping, then the minimum $.2 per card + $3 per batch, puts me off. I think all the cards I'd send in would sell, but if they don't, I feel like I'd just lose money. Not to mention, all the up front money just to send in a few thousand cards. I'd be willing to even pay higher fee's to COMC, if they'd take the fee's out of each sale, as opposed to the up front cost

mchenrycards · Nov 11, 2011

cgilmo said:
my take on a sports card market place is that the fees for the casual user isn't the problem

The lack of understanding of the niche is.

The lack of understanding that the people who sell on your site are ESSENTIAL to keeping your site running is important as well. When my stuff gets running it will have a similar fee structure to ebay. People who list at a level that is more than casual will recieve discounts immediately and the discounts keep getting better with volume.

I am also planning to do discounts for items listed on release day, as well as cafeteria style plans. I've got some good ideas, can't wait to use them.

Looking forward to this Chris. I have nearly a million cards in my garage from my card shop that I closed up 8 years ago and I would gladly list thousands of cards on a site like the one you are describing provided its user friendly. I just dont like how slow Sportslot is for me and the fact that there are huge multiples of mostly all the same cards keeps me from listing more.

tpeichel · Nov 11, 2011

Although it is nice to see a front/back scan of every card like COMC, it adds enormous overhead to the site. However, one of my biggest complaints with Sportlots is not having at least a front/back scan of a sample from the set. The one scan and a simple set description would be helpful when you went to a set page. It would be crucial feature if the site offered all unlicensed cards and other items not cataloged in Beckett. Sportslots and COMC will allow you to sell the unlicensed stuff listed in Beckett like magazine inserts from Topps and the '84-'89 O'Connells, '83 KG Glossys, but reject 90%. eBay allows people to sell unlicensed stuff left and right, why not other sites?

Once you have the comprehensive data, you'll become a resource for collectors. You see people asking for player lists all the time. You could even have a checklist feature that generates a checklist for their player or team and emails it to them in a spreadsheet, complete with links to the front/back scan on the associated set page on your site.

I guess one of the big questions is how are you going to get all of the data?

A few other thing.

1) I like the data entry features on Sportlots, once you get to the set page.
2) I haven't had any problems with unlimited offers and notes from users on Sportlots which is restricted on COMC
3) Having to sell $100 per month on Sportlots to get the best discount is frustrating, especially when they do not even have a comprehensive list of sets available to input your data.
4) If possible, it would be good to use paypal for individual payments since I love to fill orders by printing a label, taping it to the bubble mailer, and walking downstairs to leave it for the mailman. (Up to 3 ounces for $1.75 including DC is fantastic.)
5) eBay search is the best. COMC is not bad, but Sportlots is horrible.

Casebusters · Nov 11, 2011

Mrpokey said:
I personally would like a site thats a mix of COMC and Sportlots. Something along the lines of sending your cards in (COMC) and having them scanned for you, but instead of paying the fee's up front, pay them after each sale, maybe a percentage or something. I have tons of cards I'd love to send to COMC, but paying shipping, then the minimum $.2 per card + $3 per batch, puts me off. I think all the cards I'd send in would sell, but if they don't, I feel like I'd just lose money. Not to mention, all the up front money just to send in a few thousand cards. I'd be willing to even pay higher fee's to COMC, if they'd take the fee's out of each sale, as opposed to the up front cost

They would be working for days for each person before they get paid? How long would it take you to scan 1,000 cards and then list the 1000 cards on the site?
Instead of doing that, just sell all your cards in bulk to someone else and you get paid upfront and have no work to worry about them.
I want to build my site like Burbank Sports Cards but with reasonable prices.
When I open my store, I will be buying bulk lots left & right!

miguelcabrera · Nov 11, 2011

tpeichel said:
Although it is nice to see a front/back scan of every card like COMC, it adds enormous overhead to the site. However, one of my biggest complaints with Sportlots is not having at least a front/back scan of a sample from the set. The one scan and a simple set description would be helpful when you went to a set page. It would be crucial feature if the site offered all unlicensed cards and other items not cataloged in Beckett. Sportslots and COMC will allow you to sell the unlicensed stuff listed in Beckett like magazine inserts from Topps and the '84-'89 O'Connells, '83 KG Glossys, but reject 90%. eBay allows people to sell unlicensed stuff left and right, why not other sites?

Once you have the comprehensive data, you'll become a resource for collectors. You see people asking for player lists all the time. You could even have a checklist feature that generates a checklist for their player or team and emails it to them in a spreadsheet, complete with links to the front/back scan on the associated set page on your site.

I guess one of the big questions is how are you going to get all of the data?

A few other thing.

1) I like the data entry features on Sportlots, once you get to the set page.
2) I haven't had any problems with unlimited offers and notes from users on Sportlots which is restricted on COMC
3) Having to sell $100 per month on Sportlots to get the best discount is frustrating, especially when they do not even have a comprehensive list of sets available to input your data.
4) If possible, it would be good to use paypal for individual payments since I love to fill orders by printing a label, taping it to the bubble mailer, and walking downstairs to leave it for the mailman. (Up to 3 ounces for $1.75 including DC is fantastic.)
5) eBay search is the best. COMC is not bad, but Sportlots is horrible.

this

braden · Nov 11, 2011

The fees don't bother me. And this is coming from someone who sells under $10 a month there. It gets cards out of my house and into someone else's. It's all stuff I'd gladly give away for postage anyway.

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