COMC $3/day sale - worth it?

[cyndeeg3]

I just decided to try it, wondering if anyone has had success?

[Axe]

I just decided to try it, wondering if anyone has had success?

whats the special exactly?

[coolz]

I guess if your port is big enough, it could be worth it

[smit5004]

I'm curious of this as well so please keep us updates on your sales in comparison to normal, and anyone else with experience I'd love to hear some feedback.

[checkoutmydeals]

I have over 50,000 items in my account, and have run 92 $3 sales so far this year.

On an average sale day, my sales increase an average of 38% by dollar amount and 77% by number of items sold. Most sales were in the 30% to 40% off range.

My general sense is that the sales tool is a good tool, but that it is overpriced for the average person. One suggestion is to give each account one free sale per month on a day of the seller's choosing. That way, there would be more variety in the sales being offered, sellers could experiment with various pricing models, yet the site wouldn't be overloaded with sales as they were during the Black Friday and Spring Cleaning promotions.

I haven't run sales much lately, and the results above are skewed somewhat by this.

[smit5004]

I have over 50,000 items in my account, and have run 92 $3 sales so far this year.

On an average sale day, my sales increase an average of 38% by dollar amount and 77% by number of items sold. Most sales were in the 30% to 40% off range.

My general sense is that the sales tool is a good tool, but that it is overpriced for the average person. One suggestion is to give each account one free sale per month on a day of the seller's choosing. That way, there would be more variety in the sales being offered, sellers could experiment with various pricing models, yet the site wouldn't be overloaded with sales as they were during the Black Friday and Spring Cleaning promotions.

I haven't run sales much lately, and the results above are skewed somewhat by this.



when you run sales do u raise your prices pre-sale. Like most of my cards I've priced lowest on the site in hopes of selling them, I feel if I took another 30% off of that I'd just be costing myself money but the fact that it is "on sale" if my cards we just priced 30% higher it would be more attractive.

[mrwalken]

when you run sales do u raise your prices pre-sale. Like most of my cards I've priced lowest on the site in hopes of selling them, I feel if I took another 30% off of that I'd just be costing myself money but the fact that it is "on sale" if my cards we just priced 30% higher it would be more attractive.

I doubt if these kinds of gimmicks really work. I recently saw a seller increase his prices by like a factor of 5, and then run an 80% off sale. I tend to think buyers would see through that, but I've never tried it.

In terms of sales, I've never found moderate decreases in prices very effective. I think buyers basically fall into two categories:
1) People who insist on extreme discounts (often flippers)
2) Collectors who just want the card and will buy the cheapest one available

So, basically, you need to drop your prices enough to get sales from category 1. Otherwise, as you said, you would just be costing yourself money since category 2 isn't going to change its habits much based on a 30% discount if you were already the low price.

[Blue_Devil]

To be honest I have had much more success using the port sale than the $3 dollar sale. I sell 3 times as many cards when I have a port sale listed as I do when I use the 3 dollar sale. 3 dollars a day + 3% vs. 10 dollars for a week with many more sales? No brainer. You do, however, have to deal with the countless jackasses obsessed with lowballing you with absolutely ludicrous port offers.

[checkoutmydeals]

I don't raise prices pre-sale. I usually set my prices as the lowest on the site when I first price the item, though it's always possible that I'll be undercut after that.

I agree with mrwalken that there are two main types of buyers. The retail buyers want what they want, and are willing to pay a certain price for those items they want. Sometimes a sale might jiggle a price to a level where they'll snatch up a card, but you aren't going to get them to buy something they don't want to buy simply because it's cheap. Or at least, not with a 30% discount to retail.

On the other side are the flippers, who don't particularly care which item they wind up with so long as they perceive that they have a good chance at making a certain profit on it. Those people also aren't going to be swayed by a 30% discount to retail.

There does appear to be a 3rd type of COMC buyer - one who is generally a retail buyer, but who will buy something they're kinda sorta interested in if the price is right. For example, someone might be a big Chicago Bears fan, and though they weren't actually looking for a certain $15 Book Value insert of a scrub Bears player for $3, they'll pick one up here and there because it's cheap. Maybe they'll try to resell it for a modest profit and if it doesn't sell, they'll add it to their next shipment.

My perception is that those people have largely disappeared from the site since the Beckett values went away. They aren't completely gone, because a person who is into a particular sport might still pay $9 per month for that sport's Beckett values. But more likely, they have a want list and the decision to buy is based more on the asking price in dollars, rather than the asking price relative to Beckett.

It's like a card show where a dealer might have a $1 box. People will dig through the box and pull out stuff they'll buy for $1. Toward the end of the show, maybe the dealer will offer cards in the box for 75 cents or 50 cents. That might bring out a few more sales, but it isn't going to make someone buy the whole box. If the dealer offers the whole box to someone for 20 cents per card, that person might take it. But the buyer is likely to be another dealer, and they'll only buy if the cards in the box actually have some business being in a $1 box.