COMC Competition

[TPence1970]

Opinions wanted - is there room in the hobby for a site to compete with Check Out My Cards ?


If you answer yes, what features would you like to see different from what they offer ? I'm gauging interest for a potential business venture in the future.


Thanks in advance for your opinion.

[3124508 on COMC]

These type of threads come up every other month. I've never seen one pan out in the slightest.

Not trying to dissuade you, just an observation.

[OLDPAPER]

I don't see it happening. Just so many moving parts that have to be involved for what is already a niche market.

[37Jetson]

Anything is possible, but I guarantee developing a competing site will not be cheap nor easy.

Reality aside I would think that their would be an opportunity for the consignment site that has rates lower or equal to EBay. It would not be possible to do this with $1 cards, but there is niche in my opinion.

[pskell02]

The only change I would want really is the fee structure.

[SanAntonioSpurs]

It's doable if you have backing from investors. There's always room for competition and right now COMC doesn't have any. That's why they do the things they do, fees, sorry customer service, careless with cards and so on.

Just read through the "All I want to do is talk about COMC" thread. You will see plenty of things people want fixed/changed/added.

[mc1]

10 cent processing fee

4-5% cash out fee

That would be a good start

[13goyankees13]

If a competitor offers the same service at a significantly lower price with about the same number of customers, I'm sure people will begin submitting there. The problems are:

1. The initial cost of setting up the website, getting warehouse space, getting a team of employees together, developing the checklists, and getting near the number of customers as COMC is likely in the hundreds of thousands
2. COMC would likely undercut your prices. They likely operate more efficiently than you and could price lower than you. Even if they couldn't, they could lower prices temporarily and operate at a loss knowing that they can take losses for much longer than you.

I'd love to see something like this because it would be great for customers but I doubt anyone could make it work.

[Dragonman]

Originally Posted by mc1

10 cent processing fee

4-5% cash out fee

That would be a good start

Thats a recipe for bankrupcy.

[3124508 on COMC]

Originally Posted by mc1

10 cent processing fee

4-5% cash out fee

That would be a good start

If we're sharing our dreams. . .

1 cent processing fee

.4-.5% cash out fee

[trmpetyjo]

I know one thing, with all the scammers on ebay, and charge backs going on right now, this hobby is in desperate need of middle man/broker. A safe, trustworthy place that buyer and seller can send merchandise to hold monies and verify accurate descriptions before sales are final. It would be a bazillion dollar business. Ebay used to offer square trade which was sort of a middle man, but not really. The hobby needs a baseball card exchange type of place where they can verify the seller is sending the correct stuff from his description and the buyer can't say he got something different then he did. I would gladly pay a commission for a service like that.

[ih8ca]

I feel that the comc fee structure is very fair. The only thing I wish that could get down is the 20% plus 20% ebay amazon fee. You need to realize that the sell through rate on most ebay store consignments is horrible because everybody thinks there stuff is more valuable than it is and it just sits. Another thing that COMC has done a very great job is creating an artificial market with the no fees for buying cards on the site and using the store credit to pay fees.
What I would like to see as an improvement on comc is better marketing and make it more user friendly for searching cards and better sellers out.

[ih8ca]

Originally Posted by trmpetyjo

I know one thing, with all the scammers on ebay, and charge backs going on right now, this hobby is in desperate need of middle man/broker. A safe, trustworthy place that buyer and seller can send merchandise to hold monies and verify accurate descriptions before sales are final. It would be a bazillion dollar business. Ebay used to offer square trade which was sort of a middle man, but not really. The hobby needs a baseball card exchange type of place where they can verify the seller is sending the correct stuff from his description and the buyer can't say he got something different then he did. I would gladly pay a commission for a service like that.

Other companies are working on this for higher ticket items. I feel this all the outside interest in the card business from the investment side, we will be seeing a lot of changes.

[glen87]

Originally Posted by mc1

10 cent processing fee

4-5% cash out fee

That would be a good start

as nice as that is, and as much as i would like it - they would not be operable long with those fees

[cruiserdaddy7]

It's the 20% ebay fee plus all the quarters they beat us out of. That's what I'm not a fan of.

[mjohnatgt]

#thereisnobettermousetrap
#moneypittotry
#whynotjuststartagradingcompanytoo

[mintacular]

Better search engine

[checkoutmydeals]

I do think it would be possible to set up a rival site, if the focus were on items which COMC either doesn't sell, or which they don't focus much attention on.

I think a COMC site with Disney Pins would probably work. Stamps and coins might also be a possibility.

A site which treated comic books seriously would also work. It's impossible to shop for comics on COMC, because they aren't even organized by the decade the comic was published. Also, their prohibition on items which aren't "family friendly" seriously hampers their ability to deal in comics which people actually collect.

Things like Magic, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards would work better if there was a system where the cards could be sorted by rarity, type, power, toughness, artist, or whether they are legal in a certain format.

The "family friendly" policy also affects fantasy art and Benchwarmer type cards, though I'm not sure how large a market that would be.

One feature that would be nice is if it were possible for people to trade / sell low dollar and common cards among themselves without having to ship them to the cental warehouse.

If there was some feature which allowed people to group items into multiple-item lots, that might also work. Maybe the consignor could put cards on a 9 / 6 / 4 / 12 pocket page and offer the entire sheet as one thing for one price. Or, maybe they could fill a 100 count / 300 count / 550 count box with items and offer the entire contents as one thing for one price.

I'm not sure how necessary it is to have scans of the exact card the buyer is going to receive. Possibly a site which used stock images for low-priced cards and used co-mingled inventory could work.

The ability to sell / trade sealed packs / boxes or cases might be useful.

For that matter, some sort of trading system in general could be useful.

There are person-to-person Magic card trading sites like Pucatrade and Cardsphere which have worked in the past. On these sites, people send cards to one another, rather than directly consigning them to the customer. Cardsphere uses a fee structure similar to COMC, where you can build up credit and then cash out the credit for actual cash at a reduced rate. However, they also charge a fee to trade. 1% to trade (minimum 1 cent per card) and then 10% cashout fee.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by 3124508 on COMC

If we're sharing our dreams. . .

1 cent processing fee

.4-.5% cash out fee

I'm not speaking about my personal preference. I'm just throwing out a number based on all the complaining about ebay fees I've seen on these and other boards.

Many (most?) sellers feel that companies like eBay and amazon are ripping them off so that's why I thought a lower fee structure would draw them to an alternative.

[3124508 on COMC]

Originally Posted by mc1

I'm not speaking about my personal preference. I'm just throwing out a number based on all the complaining about ebay fees I've seen on these and other boards.

Many (most?) sellers feel that companies like eBay and amazon are ripping them off so that's why I thought a lower fee structure would draw them to an alternative.

My problem is that it isn't reasonable to have those rates. A start-up company would need to have higher rates than COMC and Ebay to get enough capital to handle lots of volume and subsequently lower their fees. Lower fees are GREAT, but you can't just go from 0 to a company that can undercut Ebay. It's not profitable.

ETA: But I guess if you can, than there's your niche.

[Xazark]

expanding the range available, removing the 'family friendly' requirement, better search and filtering options, ability to trade items with other users, ability to sell sealed packs/boxes and even other collectible things like POPs, Figures etc.., ability to sell sets or lots easily, especially things like complete base sets and insert sets

[checkoutmydeals]

I think that it would be most likely to work if it were an extension of an existing business rather than a 100% startup. For example, mycomicshop dot com started out as the website of one of the largest comic book stores in the country. They have a buy list where you can sell them stuff directly that they specifically need, or they'll buy collections, or you can consign items with them of sufficient value. When you consign, you can opt to have your item auctioned or you can price it at a buy it now.

Comics on the site are cross-posted to eBay all the time. It's one of the largest sellers of comics on eBay.

Now, if mycomicshop were to adopt the COMC practice of allowing people to buy items on the website and reprice them at a higher price, I'd be all over it.

Similarly, there are Magic card sites and Pokemon card sites which started out as the website of a brick and mortar store, and now they do millions of dollars in business per year, in part by cross-posting to eBay and Amazon. If it were possible to flip cards on those sites, the way I can flip cards on COMC, I'd also be all over that.

Amazon started out as an online bookseller who also let other people sell books on their site. If it were possible to buy an item in the Amazon warehouse for one price, and then relist it on Amazon for a higher price, without taking physical delivery of the item, I'd be all over that as well.

[TPence1970]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far with opinions & ideas. Please keep them coming.

[Budler]

Originally Posted by TPence1970

Opinions wanted - is there room in the hobby for a site to compete with Check Out My Cards ?


If you answer yes, what features would you like to see different from what they offer ? I'm gauging interest for a potential business venture in the future.


Thanks in advance for your opinion.

YES There is room for a competitor. Just ask K-mart when Wal-Mart started to expand. now it is Amazon.

Look at COMC years ago. How they started? What were they selling then and now what are they selling. They started out with commons and now it is graded cards and Amazon, E-bay and Deans cards. They have come a long ways baby.

How long did it take to get to 50 million items. If you remember it was a BIG deal when they hit 1 million cards. They made a lot of changes along the way to make themselves profitable or just to stay in business.

Sportslot is changing also. You see a lot of higher priced cards there now days.

A lot of ideals have been thrown your way.

[Soxrule111]

Originally Posted by 3124508 on COMC

My problem is that it isn't reasonable to have those rates. A start-up company would need to have higher rates than COMC and Ebay to get enough capital to handle lots of volume and subsequently lower their fees. Lower fees are GREAT, but you can't just go from 0 to a company that can undercut Ebay. It's not profitable.

ETA: But I guess if you can, than there's your niche.

I think this can be argued. People might have varying opinions on profitable.

COMC might want to clear $1million plus, or put $500k in the Top Guys pockets.

If someone could start up a similar site and bank $105k he could be happy, doing what he loves, and hope to improve over 10 years. (lets not forget how long comc has been around)