COMC Sales Soaring with New eBay Option

Since announcing a partnership about seven weeks ago, COMC has processed the sale of over 33,000 of its members’ trading cards through the company’s new eBay store, a number they say has “exceeded expectations.”

On June 1, COMC offered its users the opportunity to make their portfolios available on eBay as part of a BETA testing phase.  Users have had the option to list on Amazon since 2011 but opening up the program on the world’s largest buying and selling platform for collectibles has resulted in a large increase in sales for some users.  There’s no work involved for members, other than opting into the eBay/Amazon programs. The only catch is that users agree to accept 20% less for any cards sold on either platform.

“We started out small with only a few thousand listings,” COMC’s Grant Wescott told Sports Collectors Daily.  “Towards the end of June, we had a huge push where we added a large chunk of inventory, and that is where we really started seeing the increase in sales.”

In fact, when eBay’s announcement was made, only about 10,000 cards were listed.  As of Monday afternoon, that number had grown to over three million.  Thousands more are  being added each day as the company tries to catch up with the 2,541 sellers who have opted into the program and elected to have COMC cross list their inventory.  While 3,417 sellers have so far chosen not to make their COMC holdings available on eBay, Wescott says the latter group holds less than 1.6 million items. Eleven million of the 12.7 million cards currently for sale on COMC.com are already listed on Amazon.

“By far the biggest challenge for handling this project has been meeting the shipping and customer service demand, as we’ve effectively doubled the number of cards going out the door,” stated Wescott, who worked with eBay on the logistics. “We have been increasing our shipping and customer service staff all year long in anticipation of eBay, but our eBay store has been somewhat of an overnight success. We’re now walking the fine line between adding more listings and keeping up with the sales they bring. It’s a good problem to have, but our customers come first and we want to do everything we can to give everyone a great experience with COMC, on COMC.com, Amazon, and eBay.”

COMC, which launched as CheckOutMyCards.com in 2007, allows users to send an unlimited number of vintage or modern cards in penny sleeves to their Seattle area facility where the fronts and backs are scanned and cards are posted in the user’s Inventory section. Members then add prices and list them for sale with one mouse click.  Per card fees are charged for processing and storage but COMC packages and ships all cards that are sold on its own site, eBay and Amazon.  Sellers can use proceeds to “buy” cards from other users on COMC.com or “cash out” in which case COMC keeps 20%.

The eBay sales data is something COMC officials have been monitoring. “Our average sale price on eBay is more than $6 a card. The average sale price on COMC.com has traditionally been around $2,” Wescott revealed.

So far, the most expensive card sold through the COMC eBay store has been a 2004 Playoff Contenders #106 Ben Roethlisberger BGS 9.5  rookie card, which was purchased for $1,289.

COMC has been in growth mode even without the increased business from eBay and Wescott says they may have a job for you.

“While we anticipated a significant bump in sales due to the increased exposure on eBay, the demand has exceeded our expectations, even with a fraction of our inventory currently listed for sale. We have been on large hiring drive this year to gear up for the many opportunities coming our way, adding 16 new members to our staff so far. Even with this, we are still growing to meet the demand.”

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]