eBay vs COMC - A Comparison

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GotMelky

GotMelky

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So with the lovely weather outside ;) and being at home looking at the giant piles of cards that are starting to take over my office space I decided I need to start selling more cards. I have been doing some eBay and am very familiar with it, but have been looking at COMC more and more lately as a possible selling source. I have used COMC for purchases only at this point (minus two sells of duplicate cards I purchased).

Basically what I did was create a spread sheet that shows a hypothetical group of sales and breaks down the cost of selling and what the net would look like. For my experiment I assumed that 100 cards were listed and sold at an average of $3.00 per card.

For shipping on eBay I used what I charge to ship - $2.26 per item (combined shipping not taken into account) and that covers actual costs(Postage/Mailer/Sleeve/Top Loader/Ink/Paper/Gas/Tape/etc.) and you take a loss when you do that. I calculated eBay fees at 9% off the gross sales so the gross was $526.00 ($300 sales, $226 shipping). Paypal fees were also deducted from the amount as well. This also assumes you start your auctions all at .99 - the fees would increase as you up the bid price.

For COMC I included the cost to ship the cards to COMC ($5.00 or so for 100 cards) as part of that solution as well. The cash out fee is 20% but that is the only fee after you pay processing.

Here are the net amounts as calculated:

eBay Auctions - $228.49 (Gross $526.00 - Shipping $226.00 - Fees $71.51)

eBay Basic Store - $192.32 (Gross $526 - Shipping $226.00 - Fees $107.68)

COMC - 1 Week Processing - $197.00 (Gross $300 - Shipping $5.00 - Fees $98.00)

COMC - 4 Week Processing - $212.00 (Gross $300 - Shipping $5.00 - Fees $83.00)

Pretty similar looking nets with only a difference of $36.17 between the highest and lowest. What this doesn't take into account is the time it requires to list 100 auctions on eBay, ship 100 items, and deal with lame buyers. The auctions also only last a week - the other options continue (COMC charges .01 per card stored after the first 90 days I believe) until sold or removed.

So COMC may get an order from me pretty soon...I'm just wondering if cards sell well on there and what to send in.

On a side note - I probably need to find something to do as apparently I have too much time on my hands.
 
Interesting read. The time saved on not having to list the auctions and go to the PO so often would be the winning edge for me. Though COMC has so many cards I can use for my PC I'm sure I would use my profits there to get more PC items instead of cashing out:)
 
Isn't there an insertion fee on Ebay of 10 cents? Did you factor that in also? And if you are going to sell 100 cards a month, then a business account on both Ebay/Paypal would save you even more on fees, correct?
 
GotMelky said:
So COMC may get an order from me pretty soon...I'm just wondering if cards sell well on there and what to send in.

On a side note - I probably need to find something to do as apparently I have too much time on my hands.
Click to expand...

Send in stuff that sells well. It sounds silly and trite, but it's true. Look at what is there, find unique items that may have a market. Nothing like sending in your items only to find they have 5 or 6 (or dozens) of that card already, at that point the only hope of selling is to beat everyone elses price.

For example, 1994 Flair Hot gloves always seem to be a cool insert to pick up, but they have 6 copies of the Kenny Lofton, 5 of them ranging from $1.26-$2. Throwing a 7th one on there does nothing except cost you money unless you are going to be the lowest price on there, so you list it for $1. Now you spent .20 to list it along with the other few hundred cards you have, the shipping to get it there, and your $4 insert netted you a cool 77 cents. Get used to getting about 5-25% of BV before fees because anything priced to get you much more than that will mostly sit there accumulating storage charges. I picked up some $10 SP's for $1. If you've got medium dollar Pujols, Jeter, Ripken stuff, you might bump it to 25-35%. I paid $3.30 for a $10 Pujols Card, $5.10 for a $15 Ripken, $2.71 for a $10 Ichiro, and honestly they'd probably still be sitting there if I hadn't picked them up.

Anything worth less than $2 the percentages get skewed just because the percents are pennies. I've paid book or over for some Dan Gladden stuff, but you pretty much HAVE to, because a 30 cent 1988 Topps Tiffany common still costs 20 cents to list so anything under full book means they are literally selling it for pennies, and unless you can sell a LOAD of cards fast, pennies is going to take too long to be worthwhile on there.
 
I factored in the eBay auction charges for sure of .10 per listing - like I said if you list for more than .99 per auction the fees would increase.

Not sure what an eBay business account is - you can do the store thing which is the second option I listed. Your cards would sit and keep relisting every 30 days for an additional .20 per card at the basic level. Paypal charges the same to everyone up to $3,000 per month - I have a Premier account already. There is something called a Micropayment account that I have just started looking at for payments under $12.00 - however you have to sign up for a completely different account and I am not sure if eBay will even let you associate more than one Paypal account with your eBay account. The Micropayment charges .05 processing and 5% of the total.

BoomerSooner said:
Isn't there an insertion fee on Ebay of 10 cents? Did you factor that in also? And if you are going to sell 100 cards a month, then a business account on both Ebay/Paypal would save you even more on fees, correct?
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the input - I always think I know what will sell easily but...I am not other people.

valediction said:
Send in stuff that sells well. It sounds silly and trite, but it's true. Look at what is there, find unique items that may have a market. Nothing like sending in your items only to find they have 5 or 6 (or dozens) of that card already, at that point the only hope of selling is to beat everyone elses price.

For example, 1994 Flair Hot gloves always seem to be a cool insert to pick up, but they have 6 copies of the Kenny Lofton, 5 of them ranging from $1.26-$2. Throwing a 7th one on there does nothing except cost you money unless you are going to be the lowest price on there, so you list it for $1. Now you spent .20 to list it along with the other few hundred cards you have, the shipping to get it there, and your $4 insert netted you a cool 77 cents. Get used to getting about 5-25% of BV before fees because anything priced to get you much more than that will mostly sit there accumulating storage charges. I picked up some $10 SP's for $1. If you've got medium dollar Pujols, Jeter, Ripken stuff, you might bump it to 25-35%. I paid $3.30 for a $10 Pujols Card, $5.10 for a $15 Ripken, $2.71 for a $10 Ichiro, and honestly they'd probably still be sitting there if I hadn't picked them up.

Anything worth less than $2 the percentages get skewed just because the percents are pennies. I've paid book or over for some Dan Gladden stuff, but you pretty much HAVE to, because a 30 cent 1988 Topps Tiffany common still costs 20 cents to list so anything under full book means they are literally selling it for pennies, and unless you can sell a LOAD of cards fast, pennies is going to take too long to be worthwhile on there.
Click to expand...
 
I have sold on both, more recently on COMC.

Between the time saved and the convenience, it is by far the best choice. Be prepared to see horrible offers on a regular basis which you must counter or reject. The ability to sell the entire inventory (port) is a huge plus. I liquidated what I had left after a month of selling singles....I took a discount obviously, but still...if something isn't moving, why not package it and get rid of it.

The best cards to list are the ones that aren't already on there. Don't even bother with most stuff from the last 2-3 years, as there are big money guys that send entire cases worth of stuff in as soon as product is released. Any newer insert will probably have 15+ copies unless it is really rare (therefore, no money to be made on new stuff)

I do, however, locate cards on there that ebay has few and far between. I landed a Jerry Rice 88 Pro Set Test card today on an offer. Been looking for one for a long, long time at a good price.

Cory
 
Quote:"1994 Flair Hot gloves always seem to be a cool insert to pick up".

You could always find some Benchie that collects them too. Ahem.
 
Quote:"1994 Flair Hot gloves always seem to be a cool insert to pick up

You could always find some Benchie that collects them too. Ahem."

You could always find some benchie with a srtack of them on his desk too . ahem :)
 
Well, I think we collect a lot of the same things. Here's the last lot of 90 cards I sent into COMC the 1st of the year (and the selling price if there was one). I've sold 34 of them for $62, and half of that was made up of 3 cards. I've had my best luck selling off my Hamels and Verlander collections as I had harder-to-find stuff that sold pretty easily. But there's plenty on here that I thought would sell and I haven't even gotten offers on them.

Teixeira, Mark 2011 Finest 4 refractor #d/549
McCutchen, Andrew 2011 Finest 48 refractor #d/549 $0.75
Hosmer, Eric 2011 Finest 63 orange refractor #d/99 $16
Nunez, Eduardo 2011 Finest 105 refractor #d/499 autograph $6
Heyward, Jason 2011 Topps 510 Cognac Diamond $1
Mathews, Eddie 2011 Topps 60YOT-63 60 Years of Topps
Longoria, Evan 2011 Topps Chrome 13 atomic refractor #d/225 $2.20
Jeter, Derek 2011 Topps Heritage C105 chrome #d/1962
Teixeira, Mark 2011 Topps Heritage C110 chrome #d/1962
Rivera, Mariano 2011 Topps Heritage C168 chrome #d/1962
Jeter, Derek 2011 Topps Heritage C170 chrome #d/1962
Marichal, Juan 2011 Topps Lineage standup
Buck, John 2011 Topps Lineage 52A-JB autograph $1.20
Gibson, Bob 2011 Topps Marquee 12 gold #d/99 $2
Lee, Cliff 2011 Topps Triple Threads 6 #d/1500 $0.50
Stanton, Mike 2011 Topps Triple Threads 35 #d/1500 $0.50
Rodriguez, Alex 2011 Topps Triple Threads 95 #d/1500
Ford, Whitey 2011 Topps Triple Threads 98 sepia #d/625
Munson, Thurman 2011 Topps Triple Threads 80 gold #d/99 $0.90
Jones, Marion 2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 3 mini
Tate, Donavan 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects BCP90 purple refractor #d231/999 $1.50
Posey, Buster 2010 Bowman Platinum 18 $1.25
Longoria, Evan 2010 Finest 2 green refractor #d/99
Weeks, Rickie 2009 Topps Chrome 106 blue refractor #d/199
Weeks, Rickie 2009 Topps Chrome 106 gold refractor #d/50
Cabrera, Miguel 2009 Topps Chrome W21 refractor #d/500
Kuo, Yen-Wen 2009 Topps Chrome W77 refractor #d/500
Xia, Kangan 2009 Topps Chrome W80 refractor #d/500
Zhang, Zhenwang 2009 Topps Chrome W93 refractor #d/500
Lin, Po Yu 2009 Topps Chrome W57 blue refractor #d/199
Kao, Chih-Kang 2009 Topps Chrome W58 blue refractor #d/199
Uchikawa, Seiichi 2009 Topps Chrome W66 gold refractor #d/50 $5
Jones, Chipper 2009 Topps Tribute 63 blue #d/219
Sabathia, CC 2009 Topps Tribute 97 blue #d/219
Johnson, Randy 2009 Upper Deck APOH TM-RJ Timeless Moments turquoise #d/99
Berkman, Lance 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars 75 blue #d/170
Zimmerman, Ryan 2008 Finest 6 black refractor #d/99 $1.50
Smoltz, John 2008 Topps Co-Signers 10 w/Glavine #d/100
Maddux, Greg 2008 Topps Co-Signers 28 w/Giles #d/400 $1
Fielder, Prince 2008 Topps Co-Signers 60a w/Braun #d/400 $0.25
Fielder, Prince 2008 Topps Co-Signers 60a w/Braun #d/300 $0.50
Fielder, Prince 2008 Topps Co-Signers 60a w/Braun #d/250 $0.50
Fielder, Prince 2008 Topps Co-Signers 60a w/Braun #d/100
Wright, David 2008 Topps Co-Signers 80 w/Reyes #d/400 $0.50
Verlander, Justin 2008 Topps Triple Threads 131 sepia #d/525
Verlander, Justin 2008 Topps Triple Threads 131 emerald #d/240 $2.50
Verlander, Justin 2008 Topps Triple Threads 131 gold #d/99
Sabathia, C.C. 2008 Upper Deck APOH 84 blue #d/25
Verlander, Justin 2008 Upper Deck APOH SS22 Stadium Scenes blue #d/75
Rollins, Jimmy 2008 Upper Deck APOH TM-40 Timeless Moments blue #d/75 $1.50
Hamels, Cole 2008 Upper Deck Premier CP-SH Premier Combos w/Santana #d/25 $10
Verlander, Justin 2007 Finest RFM-JV Rookie Finest Moments $0.75
Iwamura, Akinori 2007 Topps '52 TCRC1 chrome #d/1952
Hernandez, Luis 2007 Topps '52 TCRC3 chrome #d/1952
Arias, Joaquin 2007 Topps '52 TCRC5 chrome #d/1952
Abreu, Tony 2007 Topps '52 TCRC10 chrome #d/1952
Buck, Travis 2007 Topps '52 TCRC11 chrome #d/1952
Buck, Travis 2007 Topps '52 TCRC11 chrome #d/1952
Haynes, Nathan 2007 Topps '52 TCRC22 chrome #d/1952
Barker, Sean 2007 Topps '52 TCRC24 chrome #d/1952
Lewis, Fred 2007 Topps '52 TCRC26 chrome #d/1952 $0.25
Burke, Jamie 2007 Topps '52 TCRC27 chrome #d/1952
Fontenot, Mike 2007 Topps '52 TCRC31 chrome #d/1952 $0.25
Pie, Felix 2007 Topps '52 TCRC32 chrome #d/1952
Kuwata, Masumi 2007 Topps '52 TCRC33 chrome #d/1952 $0.25
Clippard, Tyler 2007 Topps '52 TCRC37 chrome #d/1952 $0.25
Carroll, Brett 2007 Topps '52 TCRC40 chrome #d/1952
Montero, Miguel 2007 Topps '52 TCRC45 chrome #d/1952
Putnam, Danny 2007 Topps '52 TCRC46 chrome #d/1952
Youman, Shane 2007 Topps '52 TCRC51 chrome #d/1952
Riggans, Shawn 2007 Topps '52 TCRC59 chrome #d/1952
Smith, Joe 2007 Topps '52 TCRC68 chrome #d/1952
Speigner, Levale 2007 Topps '52 TCRC74 chrome #d/1952
Segovia, Zack 2007 Topps '52 TCRC78 chrome #d/1952
Stokes, Brian 2007 Topps '52 TCRC86 chrome #d/1952
Murphy, David 2007 Topps '52 TCRC89 chrome #d/1952
Hampson, Justin 2007 Topps '52 TCRC92 chrome #d/1952
Slaten, Doug 2007 Topps '52 TCRC93 chrome #d/1952
Fielder, Prince 2007 Topps Co-Signers 40 w/Hall #d/199 $0.50
Ortiz, David 2007 Ultimate 56 #d/450
Sizemore, Grady 2007 Ultimate 63 #d/450
Johnson, Randy 2007 Upper Deck Exquisite 67 #d/99
Verlander, Justin 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter 74 mini $3
Howard, Ryan 2006 Topps Chrome 275 black refractor #d 006/549
Teixeira, Mark 2006 Ultimate 92 #d/799
Young, Michael 2005 Leaf 196 press proof #d/75 $0.73
Weeks, Rickie 2004 Absolute Memorabilia 112 #d/1349 $0.25
Hernandez, Felix 2004 Bowman Draft Chrome BDP150 $1.46
Cabrera, Miguel 2004 Ultimate 100 #d/675
Weeks, Rickie 2003 Fleer Avant 90 #d/599 $1
Weeks, Rickie 2003 Fleer Showcase S-137 #d/750 $1.46
 
What is your COMC user ID - may be interested in a few from that list. I'm still trying to narrow it down. I am thinking of sending in cards in batches of 100-200 at a time. And then as I sell enough to send more doing that. I also don't want to cripple my trading ability - tough call.
 
dp33 said:
Well, I think we collect a lot of the same things. Here's the last lot of 90 cards I sent into COMC the 1st of the year (and the selling price if there was one). I've sold 34 of them for $62, and half of that was made up of 3 cards. I've had my best luck selling off my Hamels and Verlander collections as I had harder-to-find stuff that sold pretty easily. But there's plenty on here that I thought would sell and I haven't even gotten offers on them.

Teixeira, Mark 2011 Finest 4 refractor #d/549
McCutchen, Andrew 2011 Finest 48 refractor #d/549 $0.75
Hosmer, Eric 2011 Finest 63 orange refractor #d/99 $16
Nunez, Eduardo 2011 Finest 105 refractor #d/499 autograph $6
Heyward, Jason 2011 Topps 510 Cognac Diamond $1
Mathews, Eddie 2011 Topps 60YOT-63 60 Years of Topps
Longoria, Evan 2011 Topps Chrome 13 atomic refractor #d/225 $2.20
Jeter, Derek 2011 Topps Heritage C105 chrome #d/1962
Teixeira, Mark 2011 Topps Heritage C110 chrome #d/1962
Rivera, Mariano 2011 Topps Heritage C168 chrome #d/1962
Jeter, Derek 2011 Topps Heritage C170 chrome #d/1962
Marichal, Juan 2011 Topps Lineage standup
Buck, John 2011 Topps Lineage 52A-JB autograph $1.20
Gibson, Bob 2011 Topps Marquee 12 gold #d/99 $2
Lee, Cliff 2011 Topps Triple Threads 6 #d/1500 $0.50
Stanton, Mike 2011 Topps Triple Threads 35 #d/1500 $0.50
Rodriguez, Alex 2011 Topps Triple Threads 95 #d/1500
Ford, Whitey 2011 Topps Triple Threads 98 sepia #d/625
Munson, Thurman 2011 Topps Triple Threads 80 gold #d/99 $0.90
Jones, Marion 2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions 3 mini
Tate, Donavan 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects BCP90 purple refractor #d231/999 $1.50
Posey, Buster 2010 Bowman Platinum 18 $1.25
Longoria, Evan 2010 Finest 2 green refractor #d/99
Weeks, Rickie 2009 Topps Chrome 106 blue refractor #d/199
Weeks, Rickie 2009 Topps Chrome 106 gold refractor #d/50
Cabrera, Miguel 2009 Topps Chrome W21 refractor #d/500
Kuo, Yen-Wen 2009 Topps Chrome W77 refractor #d/500
Xia, Kangan 2009 Topps Chrome W80 refractor #d/500
Zhang, Zhenwang 2009 Topps Chrome W93 refractor #d/500
Lin, Po Yu 2009 Topps Chrome W57 blue refractor #d/199
Kao, Chih-Kang 2009 Topps Chrome W58 blue refractor #d/199
Uchikawa, Seiichi 2009 Topps Chrome W66 gold refractor #d/50 $5
Jones, Chipper 2009 Topps Tribute 63 blue #d/219
Sabathia, CC 2009 Topps Tribute 97 blue #d/219
Johnson, Randy 2009 Upper Deck APOH TM-RJ Timeless Moments turquoise #d/99
Berkman, Lance 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars 75 blue #d/170
Zimmerman, Ryan 2008 Finest 6 black refractor #d/99 $1.50
Smoltz, John 2008 Topps Co-Signers 10 w/Glavine #d/100
Maddux, Greg 2008 Topps Co-Signers 28 w/Giles #d/400 $1
Fielder, Prince 2008 Topps Co-Signers 60a w/Braun #d/400 $0.25
Fielder, Prince 2008 Topps Co-Signers 60a w/Braun #d/300 $0.50
Fielder, Prince 2008 Topps Co-Signers 60a w/Braun #d/250 $0.50
Fielder, Prince 2008 Topps Co-Signers 60a w/Braun #d/100
Wright, David 2008 Topps Co-Signers 80 w/Reyes #d/400 $0.50
Verlander, Justin 2008 Topps Triple Threads 131 sepia #d/525
Verlander, Justin 2008 Topps Triple Threads 131 emerald #d/240 $2.50
Verlander, Justin 2008 Topps Triple Threads 131 gold #d/99
Sabathia, C.C. 2008 Upper Deck APOH 84 blue #d/25
Verlander, Justin 2008 Upper Deck APOH SS22 Stadium Scenes blue #d/75
Rollins, Jimmy 2008 Upper Deck APOH TM-40 Timeless Moments blue #d/75 $1.50
Hamels, Cole 2008 Upper Deck Premier CP-SH Premier Combos w/Santana #d/25 $10
Verlander, Justin 2007 Finest RFM-JV Rookie Finest Moments $0.75
Iwamura, Akinori 2007 Topps '52 TCRC1 chrome #d/1952
Hernandez, Luis 2007 Topps '52 TCRC3 chrome #d/1952
Arias, Joaquin 2007 Topps '52 TCRC5 chrome #d/1952
Abreu, Tony 2007 Topps '52 TCRC10 chrome #d/1952
Buck, Travis 2007 Topps '52 TCRC11 chrome #d/1952
Buck, Travis 2007 Topps '52 TCRC11 chrome #d/1952
Haynes, Nathan 2007 Topps '52 TCRC22 chrome #d/1952
Barker, Sean 2007 Topps '52 TCRC24 chrome #d/1952
Lewis, Fred 2007 Topps '52 TCRC26 chrome #d/1952 $0.25
Burke, Jamie 2007 Topps '52 TCRC27 chrome #d/1952
Fontenot, Mike 2007 Topps '52 TCRC31 chrome #d/1952 $0.25
Pie, Felix 2007 Topps '52 TCRC32 chrome #d/1952
Kuwata, Masumi 2007 Topps '52 TCRC33 chrome #d/1952 $0.25
Clippard, Tyler 2007 Topps '52 TCRC37 chrome #d/1952 $0.25
Carroll, Brett 2007 Topps '52 TCRC40 chrome #d/1952
Montero, Miguel 2007 Topps '52 TCRC45 chrome #d/1952
Putnam, Danny 2007 Topps '52 TCRC46 chrome #d/1952
Youman, Shane 2007 Topps '52 TCRC51 chrome #d/1952
Riggans, Shawn 2007 Topps '52 TCRC59 chrome #d/1952
Smith, Joe 2007 Topps '52 TCRC68 chrome #d/1952
Speigner, Levale 2007 Topps '52 TCRC74 chrome #d/1952
Segovia, Zack 2007 Topps '52 TCRC78 chrome #d/1952
Stokes, Brian 2007 Topps '52 TCRC86 chrome #d/1952
Murphy, David 2007 Topps '52 TCRC89 chrome #d/1952
Hampson, Justin 2007 Topps '52 TCRC92 chrome #d/1952
Slaten, Doug 2007 Topps '52 TCRC93 chrome #d/1952
Fielder, Prince 2007 Topps Co-Signers 40 w/Hall #d/199 $0.50
Ortiz, David 2007 Ultimate 56 #d/450
Sizemore, Grady 2007 Ultimate 63 #d/450
Johnson, Randy 2007 Upper Deck Exquisite 67 #d/99
Verlander, Justin 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter 74 mini $3
Howard, Ryan 2006 Topps Chrome 275 black refractor #d 006/549
Teixeira, Mark 2006 Ultimate 92 #d/799
Young, Michael 2005 Leaf 196 press proof #d/75 $0.73
Weeks, Rickie 2004 Absolute Memorabilia 112 #d/1349 $0.25
Hernandez, Felix 2004 Bowman Draft Chrome BDP150 $1.46
Cabrera, Miguel 2004 Ultimate 100 #d/675
Weeks, Rickie 2003 Fleer Avant 90 #d/599 $1
Weeks, Rickie 2003 Fleer Showcase S-137 #d/750 $1.46
Click to expand...

How did you ship these cards? I am interested in shipping roughly 50 cards and am looking for the best way to do it without toploaders since they charge for them.
 
under the shipping instructions, it says ship them all in a box, but if we only had 50 05 75 cards can we just ship them securely in a bubble mailer9between cardboard0 or do that for sure have to be shipped in a box? anyone happen to know? thanks
 
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