I feel like I’ve got another problem in waiting, though.  After a seller invoiced me, he messaged me back a week later saying that he needed another 3.50 to mail the item to Canada.  Now, I’ve received enough items to understand that shipping is either 2-something for regular airmail or 11-something for registered and insured airmail.  Not once have I seen an envelope with seven dollars worth of postage.  Either way, the seller put a tracking number on the package but it’s yet to pass through a checkpoint on it’s way to the Great White North.  Whether or not the seller simply printed the postage and kept the item is yet to be seen, but even in the worst case scenario, I’ve still only had two problems out of 150 transactions.  Is 1% about the going rate on eBay for problem transactions?

In addition to eBay, I rooted around CheckOutMyCards.com for some cards that were produced after 1970.  If you haven’t used CheckOutMyCards, I’d highly suggest it despite some of it’s problems.  The first problem is a logistical one and thus, it’s really tough to criticize their implementation. In order to make offers on cards, you must add the required amount to your COMC account prior to any offers.  Obviously, this is a reasonable way to conduct business until you look at the fee structure: If you’re just purchasing cards on the website and plan on having them shipped, you have 30 days to conduct your business before fees begin to apply.  Originally, I’d just planned on throwing 100 dollars into CheckOutMyCards and shopping around until I was ready to ship the items out.

If you deposit money into COMC and it sits there for more than 30 days, then you’ll have to pay their ridiculous cash-out fee of 20%.  The fee makes perfect sense for sellers profiting on their service, but for the occasional buyer that just leaves money in his account in case he spots a deal, it’s somewhat ridiculous.  If you haven’t used your store credit in the first 30 days after the deposit, CheckOutMyCards decides that you’ll only get 80 of your 100 dollars back if you decide to cash-out.

I’m not certain what service they’re claiming to have provided once the calender turns, especially considering you haven’t purchased a damn thing.  The solution CheckOutMyCards has provided is ass-backwards and somewhat sneaky, especially if you haven’t read their terms of service or fee structure which the occasionally buyer almost certainly ignored.

During the first 30-days, COMC waives their 20% fee on withdraws.  In essence, if you’re going to be purchasing cards without selling them, you’ve got to make a cash-out request every 30 days, just in case.  Once the money clears back into your paypal account, you just go ahead and redeposit it back into CheckOutMyCards.  I believe they’ve eliminated the necessity to email them after your cash-out request to ask for a 100% store credit conversion.

Selling on COMC seems like a sketchy venture as you’ll have to pay the following fees to list a card:

1. 15 cents to have the card processed in 8-10 weeks
2. 3.00 per batch, or about 1 cent per card extra in processing fees.
3. 1 cent per card monthly stocking fee (free for cards w/ asking price under .25 cents)
4. the same 20% cash-out fee

For an example, here’s a 1 dollar card that sits for a few months and eventually sells.

1. It cost you 2 cents to ship it to COMC – ($0.98)
2. It cost you 15 cents for COMC to process it in 8 weeks (more if you’d like it done quicker) – ($0.83)
3. It cost you another 1 cent for the lot processing – ($0.82)
4. The Card is stored free for 3 months, but let’s say it sits 5 total months – ($.80)
5. Finally, you cash out your store credit which is 20% of the selling price, not your net ($0.80 – (20% of 1.00) ) or $0.60

You Make 60 Cents. CheckOutMyCards makes 38 cents.  A wonderful business model for CheckOutMyCards.

They do offer free storage on Cards listed under 25 cents though, which considering it costs you 18 cents minimum to just list the card, plus another 20% of .25 cents ( five cents), you’re looking at making a MAXIMUM of two cents.

Considering COMC has about 400 football cards listed under five cents and over 30,000 football cards listed at or under 25 cents, they’re making a shit-tonne of money.  I’m not even bothering with baseball cards, but I’m certain there’s an equal or greater amount of profit in that venture.  When sellers fail to do any variety of math, it works out just dandy for the buyer.

The offer and counter-offer policy is also a bit confusing, especially when sellers refuse to counter offer or sit on their offer for more than a couple days.  Any funds in pending offers are locked and there’s no real way to blanket offer X dollars for a card and the first one to bite gets the sale.

So instead, I found myself offering X dollars to Seller A and waiting before offering the same amount to Seller B, and then C, and then D, and then E, before upping my offer and repeating the cycle.

This got a little long, but there’s lots of good cards on their way, so I’m excited.