Saturday, January 30, 2010

Trading With Myself.... Sort Of

Since right around the beginning of this year, I have been selling some cards on checkoutmycards. While progress has been slow, I have managed $28.50 in sales so far, and this is how I spent it (including shipping).

1969 Topps Johnny Unitas
Sheer perfection on cardboard. This is a great looking card of one of the games greatest quarterbacks. I was fortunate enough to meet Johnny U a few times, shortly before he passed, and he was a very kind man.

2006 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Derrick Mason autograph #5/99

Truly a signature that could not be contained by any stinkin' sticker. As you can see, Mason's scribblings venture outside of the signing area, but at least you can still see it. I heart on card autos.

2005 Fleer Patchworks Dontrelle Willis/Josh Beckett dual patch #21/25
The D-Train on the front, with a great looking 4-color patch

Beckett on the back, with a great looking 3 color patch. If this isn't the ultimate Marlins fan trade bait, I don't know what is.

2008 Topps Chrome Ichiro Trading Card History refractor

A card I have wanted since the first time I laid eyes on it. The Trading Card History subset was pretty solid, and the refractors are particularly awesome. I believe this card is based on a Japanese Menko design from the 1950's.

2002 Bowman Chrome Reprints 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. refractor
This will most likely serve as trade fodder for one of the 2 Mariners fans I owe cards to.

All in all I think this is a stellar haul for $28 delivered. Lately a lot of people have been ranting about the excessive shipping costs on COMC, especially when compared to Sportlots & eBay. While shipping may not be cheap, in my opinion you are able to find better deals on checkoutmycards, especially on higher-end "hits", than you are on either of the other 2 sites. If I had purchased these cards individually on eBay, shipping would have easily exceeded $10, and may have been in the $15-$20 range. For instance, the other day, I picked up a Markakis/Adam Jones dual relic from Unique for $7.50. The card has a stated BV of $30 (ha!), routinely fetches over $10 on eBay, and would most likely cost a minimum of $2 to ship. I just saved almost $5 by picking this card up on COMC. Sportlots is another name that people often bring up. To be honest, I don't have that much experience with them, but I know that they do not give you the option to submit an offer for cards you want. You are stuck paying whatever the seller is asking, which in some instances, is simply too much. I've also found that a lot of listings on Sportlots don't include a scan or picture of the card. This might not be a big deal to some people, but if you're purchasing a patch card made by Upper Deck, don't you at least want to know if the edges are clean? They most likely aren't.

Opinions are like Gellmans (no offense).... and everyone is entitled to think whatever they'd like, and obviously shop wherever they want to. For me, right now, that place is checkoutmycards.

11 comments:

  1. Wow, sweet Unitas, and those patches are nasty dude!

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  2. as long as opinions arent based on outside influences they are perfectly legit. In that case Gellman is a saint right?

    SCAM WATCH!

    Who needs stinking corporate advertisement anyhow.

    T.M.H

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  3. Dangit, I was finally able to kick my eBay addiction and now all you jokers keep showing me stuff like THIS. That Johnny U is fantabulous.

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  4. I was trading with myself Oh Oh

    Trading with myself Oh Oh

    When the moment is right Im gonna trade all night

    I was a trading with myself Oh Oh.

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  5. Hey man, been reading your blog for awhile now, first time poster. Thanks for making me aware of COMC.com, i've spent much money there in the last two months or so. I have a bulk shipment of 349 cards ($59 shipping) on it's way to my house as we speak. I'd like to get into trading with people if possible. I'm a Reds collector, not sure if you have one of those you communicate with. I have a blog www.redsandmore.blogspot.com that I really haven't kept up with but would like to eventually. Thanks again for the info.

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  6. The Ichiro and Griffey are sick....by the way - I added you to my blog if you don't mind.

    It's called Trade Baiters - I chase mostly Goodwin & Ginter.

    www.tradebait.blogspot.com

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  7. Great cards! I am waiting for a nice looking Willis patch myself I got off e-bay. I am a Mets fan but always liked Willis for some reason. Must be all the times I have seen him beat my team. I actually had box seats at Shea Stadium for a game he hit 2 home runs off the Mets. I just recently checked out the COMC site myself and found it quite reasonably priced compared to the others and if you figure only .25 per card after first $2.50 it is cheaper then most ebay sellers.

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  8. People are making shipping arguments favoring eBay over COMC? What kind of logic could they possibly be using? I just had 50 or so cards shipped and while the cost was a little steep at around $14 or so it doesn't even come close to eBay. Even if I lump together some of the cards to make lots, once I get to 5 or 6 lots I'm paying the same for shipping since the standard eBay cost these days is $3.

    Shipping fees can be cheap on Sportlots, but you have to work for your cards there. It's definitely a small time operation compared to eBay and COMC and it shows. I just got 50 or so Piazzas from a seller there and I think the shipping was $3 or so. The only problem is that you're restricted to a single seller if you want to keep shipping fees low. That doesn't always result in the best possible prices.

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  9. COMC is a really great way to sell big hits. But there's still no good way to sell commons or cheapo inserts. Processing costs/times and fees make it inefficient and unrealistic to do them on COMC and SportLots' ridiculous fees and asinine $.18 minimums make it useful only for things like base SPs in the $3 range. Plus their site looks like someone made it on AOL Hometown in 1997. And this from a guy who's got like 1800 cards up there right now! One day I'll create the solution for everyone and we can all forget eBay ever existed.

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  10. OH beardy how could you hurt me so much by showing those 2 sweet Ichiro Griffey cards! Nice haul dude defiently worth what you paid. SCORE! Grant and a avid Mariners fan IChiro and Grffey stalker.. Yes beardy talking to you! LOL just kidding good work on that buy should I say steal!

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