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COMC is going to team up with Amazon here is the latest from their blog:
Getting ready to list your items on Amazon
I expect that later this weekend we will officially launch a new option to have your inventory listed on Amazon. In the meantime there are some things you can do to prepare for this.
Expectations
First off, I want to make sure your expectations are set appropriately. Listing single sports cards on Amazon is a relatively new endeavor. They are still working out some kinks and adding new features. Most of the public has not been trained to look for sports cards on Amazon. As a result, the exact same inventory will likely get significantly more sales on CheckOutMyCards.com than it will get on Amazon. I would roughly estimate that listing your inventory on Amazon might increase your sales by about 10%. That said, our couple week testing period only offers limited data. These numbers could sway greatly.
Fees
Because of our unique fee structure, our sellers commonly avoid our 20% cash-out fee by recycling earned store credit to buy other items on the site. In fact, they do it so frequently that we earn less than 8% cash-out fee per sale. This was intentional, it is encouraged, and it is a major factor in our growing success. However, it means that we don’t have high enough profit margins to cover the commission fees that Amazon charges. So… we will be passing along those fees to you if you choose to have your items listed on Amazon.
How it will work
To keep things simple, we are starting with one big option that will post everything you have for sale on Amazon. You will not be charged any fees to turn this option on or off. It will typically take a few hours for the data to initially go live on Amazon, but it might take longer at first because we can only post about 500,000 new listings per day. Once it is up there, your price changes should only be about an hour delayed. All new items that you list will automatically synchronize with Amazon.
Once we get an order from Amazon, we have a special CheckOutMyCards.com user account named “Amazon” that will make a 20% off offer that your account will automatically accept. You will be able to see these entries in your Offer History page. This is how we cover the Amazon commission fees and other monthly fees. We expect that many of you may want to inflate your prices before turning on the option to list your items on Amazon. That is perfectly acceptable. You will still be able to take normal offers on those items. The Auto-Accept Percentage, Minimum Offer Percentage, and Minimum Offer Amount settings only apply to normal offers.
Amazon Shipping
Just like on CheckOutMyCards.com, shipping fees are paid by the buyers, and they have a few options on Amazon. However, we charge a couple bucks more for shipping because Amazon requires that the orders be shipped out within 48 hours of being placed. In order for us to guarantee this, we run standard Amazon orders though our priority & express shipping pipeline. As a result we typically ship all Amazon orders placed by 6AM PST (9AM EST) on the the day they are placed. This is about 1-2 days faster than we typically ship our standard orders.
Back to testing…. More to come soon
Ok so then this is what I am getting from that post as a buyer:
Card Prices will be higher Both here and on Amazon
Buying even with the make offers will be higher since we are required to make at least an offer of 50% of the asking price
And Shipping while faster will cost more.
So Being a buyer is going to be greatly effected by this big change. I can see the Benefits for a seller being as they get more visibility of their cards. But the buyer will end up losing in the end. I buy from COMC due to the cheap prices,ability to make offers, and decent priced shipping. With an increase of at least 20% (can be more), Offers on those cards would need to be increased due to the 20% increase, and I can see shipping getting way out of control once Amazon requires all cards to be in Toploaders for their and the customers protection. Which could happen if a few non comc regulars get their cards sandwiched in between 2 toploaders which is common practice and complain that they weren’t protected enough. I just don’t see how this is actually a good thing.
Which brings up another issue. Since Amazon will control refunds now. Whats will happen if chargebacks happen? Will Comc be forced to take that chargeback or will the seller sign in and find their account in the Negative?
Oh and here’s another What happens if 2 buyers buy the same card on both sites at the same time? I takes an hour to upload items to amazon. Doers it take an hour for quantities to be updated as well? Will a card that is sold on amazon be instantly erased off a sellers inventory from COMC?
Also I need to ask about buying credit for COMC. Will that be offered on Amazon? And will there be a 20% upcharge fee added to that purchase?
Oh here's another Returns! How is COMC going to handle returns. Amazon allows returns. So I can see this becoming an issue for those folks who buy a hot player then don't want him the next week once he's cold. A complaint to Amazon saying it was not as described and bamn right back to the site. Will there be a time frame where a person cannot use their money just in case this happens?
All in all I see alot of Negative things possibly happening. I can also see folks saying forget it with all the increase of prices and such and heading right back to evilbay. I just don't see how this will be a good thing.
Getting ready to list your items on Amazon
I expect that later this weekend we will officially launch a new option to have your inventory listed on Amazon. In the meantime there are some things you can do to prepare for this.
Expectations
First off, I want to make sure your expectations are set appropriately. Listing single sports cards on Amazon is a relatively new endeavor. They are still working out some kinks and adding new features. Most of the public has not been trained to look for sports cards on Amazon. As a result, the exact same inventory will likely get significantly more sales on CheckOutMyCards.com than it will get on Amazon. I would roughly estimate that listing your inventory on Amazon might increase your sales by about 10%. That said, our couple week testing period only offers limited data. These numbers could sway greatly.
Fees
Because of our unique fee structure, our sellers commonly avoid our 20% cash-out fee by recycling earned store credit to buy other items on the site. In fact, they do it so frequently that we earn less than 8% cash-out fee per sale. This was intentional, it is encouraged, and it is a major factor in our growing success. However, it means that we don’t have high enough profit margins to cover the commission fees that Amazon charges. So… we will be passing along those fees to you if you choose to have your items listed on Amazon.
How it will work
To keep things simple, we are starting with one big option that will post everything you have for sale on Amazon. You will not be charged any fees to turn this option on or off. It will typically take a few hours for the data to initially go live on Amazon, but it might take longer at first because we can only post about 500,000 new listings per day. Once it is up there, your price changes should only be about an hour delayed. All new items that you list will automatically synchronize with Amazon.
Once we get an order from Amazon, we have a special CheckOutMyCards.com user account named “Amazon” that will make a 20% off offer that your account will automatically accept. You will be able to see these entries in your Offer History page. This is how we cover the Amazon commission fees and other monthly fees. We expect that many of you may want to inflate your prices before turning on the option to list your items on Amazon. That is perfectly acceptable. You will still be able to take normal offers on those items. The Auto-Accept Percentage, Minimum Offer Percentage, and Minimum Offer Amount settings only apply to normal offers.
Amazon Shipping
Just like on CheckOutMyCards.com, shipping fees are paid by the buyers, and they have a few options on Amazon. However, we charge a couple bucks more for shipping because Amazon requires that the orders be shipped out within 48 hours of being placed. In order for us to guarantee this, we run standard Amazon orders though our priority & express shipping pipeline. As a result we typically ship all Amazon orders placed by 6AM PST (9AM EST) on the the day they are placed. This is about 1-2 days faster than we typically ship our standard orders.
Back to testing…. More to come soon
Ok so then this is what I am getting from that post as a buyer:
Card Prices will be higher Both here and on Amazon
Buying even with the make offers will be higher since we are required to make at least an offer of 50% of the asking price
And Shipping while faster will cost more.
So Being a buyer is going to be greatly effected by this big change. I can see the Benefits for a seller being as they get more visibility of their cards. But the buyer will end up losing in the end. I buy from COMC due to the cheap prices,ability to make offers, and decent priced shipping. With an increase of at least 20% (can be more), Offers on those cards would need to be increased due to the 20% increase, and I can see shipping getting way out of control once Amazon requires all cards to be in Toploaders for their and the customers protection. Which could happen if a few non comc regulars get their cards sandwiched in between 2 toploaders which is common practice and complain that they weren’t protected enough. I just don’t see how this is actually a good thing.
Which brings up another issue. Since Amazon will control refunds now. Whats will happen if chargebacks happen? Will Comc be forced to take that chargeback or will the seller sign in and find their account in the Negative?
Oh and here’s another What happens if 2 buyers buy the same card on both sites at the same time? I takes an hour to upload items to amazon. Doers it take an hour for quantities to be updated as well? Will a card that is sold on amazon be instantly erased off a sellers inventory from COMC?
Also I need to ask about buying credit for COMC. Will that be offered on Amazon? And will there be a 20% upcharge fee added to that purchase?
Oh here's another Returns! How is COMC going to handle returns. Amazon allows returns. So I can see this becoming an issue for those folks who buy a hot player then don't want him the next week once he's cold. A complaint to Amazon saying it was not as described and bamn right back to the site. Will there be a time frame where a person cannot use their money just in case this happens?
All in all I see alot of Negative things possibly happening. I can also see folks saying forget it with all the increase of prices and such and heading right back to evilbay. I just don't see how this will be a good thing.
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