Hello COMC Nation. On Tuesday, July 9th, Beckett book values became no longer available for free on COMC.com. For the last 6 years, Beckett has been gracious in allowing us to provide their data to you, but the time has come where they are no longer able to extend this service through COMC. Because we realize this tool is valuable to many of our users, we designed the ability to purchase Beckett subscriptions using COMC Store Credit, allowing our users to continue viewing book values while browsing items on the site. Additionally, we are branching into offering our own COMC sales history as an added benefit. As always, we are listening to you, your feedback, and truly care about you and the hobby. While we are a business, we are also collectors, and we are passionate about building an awesome space for buyers, sellers, and flippers.
Learning From Our Mistakes
Through this, we realize an area in which we can improve as a company is communication, and we have taken steps to do that. In this case, we should have communicated more clearly and repeatedly with you about these impending changes, and we apologize for that oversight. Going forward, we now have a plan to build into every new site feature when and how we will communicate changes to our customers. In the haste of making this necessary change to the site, we overlooked ensuring we communicated it well to you. We’re very sorry, will do better next time, and have already altered our system to do so.
Sales History
The loss of free book values on the site is, understandably, going to be a somewhat difficult transition for many users. However, we are committed to our customers, and are working to provide a tool to aid you in your purchases and sales. We are in the process of launching a new tool that will display historical sales data of actual sales on our site. With access to this information, we believe that you will be able to even more accurately see what your cards are worth on the market.
This new tool is in its beta stages and we want your input on this new service. For the time being, when you click on the asking price of a card, you can spend a History Point to see the historical data of the item. Right now, this includes how many are currently on the site, how many have sold on COMC, and the highest price the card has ever sold and shipped for.
Why Do I Have To Answer Questions to Get History Points?
One of the first questions we were asked about the Sales History tool was why a user needed to answer questions in order to earn historical data points. As some of you have guessed, one of the reasons Beckett has decided to no longer provide book values on COMC for free is because our site could be scraped for that data by various programs and that data could be used and sold to other sites.
The Sales History that we provide to our users falls under a similar category. If the data is simply provided on the site, it can be scraped and that data sold. In order to protect this data, our initial method is the COMC IQ Test, a sort of CAPTCHA which proves that the user is human and allows them to earn the credit needed to conduct healthy buying and selling practices.
How can we make Sales History better?
We want to make this feature available as quickly as possible and we want it to provide the value our customers need. To do that, we need the help of our most important partners: you. Our site exists to encourage users to enjoy collecting, easily sell items, and flip items to make money and have fun.
Please, tell us how we can make our new Sales History tool better for you. We need to protect this information, but we want it to be more accessible and useful to our users. What other sorts of information should be displayed? Do you have a good idea for where the data should be displayed to make it easier for you to utilize it? Is there an easier better way for us to protect this data while still making it more easily accessible?
Flippers
We understand this change is having a big impact on you, but we are not abandoning you. Flipping is one of the unique things about COMC, and you are in important part of our ecosystem. In light of this change, we are brainstorming ways to support you and give you the tools you need to do what you do. In considering our new Sales History tool, what information and functionality could best help you get the job done?
New Cost
We are committed to making COMC an enjoyable place to buy and sell collectibles online. We always strive to keep costs down for our customers. Some issues, such as the loss of Beckett book values, are out of our control. We designed a way for our users to link their Beckett OPG accounts and purchase subscriptions with Store Credit to provide our users with the option of viewing book values while browsing COMC. We’re working hard to find creative ways to adjust to the loss of book values on the site and your input and ideas are invaluable as we continue to do so.
We Are In This Together
We eagerly look forward to your ideas on how to make this tool easier to use. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below or send your suggestions to our Customer Service team. As a final note, if you send us an email within the next 24 hours with the subject “Discussions with Tim,” concerning your thoughts on either the Beckett Subscription feature or our Sales History feature, your feedback may be featured in Tim’s upcoming video.
Most importantly, however, we want to take this opportunity to express our dedication to you: our buyers, sellers, and flippers. COMC is nothing without you. We are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to improve the experience of buying and selling collectibles for all of our users. Whatever direction we take, or obstacle we face, we will never compromise our commitment to you.
Moving forward, we hope you will continue to give us your input, ideas, and concerns. We’re fortunate to have customers who are as passionate about COMC as we are. Our service is only great because of you and will only get better with you by our side.
Thank you for partnering with us for 6 amazing years.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Continue reading...
Learning From Our Mistakes
Through this, we realize an area in which we can improve as a company is communication, and we have taken steps to do that. In this case, we should have communicated more clearly and repeatedly with you about these impending changes, and we apologize for that oversight. Going forward, we now have a plan to build into every new site feature when and how we will communicate changes to our customers. In the haste of making this necessary change to the site, we overlooked ensuring we communicated it well to you. We’re very sorry, will do better next time, and have already altered our system to do so.
Sales History
The loss of free book values on the site is, understandably, going to be a somewhat difficult transition for many users. However, we are committed to our customers, and are working to provide a tool to aid you in your purchases and sales. We are in the process of launching a new tool that will display historical sales data of actual sales on our site. With access to this information, we believe that you will be able to even more accurately see what your cards are worth on the market.
This new tool is in its beta stages and we want your input on this new service. For the time being, when you click on the asking price of a card, you can spend a History Point to see the historical data of the item. Right now, this includes how many are currently on the site, how many have sold on COMC, and the highest price the card has ever sold and shipped for.
Why Do I Have To Answer Questions to Get History Points?
One of the first questions we were asked about the Sales History tool was why a user needed to answer questions in order to earn historical data points. As some of you have guessed, one of the reasons Beckett has decided to no longer provide book values on COMC for free is because our site could be scraped for that data by various programs and that data could be used and sold to other sites.
The Sales History that we provide to our users falls under a similar category. If the data is simply provided on the site, it can be scraped and that data sold. In order to protect this data, our initial method is the COMC IQ Test, a sort of CAPTCHA which proves that the user is human and allows them to earn the credit needed to conduct healthy buying and selling practices.
How can we make Sales History better?
We want to make this feature available as quickly as possible and we want it to provide the value our customers need. To do that, we need the help of our most important partners: you. Our site exists to encourage users to enjoy collecting, easily sell items, and flip items to make money and have fun.
Please, tell us how we can make our new Sales History tool better for you. We need to protect this information, but we want it to be more accessible and useful to our users. What other sorts of information should be displayed? Do you have a good idea for where the data should be displayed to make it easier for you to utilize it? Is there an easier better way for us to protect this data while still making it more easily accessible?
Flippers
We understand this change is having a big impact on you, but we are not abandoning you. Flipping is one of the unique things about COMC, and you are in important part of our ecosystem. In light of this change, we are brainstorming ways to support you and give you the tools you need to do what you do. In considering our new Sales History tool, what information and functionality could best help you get the job done?
New Cost
We are committed to making COMC an enjoyable place to buy and sell collectibles online. We always strive to keep costs down for our customers. Some issues, such as the loss of Beckett book values, are out of our control. We designed a way for our users to link their Beckett OPG accounts and purchase subscriptions with Store Credit to provide our users with the option of viewing book values while browsing COMC. We’re working hard to find creative ways to adjust to the loss of book values on the site and your input and ideas are invaluable as we continue to do so.
We Are In This Together
We eagerly look forward to your ideas on how to make this tool easier to use. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below or send your suggestions to our Customer Service team. As a final note, if you send us an email within the next 24 hours with the subject “Discussions with Tim,” concerning your thoughts on either the Beckett Subscription feature or our Sales History feature, your feedback may be featured in Tim’s upcoming video.
Most importantly, however, we want to take this opportunity to express our dedication to you: our buyers, sellers, and flippers. COMC is nothing without you. We are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to improve the experience of buying and selling collectibles for all of our users. Whatever direction we take, or obstacle we face, we will never compromise our commitment to you.
Moving forward, we hope you will continue to give us your input, ideas, and concerns. We’re fortunate to have customers who are as passionate about COMC as we are. Our service is only great because of you and will only get better with you by our side.
Thank you for partnering with us for 6 amazing years.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Continue reading...
