My first 18 months on COMC were spent exclusively flipping cards on the site.  I had made hundreds of dollars of profit and acquired hundreds of cards for my PC before I even considered submitting cards.

With over 4.7 million unique cards (many of which have multiple copies)  being sold by over 11,000 different sellers, there is no shortage of flipping opportunities on the site if you know where to look.

In this post we’ll explore some of the tips and tricks I’ve used to profitably build an inventory of over 40K cards on the site.  

The Fundamentals

Let’s start with a few of the basics.

Change your Account from “Simplified Shipping” to “Advanced Reseller” mode.

The default account setting for COMC is the Simplified Shipping Mode.  This is because it is the most straightforward setting for buyers on the site.  It embeds the .25 handling fee into the price of each card so when a buyer is ready to have cards shipped to them, they just see a flat shipping charge.

If you’re going to flip, you aren’t planning to have most of these cards physically shipped so you don’t want that .25 per card carrying cost embedding into your inventory.  Well lucky for us, COMC provides the “Advanced Reseller Mode”.  This removes that charge, and you will only encounter it if you choose to have cards shipped to you at some point.  This makes the lowest possible cost to purchase cards all the way down to .01!

To change your account: 

1) Click on the Profile and Options link on your Dashboard.

2) Click Outgoing Offers

3) Select Advanced Reselling Mode

4) Hit Save

Second, I suggest narrowing your focus a bit as you get started. 

Pick a couple players, a couple sets, etc to learn the market on.

What to Look For

Now that we’re set up to flip, let’s talk about how to determine what a good card would be to buy?

My general rule of thumb is to look for cards that I can make 2-3 times my money on.  Sometimes I want that return quickly, and sometimes my plan is to eventually get that price at some point in the coming months or years.

The Quick Flip

When I got started, I had only deposited $10.  So I needed to find low priced cards, and I needed to flip them quickly to build my store credit.  There are a couple options for this.

Search for the player or set you’ve landed on researching, and then sort by lowest price. Next go into each card and look for cards where there is a big gap between the lowest card and second lowest card.  The idea is to find one where you can buy it, reprice it for 2-3X your cost, and still be the lowest on the site. 

Another great strategy is to search for “Recently Added” cards.  Many times, sellers don’t do enough research when pricing their newly listed cards, and flippers can take advantage of this opportunity.  Search recently added and then start doing the same price comparisons I discussed above.

Long Tail Flips

If you’ve got a longer time horizon for your flips, there are even more opportunities.

Many times, market inefficiencies create situations where the lowest priced cards on COMC are less than the going market rate on eBay, SportLots, or other platforms.  This leads to the opportunity for buying those lower priced cards and then repricing based on competitive market prices.  This may mean there are still some cards listed on COMC between your purchase price and your new price, but over time, that inventory will sell off and your’s will become the lowest.

Another option is to take advantage of the COMC to eBay arbitrage.  

You can buy cards for as little as .01 directly on COMC.  However, people who purchase COMC inventory via eBay pay at least .99 for that card.  The way the embedded fee structure works, this translates into a .39 price on COMC being a .99 price on eBay.

If an eBay buyer finds a .99 card they want and there are multiple copies of that card on COMC, they get a drop down to pull from to select their card.  Whether your price on COMC is .03 or .38 cents, the eBay buyer sees the same .99 price.  I actively buy some of these .02 cards and re-list for .38 and wait for eBay buyers to come along.  It’s not always a quick flip, but I make sales every week using this strategy.

High Dollar Flips

My risk profile doesn’t lead me to make many purchases for high dollar cards.  That segment of the market just isn’t where I like to play, so I don’t have as much direct experience with these flips, but I know there are similar things being done when flipping $20, $50, and $100 type cards.  If that’s your focus, and you know that market, then you can employ some of these same strategies, but just and a much higher risk/higher reward level.

Wrapping It Up

I love using flipping to build my COMC inventory and store credit.  The fact that it’s instantaneous and you don’t even physically touch the cards makes it so easy and frictionless.

I firmly believe that if you take a step back and look at the big picture, a combination of both quick and longer term flips can be used at a wide variety of price ranges.  I shared a few of the strategies I’ve used, but those aren’t the only ones out there.  So take a few minutes, do your research, and test some of your own ideas out!

Let me know what’s worked and hasn’t worked for you in the comments below!

In addition to COMC, I also use Sportlots to sell a ton of base and inserts.  Check out the podcast episode I recorded on that platform as well!