Steve, Dave, and I have had a great experience at the National. Today was a lot of fun. We were surprised to meet several of the top sellers on CheckOutMyCards.com. We weren’t sure who we were going to meet.
– baseballcardsetc dropped off a few hundred cards
– mwheeler27 gave us several hundred cards and introduced us to the person at SPORTKINGS who designs their cards
– iluvfish2 dropped off 1,500 cards
– 2_t_2 dropped off several hundred cards yesterday and actually got the t-shirts for us

There were so many people that came by the booth. It was fun to hear the stories about how people found the site and what their experience has been.

One thing that I thought was pretty cool was that our booth was right next to Kruk Cards. When I got back into card collecting in 2003. There were a few card sites that influenced me. Kruk Cards had one of those sites. I bought more than 100 complete sets from them. These were all sets that that came out in the mid 90’s when I was previously into collecting. Even though the prices had dropped so much on these sets, it was really fun to get all of these cards that I had loved while growing up. This really helped me get back into collecting.

This morning I had great chats with Pat, Chris, and Tom from Blowout Cards. We discussed some awesome ways that our sites can really work well together. We will announcing more about the details over the next couple weeks.

Here are the Q2 stats.

I saw the partial stats for July when I was putting together the Q2 stats, and it looks like Q3 is going to be pretty good.

Here is a PDF of the brochure we handed out at the National.

The reception at the National has been overwhelmingly positive. I am amazed by how many people have only bought or sold on eBay and have still never heard of us. That is a good sign. That means we still have a vast untapped market. We will continue to try to grow at a manageable pace and keep our service as high quality as possible.

It has been a lot of fun talking with people. Steve Hollander and Dave Elmore have been doing a great job of letting people know how the site works and giving them a taste of their experience as users of the site and as employees. We have also been seeing many users, such as ohiomike, who have been helping spread the word about the site and getting people to start using our service.

I have had opportunities to talk with several influential members of the collecting community.
– Went to dinner with Mike Silvia, owner of SportsCardForum.com
– Met Chris Gilmore, owner of freedomcardboard.com
– Did a recorded interview for The Card Podcast
– Had a long chat with Dean from Dean’s Cards
– Answered more questions about our service for Dr. James Beckett
– Finally got to meet Bill Sutherland from Beckett Media
– Talked again with Ted Golden, president of Card Pricer
– Did an interview with Rich Mueller, managing editor of Sports Collectors Daily

Tomorrow morning I will be meeting with Blowout Cards to discuss ways our sites could help each other.

This year’s National has been a great experience. It was two years ago at the National that we announced our consignment service. Seeing the response at the National gives us a nice yearly opportunity to gauge the progress we have made. I am very pleased with the response that we are seeing.

Here are the promotions that we will be running at the National.

Free T-Shirt
Current buyers and sellers can get a free CheckOutMyCards.com t-shirt for hanging out at our both for an hour and showing people how they use the site. We will have a nice 22″ touch-screen LCD for playing with the site. Swing by booth #1432 early to sign-up for your slot.

You can buy CheckOutMyCards.com t-shirts for $10. The shirts won’t arrive until Friday morning.

$100 Free Express Processing
First time sellers get a coupon for $100 of free Express Processing that will be good through the end of August.

Extra Store Credit
You can pick up a coupon to get $5, $20, or $100 extra store credit when purchasing $100, $250, or $1,000 store credit by sending us a check or money order through the mail. We are only offering a limited number of each coupon (e.g. 8x$100 & 40x$20), so come by our booth early to ensure that you get a coupon. We will also have stamped envelopes you can pick up at the show. The coupons will be good through the end of the month.

$0.20 Priority Processing
You can drop cards off and get $0.20 priority processing with a 3 week guarantee from the drop-off date. There will be no additional $3 batch fee per 500 cards, and it is only $5 to have us ship as many cards as you want to drop off.

Drop-Off for Processing
You can drop cards off at booth #1432, and we will ship them for you. Processing fees are the same as stated on the website except for the $0.20 Priority Processing promo mentioned above. For everything other than Express Processing, there will be an extra shipping fee to have us ship the cards for you.
Extra Shipping Fees
– No extra shipping fee if you use Express Processing (1-week guarantee)
– Flat $5 shipping fee for Priority Processing (3-week guarantee)
– Extra shipping fee of $5 per 1,000 cards for Standard Processing (8-week guarantee)
All guaranteed due dates will be based off the drop-off date.

Coming to the national? Want to help the site grow?

If you are currently a buyer or seller on CheckOutMyCards.com and would like to tell others about your experience, let us know you will be there and swing by our booth #1432. We will have a computer set up where you can sign into your account and show people how you use the site.

We are finalizing our promotional materials. We hope to have T-Shirts that we can give to people that spend some time helping at our booth.

I am happy to announce that baseballcardsetc has become the first seller to cross the 6 figure mark on our Top Sellers list.

Here are a few of baseballcardsetc’s cards for sale.

WSSCA SUMMER CONVENTION
On May 30th & 31st a couple of us from CheckOutMyCards will be at the WSSCA SUMMER CONVENTION.
“The longest running show in the hobby (1973 to 2009).” There will be tons of vintage cards.

Saturday, May 30: 9 to 5 PM
Sunday, May 31: 9 to 3 PM
Directions and more information

Steve Hollander will be at the Meridian Park School Show this weekend representing CheckOutMyCards.com. You are welcome to drop off cards that you would like to have added to your account.

The show will run from 10AM to 4PM on Saturday May 15th.

The Washington Sate Sports Collectors Association’s summer convention is also coming soon. It will be May 30th & 31st at the Meridian Park School.

Steve Hollander will be at the Meridian Park School Show this weekend representing CheckOutMyCards.com. You are welcome to drop off cards that you would like to have added to your account.

The show will run from 10AM to 4PM on Saturday April 18th.

We will be at the Tacoma Sportscard Trade Show this weekend.

Swing by our booth to chat with Steve Hollander. This is a great place to drop off cards that you would like to have added to the site.

Tacoma Sportscard Trade Show
March 7 & 8 2009
Days Inn Hotel
6802 Tacoma Mall Blvd
Info 253-988-4428
45 tables
$2.00 addmission
Amcrds
Tacomasportscards@yahoo.com

COMC will be at the Jantzen Beach Show in Northern Oregon this Saturday and Sunday. If you want to save some money on shipping come on down to the show and drop your cards off with Steve Hollander.

This Saturday there is a very special card show in the Seattle area.

For the past 21 years there has been a monthly card show at the Totem Lake Mall. However, the mall is being torn down and re-built. So this will be the final card show of what some have reported as the longest running monthly sports card show in the nation.

This card show is basically in our back yard. It is only about 5 miles from our office.

To commemorate the final show, we will be offering $10 of extra store credit for every $100 you put in your account. Simply come to the show and drop off a check, cash, or money order with Steve Hollander, and we will put 10% extra into your account.

Hope to see you there!