The Card Swap in 2020

Hello Everyone! I thought this was a good time to give you all the feedback from the survey posted and what you can expect to see on the site in 2020. Last year was a good year for the site and I learned a lot. The site itself has come along way. These surveys have been a huge help to the progress of the site. Thank you to all that took the time to fill it out.

There were a few surprises after tallying up the survey results. To me, the biggest being that the most popular method for browsing singles was the Team Page from the drop downs. I was really excited to see this, because I thought that people may have forgotten that they were there. Filtering, New Stuff, and Search were all about the same.

Another thing that surprised me was the majority of people that join breaks for their PC. That was a nice surprise because that was the goal from the beginning. At times, with so much of this being on social media and people selling, I assumed the percentage would be higher. It also explains why random breaks don't sell that well for me.

Other general results included that the "$10-25" range for break spots was a bit more popular than the 26-50 range. This is the range that I unintentionally didn't do as much of last year. The mindset was to grow the site the best I could, and I think assumed that meant making the breaks bigger. For 2020, I will still do super mixers and half cases breaks but will also be doing more smaller breaks mixed in.

There wasn't a strong feeling during mixers versus specific product breaks. The majority of people voted for both. As far as other sports to break, NBA and NFL had a few mentions but the big thing was the majority voted for Baseball only. The site was built and marketed around Baseball, but that was still a bit surprising. Some favorite products were Topps Chrome, Bowman, and Bowman's Best. There was a wide variety of mentions from Sterling, Gold Label, and Ginter. The least favorites had a few less suggestions, but Panini overall had a couple mentions along with Heritage and Ginter. Gallery and Gypsy Queen appeared on both lists as well. It was fun seeing what your favorite cards that you added to your PC's this year. Especially the ones that came from one of my breaks! :-)

Lots of great feedback from everyone on general site stuff.

- 3 people mentioned links on the home page opening in a tab each time - FIXED

- Link the logo in header to the home page - FIXED honestly, thought this was already set up that way :-)

- More $20+ Singles in the ship - FIXED/MORE TO COME - this was a plan of mine for 2020. Glad to see the request!

- Set day/time for breaks to be posted - TBD - I've been thinking about this for months and am afraid I'd screw it up. I will continue to mull it over and maybe do a vote.

- Break Box feedback was overall pretty good. Some suggestions to the lineup and pricing etc. More below.

2020 shouldn't be too different from last year with some minor tweaks. More smaller breaks and more $20 and over singles have already been mentioned. I would also like to do more giveaways to customers this year (not ones on social media). There are some ideas of ways I can do something on a regular basis because I want it to be a reoccurring promotion with everyone that enters breaks.

A big addition to the site is the new BREAK POINT system. This is being run through a program purchased through Shopify that syncs with your account that you already have created. You have to CREATE an account first (even if you have an account through the store - use your same email address - your balance will appear and sync once created). This program will be automatic, flexible, with instant rewards. You won't have to worry about me screwing them up, forgetting, or wait for me to create the code for you. I am very excited for this and those that have signed in have already been cashing in. Please let me know if you have any questions!

There are two ways to reach YOUR ACCOUNT

- From the HOME PAGE - Check the BREAK POINTS link or the MY ACCOUNT link in the header

- Look for this logo on any of the shop/product pages

I will be doing a Break Box Series 2 with a new lineup. Working out the final details. It will feature chase cards, a new lineup, and more. I learned a lot on the first one and I'm looking forward to doing the second series, though I might be a little gun shy right now. I was able to find better options for boxes and stickers. The lineup I want to get for the price point I want is not lining up like I hoped it would. I was able to break even on series 1 but mostly due to breaks, but this margin would start out even smaller. So I am going to keep going and trying to make it work before I change the lineup. Series 2 will be 2019 products and then we'll see how it goes and then decide how to do Series 3.

Thanks everyone for a great and fun 2019! We pulled a lot of great cards and I met some great people. That's all I can ask!

- AB