About COMC (Check Out My Collectibles)
Check Out My LLC
Check Out My LLC, located in Redmond, Washington, was founded on December 21st, 2005.
Our mission is to "Optimize Enjoyment: Maximize what you care about; minimize what you don't."
COMC.com
COMC.com takes the latest technology and applies it to card collecting.
We desire to continually impress our customers by offering the best service and
making it easier and more fun to buy cards online!
At COMC.com we have something
special. Hopefully this is apparent from our website. We are excited for the future
and the new, original functionality that we are bringing to the collector community.
From CheckOutMyCards.com to COMC.com
We love the Check Out My Cards brand, but from the beginning it was common for people
to refer to us as COMC. In the summer of 2011, we had an opportunity to purchase COMC.com,
and we began the transition from CheckOutMyCards.com to COMC.com.
Our Story
At Tim's 10 year high school reunion (November 2006), he ran
into a longtime friend, Akash Garg, co-founder of hi5.com.
This inspired Tim to take CheckOutMyCards.com to the next level.
On that same trip, Tim and Julia ran into another friend,
Andy Bird
, who was looking for the next "garage startup." By
the end of February 2007, Andy moved to Seattle to join the team, and Julia resigned
from her position at the law firm. For most of 2007 Andy and Julia worked fulltime
on CheckOutMyCards.com while Tim worked fulltime at Microsoft and part-time on CheckOutMyCards.com.
In November of 2007 Tim left Microsoft to simplify his life and focus on the website.
At this point, Andy had done an excellent job on the website and it was time for
him to move on to bigger things. He joined Serena Software as a user experience
developer.
Soon after leaving Microsoft, Tim started getting recruited by other software companies
and book publishers. One person recruiting Tim was Jon Herlocker, a fellow grad
student from the University of Minnesota. He was a professor at Oregon State University
that had spun off some of his research as a new product called Smart Desktop. The product had been purchased by another Seattle area startup,
and they were looking for a program manager that had Tim's skills. This was an opportunity
to see the inside of a startup. Tim was very interested to watch the growth strategy
of a successful startup.
In December of 2007, Tim joined the Smart Desktop team, and CheckOutMyCards.com
hired Steve Hollander. The expectation was that in the next year
or so CheckOutMyCards.com would grow enough that they would need to move into a
warehouse and need to hire several more employees. Tim also figured that around
that time, Smart Desktop might get acquired, and it would be a good time to take
what he would learn and focus on CheckOutMyCards.com again.
Things escalated much faster than Tim had expected, and within four months CheckOutMyCards.com
needed to move into a warehouse and Smart Desktop was being acquired by EMC2.
During the spring of 2008, CheckOutMyCards.com grew to five fulltime employees and
four part-time employees. We moved into a warehouse that is literally across the
street from the Microsoft main campus in Redmond, WA. By the end of May, Tim finally
transitioned to working on CheckOutMyCards.com exclusively.
In the winter of 2010 we maxed out our first warehouse and moved to a new location that
was three times larger. We had 12 employees and our goal was to reach 25-30 employees
within the next three years.
Fast-forward to summer 2011... It is just a year and a half later, and we now have 23 employees.
We are already on the verge of outgrowing our second warehouse, and we are actively looking to
hire more employees.
Fast-forward to summer 2012... It is just a year later, and we now have 40 employees.
Last winter we moved into a 27,000sqft building, and we are still actively looking to
hire more employees.
COMC Team
Tim Getsch, MS
Founder & CEO
Tim grew up in Minnesota as an avid collector of baseball, basketball, and hockey
cards. He fell in love with numbers at a young age and went on to earn a BS in Math
at age 19 and a MS in Computer Science, both from the Institute of Technology at
the University of Minnesota. In 1999, Tim was hired by Microsoft as a Program Manager
on Excel. In 2001, Tim switched to Microsoft Access. Tim left Microsoft in October
of 2007 as the most tenured Program Manager on the team.
Tim started dreaming about the possibilities of a centralized sports card exchange
in the fall of 2003. He built software in Microsoft Access to analyze and bid on
eBay auctions, and he built LowPriceCards.com as an outlet to sell excess inventory
purchased from eBay. In the fall of 2006, Tim started building CheckOutMyCards.com
as a successor to LowPriceCards.com, so users could post and manage their online inventory.
More detailed history and vision for CheckOutMyCards.com
Tim's username is TimGetsch. He also manages the
cards in the LowPriceCards account.
1
1
1
1's username is wotorbottl.
1
1
1
1's username is corbettford.
Founding team members
Julia Getsch, MA
Business Manager
Julia grew up in the Midwest and has lived in the Seattle area since 2000. She completed her BA in Psychology and MA in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Culture and Social Justice at Northwest University in Kirkland, WA. As the top graduate, she was selected by the Dean to assist him in developing a young program and running a successful graduate school. She served as a director and adjunct faculty. After her university time, Julia worked for a law firm with a focus on business law (www.changlawgroup.com). These experiences led to her desire to begin a start-up, and she was thrilled with the prospect of starting CheckOutMyCards.com. Julia also serves on the board of the Iranian American Community Alliance (www.iaca-seattle.org) and as Co-Chair of the Civic Action Committee.
Julia Getsch, MA's username is juliagetsch.
Andrew Bird
Software Design Engineer
Andrew has been passionate about computers since he was very young. After high school, Andrew studied computer programming at Hennepin Technical College in Eden Prairie, MN. Over the course of his studies, he fell in love with web development and began to vigorously study it outside the classroom. In 2002, Andrew began building websites for friends, family, and himself. Through personal independent study, Andrew became well-versed and impassioned with the concepts of web standards, semantic development, search engine optimization, user interface design, and information architecture.
In 2005, Andrew accepted a web developer position with Saint Paul College in St Paul, Minnesota. Less than a year after starting at the College, Andrew taught a Web Design class and served as adjunct faculty as well as web developer. In February 2007, Andrew walked away from a promotion at Saint Paul College to join the CheckOutMyCards.com team.
In November 2007, Andrew wrapped up his amazing efforts on CheckOutMyCards.com and started working on a much larger web development project at Serena Software in Bellevue, Washington.
Andrew Bird's username is andybird.