I get a bunch of cheap cards from COMC but lately
olb31
Posts: 3,351 ✭✭✭✭✭
it takes them months to send the cards to you. My last three orders have taken over 3 months apiece to be sent. understaffed? that much business? combination?
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I bet that if you bought through ebay you would get super fast service... I have heard the same reports about buying on their site though. too bad. I used to get cheap singles for PC through them, but not since the pandemic.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I still surf COMC and buy for my PC. It's defintiley frustrating that if I put in a request now, economy delivery is estimated to be July 4, but I can pay a king's ransom to have them shipped for delivery on May 6.
I'm trying to temper my desire for instant gratification. Although I don't want to wait, I can wait. We shouldn't have to do that, but that's the sad reality of that platform. They certainly need more resources on that side.
Due to the 3 month wait, I stopped using them a few years ago.
Like Craig stated, just buy from them on Ebay.
Many of COMC cards are way over priced, way way over priced and many are in not great condition.
I just had a single graded PSA card shipped from COMC, bought on their website. It was $4.99 to ship with expedited, get it in a week or same cost for economy, get it in 2 months…. Said there were 24k orders in front of me to ship yet.
Nic
Guides Authored - Graded Card Scanning Guide PDF | History of the PSA Label PDF
COMC has its problems, but it's still a great place to buy if you PC players or certain sets. I personally don't want to pay $4.99 per card for shipping from a COMC listing on ebay when I can effectivley pay $0.25 per card shipping on COMC. While there are lots of overpriced things on the site, if you're patient, cards pop up that are decently priced.
YEs. I get burned on about 10% -15% of my order every time. They don't disclose issues as well as they should, IMO. However i find nice to be able to peruse through many one of issue to find the ones I want. and the combined shipping is nice. I usually purchase around 50 at a time for about $5 - $10 each, many less than $2.
You get burned on a few, but 10-15% is nothing compared to getting burned 90%+ on cards from Beckett Marketplace.
Cards you can't see and have to take the word of a dealer. Highly rated, well established dealers, mind you.
I couldn't believe it.
I only buy cards there if they're a good enough deal to compensate for the expedited shipping cost. Basically treat them like a large ebay seller in that regard. Anything chrome needs to be an especially good deal since those are the most likely to have major issues you can't see in their scans.
I also check whether the seller is mostly listing cards people frequently grade or recent slabs from the same submission.
But how do you feel about their pricing?
Yaz Master Set
#1 Gino Cappelletti master set
#1 John Hannah master set
Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
If you click 'service status' on the bottom of COMC's website, it shows that their 'economy' service is currently running at 57 days. If you're looking for immediate delivery, they're 'rushed' service is 5 days and their 'express' service is 1 day.
A simple solution is just to pay a bit more and you don't have to wait.
THE MAIN REASON they are in business is the cheap shipping. without that. i doubt they have much of a business.
Unfortuantely, there are people who will pay the rushed shipping, if they are getting cards that they want to take to shows to sell, so they can get away with it. I'm not a seller, so I can wait, eventhough it is a bit frustrating.
I always buy in advanced reselling mode instead of simplified shipping mode because there are times where I will see a good deal and buy with the intent to flip. For the cards I PC, I am basically kicking the quarter per card down the road until I ship. Right now, for the 174 PC cards I have marked to ship:
Economy shipping is $54.24, estimated for July 10
Rushed is $140.74, estimated for May 13
Express is $265.24, estimated for May 9
So, 3x will buy me 2 months faster shipping. 5x will buy me 4 days faster than that. For PC, I really don't need to pay 3x or 5x for instant gratification, as much as I would want the cards faster.
If it's for my PC, I have no problem waiting that long. Other than seeing them in hand, there's no benefit to paying the extra cost.
A non-COMC example of this for me is that I submitted three orders to PSA at the Burbank Show last February and the last of the three orders just had its grade pop last week but hasn't shipped out yet. I could have had the card graded and sent back to me sooner but I didn't see the point of paying extra as it's for my PC.
On the other hand, if I'm buying cards to sell/flip then paying $140.74 isn't that big a deal when you consider that purchasing 174 cards on eBay very likely is going to take many transactions and will very likely cost way more than that when you add the shipping up. With the rushed shipping level on COMC, you're looking at an added cost of 0.81 per card or essentially the price of a postage stamp and an envelope which isn't a big deal unless you're working on very tight margins.
The worst part was watching them go from a good/fast shipping company AND saving you money by allowing you to batch purchases to taking a ridiculous amount of time to process orders.
Yes, I don't need my cards and love that I can keep them in my portfolio until I am ready and pay a single shipping fee. That is the model that put them on the map. However, once I am ready to ship my cards, I should not have to wait 2 months for them.
Saving the combined shipping is worth it though and planning ahead can solve that issue. Watch though, I'll plan for 2 months and it'll turn into 4 next time! I just processed an order yesterday and it predicted 2 month ship time, so I will wait and see what happens.
"pay a bit more". That is a good one. If only that were true.
Can someone explain to me or point me to a thread on
how COMC works.
you have to sign up. Then you put money into your comc account from paypal or your credit card. Then you search for the cards you want. You can make offers. sometimes people respond sometimes they don't. You need to leave enough money in your account to pay for shupping, whichever shipping you want. Then you request shipment.
COMC makes things way too complicated. The whole system where you have to fund your account before you can make a purchase is just wrong. The fact that anyone would buy from them and wait 2-3 months for shipment is ridiculous.
How they stay in business and why anyone is willing to accept these business practices is beyond me.
Lots of truth in this post. I buy a bunch of low price cards usually and it pays off with the cheap shipping. For instance, i picked up a 1983 opc Nolan ryan for $3, graded it a 10, and now it's a $600 card. A 1973 clemente and aaron graded 8's for $5 each several years ago. So sometimes you can do pretty good.
From a buyer perspective, I disagree with this, except the shipping part. Funding before buying seems logical. If you don't want to do that, then just buy the card via COMC's ebay account. It ships faster that way too.
I don’t like how Apple Cash works either if I’m being honest.
Pretty down on hornets too.
I agree with you there on most of what you say. I would love to see a step in between where you can make an offer on an item without having the money in your account, then if it is accepted, add the $ and pay. There is room for abuse though with people making and having offers accepted, then not following through on paying. I would not want that for the sellers. I understand you can get refunds on credit, but that seems to be a bit of a confusing process as well. If you load up $, make an offer and it's not accepted, now you either have to spend the money on other items or request a refund. That is clunky.
The long processing time is extremely ridiculous and even if you work around it and be patient, I can't think of any other business model that follows this method. Amazon can have crap at your doorstep sometimes later that same day! Night and day to compare Amazon and COMC, but 2+ months to process an order is just absurd.
But, they do allow you to 30 days to request a cash-out of your deposit without the 10% cash-out fee. Does it suck to load and then wait for the cash-out? Sure, but I think that alleviates the scenario where a random person puts in an offer, accepts, and then buyer does not pay. I could see that be a major issue. From the seller side, this is a huge benefit of the website - not dealing with non-paying buyers.
"The long processing time is extremely ridiculous and even if you work around it and be patient, I can't think of any other business model that follows this method. Amazon can have crap at your doorstep sometimes later that same day! Night and day to compare Amazon and COMC, but 2+ months to process an order is just absurd."
COMC is just going through growing pains. They clearly have explained on their site that they have delays on regular shipping instead of leaving customers in the dark. It's on the customer now to decide if the wait is worth it.
They've built an extremely popular sales platform that grew faster than they probably expected. It's why they're the seventh largest seller on eBay overall regardless of category. They also have their own website's business as well as business partnerships with PSA and CGC that are popular in their own right.
All of this is why they just announced that they just processed their two-hundredth million item in the history of their company.
https://blog.comc.com/2024/05/09/200000000-million-items-processed-on-comc/
They'll figure things out by building out systems and staffing in time but to expect or even compare COMC to Amazon, the largest e-Commerce company in the world is unrealistic as the infrastructure and facilities Amazon has are unmatched.
"Lots of truth in this post. I buy a bunch of low price cards usually and it pays off with the cheap shipping. For instance, i picked up a 1983 opc Nolan ryan for $3, graded it a 10, and now it's a $600 card. A 1973 clemente and aaron graded 8's for $5 each several years ago. So sometimes you can do pretty good."
It all goes back to paying a bit more if you need it now or waiting. The OP said that regular postage is $54.24 for a 57 day wait or $140.74 for 5 days. This is for 174 cards. If it's for a PC, the OP could always go to other sites to get faster delivery but they're not cost effective for 174 cards.
That said, if you're using COMC to purchase 174 cards that you want to resell them right away then biting the bullet and paying the extra $86.50 on shipping makes sense. This is especially true if one of the cards in the deal was purchased for $3.00, submitted for grading to PSA and received a PSA 10 and could be sold for $600.00.
I would agree with that, if, once I decided the wait they clearly described was worth it, during said wait, they didn't keep moving the ship date further and further away. An extra month in most cases.
Yes they did that to me last time. I asked them for free shipping and they gave it to me. To me the problem is having mulitple purchases hanging out there and then they fold up for some reason. Then you would or could be out a$1,000 or more depending on what all you bought.
I will say, I also utilize Sportslot box as well, unless the difference in shipping to the box and the shipping to me directly is negligible. Also, I only utilize the box on low dollar cards (like $3 or less) because there are times where the seller (I've had this happen twice - both with low-volume sellers) mislabels a card on the site where you think you're getting a particular parallel, but it's really a base.
For set building and the two guys I PC, I'm totally fine with the box process on low value cards.
Interesting thought. Legit question that I have no idea what the answer would be.
What would happen if they had to go out of business? They don't own any of their inventory. It costs money to process and mail other peoples cards back to them, so if this ship starts to do down someday...how do sellers and buyers with cards stored there end up getting their cards back? Let's hope that never becomes a reality.
I have even thought about what might happen if I died with a bunch of cards in my portfolio. My wife would have no idea. COMC wouldn't either. They would probably just sit there forever. Nobody could claim them unless they had my log-in credentials. There might even be a few portfolios on COMC now who's owners have died. Odds are in favor that this would have happened by now. At some point, this may have to be addressed by COMC.
So, in the terms of service, they discuss a few things:
They are merely a custodian, so they do not take title of your property at any point. Transactions that happen on the site are between buyer and seller.
If your account is terminated for whatever reason, they will return all items associated with your account at your expense. They also are supposed to pay out your store credit, less shipping and fees.
If you abandon your items on COMC, after attempting ot reach you for a period of at least 90 days, they may dispose of your abandoned items. You expressly release them from claims against them with respect to property you abandon. Ultimately, if they can't find you, I'm not sure what happens. I suppose the right thing would be to remit whatever balance is left to the state's unclaimed property division, but the terms of service do not spell out what happens in that case.
I have left a roadmap of where things are for my wife, in the event I get hit by a bus.
@olb31 thanks for the information. I'll have to find the website now.
I've bought a fair amount from COMC both via eBay and more recently at their direct website - which has better pricing. I had never had an issue until my last order that took a much longer than it should. The communication was sporadic but the order eventually showed up without error. I chalked it up to them being short-staffed. If each order was like my last one, I would probably hesitate to buy repeatedly. Since I use my AMEX for making purchases, I feel more than secure if something goes awry - AMEX will just reverse the charge - if I don't get the goods. Previously, I had been extremely impressed by the quality, accuracy, and receipt for each item with a paper receipt inside of each card's penny sleeve or top loader. It seems like a well-run operation.
Erik
I will agree there that having an accurate order seems to be a top priority. The little slips and individual team bags got to be a bit much on one order I had but I do appreciate the care in packaging. I do't recall ever having any errors or omissions in my orders ever. Considering how often it happens to me on ebay (wrong cards set, missing items from orders, orders sent to the wrong person, etc), that is a solid compliment.
Finally after waiting 3 plus months I got my order. Like usual there are a couple of problems (nondisclosure or just plain damaged the card when putting them in holders). 2/3 cards had corner dings that didn't appear to be in the pic, I think it got damaged when sliding the card into the soft sleeve. And then one that had been creased Not sure when. I didn't see it in the pic.
total cost of the cards was around $20, not the end of the world but, not great. I did get a few very nice cards though. Overall B+ effort on the cards and a C of the time to ship.