Comc Buyers-Are you just buying less now?

[phillyfan42]

First let me say I am a buyer/collector. I started flipping on the site a little just for fun and I sent in a bunch of cards during the promotion to use to swap for pc cards.

Since there have been a number of seller threads complaining about sales I was just wondering what buyers are doing. Are you still buying the same amount? finding good deals? Buying less because of the new fees or lack of bv?

I have been buying less partly because I think about the fees and have to decide do i really want to pay to ship a low end card or it is worth flipping it. Also I feel like the deals aren't as good as before and maybe I just realize I have so much I only want to buy it if it's a amazing deal. Still love the site and hope this is not what everyone is thinking but curious to know what buyers think and whether they think the site needs to worry about it

[SpastikMooss]

First let me say I am a buyer/collector. I started flipping on the site a little just for fun and I sent in a bunch of cards during the promotion to use to swap for pc cards.

Since there have been a number of seller threads complaining about sales I was just wondering what buyers are doing. Are you still buying the same amount? finding good deals? Buying less because of the new fees or lack of bv?

I have been buying less partly because I think about the fees and have to decide do i really want to pay to ship a low end card or it is worth flipping it. Also I feel like the deals aren't as good as before and maybe I just realize I have so much I only want to buy it if it's a amazing deal. Still love the site and hope this is not what everyone is thinking but curious to know what buyers think and whether they think the site needs to worry about it

I haven't bought from them in forever, but it's just because I have a real small scope of PC needs and none of them are on there now. If they were there I'd still happily buy.

[jaydub]

I noticed that for much of what I had initially looked at comc for I often found on sportlots for less. The change in BV and the shipping changes made me look less often too. Honestly there were lots of times where the site itself just wasn't responsive so I've spent less time there.

[SpastikMooss]

I noticed that for much of what I had initially looked at comc for I often found on sportlots for less. The change in BV and the shipping changes made me look less often too. Honestly there were lots of times where the site itself just wasn't responsive so I've spent less time there.

I did forget that BV left...that killed it a bit for me. It was nice to have an idea of what my cards booked for. I get why they got rid of it for free accounts but it was so nice lol.

[briscogun]

COMC is great for buying low-end stuff in bulk, in my opinion. I'll go there and look for lower end PC stuff, and if I can find a handful of what I need, I'll make a purchase. Bought like 40+ cards there twice in the last month.

[jmscoggin]

I'm still buying but like the poster above I have narrow PC needs. Stuff I want just isn't coming available. As a seller it is way down although this month has been a rebound compared to the previous three.

[phillies347]

Ive only been buying Cole Hamels cards and Mid-High End Tradebait cards that I can get on sale. Other than that, Ive flipped a few really cheap low end cards...but Im trying to move away from the low end in general

[37Jetson]

Sales are without a doubt off from previous years. This may be hobby dying before our eyes or poor COMC performance due to the changes over the past year. I honestly would peg it more on the collecting singles dying an ugly death. I am not ready to throw in the towel because I have 1,300 great new cards that will be hitting by Thanksgiving Day.

My sales over the past week have been especially ugly. I keep reminding myself that Good Friday is coming.

[dherm360]

I buy ALOT less from COMC from previous years, the prices on a lot of things are just ridiculous. There is a card I was interested on COMC for 139.00 Beckett 9 WAY WAY to high--bought the identical card last week on ebay for 4.63 would grade a 9 or higher. Some sellers are not realistic then complain that they cant sell anything.

I'm for having as many avenues to buy things, I think some sellers are killing themselves with unrealistic prices.

Hopefully with the holidays coming up you sellers can increase your sales

[hohlernr]

My buying has dropped down now that the minor league season is over, but it'll pick up before my trip to Spring Training. For an IP autograph collector, there's simply no better place to pick up cards.

[enyouartist]

As a buyer, if a seller counters my offer, you lose my business. Whenever I go on COMC, which is like once a month, I make 50 or so offers. I would say 80% get accepted, and the other 20% get countered. The problem is that I've already made my monthly visit, so I'm not really looking to waste time and go back to accept a counter offer. So my advise is just set the minimum price at what you are confortable accepting. If you try and counter, you'll most likely lose that spur-of-the-moment purchase.

[mfw13]

I only use COMC to buy base cards for sets I am working on.

The first issue for me is that new inventory does not get added often (at least for the sets I'm working on). If the common I am looking for is not available in June, its still probably not going to be available in November.

The second issue is pricing. For some cards I want/need, the prices are ridiculously out of line with reality, probably because the sellers do not bother to adjust their prices to the reality of the market.

The third issue is that for the most part, COMC rarely has inserts from the sets I am working on. In all honesty, I don't think I've ever spent more than $5 on a single card on COMC because of this. Anything high-value is going to show up on EBay, not COMC.

[mbrown2626]

My buying has dropped down now that the minor league season is over, but it'll pick up before my trip to Spring Training. For an IP autograph collector, there's simply no better place to pick up cards.

Sportslots is better in my opinion. If you are going for IP autos on cards (I do the same) sportslots is where I go to buy bulk. Most base cards of Minor Leaguers can be had for .20/card.

[californiakron]

Good for finishing low end sets, but that's about it for me. I was looking at a few cards that routinely sell for $25-$35 on ebay and the starting price on comc is over $120!

Seems to be more of a museum lately

[Amberkow]

I've been selling stuff a lot slower this past month, and in transition I have also been buying less. I normally just buy PC cards, or cards for set's that I'm working on with what ever money is in my account from sales that I make.

I hope it picks up with the Thanksgiving promotion!

[vwnut13]

Sportslots is better in my opinion. If you are going for IP autos on cards (I do the same) sportslots is where I go to buy bulk. Most base cards of Minor Leaguers can be had for .20/card.

Yup!


Cards cost less on sportlots than the shipping fee alone on COMC.

[RS1313]

I've picked up around 250 jordans since I started buying a month ago. Problem is mostly is that 95% of everyones prices are just way too much. Mostly at absurd levels. And most sellers just don't budge or offer 10% off their initial price. I have a pretty small port with low end stuff so the demand might not be there but I've still sold over 150+ cards in the last month, granted everything I have listed is the lowest price.

[smit5004]

I've picked up around 250 jordans since I started buying a month ago. Problem is mostly is that 95% of everyone's prices are just way too much. Mostly at absurd levels. And most sellers just don't budge or offer 10% off their initial price. I have a pretty small port with low end stuff so the demand might not be there but I've still sold over 150+ cards in the last month, granted everything I have listed is the lowest price.


I'm in the same boat. I've sold a little over 150 cards over the last month mainly because I try and constantly make sure everything I have is the lowest on the site and usually lowest by a decent amount not just a couple pennies. Am I making the most off of every card I could make, probably not but I'm sure I've sold quite a few cards I wouldn't have if they weren't so cheap.

[Swipe79]

Just like any other business - if you price your product correctly, people will at least give it consideration.

There are a lot of cheesy sellers on there, doesn't mean you have to buy from them.

[btmcrushers]

I'm both a seller and a buyer, but I can't/won't buy unless I am selling.

[Clarka3]

seems like low end cheap stuff is still overpriced on COMC. cards i can (and do) win for .99 are priced at a point where the minimum offer is often double or triple what it goes for on ebay.

[Swipe79]

The one thing I usually consider is that it isn't usually a .99 delivered price on eBay.

If you're lucky you end up paying around $2.00-$3.00 to have it delivered so the total cost ends up being $2.99-$3.99 delivered per card. Of course, if you get multiple cards from a seller they usually give you a break.

I'm not saying I love the COMC shipping price, but I do take the cost of delivery into consideration when I buy.

[marines4me]

I am a pretty big buyer and seller on comc. I think it all has to do with
Season. Sales are up for me this week because basketball startrd.

I blame the rookie football class. I completely stopped buying 2013 football
Inventory and i think so has the public.

But comc is getting pricey fire me as well
Cost me 300 for a yearly beckett subscription. I also pay
150 to 200 a month in storage fees and then around 500 to 750
In processing fees

Chine on and cut us a break on fees.

[jmscoggin]

I am a pretty big buyer and seller on comc. I think it all has to do with
Season. Sales are up for me this week because basketball startrd.

I blame the rookie football class. I completely stopped buying 2013 football
Inventory and i think so has the public.

But comc is getting pricey fire me as well
Cost me 300 for a yearly beckett subscription. I also pay
150 to 200 a month in storage fees and then around 500 to 750
In processing fees

Chine on and cut us a break on fees.

I have been saying this for some time. Moe is good about responding to topics but he always ignores this one. It is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. There need to be some type of breaks for big sellers. If Ebay can do it than there is zero reason that COMC can't.

[mrwalken]

I have been saying this for some time. Moe is good about responding to topics but he always ignores this one. It is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. There need to be some type of breaks for big sellers. If Ebay can do it than there is zero reason that COMC can't.

Well, they have the upgrade to increase the level where a seller has to pay storage fees. Although it's really set up to only benefit maybe the top 25 sellers or so. I'm more interested in them giving some breaks to big BUYERS.

[ExAreSee]

ive literally lowered prices on everything and my sales have really picked up this last week. the start of the basketball season has helped a lot too. im accepting that ill take a loss on a few cards too.

ive sold a bunch of $5 book value stuff for under 25 cents because it was the only way. the fees are just too much quite frankly, they either need to give BV again OR lower the fees IMO.

[jmscoggin]

Well, they have the upgrade to increase the level where a seller has to pay storage fees. Although it's really set up to only benefit maybe the top 25 sellers or so. I'm more interested in them giving some breaks to big BUYERS.

I don't really see the need for this. The site is already slanted for them. They aren't paying the submission fees, storage fees or cashout fees. The sellers are paying COMC's bills and THEY are the ones that need to be catered to. As a buyer I think card prices and shipping prices are very fair compared to Ebay. As a seller .............................. I'm quickly starting to swing back towards evil. :(:(:(

[ExAreSee]

I don't really see the need for this. The site is already slanted for them. They aren't paying the submission fees, storage fees or cashout fees. The sellers are paying COMC's bills and THEY are the ones that need to be catered to. As a buyer I think card prices and shipping prices are very fair compared to Ebay. As a seller .............................. I'm quickly starting to swing back towards evil. :(:(:(

id be cool with the fees as they are if they gave bv again

[brewcrew82]

id be cool with the fees as they are if they gave bv again

Sorry but what fees do you pay?Besides the 25 cent processing and 1 cent per month for cards over 75 cent.You dont have that many cards on site.

[brewcrew82]

But back to the Question?I still buy but I havent sent any cards since 3 months.My last order took almost 3 months,Just not worth the hassle.So I started buying boxes.From the other company D&A because Blowout still Doesnt ship to Germany!!

[ExAreSee]

Sorry but what fees do you pay?Besides the 25 cent processing and 1 cent per month for cards over 75 cent.You dont have that many cards on site.

the 25 cents per card fee

then 20% of every sale for "processing"

and shipping prices

i was cool with it at first but if bv were given sales would increase so it would soften the blow.

[ExAreSee]

the 25 cents per card

then 20% of every sale for "processing"

i was cool with it at first but if bv were given sales would increase so it would soften the blow.

if it is a card you can sell it ebay then it should be sold on ebay, its just a better financial decision. i comc the cards i couldnt sell on ebay. ebay takes roughly 14% of every sale, comc take 20% + .25 cents

[brewcrew82]

if it is a card you can sell it ebay then it should be sold on ebay, its just a better financial decision. i comc the cards i couldnt sell on ebay. ebay takes roughly 14% of every sale, comc take 20% + .25 cents

Dont Really understand your Math,Sorry.
My Shop on E-Bay cost 299,00 Euro a Month,500,00 Dollars.
Plus Pay-Pal+E-Bay 10 % Fees+Taxes.
Sorry but COMC is Cheap compared to E-Bay.

[mrwalken]

I don't really see the need for this. The site is already slanted for them. They aren't paying the submission fees, storage fees or cashout fees. The sellers are paying COMC's bills and THEY are the ones that need to be catered to. As a buyer I think card prices and shipping prices are very fair compared to Ebay. As a seller .............................. I'm quickly starting to swing back towards evil. :(:(:(

I really don't know whether COMC needs to cater more to buyers or sellers at this point. I know for sure that buyers are taking a lot fewer cards off the site compared to say, a year ago. I don't have a good sense for whether sellers are also sending in less cards. My guess is no, but I could be wrong. I don't have a good way to track that like I do with sales.

Edit: One other thought. I've noticed that the price of most cards on the site has trended down since I started selling over 3 years ago. In other words, if I look at cards I sold 3 years ago, they are most often available for less now. So, that leads me to believe that on the whole, supply is greater than demand for most cards, and the gap on COMC is probably widening. So I would say they need to cater to buyers more, in my opinion.

[ExAreSee]

Dont Really understand your Math,Sorry.
My Shop on E-Bay cost 299,00 Euro a Month,500,00 Dollars.
Plus Pay-Pal+E-Bay 10 % Fees+Taxes.
Sorry but COMC is Cheap compared to E-Bay.

if i sell a $100 card on ebay after it all i receive roughly 86 dollars.

if i sell a $100 card on comc after it all i receive $79.75, actually less when you factor in shipping. and still have to pay paypal.


get it now?

[brewcrew82]

if i sell a $100 card on ebay after it all i receive roughly 86 dollars.

if i sell a $100 card on comc after it all i receive $79.75, actually less when you factor in shipping. and still have to pay paypal.


get it now?

No.If you sell a card for 100 You get 100.Minus check-out fees 20%.80.00 Dollars.No Pay-Pal fees because they sent money to your account.Correct me if im wrong but the difference is 6 bucks and you dont have to worry about anything.

[ExAreSee]

No.If you sell a card for 100 You get 100.Minus check-out fees 20%.80.00 Dollars.No Pay-Pal fees because they sent money to your account.Correct me if im wrong but the difference is 6 bucks and you dont have to worry about anything.

lol ok im sorry im just gonna take money and burn it now, since its only a few dollars i might as well not care?

[ExAreSee]

6.25 and the shipping. 6.5% of a sale vanishes... so since its only 6.5% i shouldnt care, thats ur arguement here?

[brewcrew82]

No your right.Pull your cards from the site and sell them all on E-Bay.You can make more money.Sorry I waisted your time with a few facts.

[ExAreSee]

No your right.Pull your cards from the site and sell them all on E-Bay.You can make more money.Sorry I waisted your time with a few facts.

np, your like my oldest grandson you just dont think things through.

[ajw9356]

Sales should be down, too much purchase and flip on every card I would buy, so everything is up about $5 per card or more it seems and it's cheaper to purchase on eBay for about 90% of everything I want. COMC used to be great for finding reasonable low end singles. I'm sure there are still deals to be found, but not anything close to the way it was before.

[jmscoggin]

I really don't know whether COMC needs to cater more to buyers or sellers at this point. I know for sure that buyers are taking a lot fewer cards off the site compared to say, a year ago. I don't have a good sense for whether sellers are also sending in less cards. My guess is no, but I could be wrong. I don't have a good way to track that like I do with sales.

Edit: One other thought. I've noticed that the price of most cards on the site has trended down since I started selling over 3 years ago. In other words, if I look at cards I sold 3 years ago, they are most often available for less now. So, that leads me to believe that on the whole, supply is greater than demand for most cards, and the gap on COMC is probably widening. So I would say they need to cater to buyers more, in my opinion.

Let me put it this way.

As a buyer.

I am able to buy cards at or below Ebay in most cases. Even after you factor in .25 shipping per card I am usually way ahead of where I would be on Ebay. Especially since I wait until I have 50-100 cards purchased and then there is only the $3.00 additional shipping cost. It is far far cheaper than if I were to have bought and shipped these same 50-100 cards individually purchased on Ebay. The only problem I see for COMC on the buying end is not enough advertising. Outside of a few hardcore fans most collectors don't know they exist.

As a seller.

I have paid $9k to get my 27,000 cards listed on the site. I am the lowest or in the lowest three on most if not all of them. Then I get hit with a $30-40 storage fee every month. When I sell and cash out there will be ANOTHER 20% hit at cashout. At the very least, storage fees need to go away for large volume dealers. Ebay even offers the best sellers 20% off fees and they hate sellers. It is just too much regardless of how much of the work they do. A lot of that benefit is offset by the fact that an item may take a really long time to sell regardless of how low it is priced where Ebay items sell in 7-10 days in most all cases.

COMC needs to advertise more to attract buyers and offer incentives to the big sellers. If they don't I see it eventually collapsing. I'm already at the point of thinking Ebay is the better option again and I despise Ebay as a seller. How hard would it be to partner with Topps to get advertising on the blanks that go into the packs?

[rip+flip]

IMO it sounds like the COMC guys got too greedy and they have basically ruined their site.

Sure more fees mean more money, but less sellers and buyers means less money as well.

Sounds like they have made a big mistake.

[phillies347]

IMO it sounds like the COMC guys got too greedy and they have basically ruined their site.

Sure more fees mean more money, but less sellers and buyers means less money as well.

Sounds like they have made a big mistake.

Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner

[Swipe79]

I'm sure if it was free we'd be complaining about it too.

[jmscoggin]

I'm sure if it was free we'd be complaining about it too.

I don't think so. This time last year you had nothing but slobbering fanboys, myself included. You can't say that now. COMC better look in the mirror before it gets any worse.

[phillies347]

Wheres Mo?

[mrwalken]

I don't think so. This time last year you had nothing but slobbering fanboys, myself included. You can't say that now. COMC better look in the mirror before it gets any worse.

Well, actually, COMC has had other significant issues in the past that people complained a great deal about. And it's worth noting that some have been completely resolved, such as:

Erroneous listings -- Cards used to be listed wrong all the time, and would seem to persist that way for months on end despite many notifications to COMC. Now, errors are fixed almost instantly upon notice, and I rarely see mis-listed cards at all on the site.

Slowness -- For long stretches of time, the site would become unusably slow, sometimes for days on end. I can't remember the last time I had this problem on the site.

So, there are some issues now that seem to be hurting site traffic quite a bit, including high fees on both the buyer and seller ends, loss of beckett prices + awkward/user-unfriendly sales history interface, etc. But I am hopeful that COMC will continue to find ways to address problems to make the site successful.

[37Jetson]

Time to dust off my COMC Cheerleader Skirt. I believe that a lot of the problems of the hobby are being blamed on COMC. If you are complaining that you can't sell your 2013 Gypsy Queen singles for more than 5-10% of book it is due to the fact that this is the most unwanted product in ages. That is not COMC's fault. Even prospector products like Bowman Draft have large quantities for sale at low prices. Does the blame that too much of this product getting ripped and flipped lie on COMC or the new state of the hobby?

I travel quite a bit with my job and would never be able to have an Ebay business so COMC is a dream come true when it comes to them doing all of the work. I have been selling on COMC for over five years and there have been many changes as they attempt to grow their business. I have not liked all of these changes, but I have made the decision to stay because it is the best overall selling option for me.

To be a broken record, I need to state that COMC is not the best selling option for all cards. If you have a not new card it should be sold on Ebay to maximize price and your proceeds. If the card will sell for 75 cents or less Sportlots is a better way to go where you do not have to pay listing fees. I do not send any cards to COMC that I believe cannot sell for $1.00. If you are sending in 1982 Fleer commons thinking you will get 75 cents each because they are the only ones on the site, then you should not be blaming society that this is a terrible idea.

[marines4me]

37Jetson
You are talking about products and the problem people are talking about are fees.

NOW FOR EVERYONE ELSE

STOP complaining about having to pay more for singles. Think of it like this

I avg 100 cards a day and make $200 a day on COMC or $6000 a month
Cash out fee is 1200, I am fine with that ( Little high but I build my business model around this)
$4800 Profit
I paid on avg $.25 for each of the 3000 cards to be sent to the site
$750
Now We were paying $.15 then it went to $.20 (Unplanned increase)
Now I am down to $4050 profit

I now have to pay $30 for my beckett subscription
I pay an additional $50 for cards priced under $2.50
I pay another $150 in storage fees for cards priced over $2.50

SO COMC gets $2,180 a month from me per month

Thanks you all pay for it.

I don't run promotions any more, I don't allow 50% offer like I use to
I sell much higher than I use to because I have to, and there for you buyers are going to get less deals

If COMC raises the prices again I am going to continue to do business with them because I
don't have to worry about customer service and scams like I did in the past.

BUT THE BUYER WILL EAT THE FEES BY INCREASED CARD PRICES

I learned this in economics my freshman year of college.

[jmscoggin]

37Jetson
You are talking about products and the problem people are talking about are fees.

NOW FOR EVERYONE ELSE

STOP complaining about having to pay more for singles. Think of it like this

I avg 100 cards a day and make $200 a day on COMC or $6000 a month
Cash out fee is 1200, I am fine with that ( Little high but I build my business model around this)
$4800 Profit
I paid on avg $.25 for each of the 3000 cards to be sent to the site
$750
Now We were paying $.15 then it went to $.20 (Unplanned increase)
Now I am down to $4050 profit

I now have to pay $30 for my beckett subscription
I pay an additional $50 for cards priced under $2.50
I pay another $150 in storage fees for cards priced over $2.50

SO COMC gets $2,180 a month from me per month

Thanks you all pay for it.

I don't run promotions any more, I don't allow 50% offer like I use to
I sell much higher than I use to because I have to, and there for you buyers are going to get less deals

If COMC raises the prices again I am going to continue to do business with them because I
don't have to worry about customer service and scams like I did in the past.

BUT THE BUYER WILL EAT THE FEES BY INCREASED CARD PRICES

I learned this in economics my freshman year of college.

All of this makes sense on your end but what COMC has to realize is that it is unsustainable. At some point and that point is getting close, people will just buy from Ebay or Sportlots and COMC goes away. If you screw with the sellers enough they go away and then the buyers have nothing to buy. If you raise fees enough to where sellers have to pass it on to buyers via higher prices the buyers go away and the sellers soon follow. It is a lose lose.

I think;

Submission fees need to go back to .20.

Storage fees need to be adjusted or eliminated some how.

There needs to be an incentive program for high volume sellers/submitters. Every major company does something like this yet COMC doesn't.

Cashout fees need to be reexamined. Essentially they have a triple taxation system going on. You add that to only getting 10-40% of BV on most items and you have an unsustainable system.

Shipping. Not really sure how to tweak this but they have to be making a killing. Take my upcoming shipment for example. I will be taking possesion of 100 cards, none slabbed. I have already paid $25 in shipping on those and will pay an additional $3 when they ship. It won't cost them more than $5 to ship to me which is a $23 profit for them. When you account for the submission fees they already made on those cards, possible storage fees and cashout fees from the sellers it would seem to me that COMC is doing ok. I just think they are getting too greedy.

Forced returns need to go away. They promised that we would have some type of tab on the dashboard to keep track of these but I have yet to find anything like that. Please let me know if I am just missing it.

[colls69]

Yes,Submission fees back to 20 cents per card.That would really help ALL sellers.

[smit5004]

I do agree they have to be making a good amount on shipping and I actually think that it is a pretty good deal the way they make it on the shipping for them. I think though with that they can afford to lower their prices on submissions.

I do warn people though as sellers, if prices become cheaper on submitting items than more people will submit and than supply will go up and unless the demand increases as well from Marketing to outsiders or however than the only solution will be to lower the price cards so the overall profit won't change much.


All of this makes sense on your end but what COMC has to realize is that it is unsustainable. At some point and that point is getting close, people will just buy from Ebay or Sportlots and COMC goes away. If you screw with the sellers enough they go away and then the buyers have nothing to buy. If you raise fees enough to where sellers have to pass it on to buyers via higher prices the buyers go away and the sellers soon follow. It is a lose lose.

I think;

Submission fees need to go back to .20.

Storage fees need to be adjusted or eliminated some how.

There needs to be an incentive program for high volume sellers/submitters. Every major company does something like this yet COMC doesn't.

Cashout fees need to be reexamined. Essentially they have a triple taxation system going on. You add that to only getting 10-40% of BV on most items and you have an unsustainable system.

Shipping. Not really sure how to tweak this but they have to be making a killing. Take my upcoming shipment for example. I will be taking possesion of 100 cards, none slabbed. I have already paid $25 in shipping on those and will pay an additional $3 when they ship. It won't cost them more than $5 to ship to me which is a $23 profit for them. When you account for the submission fees they already made on those cards, possible storage fees and cashout fees from the sellers it would seem to me that COMC is doing ok. I just think they are getting too greedy.

Forced returns need to go away. They promised that we would have some type of tab on the dashboard to keep track of these but I have yet to find anything like that. Please let me know if I am just missing it.

[Swipe79]

Changing from .25 to .20 on submission fees would make a $50 difference over the course of 1,000 cards. Is it really that close for some of you?

You say they are making a killing on shipping - they are paying an employee an hourly wage and benefits to pick the cards, securely package them, and make sure it is ready to go. How much do you think that runs them?

[smit5004]

Changing from .25 to .20 on submission fees would make a $50 difference over the course of 1,000 cards. Is it really that close for some of you?

You say they are making a killing on shipping - they are paying an employee an hourly wage and benefits to pick the cards, securely package them, and make sure it is ready to go. How much do you think that runs them?



I agree but I think it would be wise and a nice gesture to reward people who send in larger batches. For example do .25 per card up to 300 ($75) cards and than do like $10 for every 100 above that or something like that. Because COMC is making the money up on shipping if more cards on on the site, leading to more cards being sold.

[37Jetson]

All I hear is how rich COMC is getting from shipping and I scratch my head. They have paid employees that have to maneuver through millions, yes millions, of cards to find your exact card and folks are complaining like it is the end of the world that they have to pay $.25 per card for this service. Some days I just do not understand people.

[rtcrules]

I wish they would do more to help the buyers. If its something like waveing the $3 if you ship X amount or free shipping for first time buyers. Something to get buyers buying. The reason I believe they need to go this route is there is no shortage of sellers but if we get new buyers or buyers buying more we'll get more sellers sending in more items creating a fresh market. COMC has been stagnant, from my guess around the Spring Cleaning Sale, I know thats when I slowed up my buying.

[jmscoggin]

Changing from .25 to .20 on submission fees would make a $50 difference over the course of 1,000 cards. Is it really that close for some of you?

You say they are making a killing on shipping - they are paying an employee an hourly wage and benefits to pick the cards, securely package them, and make sure it is ready to go. How much do you think that runs them?

I have submitted 29,000+ cards. That is $1,450. Yes, I can feel that number. Especially when I also get hit with $30 - 40 of storage fees per month and then there will be the 20% cash out fee at the end. None of this is taking into account my shipping costs to get it to them or my aquisition costs of the items in the first place. The last two are obviously not their concern or problem but all of these things need to be considered as a seller.

All I hear is how rich COMC is getting from shipping and I scratch my head. They have paid employees that have to maneuver through millions, yes millions, of cards to find your exact card and folks are complaining like it is the end of the world that they have to pay $.25 per card for this service. Some days I just do not understand people.

It isn't the shipping by itself. In isolation those fees are fair. It is the totality of the fees in combination. It is a beating. Yes, they do the legwork but that is offset by how long most things take to sell in relation to Ebay.

[papercards]

It still comes down to supply and demand. When there are 256 cards of a Yu Darvish Bowman rookie card, and you have to go 4 or 5 pages deep to just get out of the cards that are not 5-6% of book...that is the problem. There are so many cards being submitted now, by many more sellers than there used to be. What does the guy have to do, to even move 56 of those? Sellers have to quit sending cards in when there are 250 copies on the site. In the same way, there were over 100 Xander base bowman rookies, and 50-60 Chromes, during the summer they got pushed down to about 20-25% of book and about 35% or so on the Chrome. I bought all I could. The demand for them came within the last 4-6 weeks, and I have sold well over 60-70 base and I am down to my last Chrome out of 50 or so. It comes back to simple econ 101...

I do think that the BV going away has hurt more than I think COMC thought it would. I talked to a friend of mine this weekend, who really enjoyed using COMC but wasn't a hardcore collector/didn't have time to devote a lot to it. The prices gave him a basic guide. Yes, we all know Beckett is outdated etc etc, but it did help in some situations. In his case, he didn't have that "guide" to go by anymore, so he sold his port and stopped using the site. I hope the casual buyer, isn't getting pushed off. Even myself, my buying has slowed down. I still purchase a lot more than the "normal" user, but I have cut back. I only bought one of the Becketts to have some pricing available, and I find that I don't buy the other sports as much.

When I noticed the drop-off, it was around April-May of this year. That is when I believe the BV went away, but I am not sure. It isn't all that either. Some is the fees, it is the volume of cards that have come in, and now a lot of undercutting with no "BV" to go by...many cards, and some halfway decent ones can be had for well under 10%. That didn't happen before, those were snatched up. I also think part of it is the hobby itself...last year was such a fantastic year in baseball and football with Trout, Harper, Machado, etc and Luck, RG3, Wilson, Kaep. There wasn't nearly the excitement this year, especially in FB. Also, I think the economy plays a part. This is disposable income that people have to spend...if someone is that much more strapped and can only allot a certain amount for it, this will be one of the things that might get cut, or drastically reduced, in someone's budget.

All in all, this is so much better for me vs Ebay as far as time and not having to worry about idiot buyers/scammers etc. With that said, I will say, I am still concerned about the sales numbers I have had the last few months...as to what I did this time last year and in 2011. This slide can't continue, as the Ebay bs might be something to put up with if we can't get back to what sales were like about a year ago.

[rtcrules]

When I noticed the drop-off, it was around April-May of this year. That is when I believe the BV went away, but I am not sure. It isn't all that either. Some is the fees, it is the volume of cards that have come in, and now a lot of undercutting with no "BV" to go by...many cards, and some halfway decent ones can be had for well under 10%. That didn't happen before, those were snatched up. I also think part of it is the hobby itself...last year was such a fantastic year in baseball and football with Trout, Harper, Machado, etc and Luck, RG3, Wilson, Kaep. There wasn't nearly the excitement this year, especially in FB. Also, I think the economy plays a part. This is disposable income that people have to spend...if someone is that much more strapped and can only allot a certain amount for it, this will be one of the things that might get cut, or drastically reduced, in someone's budget.

This was the Spring Cleaning Sale which is when my buying and selling fell off, too. Beckett BV happened in July.

The Spring Cleaning Sale came, a lot of sellers had sales. Sale is over but the prices never went back to where they were pre-sale.

[smit5004]

I know for myself I like to buy as well, have purchased over 200 cards in the last couple months and 95% of it is football because that is what I have Beckett for. It is great to be able to see the deals and compare, especially on cards that only have 1 or 2 copies so you know if it is good value or not.

[decabo43]

I did my best sales April 2013 and may was way down after that. Granted I have a lot of baseball prospects and prospect season is January-April, but such a drastic decline is not organic.

[coolz]

If COMC reduces their fees , I'm sure it'll do good for them
The increase in sellers, buyers, traffic & transactions will far outweigh the reduced income (in the long run)

[phillyfan42]

OP here.

Thought i'd chime back in. Lot of interesting thoughts from everyone and suprised by the amount of feedback. I want to be clear that it was not my intent to make the thread a COMC rant. However, obviously some people have some strong thoughts on COMC, the market, changes, etc.

As for me I do love COMC and its basically the only place I buy my cards. I do think the changes have made me slow down my buying. I'm glad they started that shipping deal for buyers who ship 100 cards as i think they need to encourage loyalty for their buyers and sellers. Not sure what other changes could be made to improve it for everyone.

The book value was nice even if it was based on a fiction because you felt good buying a "$20.00" card for $1. They should use their own data, as others have stated, to create their own book value.

As far as the fees I hope they do not get higher as I do think that they deter buyers and also the sellers who have to decide if it is worth sending it cards. I hope they try to make it better to encourage more sellers to send in cards that are so much more available on ebay. That might mean figuring out a way to make it cheaper to submit but somehow prevent the site from being flooding with penny cards.

Anyway looking forward to following everyone's thoughts and seeing what the future brings for it.

[Swipe79]

There is some information available by clicking on a card price. You can click on a card to see how many are for sale, how many have sold, and the top sale price.

I would like to see more information available regarding card sales...a card may sell for $10 when it it hot, and then $2 a couple of months later. I think it would be better if they named the range of the sales. So when you click on the price, it shows "3 cards sold, $2.00-$10.00. Something like that anyway.

They should use their own data, as others have stated, to create their own book value.

[37Jetson]

As soon as I gave my COMC cheerleading speech I have been rewarded with less than $15 in sales this month. Less than $3 a day in sales per day for a 3,400 card $9,500 selling price port is crazy low and one of the worst droughts that I can ever recall in five years.

[sjscout]

As soon as I gave my COMC cheerleading speech I have been rewarded with less than $15 in sales this month. Less than $3 a day in sales per day for a 3,400 card $9,500 selling price port is crazy low and one of the worst droughts that I can ever recall in five years.

I am glad I bit my tongue (i was right on board with what you were saying) as i have $491 of sales thus far in november. May the COMC buying gods shine down upon you!

[My-Coolectibles]

It has been up and down for me this part month. I have days where I sell $18 and days where I sell $200. Most of the bigger sales lately have been from comics.

[Cactuspies]

Last card I purchased was 9/19 and prior to that was a port on 8/12, then a few on 7/13, a couple in june, one in may, 2 in april, 4 in march, 1 in feb, and then a bunch last november for black friday sales.

I actually hardly ever look at anything to purchase as my 2013 history shows as compared to all the other years. I used to spend a ton of time browsing. Not so much anymore. Part was the change from checkoutmycards to comc, and then losing bv sure hurts (yes its just a guide which made things look cool). I also price match to ebay on purchases.

so far 7 cards sold in Nov. last year 89 (black friday promotion helped)
November 2011 65
November 2010 41
November 2009 299
November 2008 59

October 2013: 31 sold.
October 2012: 45 sold
October 2011: 40 sold
October 2010: 49 sold
October 2009: 63 sold
October 2008: 70 sold

2013 is going to be my worst so far (not including my partial 2008 year)

[jmscoggin]

It is interesting for me to see how many people talk about the loss of BV. I just never used it. I cross reference everything whether buying or selling with Ebay completed sales. I never used the BV seriously when it was free and certainly would never pay the $30 per month for it.

My problems are pretty much just two areas. Fees are far too high and they don't do enough advertising to attract new buyers. The customer service isn't what it used to be but when it was epic to begin with even the slide leaves them far above average. I do think that where they used to listen and adjust what they were doing based on feedback that it seems like now they just do what they want regardless. That is not a winning formula.

Edit: Also not a fan of the new site. I can't put my finger on what it is but I liked the old site 100% better.

[papercards]

All I know is something happened in April/May of this year, and it hasn't come back yet to where it once was. It still is a great place...it just isn't the same right now.

Maybe it was the change to expanding it past just a card site? I really don't think that has added a lot to the site, personally. Most of us are card people, and that is what was SO amazing about checkoutmycards. Even the BV, it was a place to go and check out your cards and what they were worth and maybe pick up some cards to boot. Then maybe a person started selling some of those same cards, and got into it even more. I am not sure that happens as much now.

I do wonder if they had kept the checkoutmycards site, and then made a separate site for the collectibles, they wouldn't have had to tweak so much and add that .25 fee, etc. I don't know. I do hope that for this Black Friday there are some ads in Beckett, SCD or across the net, etc. Has anyone seen anything in Beckett at all yet?

[My-Coolectibles]

I wish COMC would get their Comics section into shape. I realize that it's a card driven site but the comic market is gigantic. They've been talking about updating their search engine for months but we haven't heard anything about it yet. I'd like to see COMC advertise on comic sites to let them know that there's other sites out there besides ebay or mycomicshop to purchase back issues from. With the large scans that are provided, it should be an easy sell for a true comic collector. And since comics buyers are so grade conscious, there should be more information. A general grade of GD-FN is such a wide range. GD is 2.0 and FN is 6.0. In between that are 7 more grades and 1/2 grades. It can be the difference between a few dollars to thousands of dollars.
COMC, please update your search engine for comics.. It's been mentioned a few times in email exchanges and on your blogs but let us actually see a change. I have probably close to $80,000 worth of comics I want to send in but I've been reluctant because the demand isn't there.

[mrwalken]

I do wonder if they had kept the checkoutmycards site, and then made a separate site for the collectibles, they wouldn't have had to tweak so much and add that .25 fee, etc. I don't know. I do hope that for this Black Friday there are some ads in Beckett, SCD or across the net, etc. Has anyone seen anything in Beckett at all yet?

Well, hindsight is 20/20, but I do think it was a bad decision to jack the fees while transitioning from checkoutmycards to COMC, and then try to obfuscate the fee increase by merging the shipping fee into the card price. I imagine a lot of casual buyers didn't really understand what was going on, and just saw the listed prices go up a bunch. And nothing was going to change the fact that the total cost to move one card from a seller to a buyer had gone up to .50 (+ $3 flat shipping charge + storage fees + cashout 20%) when it was half that a few years ago.

[coolz]

It has been up and down for me this part month. I have days where I sell $18 and days where I sell $200. Most of the bigger sales lately have been from comics.

Really? comics?
My comic sales are very slow....

[washingtonmark]

My Sales have actually picked up recently, but I also sent in a new batch of cards which always seems to bring views to both the new and old cards.

[decabo43]

So far this month sales have been back to about what I was doing in May and June of this year though just 10 days is a small sample and sold a 1955 Bowman Mantle that certainly skews the numbers.

But hopeful as prospect lists continue to pour out.

[Swipe79]

My sales have really picked up this last week or so - I'd been selling a couple cards a day and now it's between 5-10 per day. Wide range of stuff as well...cheapies and some stuff in the $15-$30 range.

[smit5004]

yea I had a really good day a few days ago and pretty good week overall and am running a special (well only really on here I posted a 20% auto accept) so I'm hoping for some more sales today.



on a similar topic aside from here where else is the best way to advertise specials like that. Because with the exception of clicking an item and putting in an offer I can't think of a way to tell if someone is running an auto-accept special.

[phillies347]

My sales have been decent, selling 1-2 cards each day, only have 500 total cards

[SPauthentic84]

Didnt read through the whole thread yet...

....but I am buying less.

I really think prices are too high. I usually use the site to be able to buy a bunch low end base cards for TTM. Some cards are way to highly priced, both low end to high end.

If I am COMC, Im not sure how you get people to lower their prices. I do know I have a lot of low-mid end cards that I would sell if I didnt have to pay a fee up front. I would literally be happy with any money I would get back, but I refuse to put money up front. I think if they got rid of that, the low end would be much cheaper, and COMC would sell for more

[coolz]

My sales at the first week of the this month was good
2nd week was way down

[reignman33]

My sales has been amazing the past two months. This month I have been selling at least 5 cards per day and I only have about 1000 items up there. There appears to be a special at their Canada warehouse where they have processing fees at 20 cents per card.

Here are the details I got off their blog. Apparantly, its open to non-canadian residents as well, as long as you ship it to the Canada warehouse and not the U.S. warehouse.

COMC Consignment
4311 Canada Way
Burnaby BC V5G 1J3
Canada

The Special:

$0.20 per raw trading or gaming card
$0.50 per graded, encased, or jumbo card as well as any other supported collectible
User Account not required to be funded at the time of shipment (account still required to be funded before cards are uploaded)
Cards in penny sleeves are acceptable
Cards in toploaders and cards requiring condition notes subject to $0.05 handling fee per card
Maximum 5000 cards per household
Minimum 25 cards
Cards will be live within 10 weeks of receipt of shipment
All shipments must be postmarked no later than Nov 29, 2013
Mark your package “Canadian Fall Promotion”
Non-Canadians are welcome to use this special but will be responsible for all customs and duties associated with the submission.

COMC Canada also continues to support all regular services at this time in addition to this special except for consignment of comic books & magazines and COMC Mailbox.

Unlock Another Special Offer in time for Black Friday:

By taking advantage of our One Month Processing or our Fall Promotion Special, consigners with 200 or more cards can designate 20% of their submission to our 2-Week Processing at the One Month Processing Rate. This will allow sellers to segregate cards they want on the site for sale in time for Black Friday November 29, 2013. Simply label 20% of your submission as 2-Week Processing and the remaining 80% as One Month or Canadian Fall Promotion. Submissions of 2-week processing on its own will be processed as 2-Week processing at it’s regular price of $0.35 per regular sized item. Cards must arrive (ie. not postmarked) before 11:00am November 14, 2013 at our Canadian Office to allow us to process them before Black Friday.

[Swipe79]

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm guessing that shipping a bunch of cards to Canada would probably be pretty expensive...and not sure how customs and the rest work but we would also be expected to pay any customs/duties associated with the shipment.

[tajikey]

I recently purchased 5 cards from COMC to complete my Heritage Minor League Master Set. Other than that, I don't do a lot of buying from there, unelss I'm trying to skate their cash out fees.

[CollectorMan]

I recently purchased 5 cards from COMC to complete my Heritage Minor League Master Set. Other than that, I don't do a lot of buying from there, unelss I'm trying to skate their cash out fees.

I've been trying to buy some non sports but it's slim pickins these days. Agreed on the cash out. I love COMC, but that 20% is lone shark high.

[btmcrushers]

As a seller, November started off hot for me. $29.77 in sales 7 cards, $31.50 bookvalue 5.25 avg bv 69% off. Doesn't seem like much but considering I only have a port of less than 600 cards and it is a lot of lower end refractors and stuff it was that bad. (The bulk of the sales came from a 20, 4 and 3.96 purchase)

However, that did not last long. I haven't sold a card or even had an offer since Nov. 7th

[CollectorMan]

As a seller, November started off hot for me. $29.77 in sales 7 cards, $31.50 bookvalue 5.25 avg bv 69% off. Doesn't seem like much but considering I only have a port of less than 600 cards and it is a lot of lower end refractors and stuff it was that bad. (The bulk of the sales came from a 20, 4 and 3.96 purchase)

However, that did not last long. I haven't sold a card or even had an offer since Nov. 7th

Yeah I had a very hard time recently which is why I went with the port sale. I barely broke even on the last one. Too many changes combined with higher prices on everything, has really ruined what was once a very brilliant alternative to Ebay. With 20% cash out and lack of good submissions, doubles in the thousands of worthless cards (Wacky & Garbage Pail Kids, Base vets I'm looking at you) it's really sunk the site IMO. Not to mention the wonderful sellers who raise the price on the item, after you submit a offer. They decline and raise the price. Terrible. Very very sad to say.

Sometimes I'll go throw pages and pages of cards not worth $1 overpriced and I know haven't had offers in months. Maybe ever. I've seen some users overprice some cards in order to get extra looks on the port they have. (COMC has recently tried to correct and stop this practice. Bravo to them for caring, unlike Ebay.)

Traffic, buying, selling are all way down IMO. Which hurts everyone, including COMC. I've been a big fan of COMC since I started and understand that with growth, prices will go up. I just don't think it's worked to anyone's advantage from a seller or buyers POV. Why would anyone submit a mid-high end card to COMC now with the new competing Vault site? Which means less eyes, and a bunch of low end cards after it's picked clean by the vultures.

Unfortunately, I don't see myself submitting anything else unless some discounts or good changes happen. I was even interested in trying the Comic, coin, magazines too but I don't see the point now after doing a little Q & A with users that have tried it. Again, I love COMC way more than EBay or any other collecting site. They have been fantastic to me. I just have no filter.:D I want to see growth for everyone, not just the bottom line of COMC.

Please consider some changes COMC. I say that with love.:D