All I want to do is talk about COMC

[bmann33]

Originally Posted by here2havefun

Just went to request a shipment from COMC, and a handful of the cards don't have the "+35¢ Add Toploader" option. I've requested about 10 shipments in the past and don't think I've ever seen this. I would like all the cards in this order to be top-loaded.

Anyone know if this is by design? And does this mean those cards will ship in a toploader free of charge?

I think they temporarily removed the option in 2020 when everything shut down and loaders were scarce. I saw they must have reinstated on my last shipment request.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[here2havefun]

Originally Posted by mjohnatgt

If they are oversized or elite (.45 or $1 s/h fee), they already have a toploader. So there's no extra fee for one available.

Ahh, got it. Thanks!

[newcokeandtaco]

Originally Posted by newcokeandtaco

Thanks, that does not seem to fix it. Tried multiple devices with the same result. Thought there might be a reason I was unaware of.

I checked all the cards on my watch list and found 2 more like this. They show as available, but in fact they are not. All 3 were baseball cards.
Just a heads up...an item with a price on your watch list may not actually still be available for purchase.
----------

General question:
Are 8 digit item #'s older than 9 digit item #'s?

[mjohnatgt]

Report the glitch you found to them on their Support button.

Originally Posted by newcokeandtaco

General question:
Are 8 digit item #'s older than 9 digit item #'s?

Yes, they were uploaded earlier, if that's what you're asking. COMC item numbers are in order based on the time the item was processed. If something got rescanned as Elite, it got a new item number as well, I believe.

My first submissions were in December of 2014, and item numbers started with 16 million at that time.

[newcokeandtaco]

Originally Posted by mjohnatgt

Report the glitch you found to them on their Support button.


Yes, they were uploaded earlier, if that's what you're asking. COMC item numbers are in order based on the time the item was processed. If something got rescanned as Elite, it got a new item number as well, I believe.

My first submissions were in December of 2014, and item numbers started with 16 million at that time.

I just submitted a request.
Thank you for all your helpful responses, it is appreciated.

[checkoutmydeals]

Just went to request a shipment from COMC, and a handful of the cards don't have the "+35¢ Add Toploader" option. I've requested about 10 shipments in the past and don't think I've ever seen this. I would like all the cards in this order to be top-loaded.

Anyone know if this is by design? And does this mean those cards will ship in a toploader free of charge?

I agree with the previous sentiment that if the handling fee is 45 cents or $1, it probably is already in a toploader. Additionally, in the past, when I've spent at least $25 for an item, they seem to have toploadered it automatically. However, if I submitted an item, priced it at $25 and had it returned to me, it was penny sleeved.

Things may have changed during the Toploader Crisis of 2020, but I think if it won't give you the option of adding a Toploader, it's probably already going to come in a Toploader.

One hack to get even more secure packaging is to buy a cheap comic book and add it to your shipment. They'll put the comic in a box, and place your card order in a different box, and add it to the comic box, then secure it with lots of packing material. So the cards are double boxed and probably upgraded to Priority, even though the handling fee on the comic is only $1.

[TheHeel]

Looks like COMC wants to develop an app:

https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/...9b567686ca2896

[xposipx]

Hey, not sure if it's addressed here, but does anyone know how to see what user you purchased a card from? I got a good deal and wanted to see what else he may have had listed, but can't figure it out.

Thanks!

[bryanscs]

Originally Posted by xposipx

Hey, not sure if it's addressed here, but does anyone know how to see what user you purchased a card from? I got a good deal and wanted to see what else he may have had listed, but can't figure it out.

Thanks!

On your dashboard, look at the 'Your Latest Purchases' box, the link is at the bottom, 'View all purchases'

[xposipx]

Originally Posted by bryanscs

On your dashboard, look at the 'Your Latest Purchases' box, the link is at the bottom, 'View all purchases'

Thanks! I knew that at some point, but was clicking so much other nonsense.

[theshowandme]

Have a friendly bet with some Twitter folks on who can move more inventory in 2023:

Me on COMC

Them on eBay

Need tips fellas!

[kon jelly]

Originally Posted by theshowandme

Have a friendly bet with some Twitter folks on who can move more inventory in 2023:

Me on COMC

Them on eBay

Need tips fellas!

Increase inventory and lower prices? That's the only way I've found to boost my sales.

[ironfireman]

Originally Posted by theshowandme

Have a friendly bet with some Twitter folks on who can move more inventory in 2023:

Me on COMC

Them on eBay

Need tips fellas!

Whomever sells more, the one thing for certain is COMC is about 10x easier.

[checkoutmydeals]

Number of cards or dollar volume?

Does flipping count? Do you have to make a profit?

Easiest way to bump sales volume would be to buy a bunch of ePack cards for 2 cents and relist them for 1 cent.

[checkoutmydeals]

If the eBay seller fills a Flat Rate Priority Box with 2,000 cards and sells it for 99 cents plus $15 shipping, does that count as one item or 2,000 items? Does it count as a 99 cent sale or a $15.99 sale?

Depending on the terms, you could crush them or they could crush you. So, it's a good idea to define your terms clearly in advance.

[theshowandme]

Flipping counts, we both are tying to make a profit here.

He will likely crush me on gross sales, he deals in a lot more $10+ cards, but I am still going to try.

But here are a few categories

1. Total number of cards sold (individually)
2. Gross sales (this will be tough on my end)

[newcokeandtaco]

Originally Posted by newcokeandtaco

I have a card on my watch list that still shows a price but does not look to be available for sale on the platform anymore. I click on the item number and it does not show the card, just a blank Comc page. Normally the watch list would show - not for sale - next to the item but this one still shows the price.
First time I have ever seen this.

I received a quick response from Comc this morning. They could see the issue I was having and said it resolved for them. Unfortunately, there is no change to my watch list. Strange :/

[mjohnatgt]

If you remove them from your Watch List, I bet it will resolve itself... ;-)

[TripleCrown24]

Originally Posted by theshowandme

Flipping counts, we both are tying to make a profit here.

He will likely crush me on gross sales, he deals in a lot more $10+ cards, but I am still going to try.

But here are a few categories

1. Total number of cards sold (individually)
2. Gross sales (this will be tough on my end)

Gross sales would be very tough to keep up with, but the hidden costs and opportunity costs are where you gain ground.

As someone who was once sending 60-100 shipments a day via eBay (mostly ESE sales), the costs of envelopes, paper, top loaders/card savers, sleeves, and painters tape add up pretty quickly when you're doing volume. Not to mention the opportunity costs related to time. I've found myself getting more value acquiring cards for flipping on COMC than I have going through boxes of collections I've bought or value boxes I've bought out.

[checkoutmydeals]

I think a natural place to start is with cards you already have. The single question to ask is "is this worth paying 50 cents to process this card?" If yes, then send it in. If not, then it goes in the B pile.

You can fit three 400 count boxes very comfortably in a Medium Flat Rate box. Suppose you have a bundle of 400 count boxes, a case of penny sleeves, and a stack of Medium Flat Rate boxes. When you identify a candidate, you sleeve it and add it to a 400 count box.

When you have three 400 count boxes full, you pack them in a Medium Flat Rate box, submit to COMC and then start filling another 400 count box.

You might also add a time element to this. Maybe once a month, if you haven't already sent in a shipment, you send in whatever you have prepared, even if the box isn't full.

It could be that, in the beginning, you might have to put new money into your COMC account from time to time to cover the cost of processing. Eventually, you should reach a critical mass, where the processing fees are covered by credit which is in your account from items you have sold.

You can augment this with cards you pick up at shows. You're already adept at digging saleable items out of dealer's dollar boxes. Bring the B pile with you to the show. Ask some dealers how many cards from their dollar box they'd trade you for the entire B pile. Some might be willing to give you a decent stack, particularly if you're willing to spend additional money with them.

When digging through dollar boxes, you might ask questions like "how many of these can I get for a $100 bill?" "How much for the whole box?" Near the end of the show, you might find dealers willing to sell you the entire box, or even their entire table.

At some point, maybe you branch out into the dealer's $3 box or their $5 or $10 boxes. It might also be that there are some items in the 25 cent box that are worth taking a chance on.

In general, it's a good idea to really focus on items in a certain price range, and then to branch out from there into other price ranges. On COMC, there are a lot of successful dealers who are very focused on certain price points. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

I've seen pics you've posted of sealed Topps 70th Anniversary cards from some special event in Manhattan. If you want to make these work toward your 2023 COMC goal, there are several options. One would be to rip open all the packs and send everything in. Maybe send one or two of the $20+ cards to COMC auction from time to time to get some action and see where the market is at.

It might be worthwhile to have some of the more popular players graded, particularly if they are the sort of player who people are trying to collect in a set registry. Then submit the graded cards to COMC.

You might also keep the packs sealed and see if anyone at the shows wants to trade for them. It might be that some dealers will give a nice stack of cards out of their dollar box for decent sealed product. Or maybe you can sell / trade them on some sort of social media platform.

Anyway, those are some ideas of where to start. Good luck!

[bbogan99]

So, am I the only one whose COMC sales have been absolutely abysmal in Dec? My Nov was really good - one of my best months ever - and only some (1/4 - 1/3 maybe) of that was Black Friday-related. Dec has completely died - 90% drop in sales by $ value, 95% by # of cards. My rationale was that everybody is cash-strapped and using their few resources for Xmas, but this is ridiculous...

[theshowandme]

Thanks for the ideas folks.

I did very well at Chantilly shows this year with buying and submitting onsite (this cut down costs tremendously with shipping). I always brought cards with me.

I like the idea of spacing my submissions out and making them more regular. I like keeping COMC as a self-sustaining system (no more $ added), and should be able to keep this rolling.

I also am going to think of additional tools I can write to help me out here. I previously posted on this idea back in October about scraping COMC to a local database to help with finer grain searching. See the post below.

I would like to match/exceed my $2500 in sales from this year. I am going to be hitting up Chantilly, Philly, and the National pretty hard in 2023.

Should be a lot of fun.

Thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by theshowandme

Writing a program to scrape COMC listings to a local database

Allows me to have more control over fine-grain searches like print run, sets, prices, and players.

Have already purchased a half dozen cards I did not know were on the site!

[UCCF]

Originally Posted by bbogan99

So, am I the only one whose COMC sales have been absolutely abysmal in Dec? My Nov was really good - one of my best months ever - and only some (1/4 - 1/3 maybe) of that was Black Friday-related. Dec has completely died - 90% drop in sales by $ value, 95% by # of cards. My rationale was that everybody is cash-strapped and using their few resources for Xmas, but this is ridiculous...

Definitely not the only one. I sold 1600 cards in November, only 400 in December, and I think most of those were in the first few days of the month during the post-Black Friday period.

[kon jelly]

I don't do nearly the volume as a lot of the folks on here, but I had doubled my sales in December over November. Granted I think that's because I had a submission hit in early December, but it was a decent month for me.

[Dalston]

My December has been fine. I should end up within 5% of November sales by $ volume (likely with 20% fewer cards sold, but at a higher average price).