All I want to do is talk about COMC

[The Third Eye]

Is anyone else getting hammered on condition qualifiers recently? I'm relatively new at COMC but have 500+ items now. The last few groups of additions to my account ALL have condition qualifiers. Some as low as VG-EX on newer types of cards. I pack things securely and would be aware of significant flaws on these cards. Is the only recourse I have requesting a condition correction? Happy with the COMC game so far but this is a little concerning.

[UCCF]

Originally Posted by The Third Eye

Is anyone else getting hammered on condition qualifiers recently? I'm relatively new at COMC but have 500+ items now. The last few groups of additions to my account ALL have condition qualifiers. Some as low as VG-EX on newer types of cards. I pack things securely and would be aware of significant flaws on these cards. Is the only recourse I have requesting a condition correction? Happy with the COMC game so far but this is a little concerning.

If you read back through the past few pages here you'll see that's been a pretty common complaint over the past few months. It seems to be intake-grader specific, because it's only happening sporadically (but then in big chunks when it does).

It hasn't happened to me much, so I'm not sure of the best remedy, but it seems from reading here that people are submitting the correction requests and having some luck with getting the qualifiers removed.

[gigantesfan]

Originally Posted by The Third Eye

Is anyone else getting hammered on condition qualifiers recently? I'm relatively new at COMC but have 500+ items now. The last few groups of additions to my account ALL have condition qualifiers. Some as low as VG-EX on newer types of cards. I pack things securely and would be aware of significant flaws on these cards. Is the only recourse I have requesting a condition correction? Happy with the COMC game so far but this is a little concerning.

I've noticed an uptick in qualifiers since the spring. Like the commenter above mentioned it seems to be pretty erratic. I've had some 200+ card batches with only 1-2 cards receiving condition qualifiers...but other submissions with almost 75% of the cards getting them.

I haven't tried submitting correction requests yet - I'll probably do that on cards that don't show any issues based on the front/back scans.

[Stech36]

Originally Posted by gigantesfan

Those are some amazing cards. Love the Koufax Ginter auto and the Mays/Aaron/Griffey Triple Threads

Originally Posted by boxbuster7

nice collection!

Originally Posted by mjohnatgt

Very well done Stech. Excellent way to execute "trading" on the COMC site.

Originally Posted by UCCF

I tell people the same thing. Just this week I passed 10,000 cards sold on the site. But more than that, I can walk through my house and not trip over boxes of cards in every hallway. I don't have fights with my GF over what I'm going to do with everything. And any money I spend now on new stuff for myself comes out of my COMC balance. I'm funding my trip to the National this month out of my sales.

It's been a lot of work, but the sense of satisfaction that has come along with it has been amazing. And I haven't sold a single card that I wanted to keep for myself.

Thanks all! Like I said, it’s been really enjoyable, and I’m very happy with my additions to my pc.

[ckjr4929]

Originally Posted by tdbaseballcards

They have a computer and printer there where you can print the labels. Not sure if they will have boxes though as in the past they did, but you may need to plan accordingly. Although there are many sellers where you can probably buy a box from. It's a pretty simple process and COMC has reps there to help you with your submission if needed. Every year I buy cards at the National and drop them off before hopping on my plane home.

Thanks for the info. Good to know I'm not the only one who will be buying at the show and dropping off at the booth before going home. Have a great show.

[ckjr4929]

Originally Posted by The Third Eye

Is anyone else getting hammered on condition qualifiers recently? I'm relatively new at COMC but have 500+ items now. The last few groups of additions to my account ALL have condition qualifiers. Some as low as VG-EX on newer types of cards. I pack things securely and would be aware of significant flaws on these cards. Is the only recourse I have requesting a condition correction? Happy with the COMC game so far but this is a little concerning.

This was a very common problem earlier this year but I haven't seen it nearly as often on my submissions over the last month or two. You might try contacting support and asking for assistance that way instead of submitting 500 condition requests. It's possible that one or two cards were supposed to be EX-NM and the rest of the submission was processed as EX-NM unintentionally.

I have bought and sold many cards with the EX-NM qualifier, so don't get too hung up on thinking that your cards are all worthless now. COMC conditions can vary a lot. As long as you send in good cards and price them competitively, your cards will sell.

[thesportslab]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

I stopped selling completely on COMC, but have been buying more than ever on COMC. Getting some great slabs, on card HOF autos, and hoarding raw vintage cards that look like grading candidates. I don't buy any big cards, but I find myself putting $100 on COMC every few days now.

This may not be new to most of you; this is for those on the fence. I saw the above post and was intrigued.

From a buying perspective, I started using COMC for the first time this past week and really enjoy it. Many cards I watched on eBay were through COMC, so it made sense to register and pay cheaper prices/make an offer directly on COMC. As I used the site, it grew on me.

To discover new cards, the COMC search and sort-by feature is superior to eBay for me because it is easier to view tons of cards at once. For example, I searched just 2022 Justin Jefferson serial #’d cards and it was much easier to see everything there vs. a comparable eBay search. I also find the ability to click on one card and instantly have all parallel’s identified (and an option to buy those available) much better than eBay’ing with a checklist or running multiple searches.

The request shipment is also a plus. I certainly saved on shipping expenses, as I requested my first shipment with about 20 cards with everything from $1 cards to $100+. A negative to me is the $0.35 up charge for shipping with top loaders. If my sleeve/top loader costs when selling are approx. $0.15, I know COMC has the same or better margins. Even a $0.25 fee would be easier to stomach. Something about $0.35 just seems like a bad way to make extra cash.

[ckjr4929]

Originally Posted by thesportslab

The request shipment is also a plus. I certainly saved on shipping expenses, as I requested my first shipment with about 20 cards with everything from $1 cards to $100+. A negative to me is the $0.35 up charge for shipping with top loaders. If my sleeve/top loader costs when selling are approx. $0.15, I know COMC has the same or better margins. Even a $0.25 fee would be easier to stomach. Something about $0.35 just seems like a bad way to make extra cash.

Sometimes cards will get shipped in a toploader without paying the extra fee. Definitely if the card was an elite submission (black background in the scan) but even beyond that, I always get a few random cards in toploaders. But even the non-toploaded cards are packaged very carefully. All in individual soft sleeves and padding within a cardboard box.

I actually started selling on COMC because they offered a toploader buyback program a few years ago, when toploaders were hard to come by. They paid $0.10 each for used clean toploaders. They were selling for more on eBay at the time, but it was a way to fund my COMC account and start selling, and I found I really enjoying using COMC to sell as well as buy.

[Dalston]

Originally Posted by thesportslab

This may not be new to most of you; this is for those on the fence. I saw the above post and was intrigued.

From a buying perspective, I started using COMC for the first time this past week and really enjoy it. Many cards I watched on eBay were through COMC, so it made sense to register and pay cheaper prices/make an offer directly on COMC. As I used the site, it grew on me.

To discover new cards, the COMC search and sort-by feature is superior to eBay for me because it is easier to view tons of cards at once. For example, I searched just 2022 Justin Jefferson serial #’d cards and it was much easier to see everything there vs. a comparable eBay search. I also find the ability to click on one card and instantly have all parallel’s identified (and an option to buy those available) much better than eBay’ing with a checklist or running multiple searches.

The request shipment is also a plus. I certainly saved on shipping expenses, as I requested my first shipment with about 20 cards with everything from $1 cards to $100+. A negative to me is the $0.35 up charge for shipping with top loaders. If my sleeve/top loader costs when selling are approx. $0.15, I know COMC has the same or better margins. Even a $0.25 fee would be easier to stomach. Something about $0.35 just seems like a bad way to make extra cash.

This all makes perfect sense. I've never understood how people that collect even semi-seriously don't register on both COMC and Sportlots. It takes a few seconds for each and can save a ton of money relative to just using eBay.

[Jhart]

I'm back on COMC after a very long hiatus. Sent them a ton of cards. Very happy with the service & processing times. My last submission was during the pandemic. They lost a box and took months to list. Rather than selling my port again, when ready I'm just going to run sales all the way up to 95% off. Be on the look out.

[RobDerhak]

Originally Posted by Jhart

I'm back on COMC after a very long hiatus. Sent them a ton of cards. Very happy with the service & processing times. My last submission was during the pandemic. They lost a box and took months to list. Rather than selling my port again, when ready I'm just going to run sales all the way up to 95% off. Be on the look out.

Add your COMC info to your blowout profile, so your link shows up
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[LSUNatChamps]

I have had 3 batches due on 5/9 that have a handful of cards remaining (5, 11 & 96 ea.) They did process a few about a week or two after 5/9 for the discounted rate but I haven't seen any activity sense. They have generally met my listed deadlines throughout the years so I'm just curious to hear how long others have waited for their submissions to finalize.

[checkoutmydeals]

I have had 3 batches due on 5/9 that have a handful of cards remaining (5, 11 & 96 ea.) They did process a few about a week or two after 5/9 for the discounted rate but I haven't seen any activity sense. They have generally met my listed deadlines throughout the years so I'm just curious to hear how long others have waited for their submissions to finalize.

Do you know for sure that there are unprocessed items, or is it possible they just haven't updated the count?

I have one batch due April 19 with "5" cards remaining to be processed. But I have no idea if they are actual unprocessed cards, or just a counting error on someone's part.

I've had it both ways- where the unprocessed items were phantom, and eventually dropped off, and also where the unprocessed items were real and eventually wound up in the account.

[mjohnatgt]

Just click on the Support button and let them know you have some batches that need to be cleaned up/completed.

[dgrochester55]

Originally Posted by LSUNatChamps

I have had 3 batches due on 5/9 that have a handful of cards remaining (5, 11 & 96 ea.) They did process a few about a week or two after 5/9 for the discounted rate but I haven't seen any activity sense. They have generally met my listed deadlines throughout the years so I'm just curious to hear how long others have waited for their submissions to finalize.

Most of my larger shipments will show as if there a small number remaining for a few weeks after all the cards have listed. It takes awhile, but they eventually close out.

[JunkWaxTwins]

Originally Posted by ckjr4929

What is the best process for submitting cards which I purchase at the National to the COMC booth at the National? I have dropped off cards to them at previous Nationals and it was a very easy process, but this is the first time I'll have the money to buy some cards at the show and not just browse. Is there a way to print out the submission form at COMC's booth? Is there anything else that would be helpful to know beyond the usual stuff like removing toploaders?

I'm another poster who is funding their trip to the National with COMC sales. Really grateful for this thread, it has taught me a lot about how to sell on COMC and how to build up my port and run effective sales.

Bring them in a box with a count, they'll have computers and printers to print off your submission paperwork. Hand them the box. I'm sure many people buy on the show floor and submit during the day or all at once at the end.

[bbogan99]

Originally Posted by bbogan99

Doesn't seem to be much sales volume discussion last few weeks - does that mean everybody's doing well, or everybody's dead in the water?

Personally, after a pretty good run Nov-Mar, April went off a cliff, May was passable b/c I basically ran sales all month, and June has been an unmitigated disaster. I'm on track to move less than 2% of what I thought was a not-too-bad port (everything I send should sell somewhere between a couple and a bunch of times per year, based on their data), and even sales don't seem to be helping, even on top of taking an average 20% off base of everything the other night. I'm barely even getting offers.

I'm sure some of it is seasonal, some of it is market/economy. If anything more than a sliver of it is this dumb captcha, somebody needs to lose a job...

So, last week or so of June perked up very well; July has again been awful. Starting to accept the idea that my port isn't nearly big enough to escape random variation. I'm assuming there IS some size at which randomness drops out enough that you're selling some significant amount every day - wondering if any of the bigger sellers have anything to share on this? How big does a port have to get (assuming it's relatively decent quality) before you can expect to see significant sales every day (define "significant" however you want to)?

[Dalston]

Originally Posted by bbogan99

So, last week or so of June perked up very well; July has again been awful. Starting to accept the idea that my port isn't nearly big enough to escape random variation. I'm assuming there IS some size at which randomness drops out enough that you're selling some significant amount every day - wondering if any of the bigger sellers have anything to share on this? How big does a port have to get (assuming it's relatively decent quality) before you can expect to see significant sales every day (define "significant" however you want to)?

My port is a little less than 10 times your size and my best month for the last year is roughly 75% higher than the worst by both dollar sales and number of cards sold. Since my port is pretty much exclusively baseball and this is an April to October comparison, a decent amount of that is accounted for by expected seasonal fluctuation.

Obviously, daily sales fluctuate a lot more than monthly. Daily sales of fewer than 5 cards or more than 25 are notably out of line. Anything else feels within the realm of normal fluctuation.

[Crosby 87]

July sales $30.90 53 cards
June sales $113.93 232 cards
May sales $113.19 90 cards

Last 3 months with all sports sold here. So it's down in July here as well

[ironfireman]

My July sales so far have been great! Best since February. I do usually sell stuff pretty cheap though.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by ironfireman

My July sales so far have been great! Best since February. I do usually sell stuff pretty cheap though.

June and July have been good. Will probably the best two months so far in the year.

[bbogan99]

Originally Posted by Dalston

My port is a little less than 10 times your size and my best month for the last year is roughly 75% higher than the worst by both dollar sales and number of cards sold. Since my port is pretty much exclusively baseball and this is an April to October comparison, a decent amount of that is accounted for by expected seasonal fluctuation.

Obviously, daily sales fluctuate a lot more than monthly. Daily sales of fewer than 5 cards or more than 25 are notably out of line. Anything else feels within the realm of normal fluctuation.

Interesting - thanks for sharing. Kinda surprising that you've still got as much as 75% variability month-to-month at almost 6000 cards, but that'd still be preferable to my 2.5- to 3-fold difference between a bad month and a good month. Guess I just have to keep sending stuff...

[checkoutmydeals]

So, last week or so of June perked up very well; July has again been awful. Starting to accept the idea that my port isn't nearly big enough to escape random variation. I'm assuming there IS some size at which randomness drops out enough that you're selling some significant amount every day - wondering if any of the bigger sellers have anything to share on this? How big does a port have to get (assuming it's relatively decent quality) before you can expect to see significant sales every day (define "significant" however you want to)?

IMO, having a large port doesn't stop random fluctuations in dollar volume or number of items sold. It can make it so that your "bad" days aren't as brutal, and also that they're easier to recover from.

Here are my numbers for the last 12 full months by dollar volume and # of items sold, where 100% represents the average value for that metric.

June 2023 96% 129%
May 2023 97% 65%
April 2023 112% 90%
March 2023 111% 148%
February 2023 86% 80%
January 2023 110% 124%
December 2022 70% 65%
November 2022 121% 145%
October 2022 99% 94%
Septembe 2022 107% 83%
August 2022 103% 91%
July 2022 87% 86%

Standard deviation was 14% and 29% respectively, so number of items sold was more variable than dollar volume.

Best dollar month was 73% higher than worst dollar month.
Best month for items sold was 128% higher than worst month.

I do have a general goal of selling $x per day on average, which resets at the beginning of each month. If I'm lagging behind during the first few days, I might launch a sale, or I might send some high dollar item(s) to auction. I might actively drop some prices by hand, or I might use the bulk repricing program (when I can get it to work) to drop a lot of prices.

It should be noted that my goal isn't to "make money", but to maintain a certain level of inventory, a certain volume of sales, and sometimes to take out profits in the form of cards shipped home.

From this standpoint, a roaring bull market isn't always favorable, because I might not be able to get any good deals when I want to reinvest. A bear market isn't necessarily horrible, because there are sometimes a lot of opportunities to pick up long-term holds at a good price.

[Dacubs]

Woohoo... They are getting rid of the stupid login process....I hope the next one isn't a bad

[Dr kicker]

Considering sending a few slabs there. Is there extra charge if slabs are in slab savers , fit team bag ?