Comc

[Gr8Beldini]

Poorly photographed over priced junk with no returns. Pick a card, any card. You will find 20 twice as nice and half the price as any similar card offered by COMC. Ya'all love to bust on Dean, but at least that guy grades accurately, gives you a proper photo, and will take it back if you're not happy.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Gr8Beldini

Poorly photographed over priced junk with no returns. Pick a card, any card. You will find 20 twice as nice and half the price as any similar card offered by COMC. Ya'all love to bust on Dean, but at least that guy grades accurately, gives you a proper photo, and will take it back if you're not happy.

Don't forget the horrible search engine and the complete joke of how cards are listed. They need to charge people to store their insanely overpriced cards that have been listed for many many years. I used to love COMC and bought hundreds of cards off there per year. Have bought maybe 10-20 total the last couple three years.

[John1941]

There are always a few good cards, but I agree with your overall assessment. Most of the stuff is overpriced junk. I'm usually able to find enough good stuff to make it worth it, though.

[G1911]

I’ve been unhappy with shipping times but I’ve bought over 10,000 cards there, and I’m a cheapskate. It’s a gold mine for cheap defect hunting, not many places I can get .50 cent cards for .50 cents delivered. Have not had grading complaints. You get a big front and back scan so there’s nothing to complain about there. Tons of crap sitting overpriced, but any venue in which people price their own items (eBay, card shows, literally anywhere) has that problem. It’s been a nice way to get stuff cheap for me, great for commons. Big cards tend to be overpriced, but for $10 and under it’s become my main source.

[butchie_t]

COMC was a fantastic source for me while completing my 72 Topps set. Many, MANY, commons and semi-stars in great shape for me and very reasonably priced. The scans, front and back, are very clear and detailed.

As for finding errors and variations, it is one of my go-to places first and more often than not, they have what I am looking for.

I will continue to use them but YMMV.

Regards,

Butch

[Frankish]

Originally Posted by Gr8Beldini

Poorly photographed over priced junk with no returns. Pick a card, any card. You will find 20 twice as nice and half the price as any similar card offered by COMC. Ya'all love to bust on Dean, but at least that guy grades accurately, gives you a proper photo, and will take it back if you're not happy.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, this just isn't true at all. While there is a lot of overpriced crap (just like ebay BIN), there are also a lot of good deals (unlike ebay BIN). I've picked up a lot of cards I've been happy with.

Of course, it depends what cards you are looking for. For the most collectible cards (serial #d auto RCs of up and coming stars, etc), it can be harder to find bargains. For the other 99% of cards printed, it can be a great resource. In fact, if you consider shipping, fees, etc, it's hard to find a better place for individual commons.

Maybe I am biased (or at least hopeful). Just this week I sent about 1000 cards in to COMC (the first time I've ever submitted cards) that I want to sell. I've found it just isn't worth my going on ebay or BST to sell individual cards at $5, $10, even $50. Work is pretty demanding and I have young kids, so there other things I'd rather do with my time at this point.

I'm happy to send the higher end or stuff with high demand to DCSports87 or another consignor that takes raw cards. But for cards under $50 (or raw vintage) I haven't had much luck finding something that makes sense so I have thousands and thousands piled up in boxes...like many collectors, I imagine. With any luck COMC will work out. The process seems easy...they do all the work and I just pick a price. Since you can see the other prices the card is offered for when you click on your card, I plan to list a little under whatever the next lowest price is and hope someone bites.


PS: And your comment about Dean's made me laugh (not in a bad way). I've bought cards from him over the years. The prices used to be very high, but that's a decent business model if you have an inventory you can let sit until just the right buyer comes along. As the market shot up the last couple of years, it made his prices seem much more reasonable.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Don't forget the horrible search engine and the complete joke of how cards are listed. They need to charge people to store their insanely overpriced cards that have been listed for many many years. I used to love COMC and bought hundreds of cards off there per year. Have bought maybe 10-20 total the last couple three years.

After 90 days there is always a storage fee. Sometimes a user can use a bulk storage fee if they have sufficient cards and sometimes they have to pay for each card but there is a fee.

And if you have any ideas on how to improve the search engine please let me know either in this thread or via Email/DM. Now that the pandemic is, hopefully, abating, we (yes I work for COMC) can spend time working to improve the listing process. However, since the submitters have, and IMHO rightly so, the choice to put whatever price they want for a card, we don't have control over pricing.

Rich

[Gorditadogg]

OK, I will play. Here are 3 cards I got recently on COMC. I paid $7 for Yaz, $7 for Gray and $4 for Lynn. Let's see nicer ones at a lower price.

[JollyElm]

I'll play, too. Among a stack of other cards (the combined shipping is an absolute asset), COMC gave me the Willies for a combined TOTAL cost (after allotting for tax and a portion of the shipping) of $156.45 for these three extremely-grade-worthy Mays cards. To say I was pleased (got them just a few months ago) is an understatement...

1967mays1969mays.jpg

[cannonballsun]

I've mainly been collecting Post Cereal and Jell-O the past few years. These are tricky cards to price, because of so many SPs.
Several times I've seen COMC list a card for these sets too cheaply. It seems you have to grab them right away. Often, if you don't, in a short amount of time the price can get raised dramatically. It seems they have someone checking their pricing, after something has been listed. So I've picked up some nice buys from them like that.
I haven't done it in years, but you used to be able to go to their website and buy more cheaply. You could even make best offers. I'm not sure this is still valid, though.
On the negative side, I have heard, if you buy from their website, the mail delivery is probably going to be very, very slow.

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by cannonballsun

On the negative side, I have heard, if you buy from their website, the mail delivery is probably going to be very, very slow.

COMC's mail delivery has gotten a whole lot better than it was about this time a year ago. This has been addressed and they are kicking out mailings much faster.

[deweyinthehall]

I always check COMC when trying to put together modern sets, particularly insert sets. Yes - some overpricing, but if you look down the line you can find the same card for half as much sometimes. Apart from the shipping delays, no complaints here, at least no more than I have with eBay or Beckett.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

After 90 days there is always a storage fee. Sometimes a user can use a bulk storage fee if they have sufficient cards and sometimes they have to pay for each card but there is a fee.

And if you have any ideas on how to improve the search engine please let me know either in this thread or via Email/DM. Now that the pandemic is, hopefully, abating, we (yes I work for COMC) can spend time working to improve the listing process. However, since the submitters have, and IMHO rightly so, the choice to put whatever price they want for a card, we don't have control over pricing.

Rich

I looked and my first shipping request with COMC was on 5-10-2011. I have had the same exact complaint since then.

I collect even the tiniest print error on a few cards. For the most part COMC is amazing for that. Now my complaint, there is no way to search for newest listed card(s).

For example one of the cards I hoard printing errors has 374 cards listed. Now say tomorrow someone adds 10 more of those cards. There is no way of finding those 10 new cards without looking through the 374 already on there.

Edit to add: It is awesome that COMC members can go back and see a picture of every card they have ever purchased and the price paid.

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I looked and my first shipping request with COMC was on 5-10-2011. I have had the same exact complaint since then.

I collect even the tiniest print error on a few cards. For the most part COMC is amazing for that. Now my complaint, there is no way to search for newest listed card(s).

For example one of the cards I hoard printing errors has 374 cards listed. Now say tomorrow someone adds 10 more of those cards. There is no way of finding those 10 new cards without looking through the 374 already on there.

Edit to add: It is awesome that COMC members can go back and see a picture of every card they have ever purchased and the price paid.

Under "Sort By" there is a category for Newest - won't this put the whole list in chronological order by listing date?

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

Under "Sort By" there is a category for Newest - won't this put the whole list in chronological order by listing date?

No that doesn't work and isn't even an option when looking at a specific card. That option will sort by the year produced newest to oldest when sorting by player name. Not a specific card.

[todeen]

I buy my Barry Larkin cards there. I was able to get the Tiffany cards ungraded for just a couple dollars. No complaints. And occasionally Griffey cards I want are cheaper and nicer than on ebay. Or if I see it on ebay from COMC, I jump over to their site for even better prices and better shipping. Even during their worst shipping times I was receiving my cards in less than a week.

Sent from my SM-G9900 using Tapatalk

[Dandor]

I am 100% happy with COMC. There is not a lot of vintage at a good price, but sometimes a great deal pops up. I use COMC for my Smits collection, HOF on-card auto PC, and getting junk wax HOF RC's mainly. I have bought a crazy amount of 1980's HOF RC's that graded quite well and had absolutely no issues. This is the type of "vintage" I buy on COMC. I paid $47.66 for all of these cards combined. The images are often times good enough to tell condition and see creases. That Carmichael will eventual go in for grading when it is around $10 a card again. The condition and centering of the card is amazing!

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by bnorth

No that doesn't work and isn't even an option when looking at a specific card. That option will sort by the year produced newest to oldest when sorting by player name. Not a specific card.

Well, damn. But thanks for clarifying.

[molenick]

I had been watching a COMC item on eBay for what seemed like several years and was curious what people had to say about them, so I searched for "COMC" and found this thread. Not only was the list price on their site less than on eBay, but there was a discount on top of that, so the final price I paid ended up being less than half the eBay price. I purchased the item 8/19, got an email 8/22 saying it was shipped, and the package arrived 8/25. Other people's experiences may be different, but I was happy with the transaction.

[ALR-bishop]

I use them only when I need a card because of some oddity on the back. I use Dean for same reason

[mikemb]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I use them only when I need a card because of some oddity on the back. I use Dean for same reason

Me too and I've never had any issues with either of those sellers.

Mike

[deweyinthehall]

I use COMC primarily to fill out modern Topps insert sets as I build master sets. Almost always they have the cards I need - unlike Beckett, I can buy from multiple individuals and pay just one shipping fee. I also use them for variations as there is never any doubt that the card you're buying is the card you will receive.

Recently, because of some prior comments on this very thread, I used them to help complete my 1967 Topps set - I was able to find a number of very nice cards at what were very good prices.

The single drawback, as many have noted, is the shipping time. But hey, it's gotten much better than it was at the height of COVID, plus I also buy regularly from Greg Morris and sometimes it seems like he sends them east via pony express, so...(this is NOT a slam against GMC!)