COMC Delivery Speed

[GasHouseGang]

Why does it take so long to get something delivered when you buy from COMC? I don't know their business model. Do they consign the card without having it in hand, then the card has to be shipped to them when sold, and then shipped to the buyer? I've bought three other cards since then, from other sellers on ebay, and they have already been delivered.

[jchcollins]

Never understood this myself. They seem to spell out how long it will take. Then (unlike a lot of eBay sellers...) their communication is really good. They will tell you when your card is being packaged. And then when it ships. But they take an inordinate amount of time to do it. Card may ship 3-4 days AFTER you win or BIN it on eBay. So I give them good feedback for communication, and like 2 stars for shipping speed. Never understood that. I've used them in the past only on occasions where they have something I want combined with the price that I can't get elsewhere. I think last time I pulled the trigger with them was on a PSA 7 '72 Steve Garvey.

In terms of cards on-site, I think the vast majority is in their warehouse. I have seen a few listings for higher valued things where they put an additional disclaimer saying that they don't have the card on-site, and it may take several weeks to be delivered. I've never understood that either. I can only assume it has to do with the insane volume of cards they must possess.

[Harliduck]

So crazy and timely for this post, wow. Just this morning I noticed I was missing my last card I bought for my 1964 Topps set...only to realize after 15 DAYS comc has JUST shipped it! That is terrible customer service, and ridiculous. I PM'd them through ebay and they responded quickly...only to say yes, that is their model due to high sales. I did go back to the listing and it clearly stated in the fine print could take up to 15 days...so shame on me...but utterly pathetic. I have a few cards still waiting from them...they will be my last. There are some huge dealers getting cards to me at home delivered in literally 3 days from purchase, and I am not that impatient...but 15 days to ship...no way. I just started buying from them, I no longer will.

Sorry for the rant, I actually was thinking of making a post here about this. Crazy timing...lol.

[ALR-bishop]

Because they offer front and back scans I have used them often for variant cards. But I will no longer order off their site. The delays were too long. If I could find a card in their ebay listings they seemed to ship in a reasonable time, albeit at a higher cost

[swarmee]

COMC is swamped with sales volume and has been partially hampered my lesser manning requirements due to being headquartered in Washington state. This banner is at the top of their page:

Sales increased 50% since December and shipping has not been able to keep up. 50 people joined our shipping department last month. To ensure our systems are streamlined and our team is properly trained, we added a 1-2 week buffer to all shipping quotes.

But that's after it started taking 2-3 weeks to even ship to eBay purchasers. They're getting rightfully skewered by the guys on the Blowout forum for their inability to deliver cards, some even accusing them of "holding their cards hostage" and reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and the Washington Attorney General's office. The reasonable complaint is why are they still selling on eBay at all right now if they can't even ship cards from COMC and ePack. Could be a contractual requirement with eBay to retain a certain level of cards in stock, no matter how long it takes for COMC to actually deliver them.

COMC wrote back one of the people who have been messaging them (since their phone bank has been OFF SINCE LAST MARCH) that they have been moving to a larger warehouse or something in order to improve shipping long term, but they haven't really communicated that properly. Their customer service and social media people are basically either not responding or telling people what they want to hear in order for them to stop emailing. But that's no longer working either. They're drowning in their own success and/or business acumen.

Six months ago their founder stated they were starting to look at getting private investment; they need an overhaul over there in a bad way. 2020/21 demand has way exceeded supply or the ability to keep up for almost all companies in the sports card world: toploader shortages, PSA/BGS/SGC delays and then exorbitant price hikes, retail hoarding/flipping, NBA Top Shot, auction server crashes/attacks, etc.

[bnorth]

The timeline is still BS but they got mine out ahead of schedule.

3/1 shipping request
3/15 actual shipping date 3/30 was their estimate
Should have them 3/22 their estimate was 4/3

This was with paying extra to have them shipped ASAP.

[GasHouseGang]

Okay, so I won the auction on ebay for the COMC item on March 4th and paid the next day. I just got the notice today (March 19th) that it had been shipped. I guess that's 14 days to ship from time of payment, as someone stated earlier. That's pretty slow. I don't see any notice in the original auction that stated they wouldn't ship for two weeks. I guess they're just swamped.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

Okay, so I won the auction on ebay for the COMC item on March 4th and paid the next day. I just got the notice today (March 19th) that it had been shipped. I guess that's 14 days to ship from time of payment, as someone stated earlier. That's pretty slow. I don't see any notice in the original auction that stated they wouldn't ship for two weeks. I guess they're just swamped.

This is definitely worse than my experience with them last summer. I want to say they took like 4 days after I paid to ship.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

I don't see any notice in the original auction that stated they wouldn't ship for two weeks. I guess they're just swamped.

Here's what I'm seeing on an item ending tonight:

Standard Shipping (USPS First Class®)
On or before Sat. Apr. 03 to 32578
* Estimated delivery dates- opens in a new window or tab include seller's handling time, origin ZIP Code, destination ZIP Code and time of acceptance and will depend on shipping service selected and receipt of cleared payment. Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods.

Interesting that they now state they're not taking returns on eBay auctions, because a year or two ago they were touting the "we accept all returns" and want you to buy with confidence. Maybe they were a little too lenient with that stance for all the sneakerbois looking for Gem Mint cards for submissions.

[Harliduck]

I live in Washington state...heck, easier for me to drive to where ever they are...

The reality is they are just but an option...their BIN's are adequate, not special...their scans kinda suck...and we all know their shipping issues. No loss to ignore them like I will.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

I live in Washington state...heck, easier for me to drive to where ever they are...

The reality is they are just but an option...their BIN's are adequate, not special...their scans kinda suck...and we all know their shipping issues. No loss to ignore them like I will.

That combined shipping and them holing purchases for as long as you want for free is by far the best things in buying cards. It is what keeps me coming back to an otherwise sh*t show.

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by bnorth

That combined shipping and them holing purchases for as long as you want for free is by far the best things in buying cards. It is what keeps me coming back to an otherwise sh*t show.

I should have done a better job taking advantage of that. My 6 or 7 purchases here lately were all a few days apart, and I paid shipping on each one. My bad of course...but I have had some really awesome dealers randomly refund shipping to me when I do that after they have bundled my purchases. I don't expect that, but that good customer service. I am not expecting a refund from them when they end up shipping everything at once...lol. I won't ask because that is all on me...

[jchcollins]

On eBay right now, they have 871 negatives in the past month.

[Cliff Bowman]

I don't know if it means anything but there are currently no Dean's Cards listings on COMC.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I don't know if it means anything but there are currently no Dean's Cards listings on COMC.

It probably means something. Dean has everyone but the homeless guy out on the street corner next to my local CVS hawking his cards...

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

On eBay right now, they have 871 negatives in the past month.

Holy cow, look at all those! That's insane...and they do so many transactions they still have over 99% Positive. Crazy.

Deans Cards...another one to ignore...

[ASF123]

Dean has everyone but the homeless guy out on the street corner next to my local CVS hawking his cards...

The homeless guy was like, “Sorry, but I can’t ask people to pay those prices. I have a reputation to uphold here.”

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by ASF123

The homeless guy was like, “Sorry, but I can’t ask people to pay those prices. I have a reputation to uphold here.”

HAHAHA...one of the funniest things I have read here...hahaha...

[todeen]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

On eBay right now, they have 871 negatives in the past month.

Dang! I didn't do my due diligence, I just bought items from them today! I guess I'll see them never. I live in washington state also, supposedly we're about to get a governor's announcement of more leniency. We'll see. Bars are open, that's all people in Walla Walla care about. More pinot? Why yes.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I don't know if it means anything but there are currently no Dean's Cards listings on COMC.

That's strange. I hadn't noticed that or seen any announcement about it. There are some originally sold by Dean's that were bought by flippers.

[Harliduck]

Went to a somewhat local card show today (Auburn, WA) and the COMC boys had a booth...just to talk with folks and had some swag. My brother and I swung by to chat...to their credit they had no excuses for their late shipping...and frankly very kind and owned it. As mentioned, they are moving their warehouse of cards...combined with the sheer unexpected volume as cards are insane right now...and perfect storm. Nice to hear they acknowledge the issue, and it's their #1 priority to fix.

I think I will wait till they sort out their issues and give them another shot...the lack of ego and the 100% ownership of their issue deserves a second chance from me...I'll be watching to see when they are back on their feet.


BTW...the show was unreal...lot's of Post War cards mixed with TONs of the new stuff...so cool to actually attend a show! The dealers were worn out...BUSY! So cool to see our hobby really exploding right now. I spent more than I budgeted...haha

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by swarmee

That's strange. I hadn't noticed that or seen any announcement about it. There are some originally sold by Dean's that were bought by flippers.

This change appears to have happened in the past 5-6 days. My browser still had an un-updated COMC page showing from Tuesday and Dean's cards were there, I refreshed the page and POOF, his offerings were gone like a virgin on prom night.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

This change appears to have happened in the past 5-6 days. My browser still had an un-updated COMC page showing from Tuesday and Dean's cards were there, I refreshed the page and POOF, his offerings were gone like a virgin on prom night.

I'm guessing that Dean's Cards was getting complaints about the slow delivery of their cards through COMC but it's possible they had a falling out about something else.

[ALR-bishop]

At least slow delivery complaints would be a change of pace from the complaints people lob at them here about prices all the time

[bnorth]

I received cards today from COMC. They arrived a full 12 days ahead of the estimate of 1 month they gave me when I paid for Rushed Shipping.

[G1911]

My Economy shipping request, for an admittedly large order attached. I'm in no real rush, but at some point it enters "am I ever actually going to get what I paid for?" territory and then I pretty much stop buying from them.

[GasHouseGang]

Imagine if you were buying raw from COMC and then submitting to PSA for grading. That could be a two year process!

This picture was posted over in another thread, but this is probably how PSA and COMC must look.

[jp1216]

My last order:

Luckily for me I haven't had that issue with them. I've purchased several times and get mine within a week or so of paying.

[judsonhamlin]

Thought I’d bring this one back. Picked up a few cards off eBay with COMC last moth after not buying from them (for no particular reason) and got a prompt ‘your order is being prepped’ with an estimated delivery date of today. Whatever, it’s just a few junk wax variations. But it’s been radio silence since and I have little hope of getting a reply to my email asking for a realistic shipping date. I get delays, but this is ridiculous. I am astonished that they are that much in the hole with shipping a few cards out.

[Cmvorce]

I bought 8 singles from them cos eBay on March 22. The order has not yet been shipped.

[irv]

I just finished writing them about a card I purchased Jan 9th.
On their site it reads it is still in inventory?

Prior to that, I had won 3 cards which have been in my possession for likely well over a month now.

I find it odd that this card is taking way longer but then again I don't know the process there, and truthfully, I was surprised when I received those other 3 cards as soon as I did.

[Harliduck]

Reading this was giving me ptsd...I JUST got the cards I ordered 2 months ago earlier this week after several emails. Just sucked. As I said A MONTH AGO...seem like nice guys but they will have to have a proven track record of fixing this before I even open one of their listings. Terrible.

[swarmee]

Their CEO explained a little of the problem during an interview at the beginning of April. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JghkghmDcUc

Cliff notes:
1) Demand for cards (and therefore shipments/processing) has skyrocketed during COVID. But it even got further accelerated earlier this year.
2) They decided to move to a new card storage facility in Feb/March but didn't explain that to customers. When they finally notified the world that they had moved to a new storage facility, they decided to post it on April Fools Day (my thoughts: terrible PR).
3) They had let go some long time employees about a year ago who were "one-trick-pony" types instead of people who were cross-trainable. Then they had a hard time hiring through the pandemic to keep up with demand. Still trying to hire.
4) They supposedly aren't able to reduce their eBay listings to focus on core COMC customers because eBay requires them to have a certain number of listings to get the rates they have under their contract.
5) They can't limit people from making shipment requests because people would complain their cards are being held hostage.
6) Middle of February trying to fulfill shipment requests at the new facility, they jumbled up a whole bunch of packages, sending out incomplete shipments and mixing up (thousands of?) other orders. So if you tried to get a rushed or expedited shipment during that time, they were still trying to untangle the screw-up with their newly trained employees.
They also bought some million dollar sorting machine that works on bar codes, so every card (even commons and UD ePack cards) are getting an individual bar code slip of paper now. This will hopefully solve their employees screwing up the packaging of orders.
7) If you paid for Rushed or Expedited and they didn't meet timelines, request a refund of the additional shipping charges and mention Tim's interview and they should refund you the difference.
8) If you just want to cancel your order since they aren't fulfilling it, they will refund your money and eat the loss instead of returning the cards to the original seller on COMC. They will put the cards in a Staff account and try to sell them themselves to recoup their payout.
9) Tim expects it to take them until December to get enough staff trained and working at a high enough pace to clear the backlog. That was 7-8 months from the air date.
10) There is now a global shortage of toploaders. So you can't add them indiscriminately to your cards for shipments anymore; COMC has effectively run out. However, if you ship cards home "worth" $50 or more, they will automatically come toploaded. I'm guessing that means you had to pay $50 or more for them, or have them from Elite scans (black background higher resolution).
11) They no longer cross-post cards from Dean's on COMC.

So there is plenty going wrong, and they have some plans to fix them, but not in any kind of quick fashion. Of course, nobody would believe them if they said they would iron it out and be fully staffed and trained soon.

Unhappy blowout posters have been filing complaints against them through the Better Business Bureau or even the Washington state department of commerce. Their eBay orders are even taking weeks or a month to ship out, so their feedback has been plummeting on eBay.

[deweyinthehall]

I have to ask - is this true??

[swarmee]

Yes, they've quintupled in price in the past year. Most hobby shops will only let you buy a pack or two, and that's with the purchase of a box.
Started last year with the shortage of semirigid sleeves (Cardsavers) with all the people submitting to PSA. Because of that, PSA started accepting cards in regular toploaders last summer, so those started getting hoarded.

Because of COVID, supply chain stuff for products coming from China is all screwed up, so it's hard to manufacture for the increased demand. Then with the March shipping fiasco in the Suez Canal, global shipping lines were delayed.

Stuff piling on stuff piling on more stuff. COMC will buy new/gently used toploaders from people for 10 cents each, but they're worth much more if you sell them straight on eBay. They're trying to track down additional suppliers, but most toploader cases are backordered or again, way too expensive to be throw-ins based on their profit margin.

Add: Just like the price of lumber, plastics are much higher now than previous. Went to lunch today and the owner was saying that to buy a case of plastic take-out containers would cost 5x last year's price, if they could even get them

[ALR-bishop]

I am strictly a buyer and over the years accumulated gobs of top loaders and sleeves. Recently pitched a whole lot of both to free space. Guess I should have kept them and all the condiment packs I have thrown away. 😱

[mrmopar]

Their inability to adapt and correct the slide has lead to me being done with them. I enjoyed a 10 year run and shipped at least 1-3 orders each year with them. It was very helpful to be able to buy cards and let them sit until I was ready to take possession, and have a low s/h cost for it. The common wait time for the first 9 years was about a week to 2 at the most! However, that advantage kind of goes away if it takes 3-4 months after you request shipment to receive the cards. I guess you could adjust your expectations and deal with it that way, but frankly, nobody else takes anywhere near that to ship anything you buy. Why should COMC get a break and continue to take forever just because business is booming? That crap wouldn't fly with Amazon, not does it fly with small sellers on ebay...all who are expected to deliver the goods purchased in a timely manner.

I'm sure they could care less that I am no longer buying from them as an individual. I calculated that I might have spent roughly $500/yr on average over the last 10 years. However, if they lose enough people over this, it will hurt. Considering that it is the consigners that stand to lose as well and could stop sending or start pulling cards in favor of ebay or other platforms, it should be in COMCs best interest to do whatever it takes to right the ship ASAP.

My last order through their site (requested shipment (12/3/20) took just over 4 months to deliver (4/15/21 or there abouts). While waiting, I also bought an ebay auction item that took about 3 weeks to deliver. I tried to see if somehow my two shipments could be combined. I'm sure this messes up their process, but I didn't even get an acknowledgement for my request. After waiting 2+ months for my site shipment, the ebay card arrived, then I went on to wait another 1-2 months for the site purchase to finally arrive.

Many people will stick with them because of the need to buy more cards, but I don't have the patience for that kind of poor service. I'll sacrifice buying more in the name of not giving my money to a company who can't seem to manage their operation correctly.

[Gr8Beldini]

Am I missing something with this company? I see nothing but overpriced junk offered for sale by them. LOTS and lots of overpriced garbage. And... apparently their customer service stinks... and they charge $5 to ship a $4 baseball card. Somebody please explain to me why you choose to buy junk from them when there are so many legit vendors to buy from.

[swarmee]

"Them" is about 20,000 small sellers using the consignment service who set their prices themselves, not COMC. In order to see the "real" pricing, you need to log into their site. They allow you to buy thousands of cards over years and then have them all shipped back to you at one time for one shipping cost, if you wish. (At least, they did before COVID for the most part.)

Usually, it's a great place to buy and sell cards, and the prices you see are the cards that haven't yet sold. I've bought 1952 Topps gray backs for $10 each there, oddball nonsports way under market, etc. It's sort of like eBay without having to have every seller ship each card to you separately. Sellers run % off sales which mean the price shown on eBay is 20% - 900% higher than you could buy it from them on site sometimes.

It was built and designed intended for the common man to buy and sell cards for their collections, to fill holes, and make some money flipping. COMC is doing a terrible job executing right now, but the concept is solid.

Full disclosure: I currently have 27,000 cards for sale on COMC, another 1000 or so sitting in my inventory to sell later or send home, and have made tens of thousands of dollars in sales there over the past 5 years.

[judsonhamlin]

So my order from March 27 showed up today and they got 3 of the four cards right; they sent a base card instead of the variation card I ordered so now the fun part will be to see how long that process takes.