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.

[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.