All I want to do is talk about COMC

[checkoutmydeals]

It would take them more time to check, I agree. But clearly the $3.50 base fee for auctions isn't dissuading people from sending in cards that won't even garner $3.50 at auction. My suggestion is a higher penalty for submitting such cards, and while it may take more time at first, the hope would be that submitters would quickly get the message and stop sending in those low value cards.

One reason the $3.50 fee doesn't dissuade anyone is that nobody ever sees it. You don't pay it when you submit the card for auction. It isn't subtracted from the sale price of the item. If your item ends at 99 cents, you get the full 99 cents added to your account. It's tacked on to your credit history like some sort of administrative fee.

There's no reason they can't have some sort of annoying pop-up when you're trying to submit an auction item where there are already 357 copies on the site for as little as 2 cents. "Are you sure you want to submit this garbage item for auction? You'll lose your shirt." There's no reason that when it sells, you can't see "You got NEGATIVE $3.00" or whatever.

If they can put an annoying pop-up on the inventory page which triggers whenever you're trying to price an item for less than what you paid, or for less than 20% of book value (even though they won't let free accounts see what book value actually is on a purchased card), they can put some sort of pop-up on the auctions as well.

If they get real fancy, they could even put some sort of icon next to items which ARE suitable for auction. Example: They recently sold and shipped one for $25 or more. Or the cheapest copy on the site is over $25. Or the COMC Book Value is over $50. Something like that. Of course, they shouldn't tackle this sort of thing until they get the processing and shipping up to date.

There should also be some way for COMC to alter the number of auctions they are running at any given period of time. I don't think it's a good system to simply accept anything which comes their way for auction. I think people could indicate which cards they are willing to auction, and COMC should figure out how many items it can auction while still getting all of their other work done in a timely manner, and go from there. If it means they only run auctions 2 or 3 days a week, and only have 50 or 100 items in a given auction, so be it.

One factor is that we don't know (or at least I don't) what arrangement COMC and eBay have made. Perhaps they are obliged to have so many auctions per day or something. But if not, they should curtail the auctions until all of the pending shipments have shipped and processing times are not experiencing delays.

[cruiserdaddy7]

Originally Posted by Swipe79

I'm just curious if anyone using the Economy Rushed option for shipping is waiting for a package older than mine - was supposed to be shipped February 11th. This was not basic shipping - it was the expedited choice to be cleear.

32 Days Later = No cards shipped.

I have some due from Feb 15th, 17th, and 22nd. None have shipped. Economy RUSHED.

[cowboyzqna]

remove duplicate lines online



Someone wanna buy that from me so I can buy another kobe I really want?


The seller and I are 39 cents off from getting a deal done lol. I reallly like his card and I dont have that 40 cents

[crimedawg47]

Originally Posted by cruiserdaddy7

I have some due from Feb 15th, 17th, and 22nd. None have shipped. Economy RUSHED.

Ill add a Feb 16th Economy Rushed...still waiting

I think a solid question is...has anyone had something shipped in the past 2 weeks?

[Fenian95]

I got an email saying my April 9th package is now being packed but no idea when it will be shipped.

[Wolf8MeVillie]

I should get my cards shipped tonight, tomorrow will be the 2 week mark since they were supposed to be delivered, with Rush Express. Two packages, each with a $3000 value. Will see if I get an update tonight. Upper Deck and COMC have not responded to any inquiries, wondering at what point I should consider getting a lawyer. At $6000k not having been shipped and no responses to emails, cards that I consider merchandise, and probably over $10k on Upper Deck ePacks, how long do you wait NOT even getting an email from either company in two weeks.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by crimedawg47

Ill add a Feb 16th Economy Rushed...still waiting

I think a solid question is...has anyone had something shipped in the past 2 weeks?

I had a shipment delivered last weekend.

Requested mid-February. Economy rushed.

[cruiserdaddy7]

Originally Posted by crimedawg47

Ill add a Feb 16th Economy Rushed...still waiting

I think a solid question is...has anyone had something shipped in the past 2 weeks?

Yes, I had one due first week if March ship last Friday. Was a very small shipment. My others are much, much larger

[checkoutmydeals]

wondering at what point I should consider getting a lawyer.

A lawyer will cost around $200 an hour and probably not get you your items any faster.

I hope they're shipped soon. Good luck!

[Wolf8MeVillie]

Originally Posted by checkoutmydeals

wondering at what point I should consider getting a lawyer.

A lawyer will cost around $200 an hour and probably not get you your items any faster.

I hope they're shipped soon. Good luck!

Thanks, was more of a hypothetical questions. Even if I never see these cards, which I am sure at some point I will, but it's just sad that our hands are tied, other than completely avoiding these companies. I am frustrated at Upper Deck because they really don't care about their collectors, and I love Marvel cards. So now I have to figure out another way to get some of those collectibles or just stop collecting. Frustrated at the compete lack of integrity and communication.

[cowboyzqna]

Shot out to "Checkoutmydeals" for helping me obtain this one


Its not exceedingly rare or valuable... but it is a great looking card.

[Bowman1951]

Originally Posted by crimedawg47

Ill add a Feb 16th Economy Rushed...still waiting

I think a solid question is...has anyone had something shipped in the past 2 weeks?

I'm with you on the 2/16 one. But yes to your other question. They did ship one order and not the other, I already have in hand the one from 2/27 which is ssssooooo weird.

[cruiserdaddy7]

Originally Posted by Bowman1951

I'm with you on the 2/16 one. But yes to your other question. They did ship one order and not the other, I already have in hand the one from 2/27 which is ssssooooo weird.

I have some after that shipped as well, smaller ones.

[Swipe79]

So...how small do I need to make my orders to get them shipped out is the new question I guess.

I've contacted them in the past to ask to combine shipments...I wonder if they would split my shipments up to get them faster - though they'll probably charge me some fees on that. Seriously beginning to wonder if they've lost the cards in my order...

You would think someone would task part of those "fifty" new hires to go back and clear out any orders outstanding at some point.

[cruiserdaddy7]

Originally Posted by Swipe79

So...how small do I need to make my orders to get them shipped out is the new question I guess.

I've contacted them in the past to ask to combine shipments...I wonder if they would split my shipments up to get them faster - though they'll probably charge me some fees on that. Seriously beginning to wonder if they've lost the cards in my order...

You would think someone would task part of those "fifty" new hires to go back and clear out any orders outstanding at some point.

I had an 8 piece and a 5 piece ship early.

My latest few are all over 100 cards, one of them is around 240 cards. Nothing shipped again today. I don't even browse the site anymore. I'm beyond done with their nonsense.

[DegaBama]

Originally Posted by Swipe79

I'm just curious if anyone using the Economy Rushed option for shipping is waiting for a package older than mine - was supposed to be shipped February 11th. This was not basic shipping - it was the expedited choice to be cleear.

32 Days Later = No cards shipped.

Me. Early December.

[Wolf8MeVillie]

Welp the 2 week delay is BS, they are no over 2 weeks on my Rushed Express. Still no one is responding emails.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by base set

I realized a deep irony in it all - I don't have time to ship cards one at a time from eBay sales. So I went with a consignor who could ship cards like that - COMC - and then they went and connected themselves to the firehose of eBay sales and it turns out they didn't have time to ship cards one at a time from eBay sales, either.

Meanwhile this morning I saw a new card listed in a set I collect. The player accumulated a career 2.4 WAR playing for a small market team, last appeared in a game in 2018 and is now 31 years old. Baseball Reference hasn't quite made it official with the "Last Game Played" notation, but, it's over, Johnny. The cheapest 11 copies of the card are all below 50¢ and there are 93 copies behind those waiting to sell, for about a 2.5x ratio of inventory : 4 year sales. Given that the 4 year data has a minor peak in it when the player had one last chance with a new, large market team in 2018 and this is his RC actually, I would expect that ratio to balloon out to 8x or 9x or even higher inventory:sales numbers as soon as the 2018 data comes out of it. Though I'm sure an occasional set or team collector would buy a copy in the years to come, I seriously doubt 104 such sales will ever happen.

I have criticized this paid baseball card cemetery activity in the past but today I finally realized several things about it. The new listing for this could be just a re-pricing from a newly sold port, for one, and I don't actually know which of the 104 cards is the newly available copy as the lowest price card shows to basically be the front / 'face' of the whole listing. But it could have been inside someone's long delayed 2020 submission for 50 cents and they priced it at least over their intake fee.

Although COMC itself warns people not to send in these types of cards, there is no accounting for optimism by their customers. And what I realized this morning is that it would probably ultimately cost COMC more to reject this card entirely, particularly as they no longer have the Declined Items mechanism to recover such cards, given the EX-NM and other grade buckets used for all cards now. And there is clearly no way they can even consider shipping rejected cards back to anyone - right now - ever again?

A single baseball card no one will ever want is not a problem for any of us. But owning and listing millions of such cards - I think a Systems Engineer (great suggestion) would seek to find a way to unload such dead wood. The next listed new card after it has a 3.5x ratio, and the next card after that is an Alex Rodriguez card - but still sits over 2x inventory:4 yr sales. After a Trout and a Jeter card another RC appears of a player who appeared in his last game right about when Topps issued the RC, for a -0.3 WAR across 27 innings of MLB action. Submitters have managed to largely avoid sending in a copy so there are only 18 available - but that is still a 2.5x ratio of inventory:sales for a now 8 year old card.

The up-front instructions do inform submitters that COMC reserves the right to reject such cards. What I wonder is - do they ever exercise this option? Can they even still do it? Or does their business model now force them to accept 50 cents for every piece of cardboard that arrives, keeping it like Ted Williams' frozen head in careful storage and forever for sale for all eternity to check out the scans, and all part of a set of servers with heavy duty back-ups and crucial seek times in the database, etc., etc.


The good news in it all is that there was a newly listed card that I want to purchase. And that's why I don't think COMC will fail, nor am worried about my own overall inconsequential exposure to risk. A solid portion of their inventory is desired by customers. But I do note that these new attempts at creating a stock/commodities type trading floor websites for cards do severely restrict the types of cards they will even consider allowing. I wonder if those new sites charge people for submitting cards they then refuse to list?

Oh well, best of luck everyone. My has run out and it's time to go make my donuts.

Great post.

The takeaway is that some cards are junk that are best served in the garbage. At some point you have to say no as a consignment business. All the major consignment houses are moving away from accepting raw cards now (Probstein never will because they apparently feel obligated to be a dealer of other's damaged and trimmed goods). Simply too much work, with too much risk. COMC isn't going to do that, but they could begin by setting eBay auctions to start at a $3.50 minimum and requiring new submissions to be listed at a minimum of whatever the submission cost is.

[Gurds]

I placed two shipments on 2/14 and 2/19 with economy rushed.

The 2/14 shipment has 19 items and the estimated shipping date was 3/1. It hasn't shipped yet.

The 2/19 shipment request has 2 items and was shipped on 3/13 and should be here Friday.

[crimedawg47]

No need for a condition note on this one:


2002 Topps - [Base] #160 - Albert Pujols (Placido Polanco Pictured on Back)
Courtesy of COMC.com

[jjj5278]

Originally Posted by crimedawg47

No need for a condition note on this one:


2002 Topps - [Base] #160 - Albert Pujols (Placido Polanco Pictured on Back)
Courtesy of COMC.com

Good lord that card is trashed.

[base set]

That’s interesting about some auction houses moving to graded only. But that’s not really good news for COMC. A problem beyond their control is the ever increasing portion of people hoping to buy “raw gems” on each and every purchase and I can only imagine how much of their staff time is getting sucked into disputes over which ‘bucket’ they placed a card in as they are probably slowly being dragged into being a sort of proto-grading service. I have plenty of sympathy for them on that front.

I think the entire hobby needs a new, simple card condition descriptor: “won’t gem, but not wrecked.” I don’t need potential gems to fill out some old moderate print run insert set I took a fancy to some years back. But other collectors want to fill the same checklist with PSA 10 only - & and no one can predict which customer is going to go all Karen on them over an Opening Day base card no one else even wants.

[Swipe79]

Since I started listing on eBay - the messages that bother me the most are the "can I get a scan of the back" or "can I get pictures of the side" or "what would you grade this card" questions. If these were high dollar cards, I get it but getting a message like that on a card you have listed for $2.99 with shipping is annoying as hell. That was why I always liked COMC - you have scans of front and back...and you don't have to deal with people.

Originally Posted by base set

That’s interesting about some auction houses moving to graded only. But that’s not really good news for COMC. A problem beyond their control is the ever increasing portion of people hoping to buy “raw gems” on each and every purchase and I can only imagine how much of their staff time is getting sucked into disputes over which ‘bucket’ they placed a card in as they are probably slowly being dragged into being a sort of proto-grading service. I have plenty of sympathy for them on that front.

I think the entire hobby needs a new, simple card condition descriptor: “won’t gem, but not wrecked.” I don’t need potential gems to fill out some old moderate print run insert set I took a fancy to some years back. But other collectors want to fill the same checklist with PSA 10 only - & and no one can predict which customer is going to go all Karen on them over an Opening Day base card no one else even wants.

[jjj5278]

I think I’m gonna go ahead and request a cash out. I haven’t bought a card in almost a month and can’t find anything for my PC that’s not 2-3x more expensive than eBay. I can take the cash and just buy them there which I hate to do, lol. Every card minus one or two that I’ll just send home sometime in the next 5 years will be lowered to .75 and then I’ll be done finally.

[JCC6603]

I have an economy rushed shipment from 1-26 that still hasn’t shipped. Pretty ridiculous, I’m just cashing out what I sell and not buying anything else until I get my shipment.