COMC Mailboxes - an awesome alternative to high shipping to Canada

[sedinfan]

As it was brought up recently in the "Hobby is Dead" thread - the high cost of shipping sounds like a common complaint... especially shipping from the USA to Canada. Not sure if everyone's aware, but COMC has a really cool program that has saved me a bundle on shipping in the past few months (and no, I have no personal affiliation with them, just a very happy customer). It's really simple - if you have an account at comc.com, you can get stuff shipped to them for the cost of $1 per card. Given that it typically costs an extra $4 or so to ship from US to Canada vs. within the USA, and that's not to mention the astronomically high premiums for registered shipping / ebay's Highway Robbery program (aka Global Shipping).

Here's how it works - you create an account at comc.com and add some funds to your account. Then you simply have your ebay seller / fellow board member ship your cards to COMC c/o your COMC username. When they receive the cards, they scan them in immediately when they open the package and email you a picture including the card(s) and the outside of the envelope (in case you want to see the return address / postage details or whatever), and a day or so later the cards are added to your account and they email you again that the process is complete and deduct their $1 fee per card. What I do is typically let a dozen or so cards build up in my account, and then request a single shipment, usually takes them a few days to process and then the cards are on their way.

Here's what a typical savings looks like... I win a dozen auctions on ebay, each with say $3 shipping to US, $7 to Canada - by shipping them to COMC I save $48 in shipping. COMC charges $1 each card to process upon receipt, 45 cents for supplies (they package them up fresh in sleeve/toploader/team bag and slap a barcode sticker on it), and $3 to ship the whole thing to me. Total COMC charges = $12 receiving charges + $5.40 supplies + $3 shipping = $20.40. Total savings = $48 - $20.40 = $27.60.

For the flippers out there, you can of course take your incoming deliveries to COMC and just add them to your COMC store instead of choosing to have them shipped to you. One thing to note, you get charged $1 for every card they receive, so it's not necessarily a good idea for bulk purchases of lots of cards (you do have the option though to donate any unwanted cards to charity so you don't need to worry about paying $1 per 90-91 ProSet filler card).

The one tricky thing I found was that as a Canadian adding a US shipping address to your Paypal account is very difficult - but adding it as an additional shipping address on your ebay account is a piece of cake... and then at some later point ebay seems to sync your addresses over to Paypal so later on you have the COMC address available for direct paypal purchases as well.

Well there you have it - if you're primarily a collector who just has a steady stream of cards coming in and don't mind a little extra wait as your cards go through a middleman, COMC is an absolute god-send in terms of the shipping savings. In about half a year they've saved me around $200 already, can't imagine how much more I would have in my pocket if I'd discovered them sooner!

In terms of Customer Service - I had one occasion where two packages sent to them on the same day with tracking showed as being delivered on USPS but did not end up in my account for a while - I emailed them to inquire, and within hours they found the packages, scanned them in and had them in my account. Could not have been happier with the speed of resolution of that issue, and all other packages have come through without a hitch.

[Craig2]

Seems like a good service, and I know that more people are using them as a middleman - I sell a lot of basketball stuff to Australians via COMC.

I get around the whole shipping issue by just keeping a PO box in Buffalo...fifteen minutes from work, I can run across the bridge and back on my lunch hour. It's been a gigantic time and cost savings for me, and I've also been able to help out a few of my fellow collectors who have used me as a middleman. I'm also a member of Amazon Vine, so I get all my fun stuff sent there since they won't ship it to Canada.

[Gibby]

SedinFan very helpful OP !!!!

Plus

Another added benefit of the site where you can double up on the shipping savings is that there are some great deals on low to mid end cards ie finish up the odd set and shipping is 3.00 !!!!

I have used it to finish up insert sets , Common YGs and other SP I need to complete the sets.

[30ranfordfan]

I have not used this service yet, but come to think of it - it's a really good idea (and I did know about it). The $1 + shipping cost, vs paying for Global Shipping.... it's very efficient. I've been getting American friends (or Canadian friends with US PO boxes) to do my buying for me, but will have to give this a run someone

[mingus_md]

Thanks for reminding me about this service. I have been meaning to try it for a while and I just found a couple of cards that I think will be perfect for trying out this service.

[flemingc04]

Thanks for the great info! There have been numerous occassions where I have passed on auctions because the shipping fees from the US (mainly ones with Global Shipping Program) would have made the cards more than I was willing to pay.

[Craig2]

It's not something I am looking to run as a regular thing, but I am willing to help out Canadian buyers if I can. I have a PO box in Buffalo where I can receive items, then mail from the Canadian side.

[cygnusx1]

Just so people are aware, in addition to the $1 per card and the $3 base shipping charge, they charge 45 cents per card received for supplies (if you have the items shipped to you). If you receive the cards and intend to sell them on the COMC site, I believe it is just the $1 per card charge.

[xmitsui]

Thanks for the heads up, just signed up for my account at COMC.... one question though, is there an option to ask them to ship the card with some kind of tracking if the card has a high value?

[30ranfordfan]

Yes.

In theory - this is what's going to happen....

You'll buy the card off ebay, and have it shipped to COMC. You'll pay $1 to have it loaded into your inventory.


At some point, you'll request a shipment. When you do that, you select a shipping option. There is the $3 flat rate... but there is premium options too.

Thanks for the heads up, just signed up for my account at COMC.... one question though, is there an option to ask them to ship the card with some kind of tracking if the card has a high value?