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Thread: New to COMC

  
  1. #1




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    New to COMC

    Good Monday everyone,

    As I've had a lot of time on my hands, and reorganizing and evaluating how I want to focus my collection, I was thinking of using COMC to unload a lot of my cards. They offer some nice services that would save a lot of time, but what is the cost for selling? I know the perks as a buyer on the site, and for selling eBay is the devil I know, but what should I be aware of when it comes to selling on COMC.

    Thanks

  2. #2
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    COMC gets you on both ends of selling your cards..... I have long thought they're a great site for selling, but the costs are starting to creep up.

    First off, you pay to list your cards. Assuming you're sending in cards and paying their base rate (i.e. it will be a couple of months after they receive them, before they'll be loaded in your account) it will cost 25 cents for each card. You can catch sales, and get this for 20 cents a card - at least sometimes.

    If you're going to do that, I would hold out for a major card show where they'll be accepting submissions - if that's an option for you. Not that there's a problem with mailing them something - but save yourself the shipping charges.

    Next, there's the cost of storage. Any card prices more than 75 cents, you have to pay a 1 cent per month storage fee (free for the first 90 days though).

    Then there are security fees, for higher end cards (priced at $50 or more). 1 cent, per $1,000, per day. So if you've listed a card for $100 - it will cost you 1 cent, every 10 days, for security.

    Then there are the transaction fees. COMC takes 5% of the sale. If you sell a card for $100, you actually get $95.

    There is also a markup for for the buyer, that you don't see. 25 cents is added to the price, to cover shipping & handling costs. If you list for 75 cents, the buyer is actually paying $1.

    Then, what are you going to do with your money? If you spend that hypothetical $95 on COMC, you can just spend it. If you want to cash out, they take 10% at cash out time.

    So.... I'll make up a hypothetical batch for you, just to give you an idea on the cost. Let's say you send in 200 cards to be loaded into your account. That will cost you $50.

    Of the 200 cards, you price 75 of them at 75 cents, 75 of them at $2, 30 of them at $10, 10 of them at $25, 5 at $50, and 5 at $100.

    This is a BIG hypothetical, but let's pretend like you sell no cards in the first 6 months, but you sell all of them on the 1st day of the 7th month.

    The money you got back was:

    75 x 75 cents = $56.25
    75 x $2 = $150
    30 x $10 = $300
    10 x $25 = $250
    5 x $50 = $250
    5 x $100 = $500

    Total: $1506.25

    You pay them 5%, so you get 1430.94

    You spent:
    $50 to list
    3 months of 1 cent per card storage fees on 125 of them, so that cost another $3.75
    You were paying security fees of 0.75 per day, for 90s days so another 67.5 cents

    Maybe it cost you another $15 in postage to send the cards to them, maybe you dropped them off?

    Anyway, the hypothetical load of 200 cards, you made back about $1350 on sales that were a little over $1500. IMO, that's pretty good.

    If you want the cash, your $1350 turns into $1215. Still pretty good.

    Of course the issue here is that in my hypothetical scenario, you sold all 200 cards. There's little chance of that happening. Let's break it down for a single card for a second:

    You list a single card, for $10. You sell it for $10 on the 1st day of the 7th month after you listed it.

    You get $9.50 for the sale.

    You get $8.55 after cashing out.

    You paid 25 cents to list it, and spent 3 cents on storage fees, so you spent 28 cents there.

    For your $10 card, you actually get $8.32.

    Do I think that's a good deal? Yes I do.... if you can make that sale.

    I like COMC, and I do have close to 400 items for sale there right now. I've also done a couple of "port sales" - where I sold my entire inventory in one shot (in total, I've sold more than 8,000 cards on COMC - but the average sale price is a hair under $1).

    If you're going to do it, I'd suggest a few things:

    1. Send a small batch first (say 50 cards), and see how things go. Do you like it? Send a mix of cards... some stuff that you'll price at 75 cents, and some more medium end cards. See if the kind of stuff you want to sell will actually sell for the prices you expect.

    2. Look over the site. I don't mean to suggest you check every single card, but if you're trying to unload common inserts from the mid 2010s, and there are already 35 copies of each card, you're probably not going to sell them. Even if you list yours as the lowest price: If there's a Marty Brodeur card from 2011 listed for 87 cents, and 12 other copies from 88 cents to $1.50.... and then you come along and list for 85 cents... I can almost assure that "overpriced" is not the reason why the other 13 copies are still there.

    3. Going on that theme: If the cards were available on ePack, DO NOT send them in. This is basically any UD Series 1/2 Card since 2015..... plus quite a few other sets that I won't take the time to list. There are dozens, and even hundreds of these cards already available, and next-to-nothing prices.

  3. #3




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    2. Look over the site. I don't mean to suggest you check every single card, but if you're trying to unload common inserts from the mid 2010s, and there are already 35 copies of each card, you're probably not going to sell them. Even if you list yours as the lowest price: If there's a Marty Brodeur card from 2011 listed for 87 cents, and 12 other copies from 88 cents to $1.50.... and then you come along and list for 85 cents... I can almost assure that "overpriced" is not the reason why the other 13 copies are still there.

    3. Going on that theme: If the cards were available on ePack, DO NOT send them in. This is basically any UD Series 1/2 Card since 2015..... plus quite a few other sets that I won't take the time to list. There are dozens, and even hundreds of these cards already available, and next-to-nothing prices.

    As someone who has bought hundreds of cards on COMC and sold almost 7000 cards, I cannot express how important @ranfordfan30's last two points are. Too many people send cards to COMC without thinking about what's already on the site. If you want to submit cards that are already on COMC in the dozens if not hundreds, keep in mind you are competing against other sellers who are selling some of their cards for as little as 0.01.

    I do agree that COMC is a great site, I have sold some really nice cards on there for prices I was happy with (but had to have some patience) and I've picked up some great PC Cards for dirt cheap.



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  4. #4




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    Don't mean to hijack this thread but i maybe in a similar dilemma as golliecollect30 although i have done my homework.

    We have about 200 cards all of which i've already priced out based on COMC comps. The prices are anywhere between .50- $20 but our average price per card is about $2.30 per card. Some are present day stars which should move but some are older cards from 2010's rookies, even got some junk wax HoF rookies and stars. Some relics, SP's, very few autos (unknown/forgotten players), inserts, a lot of rookies. I figure if they are going to charge me .35 per card, so any card selling for less than .50 will loose money. That is why i am only submitting cards that i will price for .50. Hell even if the .50 card sells i maybe make like .10? So you think i should pull the trigger on the submission? These cards are just taking space and doing nothing at home. Tried selling/trading on ebay and instagram but it's a grind. Although COMC takes a while and it costs more they do most of the work for me. I definitely don't want to loose money taking into consideration postage to COMC and fees. We would like to cash out but also wouldn't mind buying autos on COMC for what we sell. In essence trade for them. What do you think? Seriously like to hear some feedback

  5. #5




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    Wow - this is great insight. Thanks so much for taking the time to put all this together. It's a big help to have it laid out like this in black and white.

  6. #6




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    You dont always need to cash out money wise and lose that 10%

    Ive never cashed out with $$$, but I do have cash out cards ready to scoop up.
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  7. #7
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    You dont always need to cash out money wise and lose that 10%

    Ive never cashed out with $$$, but I do have cash out cards ready to scoop up.

    Same with me, other than one time - but I did a port sale that netted me a lot of money, and I did want the cash back then.

    Normally, I just spend the money on COMC.

    Don't mean to hijack this thread but i maybe in a similar dilemma as golliecollect30 although i have done my homework.

    We have about 200 cards all of which i've already priced out based on COMC comps. The prices are anywhere between .50- $20 but our average price per card is about $2.30 per card. Some are present day stars which should move but some are older cards from 2010's rookies, even got some junk wax HoF rookies and stars. Some relics, SP's, very few autos (unknown/forgotten players), inserts, a lot of rookies. I figure if they are going to charge me .35 per card, so any card selling for less than .50 will loose money. That is why i am only submitting cards that i will price for .50. Hell even if the .50 card sells i maybe make like .10? So you think i should pull the trigger on the submission? These cards are just taking space and doing nothing at home. Tried selling/trading on ebay and instagram but it's a grind. Although COMC takes a while and it costs more they do most of the work for me. I definitely don't want to loose money taking into consideration postage to COMC and fees. We would like to cash out but also wouldn't mind buying autos on COMC for what we sell. In essence trade for them. What do you think? Seriously like to hear some feedback

    That's a good way to describe most of the stuff I've sent them too. It's card that I think are possibly good enough to sell, not high end, but I don't really care about, and they're impossible to move myself. Someone might want to buy a card for $1, but they're not going to buy it for $1 + $3 shipping.

    Only thing I'd question about your method.... what are COMC comps? You figure you'll list for the lowest current asking price? While I think for a lot of stuff that would work to move them quickly.... for a lot of stuff, it won't. If you've got a bunch of common YGs from 2012 (for example) and list them at the same rate as the lowest asking price.... I bet they don't sell very quickly. Doesn't mean they won't sell, just temper your expectations.

    I was also WRONG when I said 25 cents per card, to load it, earlier. It's 30 cents now (I forgot they upped it).

    Just remember whatever price you see, the price the seller punched in was 25 cents cheaper. So if you can buy it for 50 cents... that means the seller gets 25 cents, less 5%. Maybe it's been there long enough that they paid under 30 cents to list? If the seller makes anything on that card, it's not more than a penny or two.

    When you're thinking about the sale price, on low end stuff, remember that there will be a 25 cent up charge for the buyer. It cost you 30 cents to list the card.... so you have to be able to sell it for a minimum of 56 cents just to break even.

    You'll see a lot of ePack stuff priced lower than that (27 cents, I think, it the lowest?). Cards transferred from ePack don't have the 30 cent listing fee, so the seller is making a couple of pennys if you buy that one.

    Is waiting for a cardshow, where you can drop them off for COMC (i.e. Toronto Expo) an option for you? Save yourself the $$$ (and profit margin) if you can.

    Wow - this is great insight. Thanks so much for taking the time to put all this together. It's a big help to have it laid out like this in black and white.

    Happy to help. I love their site, and have used it a lot. I would encourage others to aswell, just make sure you know what you're getting into.

    I should also point out to @goaliecollect30 that I misquoted prices in my first post. The 25 cent listing fee is actually 30 cents now, so all the numbers I used should be adjusted.

  8. #8




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    Quick question to COMC sellers...Do your sales go up and down with the Canadian dollar? There have been a lot of extra fees added on in the past couple of years (shipping raised to $5, 5% import fee) but it still wasn't bad when the dollar was closer to par. Right now? I wouldn't buy from the site. I even filter out US sellers on eBay.

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