COMC mailbox

Has anyone used COMC's mailbox service? In particular I'm wondering if any collectors outside the USA have tried having ebay or other purchases sent to their COMC mailbox.

It seems like the ideal way for Canadian collectors to save some money on shipping. More significantly (for me at least), Canadian buyer can gain access to auctions that might not offer international shipping. The COMC service fee (a buck per card I think) is pretty reasonable, so instead of paying $7-$10 or even more on auctions that actually offer shipping outside the USA, you'll pay the seller's domestic rate plus the COMC fee. Then you have your card included in a future COMC shipment.

As a seller, is there any issue you forsee with a Canadian buyer requesting shipment to a COMC mailbox?

- Rodrick

I get a lot of orders shipped to COMC. The only thing that sucks when you buy from me is that I have to charge sales tax since it then becomes a WA sale. But I suppose that is still cheaper than paying the normal shipping amount.

Ok, how does COMC work? Do you send payment to them and they ship the cards to you and take % of the sale and give your share? I'm confused

21ccl said:

Ok, how does COMC work? Do you send payment to them and they ship the cards to you and take % of the sale and give your share? I'm confused

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Are you asking about COMC mailbox service, or COMC in general?

In general, to sell cards there you just send them in. COMC charges a per-card fee to identify, scan front and back, and list the cards. You set the listing price.

The mailbox service is for COMC users and basically you have the cards shipping to them instead of to you (c/o your username), and they process them just like any other cards. You can list them for sale or request them be shipped to you. It's supposed to be good for group break participants as an example, because if you want to flip them you can just have the breaker send the cards directly to COMC.

- Rodrick

olerud363 said:

Are you asking about COMC mailbox service, or COMC in general?

In general, to sell cards there you just send them in. COMC charges a per-card fee to identify, scan front and back, and list the cards. You set the listing price.

The mailbox service is for COMC users and basically you have the cards shipping to them instead of to you (c/o your username), and they process them just like any other cards. You can list them for sale or request them be shipped to you. It's supposed to be good for group break participants as an example, because if you want to flip them you can just have the breaker send the cards directly to COMC.

- Rodrick

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I need to be more specific. In general and what about buying the cards? Do you send payment to comc or the seller?

To buy cards, you need to add credit to your COMC account. You can do this just by using PayPal or a credit card to buy credit. (The minimum denomination is $10.) If you see a card you like you can buy it outright or make an offer. The seller can counter, accept, or reject your offer, and I think there's a limit to the number of times a buyer and seller can counter-offer back and forth on a particular card. Shipping is a flat $3 fee, no matter how many cards from as many different sellers as you want.

I wanted to ask this question again as I've been trying to take advantage of this service.

For those of you sellers who have shipped to COMC mailboxes, do non-US buyers have the COMC address attached to their PayPal account? I've asked a couple of sellers if they ship to COMC mailboxes and they say they do, as long as the address is registered with my PayPal account. I've tried to add a second address to my PayPal account but it seems like I can only add a Canadian address associated with my credit card, which COMC obviously isn't.

Moe at COMC said that far as they know I shouldn't have to do anything with PayPal. It's just another shipping address, not a billing address. It makes sense, though, that the address should be somehow associated with PayPal for the purposes of buyer and seller protection.

Can anyone shed some light?

I've seen a few with COMC as the Paypal address...no issues with them

olerud363 said:

I wanted to ask this question again as I've been trying to take advantage of this service.

For those of you sellers who have shipped to COMC mailboxes, do non-US buyers have the COMC address attached to their PayPal account? I've asked a couple of sellers if they ship to COMC mailboxes and they say they do, as long as the address is registered with my PayPal account. I've tried to add a second address to my PayPal account but it seems like I can only add a Canadian address associated with my credit card, which COMC obviously isn't.

Moe at COMC said that far as they know I shouldn't have to do anything with PayPal. It's just another shipping address, not a billing address. It makes sense, though, that the address should be somehow associated with PayPal for the purposes of buyer and seller protection.

Can anyone shed some light?

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I've had a few eBay buyers with COMC as their PayPal shipping address. I've never had an issue shipping to them.

byronscott4ever said:

I've seen a few with COMC as the Paypal address...no issues with them

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EDGARMARTINEZcollector said:

I've had a few eBay buyers with COMC as their PayPal shipping address. I've never had an issue shipping to them.

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Were the buyers located in the US? From everything I've read, PayPal does not allow Canadian users to add a US shipping address to their account.

It's been suggested to me to just make the COMC mailbox address my primary address on ebay, but does this address the fact that some sellers will only ship to a PayPal address? I'll have to try it out.

I've had multiple non US buyers buy from me using the COMC service. The only reason I know is I send them regular invoices with my out of country shipping prices and then they request a total with the COMC address.

Then this pops up as the new shipping address

COMC.com Mailbox c/o "username"
6727 185th Ave NE
Redmond, WA
98052

I've just made a couple of small Olerud card purchases on ebay and had them shipped to my COMC mailbox to test out the service. Thanks to @AFarCry who PM'ed me with helpful tips in getting set up. I just had to set it as my ebay primary shipping address and ebay automatically set it as my confirmed PayPal shipping address when I went through the auction checkout. No changes needed to made in PayPal (they don't allow it anyways).

I guess you guys in the States never have to worry, but for guys outside the US this service opens up a lot more ebay auctions for potential purchases (including the ones in the FCB banner, so FCB benefits too!). I lot of sellers don't ship outside the US, or have to charge an amount that can make the purchase just not worth it. Even with the $1.00 per card COMC fee added on, it's still a LOT cheaper than shipping to Canada in most cases.

Do they scan your cards? How do you know they arrive in good shape?

Yanks2151 said:

Do they scan your cards? How do you know they arrive in good shape?

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Yes, from what I understand they process them the same as a regular submission, only faster (a few business days after receipt). They scan them and add them to your account, and you can then list them for sale or have them mailed to you.

My first try using COMC mailbox was mostly a success. Item shipped Oct 15. I received an email from COMC today at 4:30pm stating they received a mailbox submission for me. The next email was at 9:42pm stating processing was complete. My card is now scanned and in my account, ready to be included in my next shipment.

What I wasn't expecting was the additional fee attached to this card besides the $1 processing fee. If I want to sell it or have it shipped to me, 45 cents more is charged. I cannot get the $3 flat rate shipping fee - it'd cost $3.45.

Oh well. Still cheaper than ebay shipping to Canada, just not as much cheaper as I had thought.

That stinks they add that . You'd think they'd make enough by charging $1 in each one they receive for faster processing. Regardless , glad you found another option that could save you $2+ per deal

Ryan