Can someone explain the logic at COMC?

[Casebusters]

The cash out fee is where they make their profit as a company. If I ever cashed out, I understand that is part of the cost of doing business and that they did all the work for me. Frankly, 20 percent may be a bargain considering their services.

Rich

I agree, COMC makes their money on Cashing out, I think COMC is geared for sending a lot of cards in, as opposed to sending in just 10 cards.
Ebay makes their money on both ends where COMC profits more when you cash out.
Everyone looks at the FVF for ebay when its the Listing fees for Fixed items that will get you..
Why do you think all free listings are for "auctions"?

COMC selling fees compared to ebay selling fees
COMC - Flat 20% cash out - they do all the work
Ebay - 11% plus 3% paypal - you do all the work
so the difference is 6%
but that 6% pays for COMC to scan (both sides), list, sell, pick, pack, ship, and you never have a bill to actually pay as they take it out and send you the difference.

Lets use $1-$50 items,
COMC - It's 20¢ per item to list for 3 months and 1¢ per month storage after that.
ebay basic store ---- starts at $16 a month - and It's 20¢ a Fixed Price listing for 1 month and then the same fees month after month
ebay premium store - starts at $50 a month - and It's 5¢ a Fixed Price listing for 1 month and then the same fees month after month

But the real difference is after the 1st month (COMC storage fee to ebay relisting fee)
lets make an example with 1000 "$5 items" on both sites selling 200 items a month
LISTING FEES
COMC
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
$206 free free $4 $2
Basic ebay store $16 a month, 20¢ an auction
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
$216 $176 $136 $96 $56
Premium ebay store $50 a month, 5¢ an auction
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
$100 $90 $80 $70 $60
Final Value Fee
selling 200 cards a month at $5 a card per month is $1000
COMC 20% $200 * 5 = $1000
Basic 14% $140 * 5 = $700
Premium 14% 140 * 5 = $700

All fees after 5 months
COMC $212 + $1000 = $1212 (If you cashed out)
Basic ebay $680 + $700 = $1380
Premium ebay $400 + $700 = $1100

So COMC is a better deal altogether than the basic ebay store
Ebay Premium store is cheaper than COMC
BUT for an extra $112 COMC will do all the work for you for 5 months

and to add, If there were $5000 worth of really high end cards on COMC, you could buy those cards, have them shipped and sell them on ebay and save around $1000 in COMC fees

This site is great for a lot of lower end cards that ebay does not like on their site...
Now if you can sell all 1000 cards in one month, then ebay is cheaper

 

[dp33]

The cash out fee is what bothers me. I dont want to buy crap on the site because I can get it much cheaper on ebay. That said, I have 871 different nolan ryan cards I could send in to help pay for new purchases. Most of these would be sold for a $1. At their rates I would pay $.20 for insertion and $.20 for cash out. thats a 40% fee on every card. ebay + paypal doesn't even come close to this.

Paypal would take $.329 and ebay would take $.09 on each card, so I'm not sure how you figure that "ebay + paypal doesn't even come close to this". As far as I can tell, you would be losing money unless you made it up in shipping charges. I'll take the 0% chance of dealing with ebay crackhpots and not having to buy 871 mailers and have them take up space in my house and not having to buy toner to print off 871 mailing labels. Plus, as you say, the cards generally sell for more on COMC than ebay, so factoring that in as well makes me a bigger fan of COMC than ebay (at least for the $1 cards I'm selling on there).

 

[theplasticman]

Casebusters - great breakdown. It's exactly why I prefer the site.

 

[klute14]

Forgive my ignorance but why is no one considering the $5.00 for the first card and .15 for each addtional card for shipping?

 

[Casebusters]

Forgive my ignorance but why is no one considering the $5.00 for the first card and .15 for each addtional card for shipping?

That's for the buyer. We were talking about selling
just like sellers charging 3.00 for each auction on ebay, if you bought 1000 cards from 50 different sellers, then shipping will be minimum $150

 

[DaClyde]

Forgive my ignorance but why is no one considering the $5.00 for the first card and .15 for each addtional card for shipping?

That's not accurate. For bulk, it's $5 for the first TEN cards, then $0.15 for each additional cards.

For standard shipping, it's $3 for the first card and $0.25 for each additional card.

 

[Casebusters]

Forgive my ignorance but why is no one considering the $5.00 for the first card and .15 for each addtional card for shipping?

That's not accurate. For bulk, it's $5 for the first TEN cards, then $0.15 for each additional cards.

For standard shipping, it's $3 for the first card and $0.25 for each additional card.

and they do have shipping deals every now and then so you can wait for then to ship your cards

 

[tonsofcommons]

Here is a spreadsheet I did that compares ebay to COMC. It takes in to consideration a couple of things:

Selling 50% of every item listed within each month
$2.00 Shipping per item

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... y=CKfkrp4K

 

[mikefrank]

The equation is markedly better than ebay if you intend to "purchase" cards rather than case out. Also, the value of their services is priceless to some that don't have the time to do the pricing, posting, monitoring, shipping, etc. Not for all users, but certainly a nice alternative that fits a lot of needs.

 

[Crewfan82]

The cash out fee is what bothers me. I dont want to buy crap on the site because I can get it much cheaper on ebay. That said, I have 871 different nolan ryan cards I could send in to help pay for new purchases. Most of these would be sold for a $1. At their rates I would pay $.20 for insertion and $.20 for cash out. thats a 40% fee on every card. ebay + paypal doesn't even come close to this.

You are comparing eBay to COMC on a bunch of $1 cards? You couldn't even sell those $1 cards on eBay unless you put them on as a lot. Selling $1 cards on eBay makes no sense. COMC is a great way to get rid of all the small dollar stuff. Even if you do take a hit on the cash out fee it is still better than having those $1 cards sit in a box for eternity.

Only other option is putting out a $1 box at shows. I don't sell at shows so I don't know how efficient that would be.

 

[rymflaherty]

Here is a spreadsheet I did that compares ebay to COMC. It takes in to consideration a couple of things:

Selling 50% of every item listed within each month
$2.00 Shipping per item

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... y=CKfkrp4K

Good stuff.
Now I may have missed this, but one thing I didn't see listed was the shipping cost to send your cards to COMC.
If it was included and I missed it, ignore this........but if not, that's another $7-10 which makes a difference if you're not dealing in those higher values.

That's one of the major reasons I've never sent in cards as a seller, between the shipping fee and insertion fees, your already behind the eight-ball. At least to me the structure isn't one that lends itself to sending in some cards and "trying it out".

 

[tpeichel]

Here is a spreadsheet I did that compares ebay to COMC. It takes in to consideration a couple of things:

Selling 50% of every item listed within each month
$2.00 Shipping per item

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... y=CKfkrp4K

Good stuff.
Now I may have missed this, but one thing I didn't see listed was the shipping cost to send your cards to COMC.
If it was included and I missed it, ignore this........but if not, that's another $7-10 which makes a difference if you're not dealing in those higher values.

That's one of the major reasons I've never sent in cards as a seller, between the shipping fee and insertion fees, your already behind the eight-ball. At least to me the structure isn't one that lends itself to sending in some cards and "trying it out".

When it's all said and done, it costs about a quarter to get a card on the site. That's why I don't understand why people send in so many commons.

 

[Crewfan82]

Here is a spreadsheet I did that compares ebay to COMC. It takes in to consideration a couple of things:

Selling 50% of every item listed within each month
$2.00 Shipping per item

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... y=CKfkrp4K

Good stuff.
Now I may have missed this, but one thing I didn't see listed was the shipping cost to send your cards to COMC.
If it was included and I missed it, ignore this........but if not, that's another $7-10 which makes a difference if you're not dealing in those higher values.

That's one of the major reasons I've never sent in cards as a seller, between the shipping fee and insertion fees, your already behind the eight-ball. At least to me the structure isn't one that lends itself to sending in some cards and "trying it out".

When it's all said and done, it costs about a quarter to get a card on the site. That's why I don't understand why people send in so many commons.

The commons came from back when it only cost 5 cents to get a card on the site. The rise in cost to a quarter should get rid a lot of the junk cards that are on the site.

 

[sabrgeek]

At one point, COMC only set up at the National -- I believe they are becoming more aggressive about setting up at shows around the country.

Here was a blog entry

http://blog.checkoutmycards.com/2011/10 ... -calendar/

So, if you happen to live near a city where COMC is set up, you can avoid the shipping fees. I usually bring cards to the National for them.

Rich

 

[rymflaherty]

At one point, COMC only set up at the National -- I believe they are becoming more aggressive about setting up at shows around the country.

Here was a blog entry

http://blog.checkoutmycards.com/2011/10 ... -calendar/

So, if you happen to live near a city where COMC is set up, you can avoid the shipping fees. I usually bring cards to the National for them.

Rich

Thanks for posting that.
I'll have to look into that since they'll be here in Chicago next weekend and I'll most likely be headed to that show at least one day.
Cutting out that fee to ship them would be a big thing to me and after seeing some of the other stuff posted regarding fees, it may provide a great opportunity to drop some stuff off and then see how it goes.

 

[tonsofcommons]

You're right, I did forget shipping cost to get them the cards. I think I was doing this if I delivered to them at the National.

 

[ASTROBURN]

Being a player collector, I like COMC. most people dont post commons on ebay cuz it costs too much, but at comc, lots of people do regardless of cost. And because of those sellers, I'm able to find the 20 cent cards no one else bothers to list.

 

[Phishmon23]

I'm about to send about 3,000 cards to COMC all between expected sale prices of $0.50 and $5.00. The way I look at it is I'm essentially trading my cards, not selling. Since I buy quite a bit on COMC for my player collections and sets I don't really worry about cashing out, I'm just using my "profits" to purchase cards I need. Not to mention the fact that the cards I'm sending to COMC are just taking up space in my closet and would never sell on eBay anyway.