General Forum

I have been checking out COMC, and it looks like a really cool place to purchase singles.  However, one thing I am not too fond of is the fact that you can't just make purchases for the price of the card.  It looks like you have to load store credit first, and the lowest amount you can add is $10.00.  I feel like if I end up using this site, I am often going to have unused money just sitting on the site, especially if I buy, say 11 dollars worth of cards.  Is there any way around this that I may not be seeing?

Thanks.

I use COMC regularly.  I was leary about carrying a balance there at first, but I now find that it is actually handy to keep a balance there so that I can buy stuff I want as it shows up or make offers on items.

If you really don't want to do that, you can request a refund of any unused funds and if it is within 30 days of when you added them there are no fees, you get all of your unused money back.

-Tom

I recently picked up 6 individual cards for my player collection off of Amazon, but I received the cards from COMC. That could be a potential way to do it, but I don't know if COMC lists all of their singles on Amazon or just certain ones.  

I've been a COMC user for several years and at first I too wasn't sure about the way you have to add credit balance. It's not that bad, and as mentioned already you can always request a refund of your credit. I usually just carry a balance there in case something pops up that I want.

What I like most about COMC is that you can ship any number of cards for one flat rate, which is great for me up here in Canada when you consider how expensive ebay shipping can be for just one card ($10 or more).

COMC has been listing a lot of their items on EBay, so if you don't want to deal with the balance, that' s another way to buy items you find on their site.  Not sure if it costs more that way, maybe I've been wasting my money.

You don't have to load money to buy from COMC. You can add cards to the shopping cart and then use paypal to pay for them when you're ready to check out. 

Hey you're right.  I just tried doing that and it says you can pay with credit card/paypal.  Thanks!

Buying from COMC through ebay (or Amazon) costs more in shipping, and there is no chance of getting the card for less than the listing price. If you carry a balance, you can make offers. (Some dealers don't accept offers and some may reject your offer, but you're not getting a discount if you don't ask!) Plus, they run enough free shipping offers that you should be able to get the stuff sent to you for free. Yes, you don't get the item right away, but it's for your personal collection, do you really need it tomorrow or can it wait a couple months?

Plus, they have had the challenge system in place for a while (I haven't done it in a while) to help build their database where when you accumulate 1,000 poiints, you get $1 in credit. Let's put it this way, whatever balance I have at this point is pretty much "free". (I just checked, I've gotten $98 in COMC credit from helping them build their database.) Plenty of opportunity to boost your collection.

i buy and sell on COMC and liking it.. like anything else, there are pro's and cons. but you can make an offer on a card if you have store credit available first. thing about shipping is, if you're only buying a couple of less expensive cards, like under a couple dollars, it's sometimes not worth it unless your buying a bunch. then you save. but you can buy cards and keep them there until your ready to ship- you don't have to ship immediatly. the biggest downfall i think is when someone has a card that maybe worth $2 and has llisted for $25. there's no personal negotion that can take place. if you have store credit, you can send an offer in based on what the seller has his selling attributes on. Like,if someone has a 90% setting, then anything offered at 90% or greater of the price listed is sent to the seller. anything less is automatically declined. 

the other plus is they llist on ebay and amazon too but at a 20% decrease on the sellers listed price because they have to pay fees and such, so you're getting exposure. only other downfall are the base cards.. where you can find on some other sites for like .18 cents a card, the seller is forced to sell for more than .25 per card, because for them to list at the basic level is .25cents. so, if you wnat to dump off a no name cheap card that you would typically get 10 cents for , you're kinda forced to list for .35 cents. hope that helps.

COMC has some sort of sharing program with Amazon. The cards themselves are physically with COMC but they use Amazon (and Ebay I think) as a selling venue. It is just some cards, not all. The seller has to agree to list their cards on Amazon as well as at COMC they don't have to it is just a way to get their stock shown in more places. All in all I think it is best just to buy the stuff directly from COMC.