General Forum

When I joined TCDB back in October, I had the goals to complete some sets that I started years ago, to expand my primary players and teams, and to reduce my trade inventory before my move. The TCDB community has been great and while I still have a way to go to finishing up those sets collections, I do need to figure out how to reduce my trade inventory. So talk to me about COMC. I have ordered from them in the past but have never sent to them to sell. I have a total trade inventory of probably 17K cards, the majority are early 90's-00's. If I decide to just send in say 15K cards to them to sell, how does it work? I ship them, they list them and we split the money? I think they hold it as credit till I request a payout right? Any downside to just shipping them a (big) box full and letting them handle things? 

The downside is that their most basic processing service charges $0.50 per card. So a box of, say, 200 cards is going to cost you $100 off the bat to list it. Plus you'll want to have a grasp on what you're sending in, a) to check for mistakes when they list it and b) because they require you to tell them how many cards are in your shipment, and accuracy is key.

Once they process a card and it's added to your account, and they take their $0.50 processing fee, it's available for you to list. You set your price, the card is live, and then you wait. Once it's purchased, you get the majority of the sales price - I think their fee is 5%. Sell the card for a dollar? You keep $0.95 in credit.

The credit sits there in your account to either pay for fees (there's a penny per month holding charge for any card you have listed over $0.75, plus any new cards you send in are subject to the $0.50 processing fee), use as store credit to purchase other cards, or you can cash it out and get it deposted/a check mailed to you - I think; truth be told, I've always left my credit in there to use for fees or to purchase other cards for myself.

I like using them because I quite frankly don't have the time to package and ship for trades or sales. It's unfortunate but it's a reality, and I'm trying really hard to downsize my collection. In this case, I just inventory, stick a couple of 100 count boxes inside a flat-rate box (or usually smaller USPS box), and send them off. I can list at my convenience, the majority of my cards are under $0.75 so monthly fees are minimal, and I don't have to worry about packaging or shipping. But there's definitely costs - 15K cards is going to cost you $7500 to list them alone. 

There is a lot of cards that are not worth it now to send in.     There are some cards that has 100s of copies for sale and with a .50 processing fee.  If you want to make a little profit you may have to wait a long time.

Also start with only a 100 or so.  sell them and use the money to send in more and keep doing this.  Why!!!  you have to pay sale taxes on the money you send them even if it is used for paying the fees.    It appears they work well with the $5 range of cards real good.

I'll preface this by saying I have no knowledge of the selling mechanics of either (or any) site but by the sounds of these cards would Sportlots be the better option?

I don't think there is a listing fee, though you do have to do the listing yourself and sore and send the cards yourself, so there is that downside. I guess it is personal preference whether that is worth 7.5k to get them all listed.

Sportlots also seems the better place to sell base/common cards given it's lower pricing. 

Gotcha, so COMC wouldn't be a good fit for my boxes of commons. I was hoping it would be an easy alternative to listing commons. I need to make a list up and offer them for trade/sale here as starter or 90% sets.

Thanks for the input!

I send my commons in to COMC as they come up in the boxes I go through. I really don't care what ends up happening with them, whether they sell or sit. They cost me $0.50 to list, I price them at $0.55, and I make two cents if they ever do sell. If not, there's no harm in them sitting there, as there isn't a monthly fee since they're under the $0.75 threshold. At least they aren't in my house anymore. And I've sold more 1990 Donruss and Upper Deck cards than I have 2021 Topps cards, truth be told (baseball). There are people out there who want them, but it's also true that some of them have well over 50 of the same card for sale and you'll never be able to beat the low price and make any sort of profit. 

Sportlots would probably be better - I don't think there's an inventory or listing fee. However, as mentioned above, you still are responsible for listing, keeping, and then packaging and shipping the cards. If you can find someone who sells frequently on there, ask about their fees for sellers. I know when I considered it, the fees were not great for someone who might sell two or three cards a month, the way I understood it.

You'll also find other threads on here with a search that might help lead you in the right direction for what's best in your situation.

From what I have read Sportlots is brutal on fees if you have few sales (I think up to 75% of the listing price?).

However, the more you sell the more that percentage comes down. What I have seen suggested is you start by listing yourself as "on vacation", load a large amount of inventory then make your "shop"  active. That way you don't have people buying one or two cards before you have many loaded and you lose most of the sale price in fees.

This is what I am doing. I even messaged them and asked if it takes more than three months on vacation what I need to do. They said as long as you are out of vacation for a few seconds then your timer restarts. Just a helpful tip if you are loading thousands of cards.