General Forum

So was just bouncing around the web reading articles about baseball cards and I found the COMC.com website. I started clicking around to see what there is to see and I find things like this.

https://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball/1987/Topps_-_Base/127/Vance_Law/1916009/Ungraded/COMC/EX-NM

Are these prices real. Has anyone ever fallen for this? I also laugh when I see eBay listing for 80's commons advertising "all auctions start at one penny!" and 2.99 shipping. 

Most of his sale prices on that site are within reason, so he may have just made an error.

Or...he's testing potential buyers in case they might believe the card is a rarity. Best to always compare prices from several sources to be sure.

The eBay listings are attempts to skirt fees and make money back from the S/H costs.

When there is no fee or charge to list a product up for sale there is nothing to lose by putting something out there at a crazy high price.  At least back in the day when ebay charged listing fees, people would consider whether something would sell or not before listing it.

WRONG!  Well, somewhat.  He is a known... um, what's the word, I'll just say jerk.  His prices are slightly higher than average, just enough that you can make an offer to him say, 10 cents off.  He'll reject the offer and raise the price of the card 30 bucks.  This card he probably had listed for 60 cents and someone probably offered him 50 cents, so he raised the price.  He does it very often, and many COMC threads on him tell of how he has done it to many in the past.

The site itself is much like ebay MrEvolution, while COMC handles the cards, the seller can price them at whatever.  Some cards are then available to purchase through Ebay, which then get added shipping charge of 5 bucks.  In the last year COMC has had issues with their shipping and processing times, but Ebay sales have been faster.  Sellers on the site like the one you linked do have crazy rates for whatever reason, and some just want to sell cards.  When I see a card I want and its from that seller I will check other sellers and if his is lowest, I'll watch the card to see if someone puts it lower at some point, which they usually do.  COMC has openly promoted flipping cards on their site in the last couple years, and while I'm not against it personally if a card suddenly becomes hot or you decide you no longer want it and want to make a buck or two, these sellers trying to extort money from sellers makes me mad so I don't do business with them.  If you do like more than a handful of cards on their site, I'd suggest signing up because they will hold cards for you until you want them to ship to save on shipping fees (hopefully the almost 4 month shipping time will be reduced soon).

I get that on ebay but the funny part is that there is no way they will ever sell the cards even for the penny, let alone make money on shipping.

ComposerMike wrote:

Most of his sale prices on that site are within reason, so he may have just made an error.

Or...he's testing potential buyers in case they might believe the card is a rarity. Best to always compare prices from several sources to be sure.

The eBay listings are attempts to skirt fees and make money back from the S/H costs.

One other thing as well although this probably wouldnt fall under that issue, is there are slightly higher prices shown until you log into the site. 

So if you were just poking around with out signing in, you are not always seeing the best price. 

His prices are all over. As stated earlier he has some reasonable prices. For the 1987 Topps it seems he prices a  EX-NM card at this super $34.32 price and then all the other cards at reasonable prices most $2 

He does has a strange one here: 1 EX-NM at his $34.32 price: https://www.comc.com/Users/JoelsHitShow/Cards/Baseball/1987/Topps_-_Base/416/Tom_Nieto/1916299/Ungraded/COMC/EX-NM

BUT a POOR to FAIR of the SAME CARD: At $42.24 https://www.comc.com/Users/JoelsHitShow/Cards/Baseball/1987/Topps_-_Base/416/Tom_Nieto/1916299/Ungraded/COMC/PR-FR yet the scan looks pretty good for a Poor to Fair card looks pretty EX-NM to me.

Hmm seems to be mostly just the Expos cards from 87 with that super high price, but not all players. Maybe he added all his cards around 2004 when the Expos announced they were moving to DC and changing their name? 

I knew i saved all my Tom Nieto rookie cards for a reason

My theory on the sellers that prce cards like this is they occaisonally get a hit selling through Amazon to an uneducated buyer......that being said, I just looked through my sales and I haven't sold anything on COMC through Amazon since 2019, so I'm not even sure that is a partnership they have anymore...

I didn't realize that was something that even existed - decline a reasonable offer and then jack the price beyond normal...!

How would anyone expet to sell a card if the community is aware of his practices. I guess some sellers are OK with paying storage fees every month for cards they know will never move.