General Forum

I'm relatively new to both of these sites.  Just wondering - do they serve different purposes?  Do you guys go to one than another depending on what you were looking for?

Thank you.

Sportlots usually has better prices. All depends on the cards you are looking for and what is available at the time. For shopping purposes COMC is better because you ALWAYS see BOTH sides of the actual card you are buying. Wish sportlots most of the time you have no idea about the card condition especially what the back looks like.

OH Also with COMC all the cards are in one location their HQ in Washington State as all the cards sold are sent to them and they ship all cards, With Sportlots if you order from different sellers you will get cards from several different locations as the sellers ship the cards individually, unless you order using their box service (I forget what they call it, but since the sellers have to send the cards first to the Sportlots HQ so that Sportlots can bundle the order into one shipment.

I use COMC, primarily for selling and just a bit of buying stuff that is hard to find at my LCS.  Never used Sportslots.

COMC is strictly consignment, so you send them all the cards, they scan them and you set the prices. COMC handles all the processing and shipping orders.

Sportlots, you enter your inventory (adding images if you choose) and launch your store, and you have to handle all the order processing and shipping.

COMC - Almost all cards stored on-site - Sellers decide their prices - COMC responsible for shipping cards to customer, customer can buy cards and leave them there to sell later

Sportlots - All cards kept at seller's premises - Sellers decide their prices - Sellers responsible for sending caards to either customers or to a box at Sportlots (relatively new feature) - Only then is Sportlots responsible for shipping to customer - Customner cannot leave cards there to sell later

Minimum pricing CAN be deceiving. 20 cents at Sportlots and 40ish cents at COMC, however, any order sent from COMC has 1 shipping price (depending on the level of service you request) no matter the number of cards. Orders from Sportlots can be from multiple sellers, but then you're also paying for shipping from multiple origins, not one like COMC.

If using COMC, the best bet is to open an account and add money to it. Having an account gets you better list pricing and opens the door for price negotiations (with sellers who allow offers). You can enter in 10 cents on a card offer (below the minimum price for any card), and COMC will tell you if the seller is accepting offers and what the minimum offer is (some sellers don't like receiving the minimum offer and may reject it). But it can get you better deals.

If using Sportlots, try to limit your orders to as few sellers as possible. Also, check the seller's shipping chart for prices and thresholds. If you have 8 cards from one seller, see if they have 2 more cards you want - the postage won't go up (tiers are done there by 1 card, 2-4 cards, 5-10, 11-20, etc.). Also, some will automatically jump to "premium" shipping if your cards hit a certain price point. If you decide to try the "box shipping", try to find the sellers that charge very little (or even nothing) for that service. Remember, you WILL be paying Sportlots for the "box" shipment to come to you. (And if they overcharge, they will issue a credit. I did when I tried this.)

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me directly. I have been using both sites for about 8-10 years now.

Thank you guys for all of the information - this is perfect.

I've been spending WAY too much time on COMC and I was coming to the conclusion that it was difficult for me to use for set completion. 

I found that 1980 commons (for example) were going for .65.  Even requesting .50 was not sustainable, so I checked out Sportlots.  The prices seemed a lot more reasonable but I didn't understand the "down side".  Now I do.

Thanks all!

Tried Sportlots once. One seller shipped a little over half my order and refunded the rest because he couldn’t find them. Another seller shipped and tracking showed it was stuck and never delivered. Made a claim with Sportlots and they basically said too bad. Never buying from there again. 

If you are smart about it the downside of shipping at Sportlots is not significant. You just have to be willing to rule out some sellers if they want $5 to ship a single card. 

I haven't used COMC in years (well before Covid) are the shipping times still horrendous there?

Dan spelled it out pretty good.   I buy from both and yes it depends on the cards I'm looking for.

For me the big things are:

COMC:    I can buy a card today and next month and leave them set there until I want them sent.  One or two shipments per year.   That allows me to look for the best buys as they come up.  They are a lot easier to find cards and know for sure what card you are getting.  The bad thing for me is paying $1 for commons that I need.

Sportlots:    The prices!!!   Just got 28 nice cards (half SNed) from them, and the price was over 60% off of what I would have paid on COMC. shipping included.  Time it takes to find cards.  Approx. 8 hours to find the 28 cards.   Trying to limit your buys to a few sellers may be an issue as it depends on your wants.

Best of luck

As has been said a couple times above, the seller's shipping cost on Sportlots varies so it is wise to grab as many as you can from one seller who doesn't charge a lot for shipping. Your .20 cards can easily become .50 if you aren't calculative about it.

I have ordered from Sportlots multiple times and have never had an issue with cards not getting to me. I have been disappointed in the card condition very seldom, too.