General Forum

Just in case someone cares about my project of updating my watch list on COMC.  I do 90% of my buying on COMC.  They kind of got me over a barrel.   I do pick up a few here and there.   I go by the total amount paid not just asking price.    Shows do not work for me due to what I collect.   NO!! I will not expand my collecting I'm cutting back.  Even thinking about not doing some sets (Leaf and other Pre draft).    So, I plan on to wait and pick up cards as they drop to a price, that I'm willing to pay or trade for them here.  
Take in account this is just cards that I collect and need.   Nebraska football.  Other collectors may vary.

My findings from COMC:

1. Over 2,400 cards on my watch list now.
2. Found 10 cards that I purchased right away. Will request a shipment in the next couple of weeks.
3. Appears 70% or more of them are still at COVID prices. Way too high for me.
4. Approx. 5 sellers have 65% of the cards. All 5 of the sellers with large number of cards and they buy ports so no processing fees. IMO they could be pricing lower than they are.
5. A lot of the sellers not taking offers or just a few % off most of the time.  They do not do the sales ether for the most part.  A couple sellers are taking 80% off or around that but the new prices are still high for me for the most part.
6. 4 of the sellers that I know do raise their prices if an offer is made. So no offers to them. If they would take their Min. I would jump on a lot of them.  IMO their Min. is fair for most of them.
7. Very few of my cards I have been able to find comps. You do not see players like Tanner Lee or Sam Keller selling on E-Bay much.  So the prices I say are high or low it is what I think/see.
8. Prices on some of my cards I need are higher than some stars in the same set. Mine are not stars. Do they really think that Husker collectors will pay more??
9. A good number of them has been setting on the site for years. One goes back to Item number in the 500,000.   That is way back.  I have followed some cards for years.  Some cards have sold 5 or 6 when the come out and now 5 are setting for a couple of years.
10. A lot of grouping of prices.  Like $2.75  $4.00  $10.00  $25.00 Etc.  Even if they are worth more or less.  Bulk pricing feature working well.
11. Found a lot that I made offers for but appears a good number of them are not accepting offers or just a few % off counters. 
12. Appears I have purchased all of the really cheap cards on my want list. So, I have raised my offers.  I have figured IF I still want to collect, I will have to pay a lot more then I have been. Spent more and get less!!!
13. Not seeing any Race to the Bottom now days more like if that guy is asking $10. I will ask $9.99 or $10,01 and no one moves.
14. A lot of my cards I need have not had any sold or they sold a few years ago. 
15. If they are really selling at those prices I should be selling and not buying but I know better.
16.  Rookie cards are not dropping like they use too.   2- and 3-year-old RC are saying the same or up a little.   

I have researched E-Bay, Beckett, Sportlots and others and I look at total cost of the card.   I would say on COMC  50% is overpriced a lot,   25% over priced a little.  20% price about real 5% a good deal.  Just because they are priced right or a good deal does not mean I can afford them.  Again, this is IMO only and your a lot and little maybe different from what I think and your cards may vary.

I have no problem if someone makes a counteroffer or is priced too high that I will not accept. I just move on to the next card out of the 2,400.

Nice overview.  Now if COMC could get their lead times down.  They are like 4 months behind right now at least on my orders.

I'm with you on the unlicensed crap. The uniforms are so generic you might as well just have them shown in street clothes.

can't agree more with the COMC thing, you either find a steal or pay comps for most items.  But some items from sellers like Rookies N Jerseys or DallasCardBoys are just too expensive, hard to find but I am not over paying for something that will never be worth it in the open market for when I pass my collection to the next person.

the offer system is not great, "sellers aren't accepting offers at this time".  Well you just lost a potential sale, congrats seller.

I always try and figure in shipping as well, since I normally pay the $4.99 bulk fee since I am no hurry to have the cards in hand.  Their lead times are horrible, but nothing you can do if people don't want to work or you pay them to little to work.

my oldest item on my watchlist in from 1/3/2016, it is overpriced by about $5-10.  I have the money to get it, but I have to be reasonable with myself and my collection at the same time.

Thanks for the research 

This is a really interesting conversation and something I have found as I have recently got back into single collecting and expanding my PC. I have some rainbows I am going after for no name fringe MLB players from the early 2010s. Found a bunch of stuff on ebay from COMC. /5 for $7, sign me up. Same set, same player and the /25 is $30. Is the typical practice there to just watch the item and the price might go down? Apologize for the ignorance but like I said I am just getting back into this seriously and this was not a thing 10-15 years ago when I was collecting; at least that I remember. I am in the same boat, that sure I can spend $30 on that card. Not much in the grand scheme of things but just tastes bad.

Don't count on prices going down too much - generally speaking, once a seller sets a price, it stays at that level forever except for the occasional "sale" discount of maybe 10% off.  The only time you ever see any substantial discounts is on Black Friday every November, but in 2023 even those deals were not great compared to other years.  Check out the TCBD thread about this subject leading up to last Black Friday, you'll see many comments that will likely be repeated in this one.

I have cards many on my want list that have been there for years and the sellers have not once changed their prices.  As the OP said, I find that most COMC listings are at 2x-3x their current market value.

Having said all that, there are deals to be found, don't want to make it sound like all listings are vastly overpriced.  Just have to be lucky and find those before others do.  And I have had pretty good luck with offers over the years, so don't be afraid to make them.  But when the list price is 3x or more over current market value, I don't make offers because it will never come down to what I can get the card for somewhere else if I am patient enough to wait.

I'm having the same experience (just got back into collecting after 20 largely dormant years).  My perception is that (1) there's kind of a soft market on older players and cards, (2) prices are all over the place - a lot of people in it to make money who may not necessarily know what they have.

My advice would be to get as good a grasp as you can on the current availability of each card that's important to you - many of the recent numbered cards tend to be easier to find than some the older ones, Even when the older ones sometimes had higher print runs. 

Once you've done that, be willing to (slightly) overpay if you think you've only got one shot at something, and wait for the prices on everything else to come down (on eBay or elsewhere, not necessarily at COMC).

I find that as a rookie card collector, the prices are usually too high. Sometimes you may find one for a good price if the value suddenly jumped and a seller didn’t have a chance to change it yet.  Rarely have I found something that matches eBay prices.

Player collecting is a bit different for me. It comes down to the scarcity/ numbering of the card. If it’s something that’s very low numbered or rarely comes up for sale, then it’s hard for me to say it’s overpriced unless it’s just way too high. 

Also, I factor shipping in as well. If a card is over usual comps by a dollar or so, it’s basically the same since I request shipping when I have a bunch of cards to ship. Sometimes the overall shipping charge may be cheaper than buying multiple auctions.