COMC Mailbox Thread

So what will happen now

ozballer23 said:

So they provided me with pics of the cards damaged (that I already know) and I don't have the pics they sent me in an email as I deleted them already to prove they didn't arrive in that condition - quality service

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To let you know, those were the pictures we sent you when we initially received the cards via our Mailbox, and notified you of them being received. The cards were damaged when they were received by us, so your complaint would be with the people who sent the cards to us. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Funny how EVERYTHING was basically ignored that has been written for the past 3 pages about the new charges etc etc
except for Norms msg about damaged cards and COMC always trying to justify them selves like they never do anything wrong yet they can't get the whole magnetic case/ screw downs right SMH!!

For clarification, I'm just going to re-iterate what we stated in our recent mailing re: the Mailbox:

We get lots of cards in holders, of one type or another. If the card holder (be it a toploader, one-touch, etc.) is pristine and clear and the Mailbox team is confident that scanning the card within the holder will produce a high quality scan, then the card will stay within the holder.

If there is any kind of blemish or imperfection on the holder - be it tape, writing, scratches, foggy, dirty, or sticky, have price stickers, or any other kind of substance and/or flaw/imperfection - the card will be (carefully) removed, the old holder will be discarded and the card will continue being processed.

OUR most important consideration is the quality of the scan. If we feel the image, front or back, will be compromised, we reserve the right to reject the card holder.

@Moe@COMC

Mate fair enough your concerned about the quality of the scan, but who cares when you don't even add the cards details when it gets processed so nobody but the card owner is going to view it anyway
It's a hassle that we can't list cards for sale on Comc without having to request the cards information corrected therefore I don't worry about selling anything on comc and that's probbably why every time I look to buy something you never ever have it or it's ridiculously priced

And don't bother replying moe cause I already know what your going to say

" I'll forward that on to our mailing team"

In all honesty, I started using COMC when options from overseas sellers were no longer feasible. I'll continue to use them on that basis alone!

I can 100% understand price increases AND extension times for processing. Here's a thought, start up a mail service, and work out how long it'll be until you have to put on more staff as you simply can't keep up with the demands of the incoming mail!

Sure, it's expensive, but it works, AND it's convenient! It's the price you pay, so to speak! We all bitch, winge and moan about Ebay/PayPal fees, etc but we continue to use them... right????

Re: @ozballer23 (Norm)'s issue, would really like to see original scans, I failed to see the damage on your own scans before you showed them at an alternate angle. It's possible the original scans showed that same damage, but at the angle you see, it's not clear? That doesnt excuse the fact that it SHOULD have been picked up by the handler/scanner personnel - if I were handling someone's property, I'd like them to know in advance of any possible damage, etc. Also, the printing plate, likes buckled, which is pretty normal for those things. They're a piece of shitty flimsy aluminium crap, which look like they've been cut with a mangled pair of tin-snips.

We have to thank @Moe@COMC for showing form and actually getting on here. Anyone from Australia Post ever jump on here, or Ebay, or PayPal and help us out with ANYTHING, good OR bad?!?!?!

As @rishgoon (Luke) said, "stay classy", we always have the choice NOT to use COMC.

Dogs2194 said:

@Moe@COMC

Mate fair enough your concerned about the quality of the scan, but who cares when you don't even add the cards details when it gets processed so nobody but the card owner is going to view it anyway
It's a hassle that we can't list cards for sale on Comc without having to request the cards information corrected therefore I don't worry about selling anything on comc and that's probbably why every time I look to buy something you never ever have it or it's ridiculously priced

And don't bother replying moe cause I already know what your going to say

" I'll forward that on to our mailing team"

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If you want the cards identified, then submit a correction request and we'll identify them for you - also, we'll flag your account to know to identify any future Mailbox submissions.

WoobieZarz said:

We have to thank @Moe@COMC for showing form and actually getting on here. Anyone from Australia Post ever jump on here, or Ebay, or PayPal and help us out with ANYTHING, good OR bad?!?!?!

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You're comparing a company that deals solely in cards, to companies that deal with millions of individual and different sales/packages?

@WoobieZarz

Do you like people lying to your Face on a consistent basis thinking your an idiot?

I sure don't

If you scroll back to the start of this thread, you'll see that I've been one of COMC's biggest advocates since day 1. You'll even see me recommending them on all those "I need ebay help" threads and on other forums.

HOWEVER, things have slowly declined and pushing the processing time out to two weeks just isn't acceptable. We sooked but stood by them when they ditched the old price format, then sooked further when they started doing less for the same amount (no data) as it was supposed to speed up processing times / help them cope as it expanded. I can live with a 20% increase in fees, I can live with a few extra days to process (5?) but two weeks is not good service for the new price they are offering. And to the comment of being OK to wait a month to process... You might be the minority there. If I waited 4 weeks I'd never get to ship anything home AND lose a sales strategy of getting items up to sell before the next panini release comes out. As collectors, most of us only are talking about the newest products and chasing that. If 4 weeks goes by, it's likely 2-3 new releases have occurred - and for that I was always happy to pay the $5 on the previous fed structure for overnight processing if required.

The new rate and fee structure is their way of saying to bend over and lube up because they see themselves as owning the market space for this service. But what seems to become more and more evident, is that comc are actually losing touch with collectors. It's been quite some time since I've seen them do anything innovative. This isn't just my opinion, but the comments I'm seeing by ozcard members, on blowout and on facebook.

Perceived value is a funny thing in the market place. People are happy to pay $800 for an iPhone instead of $300 for a Samsung Galaxy, are happy to purchase Versace bags over $30-40 equivalents. Why? Because they know they are getting quality in return. This seems to be the issue in this case as I don't feel what is being returned is up there are "top shelf" in quality.

I really hope they can get back to steering the ship in the right direction, because at present its almost no longer justifiable to keep using the mailbox, or selling on the site. They have a tools and the niche market position to be hugely popular, but one PR mess after another in the last 12 - 14 months has left us all mostly with a feeling disappointment.

I think COMC are saying, "this is how it is, if you don't like it....Bye!"

I'm ok with that.... I'm also happy they stopped trying to position themselves as the collectors best friend (listening to concerns, seeing things from collectors point of view, yadda,yadda,yadda)... COMC is no more collector friendly than ebay... The continual raising of prices and lowering of service in pretty much everything they do is testament to that. I think I have bought 3 cards off ebay in the last cpl of months (or longer), with the aussie dollar and my new self imposed rules to only use comc credit for the hobby, ebay has no value for me, and to whoever said it's not worth selling on COMC, you couldn't be more wrong. As an Aussie who deals in predominantly NFL cards, I think selling is great on COMC, even if they could do A LOT more to bring traffic to site.... compared to ebay or blowout (intl shipping, items not rec.), Here (for NFL, items it's not worth it) COMC has provided the only viable selling platform for me.... The thing with selling on the site is the fact it goes well for int'll sellers but it could be a whole lot better.... The thing that honestly concerns me about comc is the way it is run... Sometimes great "ideas" men who may also be good at getting a business off the ground are not great at running it longer term.... This worries me, I will not lie, I am concerned, but part of me wonders if COMC left themselves open for a takeover that may actually be a good thing, because comc's "make it up as you go" business model is unprofessional and doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the way they go about it. What saves them for me is the unique concept and the lack of competition (especially for intl sellers).... I do not have much faith in their management, and never really have.

If stay "classy" means, accepting the fact it is ok to be taken advantage of. Then, I'm as classless as they come.

I'm in the same position as @nichj99 , and I dare say a lot of us here have been some of the company's most LOYAL and most heavy users of their services.

From a personal standpoint, when things were great I was sending in excess of 200 -300 per shipment and I have been and still probably am one of the heaviest users of the mailbox service. But as many have pointed out, as the company continue to grow, they have become more out of touch with the hobby. And unfortunately the quality of service has only continue to deteriorate , whilst the fees continue to go up. Too often, are issues blamed on the seller or the postal services, who, for the most part, can't really defend themselves in these situations.

Even when they doubled the processing fee from 50 cents to $1 per card, we weren't happy at first but we eventually got on board. Why ? Because at $1 per card, it was for a faster and subsequently more efficient service. There was incentive for the customer.

Processing Fees: With this new fee proposal, a minimum $2 charge just to open the package with cards being processed at 50 cents/card AND a 2-week wait on top of that? What this means is that, you MUST buy multiple cards from the seller to remotely make this process worthwhile, all of which, lead to more fees. What's the point when some sellers can ship direct to you at a $5 - $7 base rate, 50 cents per extra card?

Bonus Cards: The fact that COMC complains about cards that get donated to them so they can raise money for charity is a joke. But hey, its the defenseless seller's fault for wanting to be generous. #firstworldproblems.

Let's face it, a lot of sellers don't even read messages or the notes written in 8pt font added on the PayPal receipt.

Supplies: I don't think anybody was complaining about the rule in place. More so, people are annoyed at the poor execution of which. As shown with images in this very thread, cards in banged up screwdown/one touch cases are often passed through as OK, but brand new supplies are often removed. Whilst my request to keep the cards in one touches are more often than not, followed through, the application of this rule is sketchy at best. It almost seems how the guy processing it feels on the day. If he feels good he will let it slide. This also brings me to my next point, it's pretty worrying when cards are continuously placed in top loaders too big for the cards, causing them to slide during transit. All of these issues could be avoided by either as @Dogs2194 suggested: (1). Separating mailbox from the main site. (2). Place the cards back into the cases after scanning.

Put it into perspective, I consider myself a frequent user of the service and during my most recent 100 uses of this service. Only 5 times did the package contain more than 4 cards. 2 of those times were the result of bonus cards, so essentially only 3 packages out of 100 had more than 4 cards.
Applying the new fee structure:
$2 minimum charge X 100 packages= $200
.50 X 115 singles= 57.5
Total= $257.5

That's just the initial processing fee, not include shipping and top loader charges. And to top it all off, the processing will be 3X slower.

So is it really more convenient?

What the new fee structure does is, it takes all incentive away from the customer. The only beneficiary is COMC.
They want to compete with eBay? I think they couldn't be further off the mark in terms of product range and now, even prices.

I love collecting but just because I enjoy the hobby does not mean I have to accept being ripped off and settle for a sub-par service. Lastly, yes it's great there is customer support on the forum, but I'm pretty sure hey won't be here if they weren't being paid to do so.

Before people go abandoning ships, did anyone receive an email from PayPal about changing their fees???

We recently emailed you important information about changes to our legal agreements, including some changes to our standard fees which may impact your business.

From 12 February 2015, the standard fee for domestic transactions will increase from 2.4% + $0.30 to 2.6% + $0.30. Visit our fees page to see all our fees.

We’re also introducing a lower tier of merchant rates, giving more businesses access to our discounted merchant pricing. If you receive more than $2,500 a month in PayPal transactions, we encourage you to apply for a discounted rate of 2.2% + $0.30. See our discounted merchant rates page for details.

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My point here, is people/businesses change their fees and structures. We all know Ebay & PayPal are joined at the hip and charge fees like no other! But we still use them, right?!?!!?

So of course COMC are the soul beneficiaries, they're a business who're out to MAKE MONEY!

I see the fee breakdowns, and yes, you have to ask yourself if it's still convenient. For me, the answer is yes. IF I can't find another way to get something off ebay.com/from an overseas seller who chooses not to post to Australia, then sure I'll use COMC. It's the price I have to pay in order to get something here.

Are COMC being paid to post here? - Legit question here, I don't know what goes on. Side topic, Panini post their blogs here, but don't respond to our posts!

ReggieEvansPC said:

You're comparing a company that deals solely in cards, to companies that deal with millions of individual and different sales/packages?

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Sounds like a very similar theme, yeah? One distributes envelopes/packages, the other receives, opens, and packages/sends out envelopes/packages.

Heck, even Australia Post adjust their fees! Won't be long and it'll cost $1 to post an envelope, heaven forbid that day comes!


At the end of the day, COMC offer a service that we require. We have that choice if we wish to use it or not. There ARE other alternatives out there, we CAN elect to stop using them!!

Moe@COMC said:

If you want the cards identified, then submit a correction request and we'll identify them for you - also, we'll flag your account to know to identify any future Mailbox submissions.

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Moe, trying to be constructive here.

Couldn't the cards that arrive in any sort of one touch be treated the same way?

They are processed as is when they arrive, scanned in whatever holder they arrive in. If the mailbox owner decides they want to sell it on COMC they can do as above and request a) a proper scan out of the holder and b) the details added.

That would be a win/win as I'm sure a vast majority of the mailbox are just being shipped off to the mailbox owners anyways and not resold on the site.

If you are concerned about postage costs then add a surcharge per one touch for shipping (similar to your graded card and top loader cost). I'm sure collectors would rather they receive their cards undamaged in the one touches they arrive to you in and not handled unnecessarily.

WoobieZarz said:

Before people go abandoning ships, did anyone receive an email from PayPal about changing their fees???



My point here, is people/businesses change their fees and structures. We all know Ebay & PayPal are joined at the hip and charge fees like no other! But we still use them, right?!?!!?

So of course COMC are the soul beneficiaries, they're a business who're out to MAKE MONEY!

I see the fee breakdowns, and yes, you have to ask yourself if it's still convenient. For me, the answer is yes. IF I can't find another way to get something off ebay.com/from an overseas seller who chooses not to post to Australia, then sure I'll use COMC. It's the price I have to pay in order to get something here.

Are COMC being paid to post here? - Legit question here, I don't know what goes on. Side topic, Panini post their blogs here, but don't respond to our posts!


Sounds like a very similar theme, yeah? One distributes envelopes/packages, the other receives, opens, and packages/sends out envelopes/packages.

Heck, even Australia Post adjust their fees! Won't be long and it'll cost $1 to post an envelope, heaven forbid that day comes!


At the end of the day, COMC offer a service that we require. We have that choice if we wish to use it or not. There ARE other alternatives out there, we CAN elect to stop using them!!

Click to expand...

I saw the PayPal thing, yes. Want to know why I'm not talking about it?

Because 0.3% is a lot easier to swallow or justify than a 100% increase for 3-4x longer processing.

If PayPal increased fees to 4.6% and removed the ability to send as "gift" I'm sure the same discussions would be occurring. Let's just compare apples to apples here, instead of apples to oranges.

Don't forget, they're not saying it WILL take two (2) weeks to process your shipments, it's UP TO two weeks. It's so they can cover themselves.
They obviously have been receiving shipments which have them inundated with processing scans and cataloguing the cards!

What happens at the local Video City shop when they're inundated with customers & returns? They put someone one! Same applies here. They're coving costs as they simply didnt see themselves expanding this way.

I honestly don't see the big deal in all of this.

Its $2.50aus just to point out not $2 will be paying
And we don't have a choice to use anybody else
Same way as where forced to buy panini

By them being more busier than they expected,you'd think they'd be making more $$$ that employing new people wouldn't be a issue considering all the extra cash there making
Considering when they pay workers in the usa $5 hr + tips

Pretty sure it is a minimum $2 not $2 +50 cents

I'm reading $0.50c per card, minimum of $2 per process batch.

3x cards = $2
4x cards = $2
5x cards = $2.50
6x cards = $3

?

Yes but with the way the $$ is it will be $2 US = $2.50 AUD