Sometime in early November, I spotted a nice vintage hockey card on COMC. The seller was not participating in the Fall sale that preceded the Black Friday sale, but the card in question popped up at a reasonable price ..just cheap enough that I might be able to earn COMC credit through challenges and buy the card for 'free'.
I've found enough high-grade vintage gems on the site that I've renewed my PSA membership and recovered my investment at least once. This card looked as clean as anything I'd bought before:
Bert Olmstead is a hockey Hall of Famer - though I must admit I'd never heard of him. My knowledge of the Original Six-era NHL is limited. This would be the oldest hockey card in my collection by about a decade. I was very excited about it. Then I suddenly became very nervous about it.
The seller of this card had a great selection of vintage cards at great prices and seemed to be selling a lot of them. I wasn't selling anything - and COMC challenges were not opening. It seemed to take me forever just to earn a couple dollars.
The seller of this card had a great selection of vintage cards at great prices and seemed to be selling a lot of them. I wasn't selling anything - and COMC challenges were not opening. It seemed to take me forever just to earn a couple dollars.
In reality, it took me a little over a week. One dollar at a time, I finally secured enough credit to purchase this card:
Earning a card on COMC is so rewarding-but stressful! As I've mentioned on this blog, I had over 500 cards to ship once the Black Friday sale was over. Two of them were SpongeBob stickers for my daughter, leaving me with an even 500 cards for myself. It should have...
Once the Black Friday sale was over and I had requested shipping on nearly a year's worth of purchases I felt relieved and excited, especially over the vintage cards I had purchased. Some were PSA-graded but others like the Olmstead were 'raw'. I couldn't wait to see them in-hand.
A short time later, before my order arrived, I noticed that my account had been credited.
Cool! What did i sell? I wondered.
Nothing.
Nothing?
I checked my e-mail for an explanation...it turns out COMC made some sort of 'inventory error' and could not send me the Bert Olmstead card. They refunded my money.
Screw the damn $8.50. I wanted that Olmstead! I worked hard for that card, putting myself through a roller-coaster of emotions that no one should ever feel over something so frivolous. I might have even lost sleep over it.
I asked COMC customer service for an explanation but was too angry to read their reply. It's only one card, out of hundreds(thousands?) I've purchased on the site. But it's going to haunt my COMC experience forever. Every time I see a great card I have to wonder am I going to actually get the card I pay for?
Have you ever purchased a card on COMC that was not shipped to you? If so, what was the card , and what was their excuse?
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Two years ago I had two missing cards from my post-Black Friday shipment, an auto and an insert. Apparently the cards had been checked out of their inventory by whoever was packaging the cards, but the cards never made in to my box of stuff. After many emails back and forth, I finally got my account credited, but not before I was accused of being some kind of blockhead who's incapable of opening a package without immediately misplacing the cards right after, when in all actuality their employee either put them in the wrong package... or stole them. The insert was something that I didn't really care about, but the autograph was a Ken Retzer Heritage Real One auto that I got for insanely low price, a price that I will never find it for on eBay, so while getting my money back was nice, I would have much rather had the autograph.
ReplyDeleteI know this isn't the same as your situation, but it's the closest experience that I have had to yours.
That's really messed up; it always bothers me when stores/sellers accuse the buyer of incompetence when it's their own fault 99% of the time. I suppose 1% of buyers could be lying but that's no reason to doubt those of us who are honestly due the cards we paid for.
DeleteA lot of major sports card sites like Beckett or 4 Sharp Corners will check off each card in the order before shipping. That way if they dont have what the customer paid for they can send an e-mail notification before sending the shipment. Perhaps COMC should try that.
Huh that's never happened to me once so far, I think I've probably picked up between 2,500 and 3,000 cards on the site over the years. Bummer, you had me drooling with that one!
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky. I just checked and I've purchased about that many cards myself -- 2,566 to be exact. And I've received 2,565 of them!
DeleteYeah that looks like a real gem. I wonder what happened to it.. my first thought was that coco had seller's remorse, but I dont think I would have been able to purchase it if that were the case.
My problem is I'd never know. My shipments usually consist of 50+ cards when I finally press "ship", and I can definitely say I'm too lazy to check the packing slip versus what arrived.
ReplyDeleteYou should do that every time, especially if your orders are fairly small. Read Jon's comment above, and dont let that happen to you.
DeleteAs for my Olmstead card, someone at COMC caught it while packing the box, so I knew I wasn't going to get it. That said, it still showed up on the packing slip without any 'x' mark, and it's still listed on my purchase history :/
The only time I lost out on a card I ordered was when I was new to the site and added it to the cart instead of buying it outright. I didn't know that until I actually bought it it was not actually mine.
ReplyDeleteThat is so frusrtating! It's happened to me, with a David Ortiz patch/auto card I really wanted. The seller listed it at such a low price I should have jumped on it. But instead I examined the back, looked for flaws, wondered why it was priced so low. And while I was doing my due diligence someone grabbed it. Lesson learned.
DeleteI've had that happen a few times on Sportlots and Just Commons but never COMC. I'm not a frequent purchaser on the site so they've come through with my orders.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can kind-of understand it happening with sites like that. I've had it happen at Beckett and 4SC. But COMC is set up so that inventory updates instantly, transferring cards from user to user rather than store to customer. Which makes me wonder how the heck that could have happened. (I probably should have read their e-mail, not that it would have mattered.)
DeleteI didn’t know things like this happened, but I would be upset too. You bought the card, it is their mistake. They forgot to add a 3x5 card to my order in 2016 but as soon as I emailed them they sent it out the next day.
ReplyDelete