COMC horror story (Dean's Cards included)

[benlee66]

(originally posted on COMC's facebook page)

I made a great buy on COMC!

1951 Bowman #165
Ted Williams [GOOD] [edit] [share]
Item: 18806193
N/A $8.25 8/3/2015 1:23:08 AM

COMC bought it back from me.

1951 Bowman #165
Ted Williams [GOOD] [edit] [share]
Item: 18806193

-Sold 8/13/2015 3:23:55 PM for $8.25 Bought for $8.25

Also bought a great Rocky Bridges card for $11.25:

http://www.comc.com/…/Rocky_Bridg…/1...IEWED/DCR/FAIR

It was actually a Stan Musial that was listed incorrectly. Follow the link to see the card. COMC bought it out of my inventory even thought it was listed as not for sale, and gave me store credit when I paid with Paypal (COMC store credit is worth about $.40 on the dollar). They could have at least made me an offer or contacted me before removing the card.

1953 Bowman Black and White #32
Rocky Bridges [FAIR] [edit] [share]
Item: 18660202

-Sold 8/13/2015 3:23:14 PM for $11.25 Bought for $11.25

My experience in retail has always been if the store makes a mistake, it's on them. If it's priced wrong on the retail floor, there are no do-overs. I could have bought those cards on ebay for $50-75 for the pair, considering the poor condition. I can't understand COMC's actions and would love to see where in their terms of service this is allowed. I've spent $125 cash at COMC in the last two months.

END FACEBOOK POST

The email help was worthless. Just went in circles. Either they can't say Dean's Cards is too big a customer to cross, or they didn't understand the issue. It's really soured me on the site. My favorite thing about COMC is treasure hunting. I've saved about 100 other mislisted Dean's Cards.

[KCRfan1]

People make mistakes. An OBVIOUS mistake was made in the listing, and consumers expect the item to be " given " to them. ? You knew it was a mistake when you bought it and your crying foul? Get over it.

[ALR-bishop]

Are you looking for sympathy and understanding, or retribution and justice ?

[mrmopar]

Not to defend this buyer, as I tend to agree that mistakes of this nature shouldn't be treated the same as say mistakenly placing a $5 card in a quarter box. Remember the Ryan rookie story where the kid bought it in a shop for $12 instead of $1200?

However, doesn't the seller have to "approve" the listings first? I have never sold on COMC, but it seems like COMC would need to limit their liability somehow, unless they can simply repurchase anything that you bought without asking or telling you (which it appears may be the case).

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

People make mistakes. An OBVIOUS mistake was made in the listing, and consumers expect the item to be " given " to them. ? You knew it was a mistake when you bought it and your crying foul? Get over it.

I agree with this assessment, but do feel he should have been offered a refund through paypal.

I do not feel people who try to take advantage of obvious mistakes should be rewarded. If something is marked incorrectly in a store or even an advertisement they can print a retraction or change the price to the correct one.

[swarmee]

The COMC representative responded back in a thread on blowoutforums that the cards were not actually for sale. It was due to a glitch in their software that the cards were loaded in the first place. I think it was old stock that was his reasoning.
I wouldn't call this a horror story. Yes, they would have been great flips, but you weren't really out anything. The guys dealing with damaged cards that couldn't get them covered by insurance have bigger problems to deal with.

I bought a 1933 Goudey that the pictures showed a wrong back, so I bought it and had it inspected. When they provided new scans showing that it was the correct back and the image was inserted improperly, I alerted their customer service that their images were showing up inaccurately. They patched the software and that has abated as of now. But I bought they card knowing it could be inaccurate, so I don't feel I'm out anything.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by benlee66

COMC bought it out of my inventory even thought it was listed as not for sale, and gave me store credit when I paid with Paypal (COMC store credit is worth about $.40 on the dollar). They could have at least made me an offer or contacted me before removing the card.

There is a lot of talk about the OP thinking he was trying to get a good deal or not, but the problem I see is in this part of the post.

To cash out on COMC it costs 20% of the cash out amount along with $1 per transaction when it goes to paypal. So if the OP put money in just to buy the card and then COMC refunded it as store credit when doing the reversal the OP could be out money if he tries to cash out.

If I was the OP I would try and get the cash out as a refund. The way the transaction went down it may not automatically allow this because of this rule on the COMC site under the refunds rule:

Sellers: We will review your account. If you used your purchased store credit and then earned it back from selling items, you will still be subject to the 20% Cash-Out Fee

But since this was an error on COMC's side then they should allow the full refund.