Fast forward to 2020 and most of the cards there are overpriced and I actively try to avoid buying from that site if I can help it. eBay might've ramped up costs by taking more in eBay sales taxes, but that would still probably leave you with more than if you'd gone straight to COMC.
Fortunately for me I already have most of the cards that are on that site. Unfortunately for me when a card I do actually need pops up I feel like I have to acquire other cards along with it to justify the shipping costs.
Case in point is the first new Luis Torrens addition from a real card company I've had in months. A camo parallel of Torrens from 2018 Topps Series 2. These parallels are a pain because these are numbered to 25 copies. You'd think that in the age of eBay/comc/etc... it'd be a lot easier to find these but because of a combination of a lot of things (mainly mass production spreading these out so far that the chances of even more than three of them seeing the light of day is slim) that's not the case. In any event I've had my eye on this on COMC for months and I finally pulled the trigger on it.
It's numbered 13/25, and thank fuck because it saves me the moral quandary of wondering if I should send it to Gavin for his X-Mas card collection.
I've got a small Dark Magicial Girl collection going on and I'm a sucker for oddballs like these. As far as I can tell these were made in North America for a North American audience.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
I've fallen pretty far out of favor with COMC too. Plus needing site credit to make an offer has really annoys me. But like you, I don't often find great deals, and then shipping ends up being really high at times.
ReplyDeleteI just use paypal to directly buy shit when it's discounted enough is the way I roll now, since I can't be bothered with their credit system.
DeleteI think COMC works best if you wait for sales and are patient enough to build a stack of 100+ before requesting a shipment.
ReplyDeleteWhich in turn only works if you're more of a set collector and you value base cards and a significant number of parallels, inserts and whatnot. I vehemently am not.
DeleteWorks okay for team/theme collecting too but yeah I suspect everyone eventually outgrows it once their collections reach a certain point.
DeleteMy eBay and COMC purchases are way down ever since they both started charging sales tax. In fact, I need to spend my last few dollars on COMC, so I can finally request my shipment and be done with them.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I'm a huge Tupac fan. I love 90's hip hop in general. Artists like him, Biggie, Dre, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, The Fugees, Mos Def, De La Soul... man I could go on and on and on.
I think you mean early-to-mid 90's there. Since the mid-to-late 90's were a different landscape entirely.
DeleteVery true.
DeleteAs a set collector and a patient collector, COMC still works for me, but I definitely agree with the inflated prices, which have only become significantly worse over the years.
ReplyDeleteYou "youngsters" and your obsession with rappers. (I realize many rap fans are in their 40s now). That's one rabbit hole I'll never fall in.
COMC works for set collectors, not so much for player collectors.
DeleteI think you're depriving yourself of a lot of great music by completely shunning an entire genre Night Owl. You'd be surprised what you can enjoy if you get passed the notion that a genre isn't "for you". Though I say that as someone who literally listens to everything from every part of the world.
I've listened to it. You can't help it, it's been everywhere for 25 years. About 5 percent of it I can sort of enjoy, mostly early '90s stuff. But I need melody, that isn't borrowed from something else. And guitars. What happened to the freaking guitars?
Delete