COMC Walkthroughs - How to make an offer and avoid the 20% cash out fee

I'm hoping this will be the first in a bunch of helpful COMC posts.  Some will talk about how to sell, some about how to buy, some about whatever - but all will aim at making the site a little more friendly for everyone!

This first post is from the non-COMC user buyer side.  A lot of people are initially hesitant to buy on the site because they think prices are too high, so people like me say "Make an offer!"

So they say, "But what about the rest of my money?  Or what if they reject my offer?  Then my money is stuck on the site unless I pay a 20% cash out fee."

To which I say, "Nope, that is INCORRECT!"

Because here's how you make an offer and get your 100% of your money back (minus any cards you bought obviously):

Step 1: Make an account

First you'll need to register for an account if you don't already have one.  Do so by clicking the register button in the top right of the home screen:

The free account screen looks something like this.  Email, username, password...all easy:

Step 2: Add store credit

Next you need to add store credit.  There are a few places to go to do this, but I think the simplest is to scroll down to the bottom of that front page and click "add store credit."  I pointed it out here:

COMC gives you a few options - paypal, mail, or in person.  This walkthrough is for paypal, but really it'd work for any of the three:

Here's your final credit adding page, where you can add what you want.  As I mention in the picture, you can go in increments of $10 if you do custom amount.  And I usually uncheck the box at the bottom so I don't get emails.  But once you finish this page you should have some credit to play with!

Step Three: Making an offer

Here's the fun part, finding cards to buy.  Find what you like and click on it, and you'll get to a screen like this.  Add to cart adds it so you can buy it later and buy now walks you through an immediate purchase.  Make an offer is the third option, and it lets you offer less than 100% which is cool!  Click that:

You will get to the offer screen, and here's where you make your offer.  You can offer up to 50% off at max - so you can't say $1 on a $5 card...the site won't let you.  Many sellers will also often have their own offers set up, and COMC will always tell you the lowest a seller can go if your offer price doesn't work with a little popup.  But anyways, offer what you'd like and if it's in the acceptable range, you're good to go!

Step Four: Requesting a Refund (Getting the remainder of your money back, or all of it if the seller declines your offer)

So we made an offer!  Sometimes it will accept automatically if the seller has that set, while other times you have to wait for them to make up their mind.  But eventually a decision is made, and you've got cash left over.  If you don't want to spend it on COMC, here's how you get it back!

Go back to that home screen when you're logged in, and click on your username in the top right.  A drop down menu appears, and click on the dashboard word to go to your dashboard:

On your dashboard, look on the left side and you will see "request refund" at the bottom of the first set of topics.  Click that:

That brings you to this screen - you want to click the top option:

And here's the great part!  As it says here for "buyers only," if you added the credit in the last 30 days, you can get 100% of it back without a fee.  So click the bar at the bottom (mine says "No store credit purchased recently" but yours will be green with a dollar amount in it) and COMC will then walk you through a page or two to get the money back to you, without any charge, as long as it's within 30 days of your credit purchase:

So in the end you get your card (hopefully) and the remainder of your money back without losing any to cash out fees.  GOOD TIMES!

And so ends my first COMC walkthrough.  If it was helpful, let me know, if you have questions, let me know, and most importantly if there are other topics you'd like to hear about, DEFINITELY let me know!  I'll try to cover at least one a month as I think of them, and I'd love to hear about walkthroughs people might want for those less familiar with the site!