We grew frustrated with the old way of buying and selling - scammers, expensive buyer’s premiums and commission fees, antiquated websites, comic cons without comics - the list goes on. We believe there's a better way. So we created a modern, mobile marketplace featuring a curated collection of third-party authenticated comic books.
Stop wasting time with antiquated websites or comic cons that aren’t about comics. Shortboxed is designed for the modern collector - fast and intuitive, with a curated marketplace of high-quality listings.
Scammers not welcome. We only feature books from trusted dealer partners and qualified sellers, with safeguards in place to protect both buyers and sellers.
More than just a marketplace. Aside from daily drops and special offers, you’ll discover exclusive content, community updates, industry news, live events and more.
Shortboxed is the premier app to discover, buy and sell collectible comic books. We grew frustrated with the old way of buying and selling - scammers, expensive buyer’s premiums and commission fees, antiquated websites, comic cons without comics - the list goes on. We believe there's a better way. Shortboxed is a modern, mobile marketplace featuring a curated collection of third-party authenticated comic books from dealers and collectors all over the U.S.A.
Sellers, including dealers, comic shop owners, and individual collectors, list their items for sale on Shortboxed, while buyers browse and discover thousands of third-party graded comic books. When a user buys a book, the seller confirms if the book is available, then the order gets processed and the seller receives a pre-paid shipping label to ship the book out. Sellers get paid once the book is confirmed delivered.
Right now, Shortboxed is only available in the United States. We will be expanding internationally in the future, with Canada being the first expansion outside of the United States. We do not have a timetable set, however, but we’re working on it!
For general inquiries and support: [email protected]
For questions regarding seller accounts and seller applications: [email protected]
For questions regarding confirmed orders: [email protected]
Email [email protected] and we’ll take care of it for you.
Browse items, tap the price button and confirm to add to cart. When you’re ready to check out, tap the cart icon in the top right corner to enter your contact information, select a payment method and submit your order.
Upon checkout, we only authorize the payment - you are not yet charged for the sale. Once the payment is authorized, Shortboxed will automatically and instantly notify the seller to confirm if the book is currently available. If the book is confirmed available, only then do we complete the payment and you will receive an order confirmation via email. If paying by check, your book will ship after the payment clears, which can take up to 5-7 days depending on your bank. We regularly check with our sellers to make sure the listings are as up to date as possible, but if in the rare case the book is no longer available, we will notify you immediately and remove the book from the Shop and you will not be charged.
Buyers can submit offers on all books listed on Shortboxed by clicking the “Make an Offer” link next to the buy button. When an offer is submitted, you will see a notification popup telling you that it was submitted as well as receive an email confirming your offer submission. If the offer is too low or not higher than the current high offer, your offer will automatically be declined.
Once the offer is accepted, declined or countered by the seller, you will be informed via email. If the offer is accepted, you will receive a promo code to complete the purchase at the new price. The promo code must be used within 48 hours, or the offer will expire. You can also check your offer status and find your promo code under “Offers” within your profile.
The offer promo code is not a guarantee to purchase the book, nor is it a guarantee that the book will still be available, as someone else can submit a higher offer or purchase the book before you check out with the promo code.
Please do not submit an offer if you do not intend to purchase the book if it is accepted. If you receive an accepted offer and you do not check out before it expires after 48 hours, your account will not be able to submit any new offers for 72 hours after it expires. You will still be able to complete purchases for full asking price.
No. You only pay for the item, shipping, and sales tax, if applicable. We do not charge a buyer’s premium or any additional payment processing fees.
Shipping is a flat $15 for one graded book, and each additional book thereafter is an extra $5. We only ship within the United States via USPS Priority Mail with Signature Confirmation. We take great pride in ensuring sellers pack books safely.
Orders over $2,500 require Registered Mail with Signature Confirmation. We absorb the extra cost of these services ourselves - there is no additional cost to the buyer above the standard shipping rate.
In light of a recent Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., and based on applicable state tax laws, Shortboxed collects and remits sales tax on orders of taxable items shipped to customers in certain states.
We currently collect sales or use tax (collectively “Sales Tax”) on purchases of taxable items from buyers located in California (CA) and Washington (WA), where we have a legal obligation to collect Sales Tax for such purchases. In these states, we will remit the tax collected from buyers to the appropriate taxing authority. To help provide a total cost inclusive of tax, we will estimate the applicable Sales Tax based on the delivery address entered at checkout. The estimated tax amount displayed may be updated when your order is finalized and completed.
All sales are subject to applicable state and local taxes unless a properly completed state issued resale certificate is physically on file with Shortboxed prior to a purchase. If you have an applicable certificate please email [email protected] with a copy of your valid certificate before making a purchase.
Most orders are confirmed within 24 hours, and ship out within 72 hours. Most packages shipped via USPS Priority arrive within 2-3 days. While most orders are shipping on-time, due to COVID-19 and government restrictions, your order may experience some unforeseen shipping and fulfillment delays. We appreciate your patience.
We accept all major credit or debit cards, PayPal, or checks (personal checks, money orders or cashier’s checks). Credit card, debit card, and account-funded payments via PayPal are accepted for all purchase transactions up to $2,499. For PayPal payments, your shipping address must match your PayPal address. If it does not match, please update your PayPal address before checking out. Checks (personal checks, money orders or cashier’s checks) are required for any purchases $2,500 and above. You can also pay by check for purchases under $2,500. Your book will ship after payment clears.
Once an order is placed, we automatically send an order confirmation to the seller, so orders cannot be canceled once placed.
Due to the certified and guaranteed nature, all sales are final on third-party graded books by CGC or CBCS.
If a book is delivered with a cracked case and was not disclosed in the product listing, we will work with you to offer a partial refund to cover the cost of a reholder and round-trip shipping to CGC or CBCS.
We work with our sellers to ensure all items are packaged well and arrive safely, but in the very rare case that your package arrives damaged from USPS, send an email to [email protected] and notify us of the issue as soon as possible. You will need to take the entire order (all contents and all original packing material) to your local U.S. Post Office to file a claim. The U.S. Post Office will send the claim to us for processing. Do not repack and do not mail the damaged items back to us. This will void the U.S. Post Office insurance and we will not be able to give you a refund.
To ensure a quality buying experience for users with reliable and trustworthy service, we only allow a limited group of sellers. We encourage you to request to become a seller on Shortboxed by tapping on the Sell icon on the app and filling out the application. We’ll notify you as soon as your request has been approved.
We approve seller applications on a rolling basis, and after you submit your seller application, you can expect to hear back within 48 hours. We occasionally follow up to request additional information if needed.
Shortboxed actively protects our buyers and sellers. In order to do so, federal and state laws require us to obtain each seller’s full name and home address. This information will only need to be entered once on the application and should be entered as it appears on a government issued identification, such as a driver’s license or passport.
All personal information on Shortboxed is secure and only used for order processing and account related matters.
There are multiple factors involved with a rejected seller application. It could be poor feedback, lack of sales history or referrals or in most cases, we’ve simply reached our limit for sellers at the moment.
We limit the number of sellers to ensure a high quality experience for users, while ensuring a healthy amount of books are regularly being listed. If we reach a critical mass and can’t support the current number of sellers, we will close new applications.
Users may not share seller accounts. Users who are found to be sharing seller accounts may be suspended from selling.
Each user is only allowed to create one seller account. Users who are found to have created more than one seller account may be suspended from selling.
The seller fee on sold items is 10% of the product sold price. There are no listing fees and you only pay the fee when a book sells.
All credit card processing and PayPal fees are absorbed by Shortboxed in the commission fee; these fees are not passed onto you.
After your account is approved for selling, you can tap the Sell icon to list your items. You will be asked to take a photo of the label, front of the book, back of the book, and enter a price then submit for approval. Submissions are typically approved within 24 hours.
$50
No, we currently only list third-party graded comics from CGC or CBCS.
Photos must be best effort; ensure the book is aligned with the brackets in the photo window on the submission screen. They must be clear, non-blurry, well-lit. No extreme angles or reflections. Details in the photo must be very clear, with the label text sharp and legible, and major defects visible. Do not take photos in dark rooms or with “warm” (yellow tint) lighting; natural indirect lighting provides the best results in the absence of studio lighting, such as a room with sunlight but out of the direct light. Take the photo on a plain white or light-colored background, such as a table; avoid patterns or colored backdrops. We recommend using a plain white poster board as the backdrop, if possible. Do not hold the book in your hand - lay it flat or stand it upright. Do not crop or edit the photos. Submit them as-is, unedited.
The most common reasons for a rejected submission are either the book has a fair market value below $50 or the photos are low quality:
Tap the Sell icon to see your current listings and tap the pencil icon to edit the price, or the trash icon to delete the book and remove it from the marketplace. If you delete a book on accident, you will have to resubmit it for approval.
If you put your book up for auction with any auction house, the item must be removed from Shortboxed. Listing books for sale that are up for auction violates auction house policies as well. This only applies to books that are being sold in an auction format, not direct listings.
When a user submits an offer on your book, you will receive an email notification to either accept, decline or send a counter-offer. Once an offer or counter-offer is accepted, the buyer will have 48 hours to complete the purchase, or the offer will expire.
You can also accept, decline and send counter-offers directly within the app. Just tap on the Sell icon and all your existing offers will be listed at the top. To accept, tap the green check icon, to decline tap the red cross-out icon, and to send a counter-offer, tap the “Counter” button.
Accepting an offer does not mean the book is sold, it simply means the user has 48 hours to check out. You may also receive other offers after already accepting an offer.
Congratulations! When someone buys one of your books, you will receive an email to confirm if the book is available or unavailable/no longer for sale. To ensure the best possible experience for users, we require you to confirm the book’s availability within 24 hours of receiving the order confirmation, or the sale will be canceled. Once you confirm, the buyer’s payment gets charged and you will receive a pre-paid shipping label via email. All order confirmations come from [email protected], so please add it to your approved contacts list or check your spam folder and mark it not spam if it gets sent there.
Once you receive the prepaid shipping label via email, follow the shipping best practices below and drop it off with USPS within 3 business days (72 hours) of the order being placed. All orders are shipped via USPS Priority Mail with Signature Confirmation. Orders over $2,500 are shipped via USPS Registered Mail with Signature Confirmation and need to be dropped off with a clerk at your local USPS office.
If a book you sold gets cracked during shipping as a result of poor packing, we work with the buyer to offer them a partial refund to cover the cost of a reholder plus round-trip shipping to CGC or CBCS. We will take this partial refund out of your payment for the item. Please refer to the shipping best practices above to ensure all books get shipped and arrive safely without any damage.
Shortboxed is not responsible for packages that get lost in the mail or otherwise go missing once you have shipped it out. This is why every order gets shipped with Signature Confirmation, to protect both buyers and sellers.
To reduce the chance of a package getting lost or stolen, we recommend dropping off packages with a mail clerk at your local USPS office, instead of leaving it on your porch or in a mail room to be picked up, where it can be stolen (it does happen quite frequently). We also recommend that you have your own collectibles insurance to cover losses in those rare instances. If a book gets lost in the mail and goes undelivered, Shortboxed is not responsible for the loss. You can open a claim with USPS or your collectibles insurance provider.
Upon successful delivery confirmation, we will release the funds to you, less a 10% seller fee. You can choose to be paid via PayPal or check. Check payments will be sent out within 7-10 days of delivery confirmation. There are no fees charged to be paid via check. PayPal payments can be sent immediately, minus a 2.9% PayPal transfer fee. We send all payments via check by default, so please inform us if you would prefer to be paid via PayPal.
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