Shortboxed vs Merchcast
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shortboxed
This app is a trusted marketplace and auction platform for buying and selling comic books. It offers tools like a price guide and portfolio manager to facilitate easy, safe, and fun transactions within a community of collectors.
- Buy and sell raw or graded comic books
- Quick and easy listing submissions
- Customer support handled by the platform
- Fair market value data and sales history
- Portfolio manager for inventory and collection
- Free price guide with extensive sales data
- Community content, guides, and giveaways
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What is Shortboxed? Shortboxed is the most trusted marketplace and auction platform to buy and sell comic books. In addition to a thriving community with tens of thousands of buyers and sellers, there are also free tools and resources such as a price guide, portfolio manager, extensive data, and quality content to make buying and selling easy, safe, and fun. How does buying and selling work? For the marketplace, vetted dealers, comic shop owners, and collectors list their comic books for sale on Shortboxed while buyers browse and discover tens of thousands of comic books, both graded and ungraded. When someone buys a book, the seller receives an order confirmation with a pre-paid shipping label. Sellers get paid once the book is confirmed delivered. Our seller fee is a flat 10% - no hidden fees or shenanigans. Super simple! For event style auctions, approved sellers send in their books to Shortboxed before an auction is curated. Once the auction event is live, buyers can bid on items until the closing time. Once an auction event ends, winners will receive an invoice to pay before receiving their items. Shortboxed Features Sell raw or graded comic books - you can submit raw or graded comic books for sale on Shortboxed, with all raw books verified by Shortboxed before being delivered to the buyer. Buy and sell with confidence! Quick and easy submissions - take a couple pics, add a price and any additional info as needed, and that’s it. We take care of the rest, including exposure to tens of thousands of potential buyers across the U.S., Canada and U.K. We handle customer support - have an issue with an order? Our attentive team will take care of any questions or order issues. No more endless back and forth between buyers and sellers - we take care of everything so you don’t have to. Fair Market Value data - make informed buying decisions with our fair market value range, sales history, and indicators that show you if a book is a good deal. Portfolio Manager - manage your For Sale inventory and your Personal Collection all in one place with the Portfolio Manager. Organize your collection and track the value of your Portfolio for free. Price Guide - look up recent sales history with our free price guide featuring over one million recent comic book sales across multiple platforms. Did we mention it’s free? Amazing content - check the app often for new content from the community, how-to guides, collector spotlights, free giveaways, newsletters, and more! Ready to buy and sell? Please read the FAQ in-app or on Shortboxed.com for a complete list of all the buying and selling policies. Download Shortboxed today and connect with our community on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @shortboxed and on TikTok @shortboxedcomics.
Merchcast
This app offers a rapid point-of-sale system for touring musicians, integrating seamlessly with Square for secure payment processing. It simplifies merchandise sales at concerts and events.
- Lightning fast point of sale
- Touring musician focused
- Square payment processing
- Easy merchandise sales
- Concert and event ready
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Merchcast provides a lightning fast point of sale tool for touring musicians, powered by Square payment processing.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Shortboxed at 860 against Merchcast's 3. Merchcast's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and review sentiment (100% vs 89%). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Merchcast holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shortboxed has 860 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 89% of Shortboxed's written reviews are positive against 100% of Merchcast's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shortboxed | Merchcast |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (860 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 89.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 860 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 58 MB | 146 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Shortboxed LLC | Eventcast Inc. (NE) |
Customer experience
Shortboxed
Merchcast
Bugs and requests
Shortboxed
Reported bugs
2 issues- Network issues causing failed uploads
- Glitches with payment processing
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to ask sellers questions
- Separate page to view auctions bid on
- Cheaper shipping options
- Feedback/community section
Merchcast
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Shortboxed
No in-app purchases
Merchcast
No in-app purchases
