General Forum

TCDB members are always thinking. I read all the threads. If you look at the Update Pricing pages, I think we could get a bit fancier, adding more columns and allowing more member input/ column/card. I also think a Pricing Monitor Committee would act as a great safeguard from "pricing crazyness". All good ideas, all New Feature Material.

There's too much incentive with self reporting to list high prices for items an individual is looking to move or low prices for items they're looking to pick up to ever believe the pricing data here will be accurate.  The only way pricing will ever be mostly accurate is to scrape the data from eBay/COMC/Beckett Marketplace/Sportslots completed sales, similar to the way VCP or PSA Auction Prices works.  That would be an insane amount of data to manage for a single field associated with every card in the database that's constantly in flux and even those sites have pricing manipulated by eBay phantom sales that are never paid for.

Research of recent sales, common sense, and a number you're comfortable paying/receiving on the day you're buying or selling should be the only price guide that matters.  With the exception of ballparking an insurance amount while holding in your collection, pricing really only matters on those two days.

Might it be simpler to set up a way of flagging a price a member questions and that kicks it over into a review status that could be reviewed by a committee?

That has never been done before, has it?

On a serious note, the problem I have is that some users here actually use the pricing on TCDB to value trades.  My experince is that most prices here are not accurate, many having only a sample of one.

Maybe the eaiest way would be Instead of showing the price. You have a click here button and it takes you to a page that shows all the prices with date added and who priced it.    Maybe even where you get the price from.  Then everyone can evalluarate the date for themself.  It all should be some where on the database.  Just do not know what it would take to do it.  

using ebay to get prices for the site is nutty. First you would have to input every price for a card and never miss any listing. Then it is an auction. Say you have someone that needs that card to complete his set, he will bid will over the true price of the card just to get his hands on it. To complete his set. Then you take that price and input it here? So that one person that really wanted that card and was willing to go over the true price to get it, is now influencing the price here. That is the same effect as if everyone here priced the cards as to how they feel it is worth to them. I have a common Topps card it's worth 10 cents. But my father is in the background and it is a priceless card to me. Do I jack up the price? No. What someone is willing to pay one time is not a true guide of what it is worth.  

Personally, I would rather see the pricing feature removed.  If someone wants to track his own pricing tto keep updated on the going rates, then he can use the comments field in doing a detailed add or editting his collection.  Again, when using the pricing here to valuate trades is absolutely wrong as the prices entered are not from verifiable sources and have too many variables - auction, part of a lot, LCS, graded vs ungraded, condition sensitive, etc.

Well, Are they too high? or too low? Generally speaking.

I would venture to say generally too high.  I don't value what I have available for trade anywhere near what the pricing here would lead one to believe.  I would feel like a thief if I sold my entire FS/T collection for half what the site pricing says it's worth.

I know a few of us here got used to tracking values when we started using The Card Collector program or something similar. For some of us it’s a fun tool to track the value of our collection and use as a reference for a rough idea on a value of a card we are looking at. There are several features on this site that I don’t use or care about, but I know others enjoy them. I don’t think they should be removed just because it’s not my thing.