General Forum

I tell my daughter that if I die and she wants to get rid of my collection shoot for 20% of  what I show in my spreadsheet totals.  I’m sure that’s probably high but it gives her a number to play with if someone wants to haul all of this away.

Does not some one here have a saying  " If the value of my collection doubles It will be only worth half what I paid for it"

I understand why people want the pricing and why they think it is not accrue.    It gives me a feeling what I have into my collection.   (way to much)      At this time very few of my collection is priced.  Doing a little at a time. (what I paid for them)

From what I gather from this thread, there are many opinions on the pricing on this site, ranging from one extreme to the other. As such, here is what I would propose to Admin is there is a feeling that the pricing on this site needs to be changed:

1) The option to toggle prices on and off, much as you can several other options on your profile. That way, if you don't want to see it, you don't have to, and if you change your mind one way or another it's an easy fix. However, as someone mentioned, just because not everyone likes it doesn't mean it needs to get thrown out.

2) I still like the system of having some sort of approval for prices submitted that constitute a huge jump from the previous median. Perhaps said jump is justified due to changing markets (thinking of the Mark Jackson Hoops card, as well as other error cards that just came out at certain times [Jeter/Mantle/Bush, 2007 Topps, anyone?]) and maybe it's just someone putting a price in with no bearing whatsoever. An approval process would be helpful, be that a committee of members where two committee members must give approval, or whatever.

3) Old prices are removed. Instead of a time frame, which could lead to many cards losing prices all together, as someone said, wouldn't it make more sense to keep the last, say, 10 most recent prices within a larger time frame (maybe two years)? If you drop prices older than six months and no one updates the price of said card for six months, the pricing is gone, which doesn't really do any good.

Again, these are just my ideas. I do not use the pricing on the site; I rarely use pricing at all. I use Jason pricing, which means that if I have a card you need that I don't, you're gonna get it from me for a reasonable replacement - something I need. That's pretty much how that goes for me.

And as a final note, someone earlier mentioned that prices are more than just "what someone is willing to pay for an item". I must say, I disagree. That is exactly what a price is - the amount that someone is willing to pay for said item. It is true that different people are willing to pay more for different cards/collectibles due to circumstances outside of any other control. But that's why Beckett's are called price guides, not price rules; it all changes from person to person and situation to situation.

And that's all I have to say about that

I don't use the pricing on this site to determine the value of my collection.  No offense to anyone on the site, but the fact that anyone can just submit a price and then it be taken as accurate doesn't give me any reason to believe the prices.  I like to see the sites "Value" of my collection, but IF I want prices, I will use Beckett.  I don't collect for the value of my collection, I collect because I love the hobby and the subjects I on the cards.  I collect my favorite players and teams or people and superheroes.  

Just to update Jason’s comment a little bit you can remove pricing from your collections through a profile edit. Not exactly sure what that does but it is there lol.

Also, the site currently uses that the 5 entries to determine the median price everyone sees. Prices without dates get pushed to the bottom of the list so if there are 5 entries with dates the undated ones don’t get used anyway.

i also agree with the price someone pays determines the so called value. That’s one reason we use a median value which places less value on the high and low prices per se.

When I first started trading a couple of years ago, I used the prices to match deals. There were a few trades where in retrospect I overpaid for what I received. Then I transitioned to matching card-for-card in trades based on needs, but it was becoming more of a star-for-common deal and my Biggio and Bagwell collection lagged behind because they weren't being made available for my team sets. But that was more my doing. So probably this past year I've started to employ more of a star-for-star, common-for-common approach, and the price rarely comes up. If anything I bring up value (not necessarily price) when discussing what it would take to trade for certain player's cards. 

I have a pretty good feel for value when trading through here. However, if I am unsre if the trade will be balanced I'll use SportLots to try and gauge fair value. Seeing that I have tried trading for higher value cards through here that seems to work. It gives a real-world view what what offering prices are for older or more limited inserts. It helped in a recent trade where I thought it was too unbalanced in the other parties favor, I countered to what I thought was fair. I overcompensated and after doing the comparision we both came to a happy medium and great trade was had.

#1. There are to many traders on TCDB that offer trades with value = value. I don't see it that way either [within extenuating circumstances], of course. If I've been offered a trade and I need the cards, the value really doesn't factor in. I usually don't make offers, I let them come to me. It's kinda like supply and demand.

#2. As I originally stated, There could be an update to the "UPDATE PRICING" page. I don't think it should be eliminated but for a better word, enhanced.

#3. I still feel a modified Sportlots system would work here.

I am more about personal value than any price listed.  I do like star for star as the Commish says.  I also like similar eras.  I was recently offered a trade where I would receive 11 1995 Studio Platinum cards (all stars) for about 35 commons.  But these commons ranged from the 1950s to the early 80s.  I didn't even look at a price guide before I declined.  Even if the $ value could somehow have been said to be equal, the trade was not appealing to me.

 I always tell my sons that "when I die",     not "if I die".