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the problem with listing all of the prices for something that i most often come across is (for example a 1953 topps mickey mantle) a sharp one will sell for thousands, while one that is beat to crap will sell for 200-300.. and although you can enter poor condition along with the 300 entry, the condition is not factored into the median price ..its not an accurate representation of the value if you enter the beat up card along with the nice ones

switzr1,

That is true for the last-5 median price listing. However, if you click on an individual card's price you can see a chronological tracker of price trend (with a visual graph of the ups and downs and disparity between high and low prices...pretty cool), and you can also see bar graphs of all the listed prices (I tend to look to the middle of these orange bar graphs to see the range of what the "true median" price of a card is since the "last-5 median" can be so easily manipulated, and thus inaccurate). I also scan down the list of user postings to see if some of the orange bar prices on the ends are from users attempting manipulate the price of the card or bad/old data. Obviously when you look at this more detailed data, the price feature becomes much more reliable the more people report prices for that card. I think we all agree the "last 5" pricing is broken, the question is what is a good (and easy) way to fix it, to get more accruacy and worthwhileness (sic) from the prices to motivate the others to use it?

Bob

maybe instead of last 5 entries, it could be set as median of all entries over last 6 months or something along those lines?

You said it again. "intentionally doing just enough to matter." I hope you're not a repairman in any way. To many screws? ah! It's ok, just leave them out. It will still work. For a little bit. That is what is happening here.

Again you decide what matters and what does not? You picking prices that as you said in your opinion are right? But you then say you don't sell cards. So where is your knowledge of what a true price should be? Because you keep saying is round-about ways, you have no clue. But you're willing to do it. You just need some knowledge about it. 

Does picking the price you think is right, work when you go into a store? Do you think the price is to high or even to low? Do you take the time and force your opinion of what you think is the right price for the food in your cart and only pay what you think is right?? I think not. You pay what the price is and say nothing. If we could all do that. The store would close and this is why it's all messed up here. The store is closed and most don't want to use it. But it would be great if it was more accurate and up to date.

What should have been talked about here, has not even been touched on.  You're all independently doing what you feel is right and you're getting it wrong in doing so. Sorry, but it's true. 

1. Pricing should be a tested thing. If you can't pass the test, you should not be doing it. We have to pass a test to do other things here, so why not pricing?

2. all pricer's have to work together and check each other work and there should be a boss for all the pricer's or a vote when a problem or a question comes up.

3. If you're caught messing around 3 times. Your out and can never get back in. This alone will get right of the cons that we all see, doing the price fixing, for whatever purpose they have in mind to use the info for. I've already written and how easy it is to turn it to one's advantage. That has got to stop.

4. Pricing should be taken from some site but not other. We all know some are an auction and that will mess it up fast. We are seeing that now. An auction is not in any way a place to go for pricing. property is sold to the highest bidder and if someone really wants it. They will pay more than it's truly worth. Have you ever dropped out of an auction because the price went to high? Or maybe spent too much, just because you Had to have it? If you have, you know e-bay and other places like that are not realistic and there pricing should not be used. We have all seen the same card sell on e-bay for $2 and $20. Can't use either price.

Starting with these 4 simple rules should help in starting to get control of the problem with the pricing here.

Yes, other rules will be needed. Yes, some cards have prices that jump all over the place depending on what is making them hot or not. That will be something that will need to be worked out and talked about. But first, rules have to apply then people need to pass the test to do it and that group has to work together or it's all pointless and it's back to mayhem.

Another thing that is not a rule but would help, is the group works on 2 or 3 sets at a time. So everyone knows that set is done for the year and you all can move on to another set and jump around, because there are a LOT of cards here, lol. It will take a lot of time to get some control. But how cool it would be when we read people are turning on the pricing. Because it's now a stable and trustworthy thing. I would be willing to help. But there is no point in doing so when anyone can come in behind you and mess it all up. 

These are the thing that should be talked and done to fix the problem with the pricing. 

How hard would it be to make it happen? I don't know that falls under the programmers to make things happen and people will need to vote to make it happen. But something needs to be done or it needs to be dropped from the site. After all, most people don't even use it because it so messed up. So it either needs to be fixed or dropped. I think it would be great if it was fixed and rules give you the control to do it right. 

I think that's the longest reply I've ever seen, about a topic I don't care enough about to even bother reading it.

RJ Smith,

I am excited about everything you mentioned. I hope that your enthusiasm for making it right becomes contagious. I know I'm a new user, but if you build a board/panel of users who want to get the pricing right, I'd be more than happy contributing time to solving the problem and fixing it for good.

1. I agree there should be a test. The tests that currently grant authorities asks more about cropping the edges of a card, or selecting the right team of a card with two teams depicted, than it does about how a price should be added/depicted (which is probably why there is so much discussion about the subject).

2. Agree in principle on having a review/purge method for old/bad/corrupted price data. Not sure the best way to program/implement it while keeping with the "crowd-sourced" spirit of the site, and/or not hurting feelings of users who disagree with my/your methodolgies, etc.

3. Agreed.

4. I personally feel online auctions/online sales ARE the way to go. We are living in such a large and global market right now in 2019. The price that someone observes for the sale of a Bonds XRC at a shop in Buffalo, NY, will be different than the price at a shop in San Francisco, CA, and different than the price at a shop in Tokyo, Japan. However, the price on a world-famous online auction site is the same (sans shipping) for all those customers and shop owners, as well as customers with no shop in Albequorque, NM, Tulsa, OK, or Timbuktu. If we can connect our computer to a signal, we are instantly part of the same market. Using the Bonds XRC as the example du thread, if I've listed the cards sold in online auctions 50 times for $5-$7, but the card also rarely sells for $2 or $20, if we've loaded the site with historical data, or "righted" the price, a layman user (or VISITOR...more on this in a minute) can see the deviant prices for what they are and have a good general idea of the value of the card and what the marketplace is for it. A card never sells for more than what someone is willing to pay for it (unless they enter a typo bid, or are laundering money to the seller). And "what someone is willing to pay for it" is precisely the price. It is the simple economic principle of supply and demand. I'm guessing all of us on this site would eventually "drop out" of the auction for a Honus Wagner RC, but that certainly doesn't mean we don't all want it, and don't have prices we are willing to pay for it, but the "market" for the card may be more than any of us are willing/able to pay for it because the supply is so scarce, and the demand drives the price beyond our individual means. So, what appears to us to be too high for the price of a patch of cardboard, was not to the person who paid millions to acquire it. Still, if we record the sale and the next 5 or six sales after it, we start to identify both the "fair market value" and the "price trend" of the card. Bottom line is the value of the card is most realized and accurate when the entire global marketplace has a chance to purchase it.

I don't think we necessarily need a designated task force to attack one set at a time, in fact with many sets, there are only 6-10 cards where the deviant price above a "common" is even worth tracking. But for those 6-10 cards (and even the average cost of a common) accuracy is still critical to the relibility of the price tool on this site.

Regarding "visitors", much of this thread and these message boards is regarding members and their interactions, trades, and what the price tool means to them, and whether it has value to them. But let me assert this: the reason I came to the site as a casual "visitor" is because after several decades of buying cards and filing them in closets, I'd decided to pull them out, price them, and try to sell some online. I had spent countless hours building my own spreadsheet of what I had and how they were selling/priced on renowned online auction sites and online retail shops. This is what was going to arm me with the information I needed to come out guns blazing and clean out my collection.

What I did NOT want to happen is my kids stumble upon my collection after I kick the bucket and take it to Goodwill or sell the whole collection to a vendor for $65 (like in the anecdote told by another member previously in this thread). So, I put the burden on me to start pricing everything, list things online, and put the money (presumably more than $65) away for my kids to inherit as cash or other assets.

So it was a really great plan, and building the spreadsheet was a laborious beast, and after looking thorugh boxes and boxes and boxes of commons, I quickly grew tired of trying to price individual cards. So, I did what any old school collector would do and looked for a price guide (Beckett, Tuff Stuff, whatever). They simply don't exist any more, and I'm too cheap to pay for a subscription to Beckett Online per sport, etc. for what I remember to be garbage/bogus prices (Legal Disclaimer: Beckett prices are only "garbage/bogus" as a matter of my own opinion, and no way reflect the real or actual business practices, proprietary tools, published prices, or members of Beckett or any of its corporate affiliations).

As I was Googling my way through price guides of various sets, I somehow found myself coming back again and again to tradingcarddb.com. I eventually just bookmarked it and started to search/navigate through the site as I went through my colection. I quickly realized I didn't even need my spreadsheet, because I could just become a member (for free) and catalogue my entire collection here, and not only know what I have, but verify the cards through user uploaded pictures and instantly see the prices of cards, etc. It was (and is) AMAZING! I love this place.

So now, what I've unwittingly done is found myself becoming a hobbyist once again. Going through all my cards was already doing it to me, but now seeing other users with the same love/enthusiasm for collecting cards, resurfaced my joy in it. I can feel the change from someone who was looking to understand the value of my collection for sale, to someone who will be interested in completing nearly complete sets, helping other users complete their sets (especially if I only have to send you a bag of commons and receive nothing in return). Don't get me wrong I still want to downsize my collection, but I'd like to still have a box of cards around that make me happy (from my favorite teams/players, etc).

The moral of the story is, I was just a guy who was trying to Google price guides to save me time on pricing my entire collection for sale. Who knows if I will remain a dedicated and active member of the site for the next 10 years, but does it really matter? The point is: the pricing, the cataloguing, the scans, and browse/navigate/search capability is what made a casual "visitor" like me bookmark the site and register as a user. Maybe I'll become a mainstay from this point forward, maybe I won't, but the pricing is critical to the growth of this site. And the more registered users like me who come in, stumble in a bit, break a few things, but in the end, fix things, put in the work, upload the scans, update the prices are exactly what will take this site to the next level.

And that starts when EVERY member cares about the integrity of every function on this site, because accurate pricing is important to me today, but maximizing how I can fulfill your wantlist may be what I'm all about next year (after I finish cataloguing my ridiculous quantity of cards). And we know there are thousands of people out there with a closet/room full of cards that are about to get fed up with building their own spreadsheet. Let's be there for them, like you were here for me. Thanks.

ok i didnt realize i was doing anything wrong.. i was just trying to help.. i see the error of my ways.. i do want to help and undo my wrongs

Just finished up putting in all my Barry Sanders cards for a member.  

294 total cards    46 with out prices (I did not add any prices)   Price total was $358.00    Would sell them all for $100.00 That would drop the prices some.

I was checking out the prices to see how they faired.    Some dates added were over 5 years a lot with no dates.  Some had 3 or 4 high prices with one low price.  Most was running in a range that I though was fair.    Some of the Pro Set at $1.25 I though was high.

It is hard for me to believe the prices here will be very accurate.  Price guides are Beckett's business and we all know what we think about it.  It would just take way to much time to keep up on 11 million diff card prices.

...but not if the site had 11 million users.

budler wrote:

It would just take way to much time to keep up on 11 million diff card prices.