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Hi,

I have a question. I noticed on the 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes section someone, while entering the price of some of the cards entered it 6 times for card #35 and it was real low compared to the price in the magazine we are not supposed to quote. Why would they do that? now when you enter the right price it will not change from the amount entered by this person. This doesn't seem right. There are other cards in this section that the price is entered more than once and all on the same date.

Teresa

I am guessing the person who entered the price has 6 copies of the same card and they think that adding a price for each one is neccessary b/c they want to sell each of them for that price. They are adding the price each time they add the card OR for each card they added. I've seen this a bunch and I think it is ridiculous! It's even worse when they add no other info besides a price. It messed a lot of Pricing up when TCDB removed the "Book Price" option for adding values/prices. I think we should get Admin to add a "Sell Price" option for those looking to sell a card for that price. "Auction" and "Retail" are not enough options for everything people want to do through this site. For every price I add on TCDB, it is the Book Value. That is for my notes really, but TCDB doesn't separate personal values from viewable prices. To me, Auction prices would be what it will or has sold for, and Retail prices would be what a store would want for it or the actual BV. Cards generally sell for 25-50% of BV unless it's pretty rare or highly sought-after. I generally won't pay more than a third of BV for a card, but that goes way up for hard-to-find cards.

I didn't even think that maybe they had more than one card. Doesn't the site allow you to add your value to your own cards in case it's different than the one listed? I also had a problem with this same person going through and adding really low prices on the cards they wanted from me in a trade and until I looked at who had entered the prices for the cards I was actually kind of going by those prices for the trade. I try to always add the price that is book value and if it's not in the book I will go to ebay and see what they have sold for there. If it's not in either place I leave it blank. By the way I withdrew from the trade with this person. I really enjoy this site and for the most part have had excellent trading partners and I think that trading is a great way to get rid of the cards you don't want and get cards you do want with hardly any out of pocket costs, which is way cool. It just upsets me when someone tries to pull a fast one  and then it's not so fun anymore.

The only prices I have entered so far are from EBay on cards I have bought or cards I was bidding on or watching and didn't get.  If I bought something from COMC or Sportslots could that be considered retail?  That may drive down the price, but its really a truer value of the price than the "BV".

Teresa, you should let Admin know which person is doing that...that's shady and in my opinion should result in them losing their trading priveledges here. 
 

I don't do prices myself, but the first thing I will tell everyone who will listen is to ignore them totally. I actually got Admin to install a feature to turn them off, and I did. Never had a second thought and it increased my enjoyment of the website. Going by supposed book value is a great way to either A) not care about the hobby itself or B) get "taken" when a card you like more is supposedly lower book price. I'm not really explaining it well, today, I know I have put forth my views on the subject in a more eloquent manner previoulsy. To me I can always tell when somebody is a true collector or just somebody trying to make money off of collectors. If all they talk about is book price, then they don't really care about cards, but dollar signs. 

I, and most on here, prefer to trade card for card. I would gladly trade a Jordan for a benchwarmer. (I don't mean the half naked girls, I mean a player who spends more time sitting on the bench than playing) 

You can search the ebay sold listings for that card and date if they entered one. It's possible they bought a lot of 6 of those cards and split the value accordingly. 

Isn't there a way to report an inaccurate price? If so, use that and maybe admin will contact that person to see if they can verify those amounts.

As a collector of cards for almost 40 years, a trader of cards for 35, and a seller of cards here and there over the past 30, I see absolutely nothing wrong with figuring out a trade using book values on both sides. Simply put, you're using a "third party" as a neutral arbiter of value. In a case where the quantities or eras don't match (and card for card really doesn't fit the trade), I honestly cannot think of a more fair method of creating an equiable trade.

In a case where you're trading 2013 Topps base cards for other 2013 Topps base cards, yeah, 50 cards for 50 cards can probably work. But if you're trading a mixture of cards from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, through today, and you're getting some sort of mixture in return, you need to find (agree on) some sort of guide to "decide fairness".

Note that I don't always agree with the price guides' listed prices (I've used several in the past). But if that's the agreed to guide, if there are a lot of cards involved in the trade, then it'll all even out (or be close enough). It's when you start mixing them to suit one side (like the example a few days ago on here when the other trading partner mentioned something about being able to get a $15 BV card on ebay for $3) - are you using ebay prices or book value? Choose one, stick with it.

Confusion and misunderstanding abounds about the "price". That's NOT an average price shown, it's a median price. It doesn't matter what price you enter, it won't change the median. Median means "in the middle".  

If you have five prices, $1.75, $2.00, $2.50, $3.50, and $6.00.  $2.50 is the median price; the third price, the one in the middle.  The average price would be $3.15.  But it doesn't matter if you change $6.00 to $600.00, the median price won't change.

I haven't traded much on this site, but when I have, it's been most pleasant. But I agree with Vrooomed. If the parties agree to use book value, so be it. It's a decent outside measure. Even if it's totally wrong compared to what one might pay for a card on eBay, at least it'll probably be about equally wrong for all the cards. Or not. Then the parties can decide to use some other standard. Or just negotiate on gut.

I don't turn the prices off here, and I submit prices for more expensive individual cards when I win them on eBay, but I don't pay much attention to the prices here. Sometimes I'll reference them when I want a really quick feel for what something might be worth. But I sure don't use them as my be-all-end-all guide.

As has been said many times here before, the value of a card is what someone is willing to pay for it -- in money or in other cards. So I don't much care what people put in as prices, and question whether putting in questionable prices should lead to a trading rights bar (outrageous prices might be another matter). Sure, it'd be nice if the prices were accurate. They're never going to be. Buyer and trader beware. Know what you're getting and what you're giving and what it's all worth to you. Then deal as you see fit.

v3

Totally agree with Billy as well as how tomake a trade relatively fair to both sides. But Teres,what you describe here with this potential trade partner is pitiful.  Someone who would sway the "value" of cards just to gain the advantage over another member should be reported.  I also like the person to bemade public so that they can either defend themselves or other members are aware of such despicable actions. There have been less than a handful of these types show up on this site and once reported, they disappeared because all the active members were aware of their presence and questionable actions.

I would never use the price on this site as how to value a trade.  I have a reference for my baseball cards, and no, not Beckett's, that I use as a guide.  No I will not trade a Nolan Ryan card from the 60s and 70s for cards in the 90s but as long as a trade is proposed relatively fair, then I usually accept the trade. All the trades I have done on this site,I have been more than happy with.