Site Forum

Can we please do something to fix the pricing on this site?

I realize we all come to this site and engage this community for various reasons. Each of us has our own particular motivation for why we collect and why we engage/improve this site.

One of the most attractive features of this site (in my opinion) is that I can accurately catalogue my entire collection and see the (approximate) value of any given card within my collection, or even the value of cards that are not in my collection.

I'm sure once I finish catalogueing my entire collection, my appreciation of this site will extend to trading/selling/buying with other users to complete my sets or help others complete their sets, but for now, simply having an online tracker of my collection and its value is just GREAT!

However, until "controls" are put into place regarding the pricing feature, others with their own motivations will be able to manipulate the prices of cards. An example of this is the 1986 Topps Traded Barry Bonds:

https://www.tradingcarddb.com/Price.cfm/sid/111/cid/35111/1986-Topps-Traded-11T-Barry-Bonds

As I've been cataloguing my collection, I've tried to fill in the gaps where prices are missing or increase the data points where current price data was lacking. Within the '86 Traded Bonds card you can see I've added numerous recent sales data which provides a fairly accurate depiction of how the card has been transacted for cash online. These sales represent how much any of my fellow users can logon to a site, bid (or direct purchase) a card online and receive it a few days later in the mail (shipping inclusion argument aside). However, any other user (such as https://www.tradingcarddb.com/Profile.cfm/ces8965, with their massive 1 card collection) can logon, add three price points and the checklist automatically acknowledges their newly gauged price. This is not the only example of this user doing this, there are numerous (I simply didn't link all the examples), which is why I feel comfortable calling him out by name.

Essentially, the site allows a "user" to operate like a bot and price gauge or price dump any particiular card to change the listed price. There is no check, no verification, and minimal effort required to undo the work that those of us working on accurate pricing are doing. I know it isn't a major issue for cards such as this, because I can log back on in a week and upload the 20-30 new sales and bury the "bot" prices deep in the history, but for other cards with less transactions, this presents a real problem for price accuracy. Some potential solutions I've thought of are:

1. Opening the median price point of the card to more than just the last 5 transactions---this won't eliminate the ability of a user to price gauge, but may make their effort less worthwhile.

2. Allow users to flag/report "bogus" user prices, for some kind of follow-on action or verification/deletion.

3. Enable users to turn off/squelch certain user's prices from their personal view.

4. Require a user to have a card in their collection to change the price.

5. Somehow automate the pricing from internal/external transactions.

I know this isn't an issue for those of you who don't trust the prices or turn the pricing off, so no need to add a comment below. But for those of us interested in this site featuring accurate prices, I'd be interested in hearing your suggested solutions for this problem.

I agree. Great write-up K-Cards! You also provided a well thought out solution to the problem. 

Take all prices with a grain of salt. Some people are better shoppers , some guys find sellers that are willing to let things go cheap and some guys are thrifty and will only buy when the price is right to them . 

Somebody deleted the bogus prices on that card.  That member needs to be banned, but Admin doesn't typically ban members.  Even though I don't care about the prices, I do care about the site, and hate when one person can manipulate data to make the whole site look bad.

I should probably know this already, but will the site differentiate between graded and non graded cards and the different grade levels.  Lots of cards this would not apply to, but it does for many.  And if tcdb does, is it easily discernible what grade you are looking at in the prices?  

I appreciate the education as I continue to learn the site.  Regards, Greg

On any card when you a median price you are taken to an area where you will see "Non-Graded" and "Graded" areas where you may submit prices.

I could live with all except number 4. I update a lot of insert sets for example that are easy to do by set name but I most likely don’t have anywhere near all of the cards.

Also, if somebody sold a card, they would have to remember to record the sale price before removing it from their collection. 

It a nice plan. But it will never happen. When anyone can change a price for whatever reason. The store will not stay open for very long. As most of us do, we go somewhere else that is reliable for pricing. I was looking at a set form 1994 the other day and just for laughs I looked at some of the prices on the cards and they have not been updated in 4 years. 

Cudos for you to see in the "two months" you have been here that it's all messed up. But if you're here to price your collection, you're in the wrong place. As the old saying goes, tin tin tin. I trade here because this is the #1 place to trade cards and I price & sell elsewhere for the cards I sell. If you're here to give value to the cards you have, you're in the wrong place.

Prices change day to day.   I have no need for the prices.