Some basic questions

[Transfotaku]

Okay, went to the dynamic sig to see me "stats". Got some questions...

I'm only #28? I was #15. Darn you guys!

But more seriously: How is the value determined? Cause, at one point, my collection was supposedly worth about $15k, and now it's barely pushing $3600, and I know I've only been ADDING to it lately. Also, my most expensive figure, assuming everything was MISB, goes from Shockwave at 3500 down to the two Decepticon cassette combiners at $199? That sounds odd.

So yeah, don't get how the values field(s) are determined, was wondering for some clarification on them.

[shmax]

Things have been a bit screwy ever since we moved to the new web host--my own collection value has also dropped alarmingly. I'll poke around and see if I can figure out what's going on with the value appraisal. But you're on your own for getting your rank back to where you want it!

Max

Okay, went to the dynamic sig to see me "stats". Got some questions...

I'm only #28? I was #15. Darn you guys!

But more seriously: How is the value determined? Cause, at one point, my collection was supposedly worth about $15k, and now it's barely pushing $3600, and I know I've only been ADDING to it lately. Also, my most expensive figure, assuming everything was MISB, goes from Shockwave at 3500 down to the two Decepticon cassette combiners at $199? That sounds odd.

So yeah, don't get how the values field(s) are determined, was wondering for some clarification on them.

[vmagnum]

I'm just intrigued on the value appraisal - does some figure depreciate with time? Could be a small minority, but it seems so

[shmax]

Ack, I never followed up on this thread. Thanks for the bump, vmagnum. It seems there are still a few kinks in the system. I just went to your collection page, and I noticed that there was no current value reported for your g2 "Air Raid". I checked our appraisal records, and we do indeed have some data for him. So, something is still screwy. I'll put this back on my shortlist of things to investigate.

Oh, and to answer your question, yes, things can certainly depreciate. We use the most recent 6 months worth of data to compute value, so anything can happen. You can track the fluctuations of any particular toy by keeping eye on the price history chart on each product details page.

[tusko]

What is the value input?
I buy most of my G1, G2 and RID toys at garage sales and junk sales.  I list them as loose and have been inputting the value.  Is this going into the database?  (I'd be pulling the whole system down since I'm cheap!)
Or are the values and appraisals coming out of some toy catalog, closing Ebay bid history or some other source?

Its fun to see how a lot of these toys change in value. A lot of my figures don't have values at the moment. Just wanna add a data point if possible.

[Tripredacus]

Similarly, I'm trying to determine how to read the value chart on a specific figure. I understand that it is a static picture, but how often are those pictures updated? When I entered in my price for Desert Devastation, it doesn't show up, ex:
http://shmax.com/product_details/5966/d ... evastation

I would believe that the average value given by the site is based on the user input when people add items into their collection. There doesn't seem to be a system in place that checks ebay for sold items, or else a lot of newer toys would have values, even though they don't. An example of this is Hubcap:
http://shmax.com/product_details/6746/hubcap

Which on the "browse" part says: "current value unknown". It doesn't make a mention of this on the actual toy page, but you can see the Appraisal data table is empty, but then there is one hit on the chart for a price paid for a MOSC one.

[shmax]

Hi guys, we don't currently use the user "price paid" data when computing the appraisal values, but the code is mostly done, I just need to finish it up.

I'll try to work on it soon...

[tusko]

Nice!
As much as I know my collection is pretty much worthless, except to me.  The fact your programs add up the list just makes me that much more curious.
Thanks Max.

[Tripredacus]

Nice!
As much as I know my collection is pretty much worthless, except to me.  The fact your programs add up the list just makes me that much more curious.
Thanks Max.

I'm actually surprised about the value that shows up in my collection here. But I'm pretty sure that value is on the high side. Its like it appears those values are based on either complete or sealed items, and not necessarily the condition or completeness as I have them entered in. So its not to say the values shown on any of the three sections are set in stone, or law. Its just a guide to help you and you have to decide how to use that information. Same is pretty true of any sort of price guide really.

[tusko]

Still I'm surprised at what is valuable in my collection.  So its fun.  It helps me choose which figures to take care of.

The only thing is a bulk of my Canadian stuff is priceless.  I know its maybe $2 a figure, but I'd like a value ranking for my oddball Canadian stuff.  Especially since the US stuff is all priced.

I don't know can we get international mold prices somewhere in the massive database? Then have that broken down by repaint and release region in US dollars, Canadian, Euro and Yen?

[shmax]

The only thing is a bulk of my Canadian stuff is priceless. I know its maybe $2 a figure, but I'd like a value ranking for my oddball Canadian stuff. Especially since the US stuff is all priced.

Working on it. The trouble is that even when the Canadian versions of toys move on eBay, they can be difficult to identify through parsing of the auction title. One of the tasks I've been putting off forever is folding user-entered "price paid" data into the appraisal system. Why am I dragging my heels? Because of you foreigners and your accursed exotic foreign money, which is totally different (and on purpose, too, I'll bet). See, with the auction data it's easy, because the data is delivered in USD, no matter where it was sold. I can just average everything up, and off we go.

Because you're Canadian, you pay for stuff with CAD, which is fine, but I can't lump it together with the other user data in USD. I have to convert it. This is easy if you're sitting at your kitchen table with a calculator and a newspaper with the current exchange rates, but I have to be able to do it for not just CAD, but EUR, ARS (Argentina Peso), VEF (Venezuela's Bolivar Fuerte), YEN, and on and on. There may be some public and free data source or API that I can hook into to get current exchange data for all the currencies of the world from, and there may not. Either way it's going to take some work.

We'll get to it in the next few months, as this task is on the short list of upcoming projects, so hang in there!

[Tripredacus]

I've noticed that Canadian TFs (even G1) are the most overlooked TFs out there, even to serious collectors. You don't want to know how many times I've noticed Canadian TFs in people collection photos, and then inquired on what the package says, and the collector hadn't even noticed!

As such, there isn't a real value difference between Canadian and US TFs (G1 at least) because they are so similar most collectors do not notice that they are different.

[shmax]

As such, there isn't a real value difference between Canadian and US TFs (G1 at least) because they are so similar most collectors do not notice that they are different.

Even if true, it doesn't help me much, Trip. The challenge is to normalize "price paid" data across a spectrum of foreign currencies, not look for ways to fudge appraisal data. I've started to look into a variety of API's that do this kind of thing, and I think we'll be okay. It'll just take time.