1

(197 replies, posted in Announcements)

I would also second (third, or whatever) the MTGPrice avenue.

Link to the Relevant API page on MTGPrice

Current Stipulations:

  • If you use the prices from the API on a web page or in a mobile app, please include the following html on the page the price appears in at least 10-point font: "MTG Price data provided by: MTGPrice.com" (with the link)

  • If you plan to use this data to keep your store prices up to date, let us know first. This use is fine but we may want to talk to you to improve it.

  • This service is free. It costs us money to run it. Please don't abuse it. We reserve the right to cut service, without notice, from anyone we deem to be misusing the service.

  • Please cache the results you get back. Right now, we only update daily (it will be hourly by January 2014) so there is no need to re-fetch the same data more than 1-2 times in a day, per set.

  • (very important!) This is a BETA product. Prices will be wrong, period. All we can promise is to try to get them fixed if anyone tells us. In particular, I would not trust Alpha/Beta/Unlimited prices yet, nor some of the obscure "promo" cards. We have a fix in the works for those sets. All of that being said, having good prices is important to us, so let us know if anything looks odd.

2

(5 replies, posted in Commander Trading)

After going thru your EDH decks, these are the appropriate 'pimpables' I have available for you:

Tariel:
$02.87 Foil Promo Vampire Nighthawk
$02.80 Foil Promo Inferno Titan
$67.50 Foil Elesh Norn
$13.60 Foil Sheoldred
$10.44 Foil Promo Path to Exile
$03.99 Foil Promo Day of Judgment
$03.62 Foil Promo Fullart Day of Judgment

Sydri:
$06.99 Foil Master of Etherium
$05.57 Foil Indomitable Archangel
$02.97 Foil Myr Battle sphere
$01.31 Foil Filigree Angel
$01.24 Foil Revoke Existence
$08.99 Foil Promo Supreme Verdict
$00.81 Foil Dissipation Field

Skullbriar:
$09.99 Foil Promo Oversized Skullbriar
$02.36 Foil Promo Glissa the Traitor
$22.80 Foil Promo Avatar of Woe
$59.45 Foil Chord of Calling

Cats:
$03.15 Foil Promo Mirran Crusader
$03.48 Foil Dispatch
$01.07 Foil Promo Moonsilver Spear
$08.32 Foil Caged Sun

EDIT:
Added prices due to TCGP tears.

3

(5 replies, posted in Commander Trading)

I have tons of foils and promos, are you looking fort more then what's on your list? Also, do you have any more shocklands, foil or otherwise?

4

(92 replies, posted in Announcements)

Xan wrote:

But unless you are making a "deck" for every storage box, with the thousands of cards in any one box, it won't solve the problem you presented.

Yes, as was suggested above, that is what would be entailed. It wouldn't be a good inventory management system if I couldn't put my inventory in it.

Xan wrote:

...Or you could simply remove from your decks the items you are selling and label your boxes. If you are selling a Wrath of God, that would mean you aren't using it, so you don't need to check your decks. The version/promo/foil/whatever wouldn't matter, since you picked one to sell and that one would be in one of two locations: a box labeled "White Rares," or a binder labeled "White Trades" or whatever. Splitting things into multiple places is an inherently bad inventory practice, for the exact reason you explained- it adds complexity.

Any system that is implemented for 'convenience' should enable the user, not disable them. A system that requires me to entirely change the way I do business and cripple my ability to do what I want, in any way, is undesirable by definition. I don't run proxies, and I'm not going to start. I don't own a single binder large enough to compromise my 'White Trades'. I run many binders of cards (such as full card sets, dollar rares, EDH staples, etc.) in order to reach different audiences of traders/sellers. I don't need a system that gets in my way, and neither does any business. Splitting things in different places is common inventory practice, which is why inventory management systems exist. If you don't need one personally, that's your personal situation, and one that many people don't share.

Xan wrote:

Until a version option is added to the deck lists, you could proxy something if you want to run it until trading/selling it. If you are going somewhere that discourages proxies, you could just remember that your promo Wrath of God is in that deck. This isn't a problem most users are going to have.

If your solution to inventory management is, 'Just remember where it is,' more power to you. There is a reason, however, that actual inventory management solutions exist in the IT world, and are thriving businesses. Not everyone can keep track of over 10,000 items that are constantly moving around.

Xan wrote:

When the computer says there are 11 items on the shelf, the back room has 5, 3 are in the mail and 1 is out for RMA, and you count the items but get 18, you know something is wrong and no database or spreadsheet can tell you where the missing items are.

Sigh... Irrelevant. User error has never, and will never, mean an IT solution is better/worse than another. If we assume everyone in the world is incapable of doing anything correctly, than no system is safe from the idiocy of its users. Typing in wrong/random information will confuse any system, including the simple 'card list' inventory. When you're holding a card, and it's not on the list, the list doesn't explain to you why it's not on there, does it?

At any rate, your argument for Deckbox being an inventory management solution seems to mainly stem from one point: Make a 'card list' inventory work for you. The simple counter-point to that is: Why lose functionality and efficiency to match an inventory system that lacks functionality and efficiency? If I want to be able to do more than simply store my cards in alphabetical order, in one box on one shelf, there is no compelling reason to go back to that system. Especially when what you currently have accommodates you just fine, allowing you the freedom to manage your inventory in the way that bests fits your selling practice.

Really, the point of my saying that Deckbox isn't an inventory management system was to point out that a simple 'card list' inventory is not something unique to Deckbox, or what sets it apart from it's competition (as was put forward by another user). You can find that anywhere. What sets Deckbox aside is the cooperative community of people working together for the mutual benefit of all those involved. It puts it in a unique position to offer something that not many other platform can currently provide, and I pointed out that maybe it should continue to explore the options available to continue that community cooperation throughout the next stage of this platform's life, the marketplace.

This platform operated as a bazaar, as far as trading went, where one would go from stand to stand looking for someone willing to make a deal with them from which they mutually benefited. Adding money into that situation could change very little of that lifestyle: One simply offers a crisp 5 pound note at each stand, instead of a sleeved Steam Vents. If a stand owner was willing to deal, they could barter to a point where they were both happy, and they were both free to walk away at any time.

Instead we're seeing a machinated system where people approach vending machines instead of people, insert an amount of money, and expect the machine to do as it's told. The machine can set certain conditions, but it really boils down to this: It's not allowed to say 'no'. I believe the loss of humanity in that in that system, and the loss of the 'mutual good' mentality, is far removed from the origins, and special capabilities, of a platform that started out as Deckbox had. I am merely putting forth that other implementations should be considered, to keep this platform unique and closer to its roots, and community.

5

(92 replies, posted in Announcements)

gumgodMTG wrote:

If you want to track a binder make a deck called binder 1.  This does have the limitation however of not tracking the specific edition.  So for a card like Artisan of Kozilek that I had to track down last night I had to check two places because one had the commander version and one had the Eldrazi version, but at least I knew which two decks to look in.

It is this limitation that is the problem. I can't set the edition. I can't set the foil status. I can't set it's promo status. When I have 10+ Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, some of which are foil, and some of which are the release promo, I can't keep track of where they are in my 10,000 cards, 20 binders, 6 Modern decks, 5 EDH decks, and multiple column boxes. Now imagine it is something much more complex, like Wrath of God, which is an auto-include in most white EDH decks, and has more editions and promos than almost anything else. I have to check up to 10 places to find that one card. Per card. It is massively inefficient to only have a list of everything that has, 'Some kind of Wrath of God in it'. That's why I have my spreadsheets. And Deckbox currently doesn't replace Excel as an inventory management system due to it's severe limitations on card information.

Xan wrote:

Tracking the physical location of an item is very difficult to do. I don't fault Deckbox for not having this feature (although it does tell you which deck(s) they are in, assuming you keep your decks up-to-date). Sure, Deckbox could have a text field and for users to manually type in the location of a card, but that's a pretty slow means of cataloging thousands of individual cards, especially if the location changes. There could be a bulk editing function for this, but it would still be clunky and couldn't possibly help if you misplace something.

If you want your stuff organized, organize it.

As has been pointed out above, it is a difficult thing to do physically (though I have already done it.) However, it is trivial to do, even with something as simple as an Excel spreadsheet, to so electronically. You simply have to be able to list what exactly is where, and do a reverse look-up to find each location that the exact card is. A text field is indeed inefficient, and entirely unnecessary. When the location changes, you update the inventory. Every store that I've ever been to/worked for has an inventory management system that can track individual items of a large stock. This is even simpler, as you only need a specific type (The foil Buy-A-Box Celestial Colonnade, for a recent example). I shouldn't have to go through every binder/deck/box that has some kind of Colonnade in order to find one. It's the ability to walk across the office, pick up a single container, and find exactly what I'm looking for, which an inventory management system should offer. I hope it's in the works eventually, but until then, I have my system in place, externally from this website.

6

(92 replies, posted in Announcements)

Xan wrote:

As Helios said. It is the ability to have your entire inventory tracked in one location. I used to track it on paper (only for the most important cards), then it went to spreadsheets. Deckbox is much more convenient as an inventory management system. It just makes sense to sell from the place that already has all your cards listed.

It also gives people a chance to see what you have that isn't on your sell list. I can't even guess at how many times I've looked around my small town for a card and not found it on a tradelist, but found it in an inventory. Sometimes what you aren't willing to sell/trade today, you can be convinced to sell or trade tomorrow (maybe for a higher price than you anticipated). On any other site I know of, if you don't list it, I won't know you have it.

Speaking of, hey Sebi. Is there a way to block contact from other users? For instance, if somebody is bugging me, or I have a sale go bad with someone, can I block them and ensure they can't buy from me again (or contact me in any way)? I'm not talking about blocking feedback, just blocking contact not related to previous sales/trades.

The inventory management needs to be a little more than, "You own 7 of these. Somewhere." to be considered an actual inventory management tool. Should someone buy something from me, I would use an inventory management tool to find out where it is (what deck it's in, or which trade binder, or which filing cabinet) so that I can quickly and easily pull it and ship it. Until I can track what I have AND where, it's just a card list with quick links to aggregated data, which is nothing new. The community is the big difference here, and with new features rolling out like this, hopefully the community will be able to thrive and do so much more.

As for 'convincing' someone to sell of of their tradelist, it seems to be one of the highest demanded features on this website to get rid of that 'functionality'. Being harassed to trade cards out of your decks that you aren't willing to trade seems to be a bother for people on this site, and one could certainly see why. It might be alleviated by allowing users to block one another, to get rid of that guy who is 'bugging you' to sell your Underground Sea out of your EDH deck, but being able to set inventory to private fixes that problem without losing any potential sales due to heavy-handed blocking.

My big concern is the non-acceptance of the sale. What if I go out to FNM and finally find someone willing to drop that $200 on my book-promo Jace, only to come home and find that someone else tried to simultaneously line my pockets for that same card? I no longer have it, and now my choices are to either go buy another one to sell and ship at a loss, or cancel and get negative feedback? I don't have a phone with constant internet to be hooked into this website 24/7. If efficiency is the concern, than giving a small window for seller acceptance would be a solution, such as 12-24 hours. You click that you're willing to buy, and if/when the seller clicks accept then money gets transferred. If nothing happens by the end of time, the buy offer disappears.

As I stated above, the thing that sets this site apart from it's competition is the community, and the community works best when it works together. People communicate and come to an understanding on their trades with which they are both agreeable, and everyone walks away happy. It is cooperation through compromise. Creating a community divide of buyer vs. seller, where the buyer is trying to 'win' and the seller is forced to play on the defensive in order to not 'lose', is very much at odds with the original feel of this website, if not its goals. I am glad that Sebi is pushing Deckbox into new territory, because stagnation is death. I can only hope that it continues to grow in a direction that is positive for it's entire community: developers and users, buyers and sellers, alike.

I had hoped to be able to use this site for inventory management, to be able to keep track of where everything is in my decks, and to be able to accurately determine my deck's value at any given time.

Currently the deck listing does have columns for both card edition and price (if you turn them on), it's just incorrect, as it assumes a non-foil, most recent edition printing for everything. If these could be set, that would be enough. Even more preferably, they would be linked to the inventory, so that when one clicks on their Deck Count number, they see only what that specific card is in, instead of all cards of the same name.

I hope there are plans to expand the deck functionality to match the inventory functionality, and if not, request that they be considered. It would be wonderful to be able to track everything in one place, so that when I trade cards I know exactly from where to pull them.

Either way, thanks for the wonderful tool so far!

I'm new to this site in general, so bear with me if this is something obvious that I am simply missing...

I created a deck, but it seems to me that I am unable to set the status of the cards in the deck either during or after addition. I am trying to keep track of which cards are in which deck, and the actual values of the deck, and being currently unable to set the foil/promo/edition of the card leaves me with nothing more than a simple decklist at the moment.

Is there some way that I can edit the cards in my deck to reflect their actual value, or actual edition? Or is it a feature that is currently unimplemented?

Thanks for your help!
Ripptor

Looking forward to it smile