Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

I never did figure out what happened to cause the price jump. Another possibility as that many cards with no price at all got given prices below 30 cents.

Yeah, Sebi has been sadly quiet for the last year or two. I will definitely continue using the site, but there is so much potential that isn't being realized.

I know that's what has been said in the past. I'm skeptical that the deckbox marketplace has much of an impact on prices though -- a lot of cards don't even have any cards listed -- but their prices still move. I always assumed it was (mostly) using Amazon pricing and some blend of other APIs (not sure what else is out there). Supposedly it doesn't use TCGplayer pricing at all, at least not directly, but I can't help but wonder if it somehow links to it indirectly or unintentionally through some other party. The prices here definitely move every day, and 98% of the time they seem pretty accurate -- much more accurate than could be explained by relying heavily on the deckbox marketplace.

I can't speak for all cards as I'm a Pauper player/collector and I have fewer than 1000 rares (most of which I am happy to trade away for Pauper staples).

The prices seem quite accurate for Pauper staples. Sometimes they are off by 5% or 10% or even 15% but I consider that acceptable variation between markets. In aggregate it seems pretty good.

My OP was to note that there was a big jump on 1 specific day. Could be that it was just a bunch of NA cards got pricing for the first time that was under 30 cents/card. I noticed because a very large portion of my collection is worth less than 30 cents, so if something happens that either changes the value of all those cards in aggregate, or the NA cards turn into having a value, then I will notice.

Cards worth over 30 cents in my collection have been very reasonably priced over the past year with no sudden unexplained changes. Sometimes they change rapidly over a couple weeks but that is because it's happening in every market.

Last edited by settlerjoe (2018-05-17 21:57:47)

A few weeks after you wrote this, I saw two cards that went way higher than they should be and they have stayed high for over a week:

Duress ($5 to $8 for Urza Duress, even though it's only worth pennies)
Thermokarst ($24 to $27 when it's worth less than $4)

I don't carefully look at cards worth less than 50 cents so perhaps there are many cards worth a dime that are 45 cents that I don't even notice.

this site's price for Supreme Verdict almost gave me a heartattack a few days ago....

Are there any admins that can even acknowledge this issue? it's been going on for several months; most of the prices are unfixed, many are getting worse, and there's been 0 response from anyone. I love this place but I really don't think that new features are more important than getting prices right.

Unfortunately Sebi is the only person that works on the site, and besides basic maintenance and updates, he almost never interacts with forums. You can always try emailing him.

My advice though, never use deckbox for pricing. It is usually way off and I just do all my trades using TCG pricing.

Terrific!

And I echo the crowd sourcing idea. If there were a few dozen users who were approved for making adjustments to prices and nothing else on the site - that could really help. I would be willing to do it for commons, which I track anyway as an avid Pauper player.