Topic: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

The value of my cards on deckbox that are worth under 30 cents went up a lot today. Was there some kind of algorithm change? Is this just a temporary glitch?

Just eyeballing it, I saw many cards that went up in value by 2 or 3 cents, such as gainlands (the dual lands that come in tapped but increase life by 1).

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

settlerjoe wrote:

The value of my cards on deckbox that are worth under 30 cents went up a lot today. Was there some kind of algorithm change? Is this just a temporary glitch?

Just eyeballing it, I saw many cards that went up in value by 2 or 3 cents, such as gainlands (the dual lands that come in tapped but increase life by 1).

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.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

The prices here seem to be losing their accuracy. Mystic Remora, supreme verdict, AQ urza lands, UL Duress, many Unlimited cards like Nevinyrral's disk are all out of whack, most of which have been for a while. I've also seen some cards (also mostly unlimited and antiquities it seems) be very slow to adapt. Gauntlet of might, and the mishra's factories come to mind -- they were quite inaccurate for at least a year. The AQ tron lands are still that way. I try to report the pricing errors, but that doesn't usually seem to have an impact. I think most folks here either don't notice, or gave up on trying to do anything. I wish Sebi would at least discuss it, if not fix it.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

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.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

By my understanding, I don't think prices are "set" per se. I think similar to TCG, it averages what cards are listed at here on the deckbox market. Consequently, if fewer people are selling on here than once were, or aren't as actively maintaining their prices to keep up with other markets, then prices can get skewed pretty significantly, as one or two sellers with a whacked price will throw a card way off.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

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.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

Ahh, yeah. That makes sense. Now I'm curious.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

rfioren wrote:

The prices here seem to be losing their accuracy.

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)

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

settlerjoe wrote:
rfioren wrote:

The prices here seem to be losing their accuracy.

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.

Here's a list of common and uncommon cards that seem inexplicably out of whack to me:
Mystic Remora
Duress (US)
Butcher's Cleaver
Incinerate (IA)
Skittering Skirge
Rootwater Commando
Snow Devil
Fireslinger
Serene heart

A lot of random commons that should be 5 cents are 50 cents+ like 5th edition unsummon, M12 Rusted sentinel.

Things are definitely worse than they used to be. The complete lack of acknowledgement from the admins make it all the more frustrating.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

rfioren wrote:
settlerjoe wrote:
rfioren wrote:

The prices here seem to be losing their accuracy.

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.

Here's a list of common and uncommon cards that seem inexplicably out of whack to me:
Mystic Remora
Duress (US)
Butcher's Cleaver
Incinerate (IA)
Skittering Skirge
Rootwater Commando
Snow Devil
Fireslinger
Serene heart

A lot of random commons that should be 5 cents are 50 cents+ like 5th edition unsummon, M12 Rusted sentinel.

Things are definitely worse than they used to be. The complete lack of acknowledgement from the admins make it all the more frustrating.

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.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

Yeah, I noticed it recently with a number of others, Primeval Titan, Green Sun's Zenith, Supreme Verdict, all seem to be showing in the mid 20s (were showing over 30 for a while) even though they're like $4-$6 cards.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

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

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

Another example -- right now Birthing Pod shows $30.59 as the price, 3x what it's worth. A few days ago it was over $40 and I reported it (I don't know if that helped).

I had also noticed that a Deckbox seller had it listed for over $80!!! When it's only a $10 card. Today that seller's card seems to no longer be listed. I had checked out that seller's other cards, and he consistently had cards priced at about twice what Deckbox was saying the price should be (which is usually too high as it is).

Sorry -- I know a valuable card is off-topic from the OP. But since others were bringing it up, I figured I'd chime in.  wink

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

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.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

rfioren wrote:

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.

Agreed - routine maintenance should be prioritized over new features. Can an admin chime in on this? Is there awareness that a growing number of cards are mispriced?

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

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.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

valdor wrote:

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.

Ok - I just sent a support request - I asked him to reply to this thread about whether Sebi aware of the issue(s), and, if so to let us know if steps will be taken.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

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

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

I do read the forum guys, I just don't have the time to write.

Pricing is always a pain point and very frustrating for me too to fix. It is very time consuming and many times I have to do manual adjustments to specific cards. Sometimes I simply do not have the time to go through them.

I am still on holiday right now and because of that fixes are slow, I am still keeping on top of support requests / tickets, and trying to reply & moderate on all trade disputes.

I will try to check the reported pricing issues soon.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

Found a caching issue that has been messing up prices displayed, that should account for some of the errors. Looking into it.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

sebi wrote:

I do read the forum guys, I just don't have the time to write.

Pricing is always a pain point and very frustrating for me too to fix. It is very time consuming and many times I have to do manual adjustments to specific cards. Sometimes I simply do not have the time to go through them.

I am still on holiday right now and because of that fixes are slow, I am still keeping on top of support requests / tickets, and trying to reply & moderate on all trade disputes.

I will try to check the reported pricing issues soon.

Understood. I try to report them when I can, but its hard to keep submitting them when they don't get fixed promptly. For example the antiquities urza lands have been mispriced for a couple of years at least.

I would certainly be willing to make adjustments directly (or do so in a testing environment for you to approve) if you were interested. I'm sure many more of us here would be willing to help crowdsource some of the basic ongoing maintenance. Thanks as always for your support and hard work.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

sebi wrote:

Found a caching issue that has been messing up prices displayed, that should account for some of the errors. Looking into it.

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.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

https://deckbox.org/mtg/Griselbrand?pri … mp;lang=us

$100 for the oversized helvault g-daddy?

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

aether_tech wrote:

https://deckbox.org/mtg/Griselbrand?pri … mp;lang=us

$100 for the oversized helvault g-daddy?

The foil is rare and price seems ok to me looking at a couple of stores.

Re: Price algorithm change for low cost cards?

sebi wrote:

Found a caching issue that has been messing up prices displayed, that should account for some of the errors. Looking into it.

Curious to know if you've been able to track down this pricing issue or any others related to pricing over the past few weeks?

In case it helps, here's some info on a pattern I've noticed a few times:

A card price will spike to nearly 10x it's proper value (or sometimes much higher for a card that is worth pennies). Over the course of 3-6 weeks it gradually falls down in price until it's close to true market value.

This happened to me with Thermokarst over the past 5 weeks. It spiked to $27 each (while the true market value did spike at the time, but to a value of around $4). It then gradually declined over 5 weeks and only today, 7/19/18, is it finally right in line with values seen in all the other markets.

Don't know if you already do this, or if you are permitted to do this, but a great thing to do would be to compare every card to TCG automatically and flag when off by some threshold (20% for expensive cards? 30 cents for cards worth less than $1.00?).

Last edited by settlerjoe (2018-07-21 16:08:46)