Topic: TCG Mid. Questions.

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to using tcg as a price guide (I used to just use SCG since I felt they had a better idea of the market). Looking at tcg mid there are some cards that seem artificially inflated due to ridiculous "high" listings (i.e. $92 Bob, $170 Jace, etc.) When there are too few listings or a large amount of these "extreme" outliers the average price can be greatly effected (via math). I feel it inflates the card price in a way that's not truly reflective of it's price.

I guess my question is how do people on this site deal with that? When I even hint at a card having a distorted value in a trade the other guy gets really defensive and sometimes just cancels the trade. Is discussing value outside of TCG mid just a taboo or what? I'm new here so I'm just curious.

Last edited by Mirage08 (2013-08-18 20:50:04)

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

TCGmid is the Median price, not the Mean.  Any card value is determined by you and your trade partner, TCGmid isn't the be all end all.

Profile | Tradelist | Wishlist

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

Mirage08 wrote:

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to using tcg as a price guide (I used to just use SCG since I felt they had a better idea of the market). Looking at tcg mid there are some cards that seem artificially inflated due to ridiculous "high" listings (i.e. $92 Bob, $170 Jace, etc.) When there are too few listings or a large amount of these "extreme" outliers the average price can be greatly effected (via math). I feel it inflates the card price in a way that's not truly reflective of it's price.

I guess my question is how do people on this site deal with that? When I even hint at a card having a distorted value in a trade the other guy gets really defensive and sometimes just cancels the trade. Is discussing value outside of TCG mid just a taboo or what? I'm new here so I'm just curious.

I've noticed that some cards seem to have unnaturally deflated values as well ($45 Vendilion Clique, for example--vs $60 at SCG). Generally, though, the differences in price between TCG mid and SCG balance out when comparing two or more cards, so it tends to be easier to just go with the TCG mid. There are obvious exceptions, though.

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

I use Ebay completed listings to price any card >50 or so.  Some cards, such as dual lands, are grossly overpriced by retailers and sell for 60% retail cost on Ebay.  You can also check what cards are selling for on MOTL (the prices on that site are pretty close to Ebay completed listings).

Profile
Tradelist
Wishlist

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

sk00gle wrote:
Mirage08 wrote:

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to using tcg as a price guide (I used to just use SCG since I felt they had a better idea of the market). Looking at tcg mid there are some cards that seem artificially inflated due to ridiculous "high" listings (i.e. $92 Bob, $170 Jace, etc.) When there are too few listings or a large amount of these "extreme" outliers the average price can be greatly effected (via math). I feel it inflates the card price in a way that's not truly reflective of it's price.

I guess my question is how do people on this site deal with that? When I even hint at a card having a distorted value in a trade the other guy gets really defensive and sometimes just cancels the trade. Is discussing value outside of TCG mid just a taboo or what? I'm new here so I'm just curious.

I've noticed that some cards seem to have unnaturally deflated values as well ($45 Vendilion Clique, for example--vs $60 at SCG). Generally, though, the differences in price between TCG mid and SCG balance out when comparing two or more cards, so it tends to be easier to just go with the TCG mid. There are obvious exceptions, though.

Ya I guess it evens out on trades a lot of the time. I guess if you're making a trade for almost exclusively big ticket items you should discuss the value. The problem is that I had this exact situation and the guy called me out for "just choosing that my cards are more expensive than his" even though A) That's not what I did (I said they weren't that less value than his) and B) isn't that the point of a trade? I feel everyone will not even consider discussing value when the site makes them feel like they are in the "right" since the value on their side of the screen is a bigger number. Idk. I've just had a hard time explaining this to some traders.

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

Just my two cents:

I don't use star city pricing, it's extremely over inflated and just a waste of time, same goes for tcg high prices.

For trades what I look to for APPROXIMATE value is TCG mid, for cash sales/purchases i compare Ebay and TCG low.

Ive traveled to about a dozen shops across NY/NJ and most people follow this as well.

The general conclusion is to ignore star city.

Profile/Tradelist/Wishlist  <(^_^)>  Favorite Card: Chains of Mephistopheles

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

shadowsmiles42 wrote:

Just my two cents:

I don't use star city pricing, it's extremely over inflated and just a waste of time, same goes for tcg high prices.

For trades what I look to for APPROXIMATE value is TCG mid, for cash sales/purchases i compare Ebay and TCG low.

Ive traveled to about a dozen shops across NY/NJ and most people follow this as well.

The general conclusion is to ignore star city.

The trouble I have with this is twofold:

1) I've personally found that, for stuff of larger value, TCG mid is too volatile and unreliable; Star City tends to be more accurate for such things (as far as I'm concerned). An example: TCG mid places Scalding Tarn around $54 and Vendilion Clique from $45 to $47, whereas on Star City, Scalding Tarn is listed for $50 and Vendilion Clique for $60. The fact that TCG places a higher value on Tarn than on Clique while Star City does the opposite tells me that Clique is undervalued on TCG (and that Tarn is slightly inflated).

2) While I've never used Ebay for price comparisons, it seems to me that doing so introduces unnecessary variables into the equation, considering that Ebay isn't a dedicated trading card vendor.

Just a thought.

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

sk00gle wrote:

The trouble I have with this is twofold:

1) I've personally found that, for stuff of larger value, TCG mid is too volatile and unreliable; Star City tends to be more accurate for such things (as far as I'm concerned). An example: TCG mid places Scalding Tarn around $54 and Vendilion Clique from $45 to $47, whereas on Star City, Scalding Tarn is listed for $50 and Vendilion Clique for $60. The fact that TCG places a higher value on Tarn than on Clique while Star City does the opposite tells me that Clique is undervalued on TCG (and that Tarn is slightly inflated).

tcgplayer is an aggregate, which makes it, by definition, less volatile than a single seller like SCG

sk00gle wrote:

2) While I've never used Ebay for price comparisons, it seems to me that doing so introduces unnecessary variables into the equation, considering that Ebay isn't a dedicated trading card vendor.

Unnecessary variables? Ebay is the best way to attach dollar values to cards, because it is a giant record of third party cash value

I'll never understand why people line up to pay SCG 20-30% over ebay for singles

Last edited by mtgtradingthread (2013-08-19 03:26:00)

Profile Tradelist

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

Is there a way to look at stuff on tcg that was actually SOLD? Because I feel there is no way in hell anyone is buying Tarns for $54 + shipping from tcg sellers. For all we know those have just been sitting at that price not being sold for weeks.

Re: TCG Mid. Questions.

Mirage08 wrote:

Is there a way to look at stuff on tcg that was actually SOLD? Because I feel there is no way in hell anyone is buying Tarns for $54 + shipping from tcg sellers. For all we know those have just been sitting at that price not being sold for weeks.

I believe Ebay completed listing are what you are looking for.  You can see the price that items which sold were sold for, as well as see the prices of items which did not sell.  Ebay is a buyer's market and buyers aren't going to spend more than they have to.

Last edited by grossoggodeckbox (2013-08-19 03:48:27)

Profile
Tradelist
Wishlist