KShine Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Can you explain this a little? Does it have to do with how different sellers figure shipping? The concept of Free Shipping in the US plays a huge role for us north of the border when looking at the value. Our shipping costs are much more. Also, some sellers still charge high shipping rates in the hopes of making the buy price more palatable. This helps boost international sales because the import taxes are paid on the purchase price and not the shipping. And lastly the GSP program also skews shipping because it might cost the seller $7 to ship to EBay but the buyer might be paying $100 for shipping, taxes and brokerage. To say it doesn't work at all is a bit of a stretch. Tracking the number over time and comparing monthly gains is a huge positive. But if you don't check recent sales for an item you could easily be leaving money on the table for some sets and losing on others. I wasn't really looking to get into that debate (that is an old, day 1 debate). I never said that it didn't work at all, but I do believe that the ebay data has way too many unreliable transactions (for so many reasons), that will always continue to weigh down on prices. Manual attempts to adjust for them only create a whole new set of problems. Yes, I know that it is just a guide - and when it is used as a guide, it is great. But something weird happens when people see charts/data/stats/polls/etc. - they gain great significance, and will simply be believed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minicoopers11 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Just read their forum posts in response to the announcement. Their haters are too funny. It's like they'd prefer to live behind the Berlin Wall or something. I just hope those people don't come over to our forum I know...I expect the negative response, but it's ridiculous. No positives from this could possibly be considered, like: BL is now listed under "Current Offers." And who usually has the lowest price? It's like many are mad they won't be able to "trick" a lazy buyer into a sale. Just despicable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregpj Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I wasn't really looking to get into that debate (that is an old, day 1 debate). I never said that it didn't work at all, but I do believe that the ebay data has way too many unreliable transactions (for so many reasons), that will always continue to weigh down on prices. Manual attempts to adjust for them only create a whole new set of problems. Yes, I know that it is just a guide - and when it is used as a guide, it is great. But something weird happens when people see charts/data/stats/polls/etc. - they gain great significance, and will simply be believed. Sorry, I wasn't trying to be critical of your comment. I was just explaining why I'm careful with the values. Bricklink suffers from problems of its own in the price guid as it only shows new/used overall. You can't get a good by region breakdown (least I don't see how) and some of the high/lows can be extreme. I believe Jeff often filters out such crazies which helps. Also on BL you don't know what people charge for shipping. Though most are honest, some do charge excessive. The BP price guide has an advantage over that in that one can assume that the US number has a lot of free shipping sales in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Mack Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 The concept of Free Shipping in the US plays a huge role for us north of the border when looking at the value. Our shipping costs are much more. Also, some sellers still charge high shipping rates in the hopes of making the buy price more palatable. This helps boost international sales because the import taxes are paid on the purchase price and not the shipping. And lastly the GSP program also skews shipping because it might cost the seller $7 to ship to EBay but the buyer might be paying $100 for shipping, taxes and brokerage. To say it doesn't work at all is a bit of a stretch. Tracking the number over time and comparing monthly gains is a huge positive. But if you don't check recent sales for an item you could easily be leaving money on the table for some sets and losing on others.Would people be happy if we aggregated the data differently....say come up with two prices...one with free shipping...one without? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val-E Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 That would be nice. Please remember the conversi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaisonline Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Would people be happy if we aggregated the data differently....say come up with two prices...one with free shipping...one without? Great question. It would be good if we can separate the two prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exciter1 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Would people be happy if we aggregated the data differently....say come up with two prices...one with free shipping...one without? I don't think it really matters, I would go with including shipping charges as the average. Either way, the price shouldn't be skewed to any great degree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaisonline Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I don't think it really matters, I would go with including shipping charges as the average. Either way, the price shouldn't be skewed to any great degree. With the recent postage cost changes, it will impact price especially since Bricklink doesn't include postage cost. It would be nice to know the free ship vs non-free ship ebay price diffs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exciter1 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 With the recent postage cost changes, it will impact price especially since Bricklink doesn't include postage cost. It would be nice to know the free ship vs non-free ship ebay price diffs. Maybe we can add a postage calculation instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregpj Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 With the recent postage cost changes, it will impact price especially since Bricklink doesn't include postage cost. It would be nice to know the free ship vs non-free ship ebay price diffs. I agree it would be nice, but it sure isn't a priority. I normally try to target canadian buyers but it's hard(er) to know where I stand with American buyers since I see their canadian shipping cost and have to go into each listing and pretend im from the U.S. Even then with sold listings, it shows what my shipping would have cost vs what the buyer paid. So I don't know if it was $5 $20 or the $44.15 it shows me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randrace Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 (edited) Jang is pissed! Edited January 20, 2016 by randrace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregpj Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 1 hour ago, randrace said: Jang is pissed! That video is almost a year old! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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