A Price Point is a record of a completed sale that we use to calculate the overall Estimated Value of our Database Items.
We use as many different Price Points as possible from many different Price Sources so the Estimated Value can accurately reflect current market trends. This article describes all the different types of Price Points and the Price Sources we currently use, plus a few types that we don't use (yet).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Retail Prices
- Member Estimates
- External Price Guides
- Auction House Prices
- Online Marketplaces
- Trusted Online Retailers
- Team Verified Sales
- The "Price Paid" recorded in your hobbyDB collection
- The intelligence of the community (or "nudging")
Price Points We Currently Use
Retail Prices
This is the price paid when the item is first available to purchase at retail stores. Retail prices are often referred to by a few different names, depending on the country:
- Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) in the USA and elsewhere
- Recommended Retail Price (RRP) or Suggested Retail Price (SRP) in the UK
- Unverbindliche Preisempfehlung in Germany
Ideally, the Retail Price is the first Price Point on each item and the starting point for the Price Chart. For older Retail Prices the day and month can be estimated.
NOTE: Chases have the same Retail Prices as commons, and items that come in blind packaging all have the same Retail Price regardless of ratios or Production Status such as standard or chase. The item's Estimated Value will quickly adjust to market value as Price Points from the secondary market are added.
Member Estimates
These are values that have been added by some of our members who are knowledgeable about the item. Sometimes these values are the best estimates for the individual database item as there have been no recent transactions that we could record. As these estimated values are still a data point, we decided it would be important to display them if there is no other pricing information.
However, once we have market transactions or other Price Points on the Database Item, the Member Estimate is hidden and no longer used in the calculation of the item's overall Estimated Value. Most Member Estimates will link to the showcase of the member who added it. (The exception is Member Estimates that were added before 18 September 2020 when they were called Curator Price and weren't associated with a member name.)
External Price Guides
Printed
Contributors can add values from printed price guides such as the Tri-Ang Toys Price Guide and National Farm Toys Museum Price Guide. If you are interested in adding a book to the list of our accepted price guide sources, please contact us!
Online
We were approached by the Hard Rock Pin Community in December 2018 to see if we could provide their database and collections with a new home.
As part of the data transfer, we received around 65,000 estimated values of Hard Rock Cafe pins. The Hard Rock Pin Catalog Estimated Values were averages of what users of the old database had reported they had paid for their pins. We would love to integrate other online price guides with hobbyDB, so if you are aware of one please let us know!
Auction House Prices
General Auction Houses
Contributors can add reported values from auction houses that share their results online or in printed form. We have many auction houses on our list of Price Point options, but if you'd like us to add an Auction House that isn't on the list yet, contact us and we'll gladly do so!
Pristine Auction
Price Points from Pristine Auction are handled differently. This auction house has given us access to a feed of the items they sell, which are mostly sports memorabilia and autographed items. Most of those items will not be in our database yet, so a Squad member with the Creator role or above will need to add the item before the Pristine Auction Price Point can be assigned to it.
Online Marketplaces
eBay Auctions and Buy it Now Listings
Volunteer Squad members scour eBay and add completed listings as Price Points if they meet our Price Point Quality Standards.
hobbyDB / Pop Price Guide / The Toy Peddler
Sales on hobbyDB (including PPG and TTP) are automatically assigned as Price Points. If the item sold is not mint or near-mint it will be listed as a Price Point but won't be included in the Estimated Value calculation.
Mercari
Mercari is a popular online marketplace where many collectibles are bought and sold and we recently started using completed sales there as Price Points. Learn how to add Mercari Price Points.
StockX
StockX is an online marketplace with specialized staff who physically evaluate every item for authenticity and condition before being sent to the buyer. Because of StockX's verification process, we consider them a trusted source for Price Points. All sales on StockX qualify for the hobbyDB Price Guide, and if they're flagged we generally won't consider removing them. Learn how to add StockX Price Points now!
Whatnot
Whatnot is an online marketplace where sales are primarily made over live-streamed video auctions. We are currently doing a small pilot project to test the feasibility of adding sales from Whatnot to the hobbyDB Price Guide. Please see our Price Points from Whatnot help page to learn more about why and how we're doing this!
Yahoo! Japan Auctions
Yahoo! Japan Auctions works similarly to eBay, and contributors can add sales as Price Points using the same mechanism we use for Auction Houses.
Trusted Online Retailers
7 Bucks a Pop
7 Bucks a Pop (7BAP) provides us with a feed of their sales, and Squad members assign those sales to matching database items. 7BAP has a very strict grading system, so we consider everything they've graded 7.5 or higher as Near Mint, and thus qualify for inclusion in the Price Guide.
Other Retailers
We hope to integrate sales from more online shops in the future. If you own an independent store and are interested in including your sales in the hobbyDB Price Guide, please contact us! We are particularly interested if your store sells more than just currently produced items at retail prices.
Team Verified Sales
A direct or private sale can be added as a Price Point if there is a YouTube video or other publicly available documentation of the transaction. To use a direct sale we must have this information:
- Transaction Date
- Seller Name
- Price paid
- Video or photos of all sides of the item to prove the item is in near-mint or mint condition.
These Price Points will be individually reviewed by hobbyDB staff members or select Squad members for verification before being accepted into the Price Guide.
Price Points We Don't Use
Online sales which can't be verified
The vast majority of our members would report prices correctly and honestly, but it would open the door for the small number of people who like to take advantage of others to manipulate the Estimated Values in our Price Guide. To preserve the integrity of our Price Guide we do not have plans to allow adding Price Points from unverifiable sources. However, in the future, we might allow adding these prices separately as references without including them in the Estimated Value calculation.
That being said, we do accept submissions of individual transactions and review them for possible inclusion in the Price Guide. If you have made a purchase or sale through one of these platforms and would like to submit it, please see our page about Team Verified Sales.
Future Plans
We have plans to add more types of Price Points! Some of these are listed below, and for more on our vision for the Price Guide see our blog post, Vision for the hobbyDB Value Guide.
The "Price Paid" recorded in your hobbyDB collection
When you add an item to your collection on hobbyDB you have the option to record the price you paid for the item. These prices are not recorded in the Price Guide right now, but we plan to show these as additional reference points. But again, since we can't confirm those prices we still won't use them to calculate Estimated Values. This could also include prices for items you sold privately. We might even add the ability for the buyer to confirm the transaction.
The intelligence of the community (or "nudging")
We plan to allow members of the site to nudge values up or down. Like many other types of Price Points, this is probably more valuable for rare items that otherwise would not have much or any pricing data. We would show who nudged the price and would therefore be transparent. Like other types of Price Points, we will allow members to set by default if they want to see this type of data or not.
