A lot of people have been wondering why we don't use the member collection data we have to flesh-out the appraisal system. Well, it's a great idea, but I've been dreading the work because there was a huge flaw in our data. See, back when I was a younger and happier Shmax (re: dumber), and was first designing the collection tracking system, I was determined to make the "Add to my collection" button be strictly one-click. To that end, I tried to come up with reasonable default values for everything. I thought I was being very clever by defaulting the "Date bought" field to the date that the toy was released on. I figured that most people probably buy a toy roughly when it hits the shelves, and that there would be no problem.
The trouble, of course, is that when we're computing appraisal data, we need to be sure that the "date bought" information is at least reasonably trustworthy. See the problem, yet? Well, let's say you're an uber-collector, and you just bought a sealed g1 "Optimus Prime" for $3000. You go to add it to your collection. You click the "Add button", and the little shiny row appears. You enter the "price paid", but you don't pay any attention to the "date bought", because it's already filled-in with something, in this case "01/01/1985".
So if we were try to create a graph of data during that period, we'd see these crazy spikes of thousands of dollars mixed in with the $12-15 retail data points we would expect.
I decided to finally confront the problem, and I'm afraid a lot of you uber-collectors aren't going to like the solution I came up with much--I wiped out all "date bought" data for all collection records where the "date bought" exactly matched the release date, and was older than 6 months. Please don't hate me. Before you go running off for torches and pitchforks, be aware that I've made it easy for you to spot the changes, and to fix them. You've probably already noticed the blinking number at the top of the page; this is showing how many items in your collection now have a blanked "date bought" value. Click on the "View Alerts" option in the Membership menu, and you'll see a list of all the items that need your attention.
There are 3 ways to make one of these alerts go away:
- you can re-set the "date bought" to something (don't be afraid to use the "release date" shortcut, if that was indeed correct) using the calendar widget.
- if you really don't know when you bought the toy, or you just don't care but are annoyed by the alert, you can click the alert icon, then click "Dismiss Alert".
- You can do nothing and just wait until August 14th, 2011, when the alert will expire all by itself and fade away.
The good news is that our collection data set is now pure enough to start augmenting the appraisal system with your data. There's still some work to be done on that, but in short it means that as long you enter what you paid for each toy you buy, there will always be at least one data point for the appraisal, which means that the value should be as accurate as possible.
Sorry again for this, folks. If you want to blame somebody, blame Shmax of 3 years ago for not thinking ahead, and be glad that the appraisal system is about to go from interesting novelty to razor-sharp tool of inifinite awesomeness.
Shmax of 3 years ago, I blame 455 notices to you!!!! But I understand your issue...
I'm going to blame Engledogg. He doesn't get beat up enough, and I'll bet he's mixed up in this somehow ;)
(I have 102 alerts)..not too bad.
in opera, when I click the yellow warning symbol, the page just greys out without an actual message appearing...
Don't blame me, HP - I've got quite a few !s to take care of, myself. I'm not going to say how many, but it's up there. :)
MIKE
engledogg
A button "I don't know" would be usefull. I honestly don't remember when I bough all of my collection.
Right now, I can get away with it by saving a date, then saving nothing.
A button "I don't know" would be usefull. I honestly don't remember when I bough all of my collection
Just click "Dismiss Alert". That will make it go away, and leave the date field blank.
in opera, when I click the yellow warning symbol, the page just greys out without an actual message appearing...
I'll check it out right now...
in opera, when I click the yellow warning symbol, the page just greys out without an actual message appearing..
Fixed! Thanks for the report.
another bug? My flashing number on top says 203, but when I go to the page it only has 201 products...
another bug? My flashing number on top says 203, but when I go to the page it only has 201 products...
The numbers won't necessarily match if you have "multiples" of a toy.
another bug? My flashing number on top says 203, but when I go to the page it only has 201 products...
The numbers won't necessarily match if you have "multiples" of a toy.
thanks... I figured it out as I was passing out to sleep.
OH DEAR GOD!
So many angry messages!!
Glad you are re-jigging the pricing system. As much as its a personal hobby, I'm glad there is commercial merit and any effort to improve the accuracy of these entries should always be the goal.
Good luck to all.
Since the alerts first appeared, we've cleared more than 2000 flags! Yee-haw, keep 'em coming!
Makes me wish I kept track of when I got items now... :|
Makes me wish I kept track of when I got items now...
Ballpark is fine, just do your best...
Well under 400 alert to go now....
Of course this would be a great time to remove the repetition in my collection between all the US and Canadian releases, however some of the Canadian toys just aren't listed.
Any chance of lumping Canadian value data with US data? Its only the bilingual packaging that's different. Obviously keep it separate in the database but on the charts all data per character mold or something might be cool to look at.
Thanks again!
some of the Canadian toys just aren't listed
If you're sure your toys are of Canadian origin, and you're sure they aren't listed, then you'll be our hero if you add them to the database (and you'll be priming the appraisal data for each one with a single data point!). Engledogg might be willing to help you do the work if you can tell him what needs to be done. Lumping Canadian and US appraisal data is a different discussion, but we should definitely have it some day.
By the way, I suspect a lot of Canadians have "cheated" by just adding the US toys to their collection. Guess what the next round of alerts will be?
I hope to contribute a little yes.
But my pictures aren't up to snuff yet, and I'm still learning about your site and its set up. (Thus being annoying)
I've bought 95% of my toys in Canada so they should all be Canadian in origin... although not all necessarily different from the US packaging.
By the way, I suspect a lot of Canadians have "cheated" by just adding the US toys to their collection. Guess what the next round of alerts will be?
Yes but I enjoy such high standings this way!!
I hope to contribute a little yes.
But my pictures aren't up to snuff yet, and I'm still learning about your site and its set up. (Thus being annoying)
I've bought 95% of my toys in Canada so they should all be Canadian in origin... although not all necessarily different from the US packaging.
Pictures would be awesome, but I'm talking about just creating the records--photos aren't required to create a product record. We definitely do want to have a complete Canadian branch, so let's go for it!
By the way, I suspect a lot of Canadians have "cheated" by just adding the US toys to their collection. Guess what the next round of alerts will be?
I can see that, definately if they only got the toy loose. A similar thing was brought up when I couldn't confirm whether or not the toy that came with my Canadian Astrotrain (it was MIB) was a US version or not... because the toys are actually the same. Sometimes you just have to guess!
3400 alerts cleared! Only--well, you don't want to know how many there are to go. Just keep a clearin'...
I'm hoping to clear out about 50 listings per day, but only do the Canadian and Japanese editions of my collection. Then roll the US listings into the Canadian section.
Great Job Shmax. Keep Up the good work. Cheers :)
Great Job Shmax. Keep Up the good work. Cheers
Now THAT'S what a first post is supposed to look like! Thank you, buddy, I'll do my best.
554 to go. I also just noticed I finally floated into the top ten collectors. Woot!
Nice work, RC. It's been a while since we've seen any movement in the top ten. That must have been some DOTM haul you picked up on Monday...
Nice work, RC. It's been a while since we've seen any movement in the top ten. That must have been some DOTM haul you picked up on Monday...
Pretty much everything except the Robo-Power figures...it also helped that my Gaiacross set came in.
Now, on the front page, I'm #9, but if I drill into my collection, it says I'm #17. Is one based on figure count and the other on dollar value?
The homepage is based on how many products you own out of the total list. A product can have more than 1 figure, etc. Your collection count, from what I understand, currently counts all of your figures and all of your accessories and doubles... etc and then grades you.
The homepage is based on how many products you own out of the total list. A product can have more than 1 figure, etc. Your collection count, from what I understand, currently counts all of your figures and all of your accessories and doubles... etc and then grades you.
It's something like that, yes. I don't think we count multiples--it's supposed to be a "completion" score--but otherwise no fancy magic happens. We just add up all the parts you own, and whoever has the most is the envy of us all. I hope you guys aren't getting
too obsessed with rank; I have to warn that we'll be overhauling the whole system as one of our few next big projects, and anything can happen...
Yeah, it doesn't really bother me. It's pretty cool, and it's been expensive getting there, but I'm not worried. I may be the highest rank with a significant number of loose figures, so I'm sure anything can happen with loose vs MISB/MOSC grading.
Down to 160 flashing thingies!
YAY!
Good to hear, Tusko, my man. We're nearing 12,000 cleared flags...
I was trying to go through my records to find some purchase dates for my internet purchases, but I am having problems with my computer locking up. It has nothing to do with Shmax, it happens on other websites too. But until I get that problem resolves, you won't see my 412 fall off.