[RESOLVED] ...pre-release dates being entered in "Date Bought"?

[KidTDragon]

When I enter purchases into my collection, I tend to enter the day I paid for an item under "Date Bought" rather than the day I received the item or the day the item came out.  Recently I noticed that my entries whose "Date Bought" date was earlier than the release date had the Date Bought blanked out (ex: release date is 12/30/2012, bought date entered as 6/30/2012).

Does entering a "Date Bought" date that's earlier than the listed release date cause a problem in the database? Should I stop doing that and just use the release date as the "Date Bought" for pre-orders?

[engledogg]

Yeah, the system doesn't like any "date bought" that is prior to the actual release date of the toy, so go ahead and just use the release date as the date bought for anything that you pre-order.

I wasn't aware of dates getting blanked out, so that could either be a bug or the system's way of expressing dislike of the date entered.

I'm sure shmax will be along shortly, so hold tight. 

MIKE
engledogg

[shmax]

Well, for starters, I'm trying to remember why we decided not to allow pre-release-date "date bought" data. Do you remember, Ed?

Assuming we had a good reason, I seem to recall that the UI was not even supposed to allow you to pick an "invalid" date using the calendar widget, as they were supposed to be greyed-out so you couldn't pick them, and that seems to be broken. Of course, I don't think we ever had any counter-measure in the UI for someone just typing in any date that want directly, but the back end probably did something.

So, I guess we should start by deciding if those early dates should be allowed. Discuss!

[engledogg]

I would say no.  Depending on where you pre-order, you get charged at different times for those pre-orders.

If you preorder something at BBTS, you're charged when the item comes in stock as pre-orders can be changed or even canceled (ask anyone that had the First Edition Prime figures on preorder there).  So, with BBTS, you don't technically own the item until they get it in stock. 

Let's say you pre-order (on July 3, 2012) something with a hard release date, like a BBTS-exclusive that they know will be in stock on September 15, 2012.  Since you're not charged until they actually get it in stock, September 15 would be the date of purchase (as well as the release date) as you can't buy something that doesn't exist yet.

Now, with something with no hard release date, let's consider this overly-complicated scenario.

You pre-order something at BBTS on February 25, 2012 that is in an upcoming wave that they estimate will be in stock June 2012. 

The item in question ends up being released June 4th (let's say that it was spotted at a Walmart in Tuscaloosa), so June 4th is the release date that we have in the system.

BBTS eventually gets their stock in June 15th, and since you kept your preorder with BBTS, the actual date of your purchase is June 15th, even though you pre-ordered back in February.

Now, other places will charge you for the pre-order upfront, so with these stores, even though you were charged for it in advance, you don't own it until it has been officially released, again as pre-orders can be canceled at any time.

So, I'm sticking with the official release date as allowing "pre-order" dates throws off "present-time" completion percentages, the number of people that actually own the item in question, the top collectors for the category the item is in, eBay appraisal data (values and dates) and so on.

MIKE
engledogg

[SoS]

So, I guess we should start by deciding if those early dates should be allowed. Discuss!

Personally, I'd go with no. It's like saying I own Darksiders II. I payed for the game upfront when I pre-ordered it at GameStop, but I won't get it until release day: August 14, 2012.

So, I'm sticking with the official release date as allowing "pre-order" dates throws off "present-time" completion percentages, the number of people that actually own the item in question, the top collectors for the category the item is in, eBay appraisal data (values and dates) and so on.

MIKE
engledogg

Ditto.

If anything, you can always use the comment field and note that item was payed for upon preorder and add the date there.


--SoS

[shmax]

Okay, well, so far it sounds like we're going to go with no pre-release date-bought data. I'll investigate why the UI is not behaving as expected, and make sure that the dates are validated at the time of entry even if you type it in by hand.

[KidTDragon]

Okey dokey. I'll get to modifying my dates then.

For the record, I was typing the dates in; the calendar is working properly (greying out dates before the release date).

BTW, don't know if this is related to my date-fudging, but when I downloaded my collection, all the purchase dates were listed as 1970/01/01. I'll fix my dates and let you know if this changes when I download again.

EDIT: Nope, it didn't. Unless I missed a date somewhere.

[shmax]

You say ALL your purchase dates are borked in the downloaded data, or only some?

[KidTDragon]

All.

[shmax]

Nice one, that's been broken for a while. Fixed. Thanks for the report.

[shmax]

Still mulling how best to handle pre-release "date bought" data from the text input field in the collection UI. I think I want to include this as part of some API refactoring work I started a few weeks ago, and develop sort of a general error-reporting system that I can tie into for issues like this date bought business. So it might be a while...

[shmax]

I've finished the aforementioned API work, and also done some UI hijinx such that if you try to type in a date that is before the earliest release date, you get a little, gently chastising pop-up. You'll also get a message for typing in ill-formed dates (ie. "05/foo/3"). Thanks, guys.