eBay Selling Price Guides -- Interesting Article in WSJ

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Posted By: botn

The average sales price of a particular card sold on eBay is not information that I would deem as being relevant. There are far too many factors that influence data that eBay could (will) use that will render this statistic useless. If the data is not thoroughly analyzed before the average price is computed we may actually get a price from them on the numerous T206 Wagners that sell every week. Garbage in garbage out.

I do however feel that since inception eBay has compiled tremendous data. The raw data of completed auctions would be great to have access to. Similar to what Teletrade offered. It was not a price guide, per se but a database of prices realized going back years. The information that ebay possesses is even more impressive due to the sheer numbers of items sold and the frequency with which they are sold, making the final prices more relevant.

This is a "guide" that I would pay for. In fact 3 years ago I approached eBay with a business model for a website that would present closing prices for all card sales using their data along with all of the other major auction houses. eBay was not willing to make the information available or partner with us.