New/Sealed Price Database

Do we need the screenshots from ebay?
We can just write it down...or is it too much work?
Like this:

Valkyrie Profile sealed - 302,22 Dollar - 12.11.2007 (auction ended in the morning 9 a.m.)
Valkyrie Profile sealed - 343,22 Dollar - 26.11.2007 (auction ended in the prime time)
Valkyrie Profile sealed (small crack) - 244,11 Dollar - 02.12.2007 (....)

Pascal wrote:programm has been finished but I got a mail from ebay that this is against there copyrights.
You are not allowed to make any screenshots of there auctions to save them in a database !

So I think we can not do this !

I think Digital Press have some kind of database where they store various eBay auctions... I'mnot sure if it's allowed, or if it's for public viewing, but they have one...

Pascal wrote:hehe thats definitly wrong!
I wrote that it is a non commercial project.
The answer was that everyone can save screenshots for his own use but you are not allowed to upload them and present them on any webpage ...

but if you want you can write a mail to ebay.com too and ask again ... maybe you have more luck

ohh i see.
Well. Then we need some kind of simple input field on the website attached to database table.
Where people can select post information like :
1) Title
2) Platform
3) date
4) end price
5) comments

and when a user adds information it is added to a database and shown in a huge list as a table.
Even no search required i guess since you can search CTRL+F by title.

Actually digitpress as far as i know have NO any ebay-storing capabilities on their website.
They have their own online rarity price guide. And numerous ebay links on the forums. And that's all. No screenshot database..

yeah but without screenshots the whole thing is useless!
For any price or rarity questions we can use our "What's it worth" section ....

Pascal wrote:yeah but without screenshots the whole thing is useless!
For any price or rarity questions we can use our "What's it worth" section ....

And what's so useful in screenshots?
You can get tonns on ebay
All sealed games are almost the same. And if they are not - it can be added in comments.
I think prices is what we needed in order to estimate future purchases.

yeah but the users who cannot add anything to those lists must trust that those ebay prices are really correct !
That is why i want some screenshots ... because after 3 month you cannot see any ended auctions and in the list for example is an entry:

Final Fantasy VII $600 12/12/2006 ...

"hmm okay is that fact true? I would say maybe ... or no? hmm can I trust those guys? $600 ? hmm ... no ... its useless"
I think this is a normal reaction when you see any facts without any evidence !

Furthermore we can use our "What's it worth" section like I said if we only want to save some prices and other written facts...

Pascal wrote:yeah but the users who cannot add anything to those lists must trust that those ebay prices are really correct !
That is why i want some screenshots ... because after 3 month you cannot see any ended auctions and in the list for example is an entry:

Final Fantasy VII $600 12/12/2006 ...

"hmm okay is that fact true? I would say maybe ... or no? hmm can I trust those guys? $600 ? hmm ... no ... its useless"
I think this is a normal reaction when you see any facts without any evidence !

ehh Trust? Damn they have no other options available "by default" except trust.
All people here are sealed-mad. Whom else they can trust?? It is not a site for noobs or casual gamers. It's for a trustworthy badass collectors who trust same badass collectors.
Everyone can easily grab sealed pictures from google so it's a not a panacea.

Sooo...after a little conversation with Pascal we decided that screenshots are NOT useful
If someboy say game xxx went for xxx Dollar/Euro we (all the other members of sgh) have the opportunity to check it on ebay (ended auctions) if it's true.
If we CAN'T check it, because the auction ended 1 month ago, the price will not appear in the database.

Example:

1.
Sammelhammel say: a sealed Valkyrie Profile ended last week for 333.33 Dollar
Your opportunity: Trust me or check it (auctions from last week are on ebay)
The game will occur in the database if it's true or if you trust me.

2.
Sammelhammel say: a sealed FF VIII ended 4 month ago for 123,23 Dollar
Your opportunity: Trust me (it will occur in the database) or don't trust me (it will not occur in the database, cause we can not check it anymore)


That's it.....now we just have to make clear how we gonna start and "where" the database is...

Dark Sol wrote:Actually digitpress as far as i know have NO any ebay-storing capabilities on their website.
They have their own online rarity price guide. And numerous ebay links on the forums. And that's all. No screenshot database..

Like I said, I don't think it's public, but they do have some kind of separate system hidden somewhere forstoring various information. If I recall, they usually use it at Xmas time for one of their "12 days of Xmas" threads, where forumites are challenged to create weird and wacky gaming related auctions, and whoever wins the challenge wins a prize ~ These entries are stored on some kind of HTML based database, where the auctions can be called upon at anytime, from now until the end of the internet... I'm not sure how they do it (It could just be a case of moderators saving the auctions as a simple HTML file), but they definitely have something similar to what we need here...

this could be good and bad.

the good: for us collectors, its great since its easier to find out how much its worth sealed. digital press has a database for all things used games, but not sealed. ebay is where you can track all of these prices.

the bad: developers and publishers will not like any of this and i can assure you that. for them, games are meant to be played and not to be kept sealed. why? word of mouth is a powerful thing. if gamer A meets gamer B and tells him that a certain game is good, then he might end up buying it. count as a sale. think of it as the movies. if youre unsure about a movie, you ask a friend if they've seen it. reviews are good but its still better to have hands on experience. this could also take a bad turn and turn everyone into a day trader. where people just want to make extra money on the side by either buying 1 or massive amounts of the game.

take for instance the Wii console situation where nintendo is obviously controlling inventory. see here. last week there were 19,000 Wii consoles on ebay alone. if the majority of the people are for it to be played, then thats great! but i think more than half of the stock went into either ebay or amazon or even craigslist. its not that im against that, heck i just sold a wii myself last night! but my real concern is that if people could find out that X game goes for say, $90 on ebay and you could still find them in stores for retail price then the situation could turn into the Wii where instead of making nearly double or more of what you paid for you end up with a so-so amount. if people are to maximize their profits for selling a certain game on ebay, then they should sell at the right moment.

but maybe i'm thinking more into it that i should. but theres certainly more to it without any doubt. do i like the idea? yes and no for the reasons i stated. but good luck with the list nontheless

Ok, shame about not being allowed to take screenshots of ebay...

Here is what I propose instead as formal verifcation process:

1) User posts a new entry (say an auction that finished on ebay or yahoo auctions japan)
2) User provides a link to the finished auction
3) Crew members verify the link and auction price details matches the user's entry
4) If verified, a tick is placed in a verification column together with the crew members name (should be able to support multiple crew members if multiple people verify it)
5) If it can't be verified, listing is removed.
6) Ebay links can last usually 90 days - after the link is dead, remove it and just replace it with the ebay auction number (same for yahoo auctions)

That way, hopefully the integrity (which is the MOST important thing) and credibility of the database is maintained. Hopefully then in the future, it can become a trusted source for new/sealed prices and we will hopefully see a reduction of some crazy listed prices because people come to here to check first. Well thats my hope anyway

Also a possibility: to email the original person who hosted the auction item to provide a picture that can then be uploaded on this site if they are happy with that or if agree that we can use the ones on ebay/yahoo etc.

type-r wrote:Ok, shame about not being allowed to take screenshots of ebay...

Here is what I propose instead as formal verifcation process:

1) User posts a new entry (say an auction that finished on ebay or yahoo auctions japan)
2) User provides a link to the finished auction
3) Crew members verify the link and auction price details matches the user's entry
4) If verified, a tick is placed in a verification column together with the crew members name (should be able to support multiple crew members if multiple people verify it)
5) If it can't be verified, listing is removed.
6) Ebay links can last usually 90 days - after the link is dead, remove it and just replace it with the ebay auction number (same for yahoo auctions)

That way, hopefully the integrity (which is the MOST important thing) and credibility of the database is maintained. Hopefully then in the future, it can become a trusted source for new/sealed prices and we will hopefully see a reduction of some crazy listed prices because people come to here to check first. Well thats my hope anyway

Also a possibility: to email the original person who hosted the auction item to provide a picture that can then be uploaded on this site if they are happy with that or if agree that we can use the ones on ebay/yahoo etc.

damn it's a pain in the ass process..

I really like that. Something like that would be nice.

Personally i don't think it's that much of a pain - verifications can be done weekly for example. Doesn't need to be done every hour. It's certainly one way of maintaining the integrity of the site rather than just saying "you can trust us" which is what I think videogamecharts.com is saying. If anyone can think of a better idea, then please do suggest it...

I think that is a good idea type-r!
better than the hole "you can trust us" scenario ...

type-r wrote:I really like that. Something like that would be nice.

Personally i don't think it's that much of a pain - verifications can be done weekly for example. Doesn't need to be done every hour. It's certainly one way of maintaining the integrity of the site rather than just saying "you can trust us" which is what I think videogamecharts.com is saying. If anyone can think of a better idea, then please do suggest it...

i think your idea is good, but the problem is after 90 days i dont think anyone would wanna track it down again unless they want to sell that particular item. what we could do is a quick SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (should take a quick pic of the auction) and then store it if they want verification, then they can access it personally from here. OR, we could just do TITLE, AUCTION #, SELLERS NAME, BIDDERS NAME, TIME AND END DATE, PRICE or maybe even provide the link. like what you suggested. im not sure about ebays privacy policy. we might not be allowed to use the picture or to use any of the registered names.

like I said taking screenshots of any auctions is not allowed for puplic use !

Pascal wrote:like I said taking screenshots of any auctions is not allowed for puplic use !

really? i didnt know that.. i guess you would have to ask for permission from ebay..

I already asked for permission and they said it is not allowed to use any screenshot of any ebay page for puplic use!

Keep images for members only and the rest for the public?

I asked this question too but they said that they can only allow the offline use ... so you are not allowed to upload those pics -.-

Heh.

we are working on a solution for our sealed price database!
so stay tuned!