improper calculation of the market value

[tyclin]

First of all, thanks for the effort made to maintain this website. I believe what I found was possibly discussed before..... I understand the calculation of the market value is averaged out based on the sales from ebay. However, I have noticed that sometimes for example, for a certain set, if you look in detail about the listing from ebay, you would see some listing has nothing to do with this specific set because the description might contain some info about a certain set but not necessarily it is the listing for that specific set. I also notice the following, for example, 21017, imperial hotel, the market value is 76.33. if you look into the sales, there is one new sold for 22.95? how could that be possible? a 129.99 retail price only sold for 22.95. Then I look into the listing and realized why might have happened. There is a listing for 22 dollars for this set but it is only for instruction book. Could that be the reason this 22.95 sale is a instruction book sale, instead of the set but got calculated into the market value since the system can't differentiate whether that is a set or that is a booklet. If this is the case, the value could be pretty misleading. But how frequent does it happen? I don't know. Would the Admin know? Thanks.

[Alcarin]

It happens... how often i have no idea... Thing is for Value USED (if you have 100% complete and instruction) i easily add 10-15% value... For New I usually take that value as listed...

[daveblok]

Hello, I'm glad to hear someone with the same notice. I think your absolutely right, a lot of sets from the LOTR series were sold as new but without the minifigures. These listings pused the price far below their real value. But it also happens the other way up, when the listing say for example: Lego 7905 Tower Crane set + shovel and houses..... sold for 358 USD in used condition without the box or instructions. This auction pushes the collectable value to the top for set 7905. So you have to keep that in mind if your investing in Lego and uses this site as a guideline. It's still a fantastic site and I will say a big thank to the administrators! Thanks

[stephen_rockefeller]

Yes stuff like this happens from time to time........its not an exact science. The problem could be easily fixed if people would list their items correctly but I don't see that happening.

[TheOrcKing]

Yes stuff like this happens from time to time........its not an exact science. The problem could be easily fixed if people would list their items correctly but I don't see that happening.

Yep, it could be.

Some people are just doodie heads.

[CNH1974]

I think Ed/Jeff remove the outliers when they see them but with 9000+ sets to monitor it is a bit difficult. One of the hobbit sets has a used value of

[Jeff Mack]

Yes, what everyone here said is true. When there are new sets, it usually takes a few months to get solid data to find out where the high and low points are. This was a perfect example of just not enough information.

So what should be done?

No need to create a forum so that everyone will think our data is bad Just send either Ed or myself a PM from the forum and say "Please look at set ????, something doesn't seem right with the numbers" and we will look into quickly to find the bad listings.

[CNH1974]

Now I am gonna have to remember all the sets with dodgy pricing on Actually a lot are from the 80s where sales are so low that you will never get enough to give a realistic value. I cannot wait until you add the UK data as I will like to see what the differences are, on new and classic sets between the UK & US. For example 10029 is listed as a US price of

[Ed Mack]

Now I am gonna have to remember all the sets with dodgy pricing on

Actually a lot are from the 80s where sales are so low that you will never get enough to give a realistic value.

I cannot wait until you add the UK data as I will like to see what the differences are, on new and classic sets between the UK & US. For example 10029 is listed as a US price of

[CNH1974]

Cool, any chance of putting the screen shots up to whet our appetites? And you are probably being asked this hourly, but what are the timescales?