Go Collect vs GPA 2 2

[Chicago Boy]

Preference ?

[HENRYSPENCER]

GPA

[ender]

I will admit that I have never heard of Gocollect, until this was posted, but after looking it does look nice and can't wait to hear opinions of more informed folks than me.  Admittedly it doesn't take a lot to be more informed than me. 

[CKinTO]

I used GoCollect before their site re-design, and GPA since. To me, I find GPA to be "the standard" when negotiating prices for books (ie. "90-day GPA" for liquid books, or "GPA Last Sale"), but that's probably because it was the only game in town for so long.

Having used both, what I really liked about GoCollect is that for every sale, you can click through and see pictures of the book (that I believe they download and store). This to me is HUGE in terms of vetting GPA data, to try and understand high or low outliers. It's also nice that it's a bit cheaper ($5.99 vs $10.99/month)

Now, the downside of GoCollect was that it only used EBay as a source - so didn't collect as much data as GPA. I think that's starting to change though.

[Chicago Boy]

15 minutes ago, CKinTO said:

I used GoCollect before their site re-design, and GPA since. To me, I find GPA to be "the standard" when negotiating prices for books (ie. "90-day GPA" for liquid books, or "GPA Last Sale"), but that's probably because it was the only game in town for so long.

Having used both, what I really liked about GoCollect is that for every sale, you can click through and see pictures of the book (that I believe they download and store). This to me is HUGE in terms of vetting GPA data, to try and understand high or low outliers. It's also nice that it's a bit cheaper ($5.99 vs $10.99/month)

Now, the downside of GoCollect was that it only used EBay as a source - so didn't collect as much data as GPA. I think that's starting to change though.

 Thanks for the thorough take on that. From what I hear now they use, connect, heritage, clink and eBay    I was under the impression though that clink didn’t get their information out?  That piece about being able to see the books is fantastic 

[jhm]

For those who don't know me - I own GoCollect and am an avid GA collector. I've used GPA for years (and still do). I made GoCollect, because GPA fell short for me in a few areas. GPA has one main benefit over GoCollect - displayable sales data from the most popular online sellers.

GoCollect gathers from eBay via automated methods and uses employees to manually harvest data from HAKES, HA, CLINK and CCONNECT. GoCollect does not display sales prices, but does list the sales and links to the original sale. IMO, this is fantastic for doing research on images of the books being sold. It never ceases to amaze me how often I find a book I'm interested in at auction that's now in a new holder with a slightly higher grade. The images from eBay are always included on-site.

Since I'm posting on the topic, I'll give GoCollect a plug regarding what I see as some of the other benefits...

1. Integrated CGC data (charts and such plus a really nice cert lookup tool)
2. Easier to search (search for a comic with the number instead of having to find the series first)
3. We track "the other guys" too
4. Mobile friendly
5. Pictures of the comics you're trying lookup
6. A valuation modeling tool "Modeler" (I made this as a GA collector that's based on Gerber's valuation method - would love feedback)
7. The ability to "watch" for sales
8. And other things - I'll stop now - thanks for listening

Thanks for the question @Chicago Boy

[Tbone911t]

Always been a GPA fan but I recently started comparing both. I feel GPA may have been surpassed.....

This week I was moving an AF 15 cgc 2.0 - GPA 2018 lists 1 copy, Gocollect 2018 lists 7 copies

 

[CKinTO]

1 hour ago, jhm said:

GoCollect gathers from eBay via automated methods and uses employees to manually harvest data from HAKES, HA, CLINK and CCONNECT. GoCollect does not display sales prices, but does list the sales and links to the original sale.

I appreciate the info. I haven’t been a subscriber since before the big site redesign. To be clear, you no longer display the historical sales prices, even though you now track those other sites besides Ebay? That seems odd, is it a licensing issue? 

I would’ve thought if you had everything GPA did (including sales prices), but added the photos / searchability / other benefits you listed, that would be a definite advantage in my opinion and reason enough to switch back from GPA (not to mention you’re cheaper)

[jhm]

1 hour ago, CKinTO said:

I appreciate the info. I haven’t been a subscriber since before the big site redesign. To be clear, you no longer display the historical sales prices, even though you now track those other sites besides Ebay? That seems odd, is it a licensing issue? 

I would’ve thought if you had everything GPA did (including sales prices), but added the photos / searchability / other benefits you listed, that would be a definite advantage in my opinion and reason enough to switch back from GPA (not to mention you’re cheaper)

We display all sales prices for eBay and Hake's (and photos and listing info). None of the other sites have provided "permission" for us to list sales prices, but it's been a couple years since I've asked a couple of them.

FYI - there's a lot of functionality under the "Analyzer" button area that's not in the main comic page.

If any fellow GA fans subscribe to see all the features and don't like it, just shoot me a PM and I'll happily refund you.

[Ricksneatstuff]

@jhm I didn’t know about your site but I like it   

I did a membership and my initial impression is I like it better than GPA. A little more GA focus would be good for my liking, but I’m interested to dig in deeper.  

[thunsicker]

16 hours ago, jhm said:

A valuation modeling tool "Modeler" (I made this as a GA collector that's based on Gerber's valuation method - would love feedback)

Hey Jeff,

I kind of posted this in another thread, but can you tell me more about your model?  Without getting into specifics have you had anyone do a data dive to try and get relative prices for grade differences?  Relative prices for grade differences dependent on age of comic?  Relative prices for page quality?  Relative prices for last sale date?  e.g.  Does your data model  come up with information outside of the sales of the specific comic being analysed, or does it  just model on the comic being analysed and the prices realized for that comic.

Tim

[jhm]

@Ricksneatstuff I'd be curious for your thoughts on what you'd like to see on the GA side.

@thunsicker here are some answers...

can you tell me more about your model?
Each comic has its own model. The theory is based on Gerber's RVI method. The difference is that Gerber assumed all comics would sell in a relative fashion by grade (i.e. Very Fine (0.62 RVI) would always be valued at 1.55 times a Fine (0.40 RVI) graded copy). The sales data proves very different. This is all really tough to see in GA books because any given issue sells far less frequently then its change in demand. If you were to do some lookups on Silver/Bronze books, the variances become much more apparent. See how the models of AF15 and Hulk181 differ in the screenshot below (anyone can generate these in the Modeler section of any comic). So the system first attempts to find the relative values of a single comic by grade. Once those relative values are found for a comic, Gerber's rule applies... where you can then take any given sale to determine the value of another grade.

have you had anyone do a data dive to try and get relative prices for grade differences?
Yes, but again it's flawed for GA books due to sale frequency. Your further questions are getting to the best answers (unless I'm misunderstanding your question).

Relative prices for grade differences dependent on age of comic?
Now you're speaking my language! But, as of now, we're not doing any cross-comic relative modeling. It's definitely on the radar, but we're waiting for a more comprehensive assignment of comics in the GoCollect database to comics in the CGC census. A census association is the cornerstone for a lot of the modeling we do. Once that's more complete (it's getting close), we'll look to incorporate this analysis. We may even bypass it and allow machine learning to interpret. The key is finding the right books to compare... and year isn't always the best measure. Imagine Spirit #22 relative to Western Love #5. We'll get there.

Relative prices for page quality?
We don't track page quality as a data point. However, we do have millions of image associations so it is a possibility down the down with a bit of image interpretation. Speaking of which - I hope to roll out our CGC barcode scanner soon for easier in-person value/census lookups.

[Ricksneatstuff]

On 7/18/2018 at 7:13 PM, jhm said:

For those who don't know me - I own GoCollect and am an avid GA collector. I've used GPA for years (and still do). I made GoCollect, because GPA fell short for me in a few areas. GPA has one main benefit over GoCollect - displayable sales data from the most popular online sellers.

GoCollect gathers from eBay via automated methods and uses employees to manually harvest data from HAKES, HA, CLINK and CCONNECT. GoCollect does not display sales prices, but does list the sales and links to the original sale. IMO, this is fantastic for doing research on images of the books being sold. It never ceases to amaze me how often I find a book I'm interested in at auction that's now in a new holder with a slightly higher grade. The images from eBay are always included on-site.

Since I'm posting on the topic, I'll give GoCollect a plug regarding what I see as some of the other benefits...

1. Integrated CGC data (charts and such plus a really nice cert lookup tool)
2. Easier to search (search for a comic with the number instead of having to find the series first)
3. We track "the other guys" too
4. Mobile friendly
5. Pictures of the comics you're trying lookup
6. A valuation modeling tool "Modeler" (I made this as a GA collector that's based on Gerber's valuation method - would love feedback)
7. The ability to "watch" for sales
8. And other things - I'll stop now - thanks for listening

Thanks for the question @Chicago Boy

OK, I tried the site for a month now and I like it but it still needs help in some areas to achieve comic Nirvana.

There is missing pricing data in some of the more obscure golden age books that is available on GPA. Maybe a lot of it is 5+ years old but it still gives some information on tough books that sometimes I am unable to find on Gocollect as of now.

The biggest issue is that A LOT of the links to sales in HA, CC and especially C Link are dead links and it would be the only place to find the pricing data on many books. This really defeats the whole purpose. It would be great if you had links to screenshots of final sale prices and the books that were purchased instead of the dead links.

I think your site is MUCH better to navigate than GPA and it is great to go to a specific issue so easily. I love that you get to see the actual book that was purchased because it explains a lot of price disparities. When the issues are corrected I will be back and very excited to use GoCollect as my main source. 

[october]

On 7/18/2018 at 9:06 PM, jhm said:

We display all sales prices for eBay and Hake's (and photos and listing info). None of the other sites have provided "permission" for us to list sales prices, but it's been a couple years since I've asked a couple of them.

 

I understand why you can't show the prices scraped from auction houses that have not given permission, but are you allowed to account for those numbers in your FMV estimates?

In other words, if CLink sold a copy of Adventure 210 in 7.0 recently, but no other venues have, will the FMV estimate you give be near/at that number?

The big selling point of your site is access to data from sites that don't disclose to GPA. I don't want to pay for the same raw data through two services.  

[ThothAmon]

Mostly what @Ricksneatstuff said.  To be honest having the census data pop up at the same time is great when I'm trying to post in the under 10 in the Census thread.  GPA is great but the interface could use a little updating.

[path4play]

On 7/19/2018 at 8:33 PM, jhm said:

@Ricksneatstuff I'd be curious for your thoughts on what you'd like to see on the GA side.

@thunsicker here are some answers...

can you tell me more about your model?
Each comic has its own model. The theory is based on Gerber's RVI method. The difference is that Gerber assumed all comics would sell in a relative fashion by grade (i.e. Very Fine (0.62 RVI) would always be valued at 1.55 times a Fine (0.40 RVI) graded copy). The sales data proves very different. This is all really tough to see in GA books because any given issue sells far less frequently then its change in demand. If you were to do some lookups on Silver/Bronze books, the variances become much more apparent. See how the models of AF15 and Hulk181 differ in the screenshot below (anyone can generate these in the Modeler section of any comic). So the system first attempts to find the relative values of a single comic by grade. Once those relative values are found for a comic, Gerber's rule applies... where you can then take any given sale to determine the value of another grade. 

have you had anyone do a data dive to try and get relative prices for grade differences?
Yes, but again it's flawed for GA books due to sale frequency. Your further questions are getting to the best answers (unless I'm misunderstanding your question).

Relative prices for grade differences dependent on age of comic?
Now you're speaking my language! But, as of now, we're not doing any cross-comic relative modeling. It's definitely on the radar, but we're waiting for a more comprehensive assignment of comics in the GoCollect database to comics in the CGC census. A census association is the cornerstone for a lot of the modeling we do. Once that's more complete (it's getting close), we'll look to incorporate this analysis. We may even bypass it and allow machine learning to interpret. The key is finding the right books to compare... and year isn't always the best measure. Imagine Spirit #22 relative to Western Love #5. We'll get there.

Relative prices for page quality?
We don't track page quality as a data point. However, we do have millions of image associations so it is a possibility down the down with a bit of image interpretation. Speaking of which - I hope to roll out our CGC barcode scanner soon for easier in-person value/census lookups.

I'm geeking out and lovin' it

 

 

Edited August 21, 2018 by path4play

[archiefan]

2 hours ago, october said:

I understand why you can't show the prices scraped from auction houses that have not given permission, but are you allowed to account for those numbers in your FMV estimates?

In other words, if CLink sold a copy of Adventure 210 in 7.0 recently, but no other venues have, will the FMV estimate you give be near/at that number?

The big selling point of your site is access to data from sites that don't disclose to GPA. I don't want to pay for the same raw data through two services.  

You know I have always been a bit confused by this. Isn't all auction sales data a matter of public record? The auction house may refuse to freely give out that intel but if you can obtain it through other means I would have thought it valid. I am not sure how public auction data can be deemed proprietary

[gpanalysis]

1 hour ago, ThothAmon said:

GPA is great but the interface could use a little updating.

New responsive interface coming soon - you'll love it  - in development for over a year, and in testing stage now.

[jimbo_7071]

I have a question about GPA. A while back I purchased a book on eBay that was listed at $600 with the best'-offer option enabled. I made an offer and, after a counter-offer, purchased the book for $500. However, when I search eBay, it shows that the book sold for $600, the original buy-it-now price, not the $500 that was negotiated. Which amount would show up in GPA?

[Superman2006]

16 minutes ago, jimbo_7071 said:

I have a question about GPA. A while back I purchased a book on eBay that was listed at $600 with the best'-offer option enabled. I made an offer and, after a counter-offer, purchased the book for $500. However, when I search eBay, it shows that the book sold for $600, the original buy-it-now price, not the $500 that was negotiated. Which amount would show up in GPA?

Not sure, but if you have GPA, try looking it up. If you don't have GPA, provide the book, grade, and sale date, and I or someone else can look it up (maybe you have an old email from eBay that would provide that info)...