NostoNews, December 1, 2012 by Tommy Jasmin Mixed pricing removed from site We are scratching a few things of the ToDo list for the site, taking care of some prep needed for further improvements. We are close to having the work done to indicate "theoretcial values" on the site, and this should be live next month, coinciding with the new pricing data we will unveil on January 1st of the new year. So what do we mean by theoretical values? These are simply the value we compute, and show, on the site for items which may not and in many cases most likely do not exist. For completeness sake, and because our algorithms are smart enough to do it, we compute values for all grades and all certification companies. As an example, we all know that we can be pretty certain an Action Comics 1 in CGC NM/MT 9.8 probably does not exist. But our code is smart enough to predict (and the accuracy of this has been proven over and over) that if a CGC 9.8 did turn up, it would sell for $6.9 million dollars. However, when people see these values on the site, typically they react with disbelief, or skepticism. I remember when I first showed Josh Nathanson of ComicLink the site, and a detailed pricing page like this. He looked at the numbers, and in two words, replied "that's bullshit". Like I said, theoretical values. In any case, we decided we now have enough sales in our database (millions of actual sales!) that we can process all these and simply highlight items for which no actual sales have been recorded. Simple, and we're sure our Premium Subscribers will find this a valuable addition to the site. Meanwhile, this month, we finally did away with our "mixed pricing". Ok, what's this you ask? For some reason, at the top level of our pricing pages (available to Basic/Free users and Premium Subscribers), we have always shown blended numbers - an average of both raw and certified values. I think this is a historical artifact of attempting to show numbers similar to what Overstreet shows. The site has been live for 12 years now, so for a time we must have figured this was useful information. We finally realized this data really serves to purpose (it's certainly not used to compute your collection values, rest assured), and so did away with it. Speaking of collection values - we highly recommend all Premium Subscribers print out their collection values and hand a copy to their insurance agents - you do know that comics are typically not covered unless you provide accurate documentation of actual value, right? And right now Nostomania is the only game in town to provide that. See y'all next month, happy holidays! Thanks, we'll see you all next month. Visit our NostoNews Archive.