BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

Interesting point - might need a bit more detail from Bricklink now. We understand
how the currency thing works in certain areas but we thought that the underlying
base currency for all prices was USD which Bricklink converts everything to and
then uses the xe.com exchange rate as and when necessary. So if what you are
saying is correct and the prices being shown for each country on the price guide
are converted directly from their currency to gbp that is a different story and
more thought would have to go into this. Unfortunately the help page isn't
really clear on how they are holding the currency from the outset. What you are
suggesting that if someone in India adds items in rupees then the system would
have to convert from rupees to gbp as well as any other currency and that would
be a different proposition entirely.

I would imagine so, as converting a to b to c doesn't always give a to c,
even at xe.com.

Agreed but the way most multicurrency systems work their is a base currency as
well as a reporting currency as well as individual, currencies. You define what
is the base and you advise how you wish that to be reported. You also have things
like spot rates, rate tables etc, which just about covers all angels. Here it
looks a little bit like a free-for all in trying to accommodate all frequencies.
In fact if this was the case the price guide is almost useless on current items
listed - as for those items sold - you would need to see what rate they were
converting at when they were sold and factor that in. All in all vry messy and
inaccurate. Mixing 37 different currencies into gbp is problematic at the best
of times.

Hmmm.

For example, right now, 1 USD = 0.878393 EUR and 1 USD = 0.777160 GBP. Also 1
EUR = 0.884895 GBP. (They use six sig figs).

1 USD = 1 USD, so 0.878393 EUR should equal 0.777160 GBP. Yet this gives the
rate as 1 EUR = 0.884752 GBP, different in the fourth figure to the EUR-GBP rate
they quote.

Author:

calsbricks

Posted:

Oct 25, 2018 09:29

Subject:

Re: Price guide improvement

Viewed:

28 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

I would prefer it on the price guide so I didn't have to go back and forth.
Mind you this is all hypothetical cause they really are not doing anything with
the classic site whilst they work on XP.

I understand why you'd want it in the price guide, but there are many (37)
exchange rates to GBP, or any other single currency. While many pieces are listed
in USD, plenty are also in EUR, with other currencies also used. That's a
lot of extra information to list. You also wouldn't need to go back and forth,
as if it was set for one hour, you could note down the exchange rates of interest
and you would know they are guaranteed until the next exchange rate update time.

Author:

calsbricks

Posted:

Oct 25, 2018 07:01

Subject:

Re: Price guide improvement

Viewed:

40 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

I thought current items for sale were all displayed using the exchange rate of
this moment. Why is it that important though if the exchange rate would be an
hour older?

That isn't how it works unfortunately. They change hourly, according to the
help pages. It would be far simpler to show the rate used at the top of the column.,
hence the suggestion.

I imagine doing instant lookups is just not efficient, as every time someone
accesses the price guide or looks at a store or a cart in another currency,
BL would need to access the exchange rates from xe.com. Plus I don't think
their (xe) rates are continuously updated anyway - aren't they something
like every 10 or 15 minutes, plus they also have some lag. I can totally understand
why BL sets them and fixes them for one hour, given how slowly they change (at
least change significantly, not in the 4th or 5th decimal place).

Understand what you are saying but it all depends on how the code is put together
to display the current data. It would be highly unusualk as well as inefficient
if they were storing the figures - good code isn't written that way, so when
we call up the price guid for a given element it should be doing those calculations
then and presenting the data - if that is the case then it is a simple matter
to add a single or couplof fields to the display.

It wouldn't do any harm to either have the exchange rate on the price guide,
or possibly better still, have a separate page where all the current exchange
rates being used are listed along with the time they were updated for those interested.
That way, it is one less thing on the price guide page. Of course, you can always
get the current BL exchange rate, by doing the calculation yourself, to about
4 decimal places.

I would prefer it on the price guide so I didn't have to go back and forth.
Mind you this is all hypothetical cause they really are not doing anything with
the classic site whilst they work on XP.

Still one can hope - it really isn't rocket science or a lot of development
time to simply display the number you have used for the calculation.

Author:

calsbricks

Posted:

Oct 25, 2018 01:40

Subject:

Re: Price guide improvement

Viewed:

30 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, BricksThatStick writes:

In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:

Thoughts ?

It's just a guide.

Yes, true so why not make it informative, rather than having to use guesswork
and trial and error.

If sellers want to use it to actually price their listings to the averages they
accept its not 100% perfect.

I am not sure anyone makes that assumption - we don't it is supposed to be
a data average and the currency conversion should be dynamic not hourly. Not
sure why this would cause any real problem for any developer.

Otherwise sellers should just see it for what it is and adjust their prices/set
prices as they see fit.

Many of us do but the adjustment should be based on real - not supposition.

Author:

calsbricks

Posted:

Oct 25, 2018 01:37

Subject:

Re: Price guide improvement

Viewed:

40 times

Topic: