Discussion Forum: Thread 340820

 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 4, 2023 09:28
 Subject: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 227 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
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Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
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Store: Cosmic Toys
On the price guide, as displayed in a tab from the catalog page …

When I have the Price Guide settings set to limit items listed for sale
to USA, what am I seeing in the sales columns (first two columns) ? Are those
all worldwide sales, or are those sales by USA sellers to all destinations, or
are those purchases by USA customers from any worldwide seller ?

I am aware that the tilde ( ~ ) before the unit price means that a currency conversion
was involved. That, to me, suggests that either the buyer or the seller was outside
the USA (but it may mean that the buyer, and not the seller, was outside the
USA).

The Help Center page is silent on how to interpret those first two columns. Does
anyone have better knowledge ?

Thanks, Nita Rae
 Author: SylvainLS View Messages Posted By SylvainLS
 Posted: Jun 4, 2023 10:44
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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SylvainLS (46)

Location:  France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
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In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  On the price guide, as displayed in a tab from the catalog page …

When I have the Price Guide settings set to limit items listed for sale
to USA, what am I seeing in the sales columns (first two columns) ? Are those
all worldwide sales, or are those sales by USA sellers to all destinations, or
are those purchases by USA customers from any worldwide seller ?

I am aware that the tilde ( ~ ) before the unit price means that a currency conversion
was involved. That, to me, suggests that either the buyer or the seller was outside
the USA (but it may mean that the buyer, and not the seller, was outside the
USA).

The Help Center page is silent on how to interpret those first two columns. Does
anyone have better knowledge ?

Thanks, Nita Rae

You could rule out “worldwide sales” if the numbers are different when you limit
to USA only and when you don’t.

For the other possibilities, you’d need either:
— to check in the code (even if there’s a documentation (haha), it’s not assured
it’s accurate / that the code is correct),
— to have transactions you’re sure they are in one or the other group (for instance
in your own store) and see if they appear.
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jun 6, 2023 10:11
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 61 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  On the price guide, as displayed in a tab from the catalog page …

When I have the Price Guide settings set to limit items listed for sale
to USA, what am I seeing in the sales columns (first two columns) ? Are those
all worldwide sales, or are those sales by USA sellers to all destinations, or
are those purchases by USA customers from any worldwide seller ?

I am aware that the tilde ( ~ ) before the unit price means that a currency conversion
was involved. That, to me, suggests that either the buyer or the seller was outside
the USA (but it may mean that the buyer, and not the seller, was outside the
USA).

The Help Center page is silent on how to interpret those first two columns. Does
anyone have better knowledge ?

Thanks, Nita Rae

The tilde simply indicates that the item was sold or listed for sale in a
currency other than USD; i.e., the seller is (most likely) outside of the USA.

The filter only applies to current items for sale (right two columns).
 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 6, 2023 15:06
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 66 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
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Store: Cosmic Toys
In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  On the price guide, as displayed in a tab from the catalog page …

When I have the Price Guide settings set to limit items listed for sale
to USA, what am I seeing in the sales columns (first two columns) ? Are those
all worldwide sales, or are those sales by USA sellers to all destinations, or
are those purchases by USA customers from any worldwide seller ?

I am aware that the tilde ( ~ ) before the unit price means that a currency conversion
was involved. That, to me, suggests that either the buyer or the seller was outside
the USA (but it may mean that the buyer, and not the seller, was outside the
USA).

The Help Center page is silent on how to interpret those first two columns. Does
anyone have better knowledge ?

Thanks, Nita Rae

The tilde simply indicates that the item was sold or listed for sale in a
currency other than USD; i.e., the seller is (most likely) outside of the USA.

The filter only applies to current items for sale (right two columns).

Agreed. But what that does not reveal, is if the buyer was inside the USA or
elsewhere.

As the Price Guide option to select a country only applies to items listed for
sale, then the recorded sales could be any of the following:

US seller to US buyer (no tilde)

non-US seller to non-US buyer (has tilde)

Non-US seller to US-buyer (probably has tilde)

US-seller to non-US buyer (might have tilde ?)

I say might, because PayPal allows an account to hold multiple currencies. In
the last instance, if the buyer held USD, then there was no actual currency conversion.
Does BL think there was, because the seller/buyer were in different countries,
or does BL know if/when a currency conversion happens ?

Nita Rae
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jun 6, 2023 18:06
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Agreed. But what that does not reveal, is if the buyer was inside the USA or
elsewhere.

As the Price Guide option to select a country only applies to items listed for
sale, then the recorded sales could be any of the following:

US seller to US buyer (no tilde)

non-US seller to non-US buyer (has tilde)

Non-US seller to US-buyer (probably has tilde)

US-seller to non-US buyer (might have tilde ?)

I say might, because PayPal allows an account to hold multiple currencies. In
the last instance, if the buyer held USD, then there was no actual currency conversion.
Does BL think there was, because the seller/buyer were in different countries,
or does BL know if/when a currency conversion happens ?

Nita Rae

Whether or not a tilde appears in the price guide depends on two factors:

1. The currency you are viewing the price guide in.
2. The currency the seller listed the item for sale in.

If they are the same, there is no tilde. If they are different, there is a tilde.

Whether or not any actual currency conversion took place during the transaction
cannot be discerned from the price guide.
 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 7, 2023 04:39
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
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Store: Cosmic Toys
In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Agreed. But what that does not reveal, is if the buyer was inside the USA or
elsewhere.

As the Price Guide option to select a country only applies to items listed for
sale, then the recorded sales could be any of the following:

US seller to US buyer (no tilde)

non-US seller to non-US buyer (has tilde)

Non-US seller to US-buyer (probably has tilde)

US-seller to non-US buyer (might have tilde ?)

I say might, because PayPal allows an account to hold multiple currencies. In
the last instance, if the buyer held USD, then there was no actual currency conversion.
Does BL think there was, because the seller/buyer were in different countries,
or does BL know if/when a currency conversion happens ?

Nita Rae

Whether or not a tilde appears in the price guide depends on two factors:

1. The currency you are viewing the price guide in.
2. The currency the seller listed the item for sale in.

If they are the same, there is no tilde. If they are different, there is a tilde.

Whether or not any actual currency conversion took place during the transaction
cannot be discerned from the price guide.

Is the viewing currency fungible without affecting my store’s currency ?
 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 7, 2023 07:02
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store: Cosmic Toys
In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Agreed. But what that does not reveal, is if the buyer was inside the USA or
elsewhere.

As the Price Guide option to select a country only applies to items listed for
sale, then the recorded sales could be any of the following:

US seller to US buyer (no tilde)

non-US seller to non-US buyer (has tilde)

Non-US seller to US-buyer (probably has tilde)

US-seller to non-US buyer (might have tilde ?)

I say might, because PayPal allows an account to hold multiple currencies. In
the last instance, if the buyer held USD, then there was no actual currency conversion.
Does BL think there was, because the seller/buyer were in different countries,
or does BL know if/when a currency conversion happens ?

Nita Rae

Whether or not a tilde appears in the price guide depends on two factors:

1. The currency you are viewing the price guide in.
2. The currency the seller listed the item for sale in.

If they are the same, there is no tilde. If they are different, there is a tilde.

Whether or not any actual currency conversion took place during the transaction
cannot be discerned from the price guide.

Is the viewing currency fungible without affecting my store’s currency ?

A non-answer answer … The member settings page has a place to select Viewing
Currency
, but changing from USD to Euro did not affect what was being displayed
on a price guide page. So no joy there.

Nita Rae
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jun 7, 2023 10:20
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Is the viewing currency fungible without affecting my store’s currency ?

See: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=436

Price guide prices are displayed to buyers in their local currency by default.
To sellers, they are displayed in the seller's store base currency.


So, the short answer is no. However, I can think of two ways to get around this:

1. Group the price guide by currency, which will show prices in their base currency.
2. View the price guide while logged out using a foreign IP address.
 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 7, 2023 11:19
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store: Cosmic Toys
In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Is the viewing currency fungible without affecting my store’s currency ?

See: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=436

Price guide prices are displayed to buyers in their local currency by default.
To sellers, they are displayed in the seller's store base currency.


Which strikes me as odd, since a seller can also be a buyer. So if you are both,
your store’s base currency overrules your local currency. How they could be different
in the first place escapes me. What that does not mention (and maybe it’s only
for the catalog page individual lot listings of individual items, and not against
the price guide) is that setting that I tried earlier (top of the member settings
landing page).

  So, the short answer is no. However, I can think of two ways to get around this:

1. Group the price guide by currency, which will show prices in their base currency.

There are several setting that have an interrelated action. To do this, turn
on ‘Group By Currency’ on the PG page for an item, and you have to open up to
see all listings worldwide. Restricting to USA only, causes the tilde to reappear.
I’m going to guess the theory there is something like if you don’t want to
see all the listings (in each currency) than you don’t want to see the sales
in the seller’s currency
.

As the listings are then listed in the seller’s store currency, I’m going guess
that I have no visibility to where the buyer was located. IOW, I can’t see how
many from any given currency were bought by a US buyer (who had to pay in the
seller’s currency). So that’s a mixed bag, in that I can see the currency breakdown
(formerly designated by the tilde), but no way to infer where the buyer is.

  2. View the price guide while logged out using a foreign IP address.

Being on a cell phone, that option is not currently available.

To give you a feel for this, take a look at p/n 30181 in Black. Filtering to
US sellers only, I see 62 new sold (presumably worldwide) and a US inventory
of 527. If the worldwide inventory is larger then sell thru (on that part/color)
is quite weak. Part of why I’m digging into this is, I’m trying to see how many
USA buyers are going abroad to buy things, already available here. I can’t see
that.

Nita Rae
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jun 7, 2023 11:56
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Which strikes me as odd, since a seller can also be a buyer.

For BrickLink purposes, a buyer is any member that does not have a store.

  So if you are both, your store’s base currency overrules your local
currency. How they could be different in the first place escapes me.

Sellers may choose a store currency other than their local currency. For example,
some sellers outside of the USA sell in USD.

  What that does not mention (and maybe it’s only for the catalog page
individual lot listings of individual items, and not against the price guide)
is that setting that I tried earlier (top of the member settings landing page).

That would be your viewing currency, which does not affect the price guide.

  As the listings are then listed in the seller’s store currency, I’m going guess
that I have no visibility to where the buyer was located.

Correct.

  Part of why I’m digging into this is, I’m trying to see how many
USA buyers are going abroad to buy things, already available here.

I don't think you can infer that information from the price guide alone.
 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 9, 2023 08:51
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store: Cosmic Toys
In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Which strikes me as odd, since a seller can also be a buyer.

For BrickLink purposes, a buyer is any member that does not have a store.

  So if you are both, your store’s base currency overrules your local
currency. How they could be different in the first place escapes me.

Sellers may choose a store currency other than their local currency. For example,
some sellers outside of the USA sell in USD.

  What that does not mention (and maybe it’s only for the catalog page
individual lot listings of individual items, and not against the price guide)
is that setting that I tried earlier (top of the member settings landing page).

That would be your viewing currency, which does not affect the price guide.

  As the listings are then listed in the seller’s store currency, I’m going guess
that I have no visibility to where the buyer was located.

Correct.

  Part of why I’m digging into this is, I’m trying to see how many
USA buyers are going abroad to buy things, already available here.

I don't think you can infer that information from the price guide alone.

Probably one of the more important (to me) things that falls from this discussion
is that the items listed for sale side of the PG and the last 6 months
sales
are not orthogonal. While I can limit items listed for sale to a specific
country, I cannot (comparatively) limit the items sold recently to those same
sellers. In fact, if a seller can sell in a currency that is different from one
of their own home country, then it is possible to limit the right side to one
country, and still see tilde marks on a few prices (because the seller is listing
in a different currency than the one associated with the country specified, I
think … and I’m open to correction on that point).

Likewise, any recent sales without the tilde simply says that the sale
occurred in the same currency. I know that one side of that decision is the currency
it was listed in (e.g. USD vs not in USD) but what is the opposite side of that
test … my home currency or the home currency of the buying party ? The first
would imply that my viewing currency is involved here, while the other would
lean towards details involving the actual buyer.

I am left with the impression that the meaning of the tilde is more fungible
that might be expected at first glance.

Nita Rae
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jun 9, 2023 18:34
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Probably one of the more important (to me) things that falls from this discussion
is that the items listed for sale side of the PG and the last 6 months
sales
are not orthogonal. While I can limit items listed for sale to a specific
country, I cannot (comparatively) limit the items sold recently to those same
sellers. In fact, if a seller can sell in a currency that is different from one
of their own home country, then it is possible to limit the right side to one
country, and still see tilde marks on a few prices (because the seller is listing
in a different currency than the one associated with the country specified, I
think … and I’m open to correction on that point).

Likewise, any recent sales without the tilde simply says that the sale
occurred in the same currency. I know that one side of that decision is the currency
it was listed in (e.g. USD vs not in USD) but what is the opposite side of that
test … my home currency or the home currency of the buying party ? The first
would imply that my viewing currency is involved here, while the other would
lean towards details involving the actual buyer.

I am left with the impression that the meaning of the tilde is more fungible
that might be expected at first glance.

Nita Rae

Generally speaking, a tilde before a number simply indicates that the value shown
is approximate. It has nothing to do with countries or currencies.

The reason they appear in the price guide is because while BrickLink only displays
prices up to 4 decimal places, actual converted prices may contain up to 15 decimal
places. Therefore, converted prices shown on BrickLink are approximate, not exact.

When you group the price guide by currency, all prices are shown in their original
currency and the tildes disappear.

The price guide does not give you insight into the location of the buyer.
 Author: 1001bricks View Messages Posted By 1001bricks
 Posted: Jun 9, 2023 18:59
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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1001bricks (52323)

Location:  France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Member Since Contact Type Status
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Store: 1001bricks
  Generally speaking, a tilde before a number simply indicates that the value shown
is approximate. It has nothing to do with countries or currencies.

?

When you group the price guide by currency, all prices are shown in their
original
  currency and the tildes disappear.

?

So, it's due to the Currencies.
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jun 9, 2023 19:12
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, 1001bricks writes:
  
  Generally speaking, a tilde before a number simply indicates that the value shown
is approximate. It has nothing to do with countries or currencies.

?

When you group the price guide by currency, all prices are shown in their
original
  currency and the tildes disappear.

?

So, it's due to the Currencies.

But the reason the tilde is there is because the price shown is approximate,
not because it is in a different currency.
 Author: 1001bricks View Messages Posted By 1001bricks
 Posted: Jun 9, 2023 20:37
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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1001bricks (52323)

Location:  France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 6, 2005 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: 1001bricks
  
  
  Generally speaking, a tilde before a number simply indicates that the value shown
is approximate. It has nothing to do with countries or currencies.

?

When you group the price guide by currency, all prices are shown in their
original currency and the tildes disappear.


?

So, it's due to the Currencies.

But the reason the tilde is there is because the price shown is approximate,
not because it is in a different currency.

Ah I'm not sure it can be approximate otherwise.
At least I don't know about.
 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 10, 2023 08:24
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store: Cosmic Toys
In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  In Price Guide, 1001bricks writes:
  
  Generally speaking, a tilde before a number simply indicates that the value shown
is approximate. It has nothing to do with countries or currencies.

?

When you group the price guide by currency, all prices are shown in their
original
  currency and the tildes disappear.

?

So, it's due to the Currencies.

But the reason the tilde is there is because the price shown is approximate,
not because it is in a different currency.

I think (in the specific) you are correct, but (in the general) you may be not
all that on target. The tilde appears to mean that the displayed price can only
be arrived at (in the single displayed currency) by a conversion ( using the
current rates from xe.com
). It does not mean that BL stored it as an approximation,
only that I’m asking BL to show me all the prices had they been done in one currency
(even tho they were not). IOW, any number that follows a tilde can change
from one day to the next, as the exchange rates fluctuate
.

The other issue that bubbles to the surface is the averages. Unless you are breaking
apart by currency, the tilde-indicated-values are causing the averages to be
warped (in some unpredictable direction). The warp could be because prices are
depressed in one country, they could be because the exchange rate has moved sharply,
or some combination of both. In my case, I only sell in my home currency to buyers
in my home country. That means that any tilde-indicated number is meaningless
to me, and it’s influences on the averages makes them less useful.

What is still floating undefined in all of this, are the buyers who cross borders
(for any given reason) and are having to endure a currency conversion to buy
something in the other country. In most cases (unless the seller is selling in
a foreign currency), those sales are showing up in the home currency of the seller,
and there is no way to distinguish them from sales that happened internal to
that country. [1]

So, for now, I’m going to break the PG results by currency, with the reasonable
assumption
that most of those appearing under USD are the ones I care about
(for pricing purposes).

Nita Rae

[Note 1] There is a way to do it, but only on a macro scale, and BL would absolutely
not permit anyone to run a full scale shadow inventory of all the listings for
tracking. I thought about this long ago, and twiddled with the underlying concepts,
but life took me in other directions, and BL changed owners several times, so
I never looked at it again. I’m not looking at now, I’m just trying to determine
what parts of the PG are meaningful to me and how.
 Author: 1001bricks View Messages Posted By 1001bricks
 Posted: Jun 10, 2023 19:41
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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1001bricks (52323)

Location:  France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 6, 2005 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: 1001bricks
  
  
  So, it's due to the Currencies.

But the reason the tilde is there is because the price shown is approximate,
not because it is in a different currency.

I think (in the specific) you are correct, but (in the general) you may be not
all that on target. The tilde appears to mean that the displayed price can only
be arrived at (in the single displayed currency) by a conversion ( using the
current rates from xe.com
).

Yes, what I thought, thank you.
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jul 23, 2023 17:40
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 36 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  I think (in the specific) you are correct, but (in the general) you may be not
all that on target.

It's actually the other way around.

In general, a tilde before a number indicates that the value is approximate,
not exact.

For example, ~50,000 is another way of writing approximately fifty thousand.

On BrickLink, a tilde before price indicates that the price was converted
from some other currency.

For example, if you have your display currency set to USD and you browse a store
that sells in EUR, you will see the approximate price in USD (with a tilde) displayed
beneath the exact price in EUR (without a tilde).

Since converted prices can contain up to 15 decimal places but BrickLink only
displays prices to 2 to 4 decimal places, any converted price displayed on
BrickLink is approximate
.

Thus, it is the general use of the tilde to indicate an approximate value that
leads to its specific usage here on BrickLink to indicate a currency conversion.

  The tilde appears to mean that the displayed price can only
be arrived at (in the single displayed currency) by a conversion ( using the
current rates from xe.com
). It does not mean that BL stored it as an approximation,
only that I’m asking BL to show me all the prices had they been done in one currency
(even tho they were not). IOW, any number that follows a tilde can change
from one day to the next, as the exchange rates fluctuate
.

Not necessarily. For past sales, the exchange rate is fixed at the time of the
sale. For current items for sale, the display price is updated about once every
hour or so. The actual price you pay is calculated based on the current exchange
rate at the time you check out.

  The other issue that bubbles to the surface is the averages. Unless you are breaking
apart by currency, the tilde-indicated-values are causing the averages to be
warped (in some unpredictable direction). The warp could be because prices are
depressed in one country, they could be because the exchange rate has moved sharply,
or some combination of both. In my case, I only sell in my home currency to buyers
in my home country. That means that any tilde-indicated number is meaningless
to me, and it’s influences on the averages makes them less useful.

Again, for past sales, the exchange rate is fixed at the time of sale, so those
never change. Current items for sale may change as exchange rates fluctuate or
as available inventory moves.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that any number with a tilde is meaningless,
but if you're looking for the location of the buyer, you're not really
going to find that information in the price guide.

  What is still floating undefined in all of this, are the buyers who cross borders
(for any given reason) and are having to endure a currency conversion to buy
something in the other country. In most cases (unless the seller is selling in
a foreign currency), those sales are showing up in the home currency of the seller,
and there is no way to distinguish them from sales that happened internal to
that country. [1]

Correct.

  So, for now, I’m going to break the PG results by currency, with the reasonable
assumption that most of those appearing under USD are the ones I care about
(for pricing purposes).

Think of it this way: Most sellers who sell in USD are in the USA, so those are
your main competitors. Whether or not your buyers are in the USA is another matter.

  [Note 1] There is a way to do it, but only on a macro scale, and BL would absolutely
not permit anyone to run a full scale shadow inventory of all the listings for
tracking. I thought about this long ago, and twiddled with the underlying concepts,
but life took me in other directions, and BL changed owners several times, so
I never looked at it again. I’m not looking at now, I’m just trying to determine
what parts of the PG are meaningful to me and how.

You could take up this idea with the BrickLink team or the LEGO Group, but given
how much has changed in the past 20 years, I don't think you're going
the get very far. You can't just hand out data to anyone these days.
 Author: 1001bricks View Messages Posted By 1001bricks
 Posted: Jul 23, 2023 18:13
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 25 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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1001bricks (52323)

Location:  France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 6, 2005 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: 1001bricks
  Not necessarily. For past sales, the exchange rate is fixed at the time of the
sale.

Are you sure?
I'm not, but didn't check.

This would require keeping data and some computation, while converting everything
at the current rate would cost far less.

In short, to save resources I would simply convert at the current rate.
Past sales are only 6 months old, so, often, the more often, the rate doesn't
change much.

Again, I don't know and didn't check...
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jul 23, 2023 19:20
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 26 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, 1001bricks writes:
  Are you sure?
I'm not, but didn't check.

This would require keeping data and some computation, while converting everything
at the current rate would cost far less.

In short, to save resources I would simply convert at the current rate.
Past sales are only 6 months old, so, often, the more often, the rate doesn't
change much.

Again, I don't know and didn't check...

It says here: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=436

The last 6 months sales items use the exchange rate that was as of the last
batch in the order.


Of course, the help page hasn't been updated since 2010, so who knows whether
that's still the case or not.
 Author: peregrinator View Messages Posted By peregrinator
 Posted: Jul 23, 2023 19:23
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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peregrinator (774)

Location:  USA, New Jersey
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 21, 2003 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Faber Family Bricks
In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  Of course, the help page hasn't been updated since 2010, so who knows whether
that's still the case or not.

I doubt they would have bothered to change that.
 Author: 1001bricks View Messages Posted By 1001bricks
 Posted: Jul 23, 2023 19:39
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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1001bricks (52323)

Location:  France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 6, 2005 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: 1001bricks
In Price Guide, peregrinator writes:
  In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  Of course, the help page hasn't been updated since 2010, so who knows whether
that's still the case or not.

I doubt they would have bothered to change that.


Both true, but note:

Prices are converted in between each of these currencies using latest exchange
rates from XE.com updated every hour.


Didn't I read recently that it changed and it's once per day only?

So, frankly, I don't know, as they don't tell us
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jul 23, 2023 19:45
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 42 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, 1001bricks writes:
  Both true, but note:

Prices are converted in between each of these currencies using latest exchange
rates from XE.com updated every hour.


Didn't I read recently that it changed and it's once per day only?

So, frankly, I don't know, as they don't tell us

Who knows. This site is old, has changed owners several times, has changed a
lot since 2000 and still has a lot of bugs. The price guide is just that: a guide.
 Author: SylvainLS View Messages Posted By SylvainLS
 Posted: Jul 24, 2023 08:12
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
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 Topic: Price Guide
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SylvainLS (46)

Location:  France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Member Since Contact Type Status
Apr 25, 2014 Contact Member Seller
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Store Closed Store: BuyerOnly
BrickLink Discussions Moderator (?)
In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  In Price Guide, 1001bricks writes:
  Both true, but note:

Prices are converted in between each of these currencies using latest exchange
rates from XE.com updated every hour.


Didn't I read recently that it changed and it's once per day only?

So, frankly, I don't know, as they don't tell us

Who knows. This site is old, has changed owners several times, has changed a
lot since 2000 and still has a lot of bugs. The price guide is just that: a guide.

I think it would work that way:
1. The current exchange rate for each currency is a single value in the database,
and it’s updated by a recurring job (“cron job”).
2. Each time a batch is added to an order, the order’s currency’s exchange rate
is updated from the value above.  When the order is eventually put in the PG,
it’s this rate that’s used.

So, changing the frequency of (1) is just changing a setting (that may be hidden
under the spaghetti) while changing which rate is used in the PG (2) would mean
changing the logic (the spaghetti themselves).
 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 10, 2023 08:37
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 51 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
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Store: Cosmic Toys
In Price Guide, 1001bricks writes:
  So, it's due to the Currencies.

Yes (mostly), it’s due to the original currency of the transaction and
the fact that the default behavior of the PG is to attempt to show all
transactions in a single currency. To do that, the rates from xe.com have to
be applied as of the date the PG is being displayed, and not the date
of the original transaction. So the results of the conversion can drift up and
down. The usage of the tilde is, from a mathematical standpoint, correct in that
it is an approximation of the original transaction number. Breaking/displaying
the PG by currency reveals the original (non-approximation) numbers.

Nita Rae
 Author: wildchicken13 View Messages Posted By wildchicken13
 Posted: Jun 10, 2023 14:47
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 66 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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wildchicken13 (876)

Location:  USA, Illinois
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 11, 2014 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Wild Chicken
In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Yes (mostly), it’s due to the original currency of the transaction and
the fact that the default behavior of the PG is to attempt to show all
transactions in a single currency. To do that, the rates from xe.com have to
be applied as of the date the PG is being displayed, and not the date
of the original transaction. So the results of the conversion can drift up and
down.

I'm not sure where you're getting that from, but see:
https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=436

The current items for sale use the most recent exchange rate in the system
when converted to other currencies. The last 6 months sales items use the exchange
rate that was as of the last batch in the order.


So, for current items for sale, the price guide uses the current exchange rate,
but for past sales, it uses the exchange rate at the time of the sale.
 Author: cosmicray View Messages Posted By cosmicray
 Posted: Jun 7, 2023 11:49
 Subject: Re: About the latest 6 months sales
 Viewed: 39 times
 Topic: Price Guide
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cosmicray (3492)

Location:  USA, Florida
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Oct 1, 2000 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store: Cosmic Toys
In Price Guide, wildchicken13 writes:
  In Price Guide, cosmicray writes:
  Is the viewing currency fungible without affecting my store’s currency ?

See: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=436

Price guide prices are displayed to buyers in their local currency by default.
To sellers, they are displayed in the seller's store base currency.


So, the short answer is no. However, I can think of two ways to get around this:

1. Group the price guide by currency, which will show prices in their base currency.
2. View the price guide while logged out using a foreign IP address.

The more I think about this, the more I suspect that BL is legally limited in
what can appear in the price guide. Various consumer privacy regulations may
prevent them from revealing anything about the buyer (even in aggregate).

Nita Rae