NostoNews, October 1, 2003

Why Nostomania pricing data is king of the hill

Now that Nostomania is becoming better known, with over 11,000 registered users and well over a million hits each month, it's time to take a few minutes to explain with examples why our pricing data is king of the hill.

Let's do a comparison. We went to the Heritage Auction site and looked for a few recent Golden Age book sales. The first interesting book we found was All-Select 5, which sold in their August 13, 2003 auction at WizardWorld in Chicago. Below you'll find a data plot showing:
  • The value for each supported Nostomania grade
  • The value for each supported Overstreet grade
  • The sale point for All-Select 5 in NM, which went for $6,728.00.

Ok, so what does this plot tell us?

Simply put, Overstreet data, the "Bible" of pricing data, is often far off at the high end. Most older comics are priced in Overstreet with GD-FN-NM ratios of 1 - 3 - 10. Nostomania has shown the real ratios are shockingly different - at the time of this writing 1 - 3.8 - 41.7. And the beauty of Nostomania's pricing data is that it is entirely generated from calculations using actual sales. No guessing! As a final note, for this sale Nostomania's value was within 17% of the actual sale amount, while the Overstreet value is off by a stunning 72%!

Let's look at another example. And we want to add that these were not carefully picked examples - we took the first two cool golden age books we saw that sold for over $1,000 from the Heritage site. Below is a similar plot for Crime Suspenstories 4, for which the Gaines File Copy, graded CGC NM+/MT- 9.8, sold at the same auction for $2,818.00


This plot points out another interesting and important fact. The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide only provides values at six grades in the latest edition (expanded from three grades in previous editions). Nostomania provides values for every defined grade. The significance of this is where it matters to serious collectors the most - at the ultra-high end. The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide provides no data above NM. Look at the Nostomania data here, valuing this item at $2,980.00 in NM+/MT-, a difference from the actual sale amount of under 6%!


Ok, what about coins?

Well, we're glad you asked, because the situation here can be even more extreme. Take the example below, which again plots values for a recent Heritage Signature sale of a 1915 Proof Buffalo Nickel, in PF-68, showing:
  • The value for each supported Nostomania grade
  • The value for each supported Redbook grade
  • The sale point for the nickel, which went for $18,400.00.

The point here is that the Redbook, which is the "Bible" for coin pricing data, provides a value at only one grade for this coin! Not very useful at all for the high end collector. We don't think we have to point out once again just how helpful Nostomania data would be for a buyer who is considering purchasing this item.

In closing, we're not trying to boast, we're just trying to do our best job providing a free, quality service to serious collectors, based on years of domain knowledge and the hard work of a few individuals. Come join our little revolution, it's only going to get better.


Prizes

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Thanks, we'll see you all next month.

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