Frequently Asked Questions
Still have a question? Contact Us
Getting Started (return to top)
Where did you come up with the idea of a live price guide?
Like many collectors, we hate waiting for our price guides each month. We wanted to know what something was selling for now and not what it was selling for a few months ago. As web developers, we knew there had to be a better way than just searching auctions on eBay. After looking at the competition, we were disappointed so we decided to create a price guide for SportsLizard. To keep up with the latest price guide news, check out the price guide section of the Lizard's Rant Blog
SportsLizard is run by Pure Adapt, Inc - a four person web development company located in Albany, NY. Check out our about page to learn more.
How do you determine your prices?
We use data from our marketplace, eBay, and hundreds of other sites using information extracted from our database and the Google Base API. Our proprietary algorithm determines the value of the item based upon the prices it's currently being sold for, search popularity, and how often it's being purchased.
In plain English - most collectors we know search eBay and other sites to get an idea of what an item is selling for because the latest print price guide is out of date or the price isn't realistic. We do that for you in a matter of seconds and then package it up in a pretty report that gives you all the information you need.
Why are your prices different than print price guides?
Well, to be honest, we're not 100% sure how print price guides come up with their prices. We don't concern ourselves with price guides - our method (see above) for determining prices is completely different, and we feel that it gives you a very accurate price. Our price guide is not really a replacement for a print price guide (we still have our subscriptions and enjoy looking through them every month), rather a supplement to give collectors another data point of information. See our article about determining baseball card values and prices if you're interested how we personally determine what a card is worth.
What collectibles do you have prices on?
We have prices on any card or collectible that's actively being sold. If you can find it on eBay, you'll probably be able to get a price from our price guide. Collectors of rare or vintage memorabilia may have a difficult time pricing their items because there won't be enough data for us to work with. It's OK if an item doesn't have a price - that just means that it isn't on the market at the moment and there very well might not be an established market value for it.
Signing Up/Managing Your Account (return to top)
What's the difference between a free account and a premium account?
A free account allows you to run 3 item searches per day. This is perfect for the casual collector. A premium account allows serious collectors and dealers to price unlimited items, and also allows you to save items to your collection. You can then export your collection to PDF or Excel, and see how much your entire collection is worth. For some people a free account is plenty, for others a premium account makes the most sense.
What information do you collect from me when I register?
It is our belief that we should only collect the information that we absolutely need and no more. We collect your first and last name (to customize your pages and emails), an email address, and a security question and answer.
Why do you ask the security question?
We ask the security question so that you have a safe way to reset your password if you forget it. This method is much safer than sending your password to you in an email.
I never received the confirmation email when I registered. What should I do?
First, check your junk email to make sure that your SPAM filter didn't block it (you might need to add 'support@sportslizard.com' to your list of acceptable email senders). If it's not there, you can contact us and we will confirm your account for you.
The link in the confirmation email doesn't work. It keeps telling me "Confirmation failed".
Try clicking the link again. If that doesn't work copy and paste the ENTIRE link into your browser. Unfortunately some email programs break the link up on to two lines because it's long. Check out the example below:
In this case, the entire link is http://prices.sportslizard.com/register_verify.php?email=ajm@sportslizard.com&key=1e79137d72df1a869094070b2e602156
Still not working? Contact us.
I signed up for the premium account but still only have access to the free features?
If your PayPal primary email address doesn't match the email address that you signed up with, there's a chance that we will have to manually activate your account for you. We will do this in 1-2 business days (usually less than 24 hours), but you can help us by emailing support@sportslizard.com with your name, email address that you signed up for SportsLizard with, and your PayPal email address. This helps us correctly verify your account quicker.
The Price Guide works fine with any modern browser to the best of our knowledge. Regardless of your browser, you will need to enable javascript and cookies for the site to work properly.
What is your privacy policy/terms of service?
We promise we'll protect your privacy and won't hand your email address over to a bunch of spammers. But if you want more detailed information you can check out our terms of use.
We take every reasonable step to ensure that your data is protected. It is our belief that your data is significantly safer than it would be on sites that offer similar services.
What happens if I register for a premium account but don't complete payment?
You can use your account as a free account until you decide to upgrade. You can upgrade anytime by clicking the link in the upper-right hand corner when you log in.
You should first make sure that you confirmed your account by clicking the link in the email that was sent to you when you registered. If you did not receive a confirmation email (remember to check your SPAM box), you can contact us
If you have confirmed your account, you should start by making sure that you are typing in the correct email and password. Passwords are case-sensitive so make sure that you don't accidentally have Caps Lock on. For example, if your password is "monkey" and you type in "MONKEY" you won't be able to log in.
If that doesn't work, you can reset your password using your security question and answer. If you are still unable to log in, you should contact us.
Why can't I reset my password?
First make sure that you're entering the correct answer to your security question (Caps does matter so if your answer is "Honda" and you type in "honda" it will be marked wrong). If you are still unable to reset your password, you should contact us.
To cancel a premium account:
You can cancel a Premium Account by visiting PayPal and clicking the "Cancel Subscription" button found when you view the details of your subscription. Once cancelled, you'll still have access to your account until your term expires (either a trial period or the month that you have paid for). After that, the account will still be available as a Free Account and you can upgrade anytime to regain access to the premium features.
To close a free account
If you'd like to close your account entirely and have your information deleted from our database, please contact us and we'll take care of it for you.
How do I cancel my premium account subscription?
Click the Manage Subscription in the upper-right and you'll be taken to PayPal. After logging in you can cancel by clicking the "Cancel Subscription" button found when you view the details of your subscription. Once cancelled, you'll still have access to your account until your term expires (either a trial period or the month that you have paid for). After that, the account will still be available as a Free Account and you can upgrade anytime to regain access to the premium features. We're sorry to see you go :)
Can I cancel my premium account any time?
Yup, you can even cancel it before the 7 day free trial ends and be charged nothing. If you cancel in the middle of a billing cycle, your account will remain active until the time the next payment would have been due.
If I cancel my premium account, do I lose My Collection?
Nope, we still have it. If you upgrade your account in the future it will be there waiting for you. You can contact us if you'd like us to export it to Excel for you if you're not planning on signing up again.
Using the Price Guide (return to top)
How do I look up my first item?
It's easy. Just enter the name of the item you're looking for in the search box. Be sure to put words that you don't want included (like "reprint" or "variant") that could throw results off in the Don't include box.
How do I get the most accurate price?
The key to getting the most accurate price is to master the terms NOT to include. After your first search, you should scan the Items to make sure that the collectibles being factored in are really what you're looking for. You can weed out any outliers by adding to the Don't include box and searching again. It's important to remember that for items in your collection you should only have to go through this process ONCE - after you save it to My Collection the Don't Include words will also be saved so you don't need to worry about them next time you price an item.
While all of this sounds simple, the need to go through several iterations before getting a very accurate price isn't exactly intuitive and can turn off or frustrate first time users.
Let's take a look at an example to help reduce the learning curve. I am going to walk you through a relatively difficult pricing - a 2006 Reggie Bush Bowman Chrome card. This card is one of the Top 10 Singles in the May 2007 issue of Tuff Stuff Magazine, which values it at $35.
We'll start by keeping our search pretty vague by just searching "2006 Reggie Bush Bowman Chrome". This may or may not be enough detail to give us a good price.
The combination of a Low confidence and a price that's four times higher than Tuff Stuff's should raise a red flag in our minds.
The $0.00 Minimum Price, $2,500 Maximum Price, and high Standard Deviation confirm that we need to do more work to get a good price. In looking at the individual Items we see autographed cards and boxes throwing the results off, among other things. In general, the items at the bottom of the Items list are the most irrelevant so that's a good spot to start.
Now we'll try the search again putting the following words in the Don't include box "Orange Lot Box Set Auto Topps Refractor Factor".
A more realistic price coupled with a Normal confidence makes us feel better.
However, a quick look at the Advanced Data shows that the Minimum Price and Maximum Price are still a little bit off. After looking at the Items, the Maximum Price is for an appropriate card but there are a few low-price items that shouldn't be there. Adding "Fleer Parallel" to our Don't include box should take care of this.
Finally, we get a good price that makes sense.
Seem like a lot of work? It does at first, but you'll get the hang after a few searches. And if you save the item to My Collection you should never have to do that again - we save your Don't include words so next time you run the report you don't need to do all of this work over again.
- Our Price - this is how much we think the item that you searched for is worth. This factors in the average prices and popularity of the item (how frequently it's searched for and how often it's purchased).
- Confidence - this is how confident we are in the price. Some items (say an autographed baseball by Derek Jeter) can vary a great deal naturally and will probably have a low confidence. This just means that the item could likely be bought/sold for both less and more than Our Price. Other items naturally are pretty similar in price regardless of where you get them (say a McFarlane figure) and should have a higher confidence. If you get a low or normal confidence, you should double check your items to make sure that only the correct items are being factored into your price. Confidence also factors in Sample Size, so if your search only returned a few products we won't give our price a high confidence even if each item is the exact same price.
- Average Price - the average selling price of all the items factored into Our Price.
- Minimum Price - the minimum selling price of all the items factored into Our Price.
- Maximum Price - the maximum selling price of all the items factored into Our Price.
- Standard Deviation - a measure of the variation among data. A low standard deviation means that most items are very similarly priced. A high standard deviation means that there is quite a bit of difference in price.
- Normalized Standard Deviation - a number from -1 to 1 that tells you how much variation there is among data.
- Sample Size - the number of items that were returned in your search. The more items returned, the higher likelihood for an accurate price.
- Items - the name and price of each individual item returned in your search. This includes items from our marketplace and hundreds of other sites across the web.
How do I save an item to My Collection?
Click Save to My Collection after searching for an item. That search (including the Don't include words) will be permanently saved so you don't need to enter them again.
How do I update items in My Collection?
Click the item from the My Collection box on the left. A new report will run, and your price will be updated. We currently do not have a way to update all of your items at once, but we'll probably add it in the future.
How do I export My Collection to Excel or save it as a PDF file?
Select the appropriate icon in My Collection and the report will load.
What are the little + and - icons next to items in My Collection?
They let you know whether the price has increased or decreased since the last time you priced the item. You can run the price report again to view more detailed trend reports.
The Trends tab (only for items in My Collection) shows you a graph of the last ten times you've priced the item.
More (return to top)
How do I advertise on the Price Guide?
Check out our advertising section.
You didn't answer my question, how do I contact you?
You can contact us anytime through our contact page.
What features do you have planned for the future?
All sorts of good things like mobile capability (imagine being at a card show and looking up a price from your phone), detailed trends of who/what is hot and who/what is not, and improved pricing for rare and vintage items. If you've got a suggestion you can always contact us - we'd love to hear what you've got in mind.