I think you must need to get up to a certain amount of searches... then you get a page saying "Hello looks like you are a frequent user blah blah blah... Please pay us $18 for 6 months or $30 for a 1 year membership."
Looks like I'll be getting a new user name for Popsike.
Funny thing is, I might pay for a service like popsike - I mean, I would pay to access a database of every completed eBay auction for the past 3-4 years or so, but popsike is such a sporadic, incomplete database that I find it hardly worth paying for, not with the limited information it provides.
Looks like I'll be getting a new user name for Popsike.
It took some tinkering but I'm back on for free under an alias. Had to reset Safari but it's all good now. Freddy the Freeloader ain't got nothin' on me!
Funny thing is, I might pay for a service like popsike - I mean, I would pay to access a database of every completed eBay auction for the past 3-4 years or so, but popsike is such a sporadic, incomplete database that I find it hardly worth paying for, not with the limited information it provides.
God forbid people should pay for something they've been using to help themselves make money for years.
It's true, I can't deny that.
But I believe that if they start charging for it using the same specs as they have now, someone else will start one with a better idea of how to do it, and will make them obsolete. People will use something without question if it's free - if they have to pay they start expecting service.
Funny thing is, I might pay for a service like popsike - I mean, I would pay to access a database of every completed eBay auction for the past 3-4 years or so, but popsike is such a sporadic, incomplete database that I find it hardly worth paying for, not with the limited information it provides.
I'm surprised eBay's[/b] not done this yet, much less sued Popsike for basing a business around them (yet).
And I was reading Popsike's TOS after this thread started, looking for some reference to charging for use ... and noticed that they claim "most" of the listings are eBay auction results ... anyone know what other sources they use? Amazon.com auctions or Yahoo! auctions or something? Or are they just blowing smoke?
I'd pay if it was truly a database of all eBay record auctions. It'd be real interesting to track price trends over a 5+ year period and see if an in-demand record used to go unsold at $10. I think it'd really help as a buyer. At the same time it'd probably drive down some of the anomaly prices that people have been getting for privates and some 45s.
Really, the whole notion that eBay only allows you to search completed listings for two weeks is the problem to begin with, and Popsike is just a clever, if poorly implemented, solution.
I'd pay if it was truly a database of all eBay record auctions. It'd be real interesting to track price trends over a 5+ year period and see if an in-demand record used to go unsold at $10. I think it'd really help as a buyer. At the same time it'd probably drive down some of the anomaly prices that people have been getting for privates and some 45s.
Really, the whole notion that eBay only allows you to search completed listings for two weeks is the problem to begin with, and Popsike is just a clever, if poorly implemented, solution.
I agree. A Google-Trends-for-LPs would be the killer app that a bunch of us would pay for.
Ebay does offer to let you look at more than 2 weeks if you pay for it and there is at least one ebay sanctioned site that lets you look at several months of data or a year or so of 'trend data' but not specific item data.
I've never really figured how popsike stays around since it appears to me that they don't have any blessing or affiliation from ebay and ebay's fine print says you can't use their data without permission. Maybe they do have permission or pay ebay but it doesn't seem like it.
Get this:
Long before I knew about popsike or anything I tried to create my own database. I had a primitive macro which would copy a page of completed auctions to a spreadsheet then click to the next page of completed auctions and do it again. If you configure your columns in ebay you could get a pretty clean layout in excel. Once this ran and copied 20 or 30 pages of auctions I would clean it up by copying it to another spreadsheet but just the data values, no formats or pics. It took about 10 minutes of work to get it sorted with all the extraneous junk gone but in the end I had thousands of completed auctions in a spreadsheet you could sort by price or artist or whatever you wanted.
I figured if I could capture a significant amount of data I could probably put it on a CD and sell it to interested record buyers or sellers - it would be pretty useful considering there was no popsike or similar sites at that time. But, it was way to much work (and I was only doing records/hip-hop completed auctions) and then I saw ebay already had it in mind to do something like this and also I found out about popsike.
God forbid people should pay for something they've been using to help themselves make money for years.
I don't have problem paying for services... What I do have a problem with is using a "free" service for years then reaching some unknown threshold and being asked to pay forever after. I just combed through the website, including the Terms and Conditions section and couldn't find word one about charges. If they want to implement a fee system then it should be clearly stated from the get go. Who wouldn't be pissed if they went to the their local library and were told after years of patronage that they had crossed the invisible line of usage and would now have to pay for a service that most other users get for free.
I smoked thousands of free Popsike crack rocks people! They hooked me under false pretenses!
I've never really figured how popsike stays around since it appears to me that they don't have any blessing or affiliation from ebay and ebay's fine print says you can't use their data without permission. Maybe they do have permission or pay ebay but it doesn't seem like it.
Popsike crawls ebay or otherwise extracts data from the raw HTML. I guarantee they don't have access to ebay's databases. It's unlikely ebay would block them unless they truly start to hit the servers hard, which would have to be a DOS attack to even make them flinch. Besides, sites like popsike make people use ebay more, which ebay likes.
I'd bet the "import" process for new auctions may be much less automated than we're led to believe. Wouldn't be surprised if the auctions are hand-selected. The selection of auctions in their database has that whiff of "dude... did you see this auction??" about it.
I'd also be happy to pay for access to an accurate database of past record sales. But as other pointed out, popsike excludes the VAST majority of ended auction data and focuses only include the high end.
Pour example: the NM copy of phil cohran "malcolm x memorial" I bought for ~$125 isn't up there. Why? Was it filtered out on keywords, price, or seller? Just an oversight? Couldn't tell you. But it is on the cheap end. And of course all the truly inexpensive records (versus just a "good buy" relatively speaking) are nowhere to be found.
I would be really interested to know if a record sold for $10 before selling for $500 a few weeks later. What I'm not interested in a list of the highest possible sales of records. I can get that from the record geek rumor mill.
i looked today for some records i sold and they have not shown up yet, yet a person whole sold a bunch of the same keyword weeks before has theyres up, yet they dont even have the records of his that went up highest, yet they all are from the same search term.
strange.
on a side note, i have been liking what discogs has been doing with the market research feature. of course that sire doesnt cover enough types of music but its been a good site so far.
There are tons of records I've sold that are not up on popsike... despite there being listings for 10-15 other copies sometimes. It's definitely selected by hand.
I would pay for a comprehensive service, but I would also pay for popsike as-is. I think some of you guys forgot the time... BEFORE POPSIKE!!!
me and i think motown have been tracking auctions pretty much constantly for the last 4 years...i have two databases out in word (since i don't know how to use excel)...it's only funk/groove music and libraries though...
and if anyone wants to see them...
you have to pay!!
is there just a simple laughing smiley icon ? all these damn japanese icons...but no smiley laughing icon...
on a side note, i have been liking what discogs has been doing with the market research feature. of course that sire doesnt cover enough types of music but its been a good site so far.
See, if I had the time and money to start it, I think it'd be really amazing to integrate discogs with a database of completed eBay auctions such that when very obscure records pop up on eBay, they'd be added to the discogs database. While it'd get most of its raw data just by trolling eBay auctions, it would remain user updated like discogs/wikipedia.
It's always surprised me that no one has really harnessed the internet to make a truly well thought out and comprehensive music database. If all these different ones worked together, you could have a popsike/discogs/the-breaks/freddy fresh/manship/acid archives, etc.
There are tons of records I've sold that are not up on popsike... despite there being listings for 10-15 other copies sometimes. It's definitely selected by hand.
I estimate Popsike's only caught about a third of the qualifying auctions I've put up for my local record establishment.
cpeetz
2,112 Posts
Comments
guess I won't be checking them anymore.
You just know there will be some free alternative to take it's place.
If only sellers pay for access to it, they will destroy this dynamic.
Maybe cpeetz could give us some more details.
probably..that's what they did when they first started requiring registration.
... and me. Can we get some sort of source for this claim?
then you get a page saying "Hello looks like you are a frequent user blah blah blah...
Please pay us $18 for 6 months or $30 for a 1 year membership."
Looks like I'll be getting a new user name for Popsike.
I mean, I would pay to access a database of every completed
eBay auction for the past 3-4 years or so, but popsike is such a
sporadic, incomplete database that I find it hardly worth paying
for, not with the limited information it provides.
It took some tinkering but I'm back on for free under an alias.
Had to reset Safari but it's all good now.
Freddy the Freeloader ain't got nothin' on me!
I'm surprised no one's done this yet.
I'd pay money to exclude selected people from using popsike.
Realest shit you ever wrote!
It's true, I can't deny that.
But I believe that if they start charging for it using
the same specs as they have now, someone else will start
one with a better idea of how to do it, and will make them
obsolete. People will use something without question if it's
free - if they have to pay they start expecting service.
And I was reading Popsike's TOS after this thread
started, looking for some reference to charging for
use ... and noticed that they claim "most" of the
listings are eBay auction results ... anyone know
what other sources they use? Amazon.com auctions or
Yahoo! auctions or something? Or are they just blowing
smoke?
Really, the whole notion that eBay only allows you to search completed listings for two weeks is the problem to begin with, and Popsike is just a clever, if poorly implemented, solution.
I agree. A Google-Trends-for-LPs would be the killer app that a bunch of us would pay for.
Ebay does offer to let you look at more than 2 weeks if you pay for it and there is at least one ebay sanctioned site that lets you look at several months of data or a year or so of 'trend data' but not specific item data.
I've never really figured how popsike stays around since it appears to me that they don't have any blessing or affiliation from ebay and ebay's fine print says you can't use their data without permission. Maybe they do have permission or pay ebay but it doesn't seem like it.
Get this:
Long before I knew about popsike or anything I tried to create my own database. I had a primitive macro which would copy a page of completed auctions to a spreadsheet then click to the next page of completed auctions and do it again. If you configure your columns in ebay you could get a pretty clean layout in excel. Once this ran and copied 20 or 30 pages of auctions I would clean it up by copying it to another spreadsheet but just the data values, no formats or pics. It took about 10 minutes of work to get it sorted with all the extraneous junk gone but in the end I had thousands of completed auctions in a spreadsheet you could sort by price or artist or whatever you wanted.
I figured if I could capture a significant amount of data I could probably put it on a CD and sell it to interested record buyers or sellers - it would be pretty useful considering there was no popsike or similar sites at that time. But, it was way to much work (and I was only doing records/hip-hop completed auctions) and then I saw ebay already had it in mind to do something like this and also I found out about popsike.
I don't have problem paying for services...
What I do have a problem with is using a "free" service for years then reaching some unknown
threshold and being asked to pay forever after.
I just combed through the website, including the Terms and Conditions section and couldn't
find word one about charges.
If they want to implement a fee system then it should be clearly stated from the get go.
Who wouldn't be pissed if they went to the their local library and were told after years of
patronage that they had crossed the invisible line of usage and would now have to pay for
a service that most other users get for free.
I smoked thousands of free Popsike crack rocks people!
They hooked me under false pretenses!
So I stand by my original....
Popsike crawls ebay or otherwise extracts data from the raw HTML. I guarantee they don't have access to ebay's databases. It's unlikely ebay would block them unless they truly start to hit the servers hard, which would have to be a DOS attack to even make them flinch. Besides, sites like popsike make people use ebay more, which ebay likes.
I'd bet the "import" process for new auctions may be much less automated than we're led to believe. Wouldn't be surprised if the auctions are hand-selected. The selection of auctions in their database has that whiff of "dude... did you see this auction??" about it.
I'd also be happy to pay for access to an accurate database of past record sales. But as other pointed out, popsike excludes the VAST majority of ended auction data and focuses only include the high end.
Pour example: the NM copy of phil cohran "malcolm x memorial" I bought for ~$125 isn't up there. Why? Was it filtered out on keywords, price, or seller? Just an oversight? Couldn't tell you. But it is on the cheap end. And of course all the truly inexpensive records (versus just a "good buy" relatively speaking) are nowhere to be found.
I would be really interested to know if a record sold for $10 before selling for $500 a few weeks later. What I'm not interested in a list of the highest possible sales of records. I can get that from the record geek rumor mill.
i looked today for some records i sold and they have not shown up yet, yet a person whole sold a bunch of the same keyword weeks before has theyres up, yet they dont even have the records of his that went up highest, yet they all are from the same search term.
strange.
on a side note, i have been liking what discogs has been doing with the market research feature. of course that sire doesnt cover enough types of music but its been a good site so far.
i'm not sure if it's as complete but MUSICPRICEGUIDE.COM is a nice option to POPSIKE...
I would pay for a comprehensive service, but I would also pay for popsike as-is. I think some of you guys forgot the time... BEFORE POPSIKE!!!
and if anyone wants to see them...
you have to pay!!
See, if I had the time and money to start it, I think it'd be really amazing to integrate discogs with a database of completed eBay auctions such that when very obscure records pop up on eBay, they'd be added to the discogs database. While it'd get most of its raw data just by trolling eBay auctions, it would remain user updated like discogs/wikipedia.
It's always surprised me that no one has really harnessed the internet to make a truly well thought out and comprehensive music database. If all these different ones worked together, you could have a popsike/discogs/the-breaks/freddy fresh/manship/acid archives, etc.
I estimate Popsike's only caught about a third of the qualifying auctions I've put up for my local record establishment.
problem solved...