Discussion Forum: Thread 243505

 Author: calsbricks View Messages Posted By calsbricks
 Posted: Oct 24, 2018 13:01
 Subject: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 217 times
 Topic: Suggestions
 Status:Open
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calsbricks (8501)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 12, 2008 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: CalsBricks
We are aware that nothing is going on on the classic site whilst the development
team focus on Bricklink XP, so we will make this as short and sweet as we can.

Having contacted the forum and put all elements of this together it is plain
that a subtle but important change needs to be in place for the price guide screen.

Understanding full well what happens with the 'sold at' columns those
can be left as they are until the whole price guide is revisited, whenever that
is going to be. The current items for sale, however needs s small but important
change, in our view. It is currently not possible to determine the currency conversion
rate for those figures. It could have been anyti8me in the last hour or this
hour or whenever.

Please simply add the two fields which are used to convert e.g. for example $1
= 'x' £;s and £1 = 'x$). This will enable any member, buyer or seller,
to at least get their figures correct when working offline. This is not a complicated
change/fix - it merely requires placing those fields on that screen each time
they change. The fields are held somewhere in the system even if it is a temporary
table, so it should be relatively straight forward to display them on the price
guide screen.

Thoughts ?
 Author: Teup View Messages Posted By Teup
 Posted: Oct 24, 2018 14:06
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 53 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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Teup (6591)

Location:  Netherlands, Utrecht
Member Since Contact Type Status
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Store: BLOKJESKONING
In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
  We are aware that nothing is going on on the classic site whilst the development
team focus on Bricklink XP, so we will make this as short and sweet as we can.

Having contacted the forum and put all elements of this together it is plain
that a subtle but important change needs to be in place for the price guide screen.

Understanding full well what happens with the 'sold at' columns those
can be left as they are until the whole price guide is revisited, whenever that
is going to be. The current items for sale, however needs s small but important
change, in our view. It is currently not possible to determine the currency conversion
rate for those figures. It could have been anyti8me in the last hour or this
hour or whenever.

Please simply add the two fields which are used to convert e.g. for example $1
= 'x' £;s and £1 = 'x$). This will enable any member, buyer or seller,
to at least get their figures correct when working offline. This is not a complicated
change/fix - it merely requires placing those fields on that screen each time
they change. The fields are held somewhere in the system even if it is a temporary
table, so it should be relatively straight forward to display them on the price
guide screen.

Thoughts ?

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?

By the way, in case you didn't know and it's useful - you can always
flip the currency of the priceguide by changing the vcID parameter in the URL:

Euro: https://www.bricklink.com/priceGuideSummary.asp?vcID=2&vatInc=Y&a=p&colorID=110&itemID=3005

Dollar: https://www.bricklink.com/priceGuideSummary.asp?vcID=1&vatInc=Y&a=p&colorID=110&itemID=3005

I just wish this was properly interfaced (and that there was an easy simple to
understand API to access these things without downloading the page and run into
download limits imposed by Bricklink)
 Author: calsbricks View Messages Posted By calsbricks
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 01:37
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 39 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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calsbricks (8501)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 12, 2008 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: CalsBricks
In Suggestions, Teup writes:
  In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
  We are aware that nothing is going on on the classic site whilst the development
team focus on Bricklink XP, so we will make this as short and sweet as we can.

Having contacted the forum and put all elements of this together it is plain
that a subtle but important change needs to be in place for the price guide screen.

Understanding full well what happens with the 'sold at' columns those
can be left as they are until the whole price guide is revisited, whenever that
is going to be. The current items for sale, however needs s small but important
change, in our view. It is currently not possible to determine the currency conversion
rate for those figures. It could have been anyti8me in the last hour or this
hour or whenever.

Please simply add the two fields which are used to convert e.g. for example $1
= 'x' £;s and £1 = 'x$). This will enable any member, buyer or seller,
to at least get their figures correct when working offline. This is not a complicated
change/fix - it merely requires placing those fields on that screen each time
they change. The fields are held somewhere in the system even if it is a temporary
table, so it should be relatively straight forward to display them on the price
guide screen.

Thoughts ?

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.
  
By the way, in case you didn't know and it's useful - you can always
flip the currency of the priceguide by changing the vcID parameter in the URL:

Euro: https://www.bricklink.com/priceGuideSummary.asp?vcID=2&vatInc=Y&a=p&colorID=110&itemID=3005

Dollar: https://www.bricklink.com/priceGuideSummary.asp?vcID=1&vatInc=Y&a=p&colorID=110&itemID=3005

I just wish this was properly interfaced (and that there was an easy simple to
understand API to access these things without downloading the page and run into
download limits imposed by Bricklink)

Don't we all.
 Author: yorbrick View Messages Posted By yorbrick
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 04:32
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 41 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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yorbrick (1182)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Apr 11, 2011 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Yorbricks
  
  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).

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.
 Author: calsbricks View Messages Posted By calsbricks
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 07:01
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 40 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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calsbricks (8501)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 12, 2008 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: CalsBricks
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: yorbrick View Messages Posted By yorbrick
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 08:08
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 29 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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yorbrick (1182)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Apr 11, 2011 Contact Member Seller
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Store: Yorbricks
  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 View Messages Posted By calsbricks
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 09:29
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 28 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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calsbricks (8501)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 12, 2008 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: CalsBricks
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.

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 do believe Bricklink should clarify this issue which would be helpful.
 Author: yorbrick View Messages Posted By yorbrick
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 09:46
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 21 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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yorbrick (1182)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Apr 11, 2011 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Yorbricks
  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.

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 View Messages Posted By calsbricks
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 10:16
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 27 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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calsbricks (8501)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 12, 2008 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: CalsBricks
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: Teup View Messages Posted By Teup
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 18:19
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 41 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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Teup (6591)

Location:  Netherlands, Utrecht
Member Since Contact Type Status
May 6, 2004 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: BLOKJESKONING
In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
  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.

Sorry if this came up before and I missed it, I just can't spot it right
now.. anyway.. not to be annoying but to me the million dollar question is why
actually do you want to know?

If somehow you need it for tax purposes, for tax agencies it is not required
to be that hardcore precise, and for personal business diagnostics and
stats those tiny fractions of difference probably aren't that interesting,
especially with the prospect of fluctuation in the future anyway.

Anyway, if you are working (partly) with software, what you could always do to
distill the exchange rate is refer to the GBP version and the USD version of
the priceguide, extract the two "current average" numbers and divide one by the
other. That gives you the exchange rate that was used. (Probably best to do it
with an expensive part or add up a couple of parts, to get the decimals more
accurate)
 Author: hpoort View Messages Posted By hpoort
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 12:06
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 24 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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hpoort (410)

Location:  Netherlands, Groningen
Member Since Contact Type Status
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Reverse engineering and assuming the API provides us with a clue about the underlying
data structure, I would conclude that the price is recorded in the local currency
of the store. This makes sense as this would remove all currency calculation
from the equation when looking at the internals of a store.

The API for the GetPriceGuide says:
"This method returns price in the specified currency code
- If you don't specify this value, price is retrieved in the base currency
of the user profile's"
http://apidev.bricklink.com/redmine/projects/bricklink-api/wiki/CatalogMethod#Get-Price-Guide

The page generator will have to convert from many different currencies to the
currency requested by the viewer. No intermediate conversion through another
currency is needed, although mathematically there will always be any reference
currency in the currency conversion table.

For the 'items sold' prices, the engine will look up the currency conversion
table of that specific time frame, according to the help.

It seems pretty clear to me how it works.

Hans-Peter

In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
  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.

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 do believe Bricklink should clarify this issue which would be helpful.
 Author: calsbricks View Messages Posted By calsbricks
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 12:21
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 25 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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calsbricks (8501)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 12, 2008 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: CalsBricks
In Suggestions, hpoort writes:
  Reverse engineering and assuming the API provides us with a clue about the underlying
data structure, I would conclude that the price is recorded in the local currency
of the store. This makes sense as this would remove all currency calculation
from the equation when looking at the internals of a store.

The API for the GetPriceGuide says:
"This method returns price in the specified currency code
- If you don't specify this value, price is retrieved in the base currency
of the user profile's"
http://apidev.bricklink.com/redmine/projects/bricklink-api/wiki/CatalogMethod#Get-Price-Guide

The page generator will have to convert from many different currencies to the
currency requested by the viewer. No intermediate conversion through another
currency is needed, although mathematically there will always be any reference
currency in the currency conversion table.

For the 'items sold' prices, the engine will look up the currency conversion
table of that specific time frame, according to the help.

It seems pretty clear to me how it works.

Thank you for your thought's and comments they are helpful and it now seems
that several things are obvious. We do not have access to the API so it is not
possible for us to determine the information you have introduced.


A lot of calculations seem to be taking place when the price guide is called
up by an individual member, e,g, UK store looks up a common part which is sold
everywhere in the world and the system is converting all those store held currencies
(Could be 37 of them) to GBP at a rate that is being held in a currency conversion
table. That table gets updated by a link to xe.com on an hour by hour basis,
but the rate used for the page is not shown - this would be clumsy and create
a vastly complicated screen display. Maybe a link could be created against the
currency which would reveal the exchange rate used. Maybe that is not worth it.
Hmm. More to think through now.

Thank you again for adding your comments to this thread. They are helpful.
  
Hans-Peter

In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
  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.

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 do believe Bricklink should clarify this issue which would be helpful.
 Author: BricksThatStick View Messages Posted By BricksThatStick
 Posted: Oct 24, 2018 14:26
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 46 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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BricksThatStick (6355)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
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Store: Bricks That Stick
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In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
  Thoughts ?

It's just a guide.

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

Otherwise sellers should just see it for what it is and adjust their prices/set
prices as they see fit.
 Author: calsbricks View Messages Posted By calsbricks
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 01:40
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 30 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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calsbricks (8501)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Aug 12, 2008 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: CalsBricks
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: bje View Messages Posted By bje
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 12:40
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 38 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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bje (1577)

Location:  South Africa, Western Cape
Member Since Contact Type Status
May 24, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store: JE Bricks
No Longer Registered
My honest view here is that the indicative values given by Bricklink, is just
that, purely an indication and it is what I have always used it for.

Bricklink's currency conversions are not set, and neither are the values
on xe.com set and neither are the values displayed in the window of your local
forex broker. The reason being, and this is true for all forex conversions, is
that transactions are recorded at spot rate, not at the rate you see or the rate
that may be quoted in an advertisement. Spot rates further is a weighted mean
average, and not a perfect figure, which is why you will find differences in
cross rates. If you were to convert USD to ZK, ZK to GBP and then GBP to USD
you will end up with a difference, irrespective if you do all of the conversions
at the exact same moment simply because of the demand and supply on different
rates.

Spot rates are your responsibility, for the simple fact of the matter is that
spot rates can change in 1/1000th of a second. You set the rate at the time you
do the transaction and that is it. So if Bricklink is showing you a rate when
you list an item or wish to purchase an item, it is your responsibility to
ensure that the spot rate you use is applicable to you at the time you perform
the transaction, including converting for price guide purposes. So if you want
to be precise, you actually need to have xe as well as paypal open at all times,
not forgetting the differences between buying and selling the forex, which you
are seeing as the weighted mean average at any time.

If you are interested in purchasing 10 x 3001 in white from a store that uses
its base currency as USD, you contract in USD, because that is the currency the
invoice will be made out in. Whether you wish to sell the product in GBP, pay
in GBP, carry it in inventory in GBP, or anything to do at all with your currency
is not germane to the spot rate being fixed at the time of the order (this is
why sellers should not take days to do invoices!!!).

To make matters simpler, the spot for Bricklink's purposes is fixed at the
time of the order, not the invoice (this I assume is because of that unique American
oddity where a purchase order is a credit agreement). So the only concern should
be that the currency conversion should be 100% correct at the time the order
is placed. It is improbable that any site such as this will have the capacity
to do this 100% correctly, so I would agree that for recording purposes, the
exchange rate used at the time of the order should be on the order, even if it
is an hour old. The invoice only affects what you will pay in your own currency,
it has nothing to do with the rate at which you purchased.

Would it not be easier to show the time of updating the forex rates at the top
of every page as well clearly state which is the base currency in force site
wide (I think it is USD, since fees are calculated in USD, but I might be wrong)?
In other words, should bricklink not just show us that the rates now in force
for all transactions, was last updated at x time? That way you can either wait
for the next update and fix your spot rate, or proceed at the ruling rate, which
will then automatically become your spot rate for the transaction at the time
you are performing the transaction, which will include the time you view the
price guide. And, of course, you will then be able to see that these rates are
actually updated every hour, not that we do not trust the masters at Bricklink,
but because it makes good sense to disclose transaction issues at all times.

See below for a transaction example. And I do agree - not disclosing the rate
at which you are performing the transaction is not only confusing, but it can
lead to inadvertent losses. This, like much else in life, can also lead to inadvertent
gains, so I think unless you are dealing with hyper-inflation, you will find
that over time things do tend to even out. Besides, anything to do with forex,
whether it is a spot rate, CFD, FEC, spread trade, currency swap, forex hedge
or whatever other fancy term that is the flavour of the month, is nothing more
than institutional gambling.

(And this might all be as worthless as ﷼)

Jean

Example (using simple rates) for 10 x 3001 in white:

View price at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.4)
Order at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.5)
Invoice at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.7) 5 days later;
Pay at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.8) 3 days later
Ship FOB at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.6) 6 days later
Arrives in bond at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.9) 14 days later (VAT and customs calculated
on 8.9 +5%)
Receive at post office at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.8) 5 days later;
Cost in inventory at GBP8.50 + VAT and customs (unless you claim the VAT back,
then just include customs as cost)
Forex loss for the time between order and pay, gain for the difference between
pay and shipped, and loss between shipped and received;

That is the contractual treatment, and will be the same whether you buy from
Amazon or Bricklink or whether you actually walk into your bank and order USD
in actual notes. Clearly the price guide cannot show all of these variables,
and you would only use 3 figures in the ordinary course of business - the rate
you order at (which is your cost for inventory purposes), the rate you pay at
(which is your financing of the purchase) and the rate you pay VAT and customs
at (which is the consumption tax rate applicable to the transaction as a whole),
everything else is only impacted if you draw a balance sheet at a certain time.







In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
  We are aware that nothing is going on on the classic site whilst the development
team focus on Bricklink XP, so we will make this as short and sweet as we can.

Having contacted the forum and put all elements of this together it is plain
that a subtle but important change needs to be in place for the price guide screen.

Understanding full well what happens with the 'sold at' columns those
can be left as they are until the whole price guide is revisited, whenever that
is going to be. The current items for sale, however needs s small but important
change, in our view. It is currently not possible to determine the currency conversion
rate for those figures. It could have been anyti8me in the last hour or this
hour or whenever.

Please simply add the two fields which are used to convert e.g. for example $1
= 'x' £;s and £1 = 'x$). This will enable any member, buyer or seller,
to at least get their figures correct when working offline. This is not a complicated
change/fix - it merely requires placing those fields on that screen each time
they change. The fields are held somewhere in the system even if it is a temporary
table, so it should be relatively straight forward to display them on the price
guide screen.

Thoughts ?
 Author: yorbrick View Messages Posted By yorbrick
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 13:35
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 37 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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yorbrick (1182)

Location:  United Kingdom, England
Member Since Contact Type Status
Apr 11, 2011 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Yorbricks
  Arrives in bond at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.9) 14 days later (VAT and customs calculated
on 8.9 +5%)

The rate that customs use is actually fixed in advance, and is valid for a month,
and published online usually about 5 days before the end of the month. There
is a small window of ordering time where it won't arrive under next month
and the exchange rate is unknown (like now!). But if you place an order right
at the end of the month after these are published, or in the first couple of
weeks of the next month, you know the customs rate in advance.

See for example here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743999/exrates-monthly-1018.csv/preview
 Author: bje View Messages Posted By bje
 Posted: Oct 25, 2018 14:04
 Subject: Re: Price guide improvement
 Viewed: 41 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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bje (1577)

Location:  South Africa, Western Cape
Member Since Contact Type Status
May 24, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store: JE Bricks
No Longer Registered
In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
  
  Arrives in bond at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.9) 14 days later (VAT and customs calculated
on 8.9 +5%)

The rate that customs use is actually fixed in advance, and is valid for a month,
and published online usually about 5 days before the end of the month. There
is a small window of ordering time where it won't arrive under next month
and the exchange rate is unknown (like now!). But if you place an order right
at the end of the month after these are published, or in the first couple of
weeks of the next month, you know the customs rate in advance.

See for example here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743999/exrates-monthly-1018.csv/preview

My apologies, should have checked that your revenue authorities are perhaps less
inclined to milk citizens for all their worth Last time I checked with ours
earlier this year and questioned this practice, I was of course categorically
informed that all countries where VAT is charged, use this system, go figure

The above was an example though, our actual rate is 10% added to the rate of
exchange the day the goods are presented for clearance, not on the day it arrives.