Will the same thing happen to the GPA? Ebay stopping market data

[BrianR]

I got this email from CAF

 

"We've received notice that ebay will be discontinuing their sub-license agreement with the provider we use for their Market Data. Because of this, we'll be forced to remove all ebay data from our Market Data search. As you might imagine this isn't something we're terribly pleased with, and we are working with our partners at ebay to find a way to work with them directly for their historical data. Right now I'm not hopeful that we wont see ebay's Market Data at the very least temporarily removed from CAF beginning on November 22, 2015. That's the date we've been given to remove access to ebay's data. We've not been given a proper reason for this, but it does sound like ebay might be developing their own historical sales tool in the future and that might be the reason for this shift in market data strategy. They recently launched a tool at http://datalabs.ebay.com that only searches about 6 weeks worth of sales history and it really isn't that good, and the short history they have access to doesn't provide us with anything useful.

 

If this comes to pass, those of you who have paid us a Market Data subscription will have the option to either have a pro-rated balance refunded to you, have the remaining time period added to your CAF Premium Membership (if you have one), or you can ask that the balance be considered a donation to CAF. We'll send out a notice on November 21, 2015 to all Market Data subscribers requesting how you would like this handled.

 

Once the ebay data is no longer accessible, Market Data will once again be provided for free to all registered users of CAF but it will only contain data from Heritage and a few All Star Auction results.

 

I should add before you ask - because this is a common question I receive - I'll also confirm for you that neither Comiclink nor Comic Connect are interested at this time in participating in the Market Data search on CAF.

 

Best,

Bill Cox

bill@comicartfans.com"

 

 

If this is happen with Comic art are slabbed books far behind?

[Doktor]

That's.... disconcerting.

 

I guess the lesson is "don't formulate a business strategy around data aggregation from a 3rd party site, because the minute they realize you can make money on it, they'll stop giving you the data & go into that business themselves"

[Silver Surfer]

Unfortunately it is the way of the future. You can't even Google old SNL skits anymore because they have been copyrighted.

[mschmidt]

Unfortunately it is the way of the future. You can't even Google old SNL skits anymore because they have been copyrighted.

 

eBay has so far sold access to their API data through Terapeak - it looks like eBay might be cutting out the middleman and bringing this service in-house, but the details aren't yet clear. Don't really see how it has anything to do with copyrighted TV shows

[DavidTheDavid]

I trust GPA way more than I do eBay.

[BrianR]

I trust GPA way more than I do eBay.

 

Definitely, but what would happen to Gpa if they can no longer obtain ebay data? It really limits the data available.

[Arkham]

[KPR Comics]

Overstreet

[OrangeNemesis]

Overstreet

 

that old thing?

[zosocane]

Overstreet

 

That would be panic button time.

 

Legally not sure how this works because eBay sales are not confidential -- they are a matter of public record. GPA has become critical to the marketplace.

[Thawk]

Overstreet

 

That would be panic button time.

 

Legally not sure how this works because eBay sales are not confidential -- they are a matter of public record. GPA has become critical to the marketplace.

 

Just because they are easily viewed doesn't mean they are actually public record. It is ebay's information. They could make a decision tomorrow that you can't view pricing unless you have an account, or unless you bid, or even unless you bid a certain amount. It'd be bad business of course, but they don't have a legal obligation to let anyone view their auctions or the prices in them (especially not historically).

[romanheart]

Isn't there a backdoor to this info on watchcount?

[miraclemet]

so GPA loses a big chunk of their dataset going forward, but if eBay is making the data unavailable to 3rd parties it means one of two things.

 

1) they've figured out it's more profitable to sell records to customers directly (and are in the midst of developing their own UI.

 

2) they've found a client who will pay for sole ownership of the data (maybe even a client who wants to use it privately) and its worth more to them than the sum of all of the other clients.

 

because of the range of things sold I assume its #1

[Doktor]

I believe Watchcount, GPA, and all the others rely on either an API or some other form of data scraping to aggregate the information that they provide. Either way, if eBay were to make that data more difficult to actually scrape in any way, it could cause both or any other similar service virtually inoperable.

[miraclemet]

Isn't there a backdoor to this info on watchcount?

 

dont they just have info on current/live auctions? So no historical record like GPA and CAF.

[wombat]

Isn't there a backdoor to this info on watchcount?

 

dont they just have info on current/live auctions? So no historical record like GPA and CAF.

 

 

No. You can look up completed sales.

[valiantman]

If Ebay is limiting the data to the prior 6 weeks or so, that probably doesn't change anything for GPA.

 

It's my understanding that GPA is using nightly updates from Ebay... so they only need about 24 hours worth. 6 weeks is gravy.

 

It's the "non-database" users that will be in trouble. Those who rely on someone else to provide all their data.

 

Data compilers, like GPA, have their own (vast historical) databases and only need updates of the current stuff to keep it going.

As long as Ebay has a search function that shows at least the prior couple of days to the public... you know... users like us... then GPA should be fine.

[jaybuck43]

It really sounds like this is a one off thing, since the eBay market data program is still well in effect. https://go.developer.ebay.com/ebay-market-data

 

[HighRadArt]

Feebay has been in need of a good search function (for pricing) for a long time. Completed sales is a pain in the arse. It works, but could be much better. With all the data they have from sales I'm surprised they haven't already taken advantage of it.

[zosocane]

Overstreet

 

That would be panic button time.

 

Legally not sure how this works because eBay sales are not confidential -- they are a matter of public record. GPA has become critical to the marketplace.

 

Just because they are easily viewed doesn't mean they are actually public record. It is ebay's information. They could make a decision tomorrow that you can't view pricing unless you have an account, or unless you bid, or even unless you bid a certain amount. It'd be bad business of course, but they don't have a legal obligation to let anyone view their auctions or the prices in them (especially not historically).

 

The sales prices are public. eBay publishes them to the world, and people who have no interest in buying but are simply window shopping on eBay are not subject to any terms of use where they agree in advance to keep hammer prices confidential. So, yes, the sales prices are public record. But you are right that if eBay decides to close up viewing or accessing historical pricing, that is their prerogative because it's their site and they can limit viewing as they wish.