One of Card Ladder’s primary services is vetting and organizing sports card market data. We create profiles for sports cards that track each card’s sales history.
Our research team reviews sales and decides whether to admit them into our database or send them to "purgatory"—a list we publish daily of sales that require additional verification before we admit them to our database.
Why do we spend hours each day reviewing sales? For starters, because sports card auctions sometimes are shilled, sports cards that are listed as "sold" sometimes get relisted, and sellers sometimes erroneously title their sports card listings. Reviewing sales helps increase the likelihood that the sports card data in our system reflects sales that have truly been consummated.
The review process requires judgement. The vast majority of sales that we review every day are admitted into our database. But there also tends to be at least a few sales every day that are sent to "purgatory." For example, our researchers study bidding patterns on auctions for obvious signs of shill bidding and send those auctions to "purgatory." We do the same for extreme outlier sales (whether sold via auction, BIN, or BO) that are inconsistent with reasonable market trends. We spot and exclude obvious scams from suspicious sellers. We note when a card's market trajectory is fundamentally unusual, or if an atypical sale is admitted into the card's sales history, by including remarks in the "Card Information" section of a card's profile. We speak to buyers and sellers throughout the Hobby to obtain additional insight into specific sales. We also include links to all recent auctions as well as unusual or noteworthy historical auctions (accessible via the "View all sales" link in the card's profile).
For cards that sell frequently, only their historical auction data (and not their BIN/obo data) has been added. Such cards feature the phrase "Auctions only" above their sales chart.
A data point added to our system that later turns out to be unreliable is promptly removed.
Due to the possibility of human error, it is likely that a handful of mistakes will be made in logging data. If you spot a mistake, please use the feedback option to alert us (available at the bottom of each card's profile or by clicking the profile icon in the top right).