For anyone who wants the number next to each book to be right, whether that is for insurance, for a trade, or for setting an asking price. Automatic pricing needs a Collector plan or above.
1. Know which of the three numbers you are looking at
Every book shows one value, labelled with where it came from:
- Market: what copies are actually changing hands for, aggregated from multiple reputable data points. It carries the time it was last synced.
- Estimated: no market data for this book yet, so the value is worked out from era, key status, and condition. Treat it as a bracket, not a price.
- Manual: a number you typed. It is never overwritten.
Detail: Pricing.
2. Grade the books you care about
Condition decides which market value applies, so an ungraded row is priced more coarsely than a graded one. You do not need to grade 800 books. Grade the ones where the difference is real money, which is usually keys and anything slabbed.
Detail: Inventory.
3. Make sure the book is matched correctly
A value can only be as right as the identification. If the issue number, publisher, or release date is off, the book matches the wrong catalog row or none at all. Open the item, fix those fields, then click Enrich.
4. Know when numbers move
Prices resolve overnight. Catalog data updates through the day, and each night every book you own is repriced against it. A book you add this afternoon usually shows a Market value tomorrow morning.
There is no refresh button in the web app. If you need a number to move now, type a Manual price. It pins until you clear it.
5. Handle the ones that still look wrong
- Too high on a beaten copy: the grade is probably blank or generous. Set the real grade.
- Stuck on Estimated: usually a thin market. Nothing is broken. Set a Manual price if you have a better source.
- Right book, wrong printing: fix the variant or release date, then Enrich again.
What to expect
- These are estimates, not quotes. Nobody is obliged to pay them. Thin-market and high-grade books move most.
- A run is priced as the sum of its issues plus 10%. Complete runs sell above the sum of their parts.
- Total value on the dashboard counts unsold books only. In stock and listed, not sold. Detail: Dashboard.
Then what
Watching for a book to come down to your price is the want list. Producing a total someone else will accept is Valuing a collection.