End of Summer Contest at ToyTracker.Net

[spaceman]

Hi All,

I'm excited tonight to let you know about ToyTracker's biggest ever prize giveaway and contest! Over the next month, TWO lucky site users will soon have the chance to pick their own GRAND PRIZE from a choice of: The Dark Lord Sauron, Aragorn on Brego, Legolas & Gimli on Arod, The Mumakil of Harad or The Morgul Lord by SideShow*Weta, as well as the Luke Skywalker 12-Inch Jedi Exclusive or Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader or Han Solo Premium Format StarWars figures by Sideshow Collectibles! Free worldwide shipping is also included, pending availability of USPS post to your country.

First, a HUGE thanks to Sideshow for sponsoring half of the contest value by donation of a Sauron Figure to the Site. Also, a very special thanks to Dave for approving this post to help make sure all the Freaks are IN!

Now for the details: After literally months of planning and related programming, the LONG rumored system to allow site users to correct missorted auctions in real time is now nearing completion. You'll have to log in with your Collection Manager account to do so, and will have a daily quota of real-time edits (which will be increased as trust is developed). The basic idea is that the more VERIFIED corrections you make over the contest duration, the more times your name goes in the hat for the Grand Prize! The first winner will be the user with the greatest number of edits straight out. Grand Prize number two is open to all site users as a drawing, but number of edits still raises your odds. You get one free entry for just logging into your Collection Manager account at some point during the proceedings. Another one goes in the hat for signing up for the newsletter (must be enrolled at the time of contest close). Your first five edits are each one additional contest entry. Thereafter, you get one extra shot per three completed corrections. The first winner will have their choice of any of the nine available prizes, and winner number two may choose from the remaining eight options.

Besides the ability to fix mistaken auction sorting, you will also be able to add and remove "flags" which indicate special status or conditions which apply to a given sale and may effect value. This is one of the most important recent upgrades at ToyTracker, whereby any of the cases: Artist Proof, Autographed, Low Edition Number, Mint or New Condition, Postage Discount and Item Damaged or Incomplete may be taken into account. (The valuation algorithm now weights items which carry these markers somewhat less strongly, and VERY much less strongly for the cases AP, Autographed or Damaged.) Each auction listing in the detail view may now carry one or more of the icons:

which correspond to these categories. Sale data points on the history plots are also now color coded to indicate these conditions. Even better, the Custom User Average tool has been updated to filter on these flags (plus much more!) and easily allow the creation of personally tailored value reports which match your own shopping or selling scenarios.

Please note that all activity of the editing system is logged for review. All edits may be subject to verification, and any users found to have intentionally abused the system will face closure of their accounts. Reversed or undone edits will not improve odds of winning the contest. Redundant accounts created for the purpose of additional contest entries are strictly disallowed. Edits to status flags will not contribute to success in the contest - this will based solely on corrections to item sorting itself.

The contest is now officially set to start on Monday, the 14th of August. The exact start time will be sent out in the first site newsletter on Sunday the 13th (Sign up via your Collection Manager account profile). The contest will run for just over a month, ending at midnight Monday September 18, central. I hope it will be a lot of fun, and help make ToyTracker a more reliable community resource in the process.

Good Luck to you All!
the SpaceMan

 

[goliath]

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[TolkienCollector]

Nice contest Spaceman,

I just logged in (having not visited in a very long time ) and discovered just how inaccurate my info is

So, given the great contest, I will be logging on a lot more in the next few weeks, and putting my record straight!!

Thx,

TC

 

[spaceman]

Hi All & thanks TC/goliath for the cheers!

We're within the last 24 hours now, and I'm scrambling to get the final details in place! You'll know that the contest has started by looking at any tracked item's detail view page. (for example Cave Troll - Access this page via the "magnifying glass" icon from the main list views) In the existing column labeled "FIX" there will appear an "exclamation point" icon next to each auction entry. If you see something in that entry that needs correction, just click the icon to begin editing. You'll need your CM password at this point to log in. (forgot?)

There's nothing like a self-imposed deadline to put your neck on the block and make you hustle. It's going to be tight, but I think we'll start "on time". Getting the newsletter ready to go tonight, and then it's several more hours of coding and debugging for the big day. Have a great evening and I'll see you then! Be sure to drop a note here once you get a few edits in place, with any comments or advice!

 

[spaceman]

Ugh. After a 24 hr coding session (minus a couple napper hours), the Error Reporting system and Contest are OPEN.

Enjoy! I'm off for some food and little sleep

 

[lcummins]

Curse you spaceman!!! Now you have me looking over every auction that ended low or high!!! ARRRGGGG!!!!

 

[spaceman]

Howdy Howdy,

A big Thanks to all those who have been helping to clean up missorts and add status Flags! We're down to the last week of the contest, and are over 2,500 edits!

There has been so much good work done in the status flags area (autographed, AP, damaged, etc.) that I think this definitely needs recognition in the form of an additional award. I've decided to choose one participant at random from this group for a third contest prize. The number of flags edited is the number of times your name goes "in the hat" for this drawing. The winner will have their pick of: Sideshow*Weta's Uruk Berserker, Helm's Deep, Golden Hall or Bucklebury Ferry OR Gentle Giant's C3P0 1/6 statue! Shipping is included here as well, and the 3 prizes are guaranteed to go to three different winners.

I'm really pleased with the early response, and would love to see even more individual users give the system a first try. The hope of course, is that this will be an easy, enjoyable and effective way to make the site a more accurate tool long after the contest ends.

For those who have already given the new system a go, I'd love to hear any comments/suggestions on the editing interface. Was it clear and intuitive to use? Did your edit go through smoothly? Did you enjoy seeing your little dot appear/disappear/change colors on the graph?

One upgrade I'm definitely planning on is supplementing the text-lists of items with a clickable grid of thumbnail images. Definitely open to other suggestions though.

Thanks and Enjoy!
Space Out

 

[Wetanut]

Spaceman -- I've been using your site ever since you started it. I love being able to do a quick click to check status. I'm actually very happy with the way you've got it set up, especially now that you've included Gentle Giant and other manufacturers. Only one quibble -- wonder if possible to get a sorting capability alphabetically by manufactuer, line, etc.? If not, I can continue to use the pics you've got for each item.

Thanks for the work you've been doing all this time. :chew

 

[Calle_Sandell]

I've never understand were I can mark my pieces with "low edt. number"...

 

[goliath]

I've never understand were I can mark my pieces with "low edt. number"...

You can not mark the pieces in your "collection manager", but you can mark the pieces in the tracker by using the "fix function" - just click on the ! after the item.

Numbers that qualify as a "low number" are the first 10% of the edition size, but not more than 200.

 

[The Godfather]

Awesome Contest Joel

 

[spaceman]

Thanks Guys!

Had been planning this for months & months, and am enjoying watching it go through smoothly.

Wetanut - Thanks for the Suggestion. "One of these Days" I'd like to implement printable checklists which are integrated with the info a given user has entered in their Collection Manager. There might be a few selectable formats (Excel, PDF, Tab-Delimited, HTML view), and I think the idea of selectable sort criteria including Alphabetical could fit really nicely there.

 

[spaceman]

Hi All,

The contest is now closed! Thanks again for all the hard work helping to get the site in even shipper-shape!

It will take a few days to validate edits, talley totals, handle the drawings, and contact winners for their prize preferences. I'll be posting final results here following that process, of course.

Best of luck to all who participated, and thanks again for a successful launch for the new editing system. I'm hoping it continues to get a healthy usage as needed to keep the sorting clean. I'm also looking forward to improving the sort filters from my end, based on all the great input collected during the contest run.

Happy Collecting!
SpaceMan

 

[spaceman]

First and Second Prize winners have been determined and contacted ... Still working on the third prize for "Flag" edits.

I'll post a full report once the winners have responded with their choices.

Again, THANKS to Dave for the sticky during the contest duration!

 

[goliath]

(... )

 

[spaceman]

Congrats to Goliath, and a HUGE thanks, for an incredible job during the contest! Here's the breakdown on the top several editors of missorted items:

Total edits : 2390
Goliath : 1209
exjedi : 856
FSFAN : 144
csi_123 : 86
lcummins : 77

This was an amazing job by all involved, and ToyTracker is a more accurate reference because of it!

Goliath selected the Darth Vader PF figure. Fittingly, the drawing winner for the second grand prize was also the second highest editor: exjedi from Illinois, who has chosen the polystone Sauron figure.

There was also some great work done in the editing of 'status flags', with 969 total changes made. Goliath again lead this charge, with lcummins in second place. Winner of the drawing for third prize however is Nash. Still waiting a prize selection there.

Again, CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners, and thanks to everyone who helped get things cleaned up during the last month.

Happy Collecting!
the SpaceMan

 

[KAOSINLA]

Thanks for the contest Joel and congrats to the winners!!!!

 

[spaceman]

Thanks KAOS -- appreciated your edits as well!

Nash has selected the C-3PO 1/6 figure as the third prize award - a great choice I think. I've been really enjoying the GG 1/6 myself.

So that pretty much wraps this contest up. Thanks again to all participants, and Happy Collecting!

Space Out

 

[Calle_Sandell]

Congrats to the winners!

hmm.. This means that the Leggy and gimli on horse statue didn't get picked? And what a great coincidence that I miss it in my collection!

 

[nash]

spaceman thanks for the opportunity! awesome contest and congrats to the other winners.