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Alt Data Processes Explained
Alt Data Processes Explained
Updated over a week ago

Preface

Part of what sets Alt apart in the collectibles space is our advanced data. By providing comprehensive market trends, pricing information and sales histories, our customers are armed with everything they need to make informed purchasing decisions. This article aims to shed some light on how Alt acquires and curates some of our data.

Asset collapsing

Our raw catalog data mainly comes from public information provided by two of the major grading companies, PSA and Beckett (BGS). These services often have different names for the same card, and sometimes PSA has more than one name for a single card. Which means it can be difficult to compare the price of a card in a BGS Black Label grade with the same card in a PSA 10. This is because the data is separated, making it harder to map assets from both grading companies. Our solution is to combine this data, helping us find more accurate population data, transaction histories, and other pricing information from two isolated universes.

To provide a comprehensive view of pricing info for a given card, Alt is actively collapsing (merging) the PSA and BGS names of a card together into a single one. We try our best to collapse every card going into our vault and also expand the coverage on high value cards outside the Alt Vault as well. This ensures that you get a comprehensive view of both the PSA and BGS universes when you browse cards on our platform.

There are some rare cases where cards are mis-collapsed due to a misstep in our process. We are constantly watching out for errors and rectify them as soon as they are discovered.

Asset Name Standardizing

From a data standpoint, card names are often different between grading companies. Names should be representative, succinct, unique, intuitive, and also consistent across issuance years. That’s why on top of the asset collapsing process, we are actively standardizing card names. With our experienced team of card experts and advanced technology, we aim to provide the best experience when you search, trade, vault, or simply browse cards at ALT. We are constantly watching out for misnaming, and make updates as quickly as possible.

Pop data update

Population is one of the most important factors when pricing a graded card. By collapsing assets from PSA and BGS into one data set, Alt provides a more accurate view of pop data.

Here are some key features of our pop data update process.

  • Population data is updated weekly

  • Raw data comes from grading companies whose pop data sometimes has internal inconsistencies

  • Collapsing assets helps clarify pop data when one card has multiple PSA names

  • Our process can lead to inconsistencies between our collapsed data, and un-collapsed data provided by PSA and BGS

  • Population data for listed/vaulted items is manually reviewed at intake time to ensure the most accurate, up-to-date data

While we can’t guarantee the population data you see at Alt is always correct or up to date, we do try our best to improve the data quality as we go.

Any questions about our data? Please contact support@alt.xyz

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