Pricing (Scripts and Notes)

[Goblin Hero]

I am having problems setting the price for the split card names such as fire / ice.

Use "Fire/Ice" naming convention.

[VaevictisAsmadi]

@woogerboy21: "Fire // Ice" is the (printed) Name column in Magic Album. It's the oracle name column you wanna look at. Otherwise you would be inserting non-english names in native language, which you aren't.

@Goblin Hero: Cool, I will be streamlining my MTGMintCard script soon.

[Smoosh]

Thanks for the update with version support! I have updated the TCG medium script, which is by far my favorite since I don't have foils (since I only collect older editions and they aren't on TCG) and TCG compares very many other site prices already. In other words, it gives me a very accurate indication of the value of my collection.

The script was in dire need of updating anyway, since beta, alpha, unlimited and revised editions were being overlooked. It now finds everything possible, including versions, although I chose to to give each version of any card the same price instead of its unique price. This is due to the fact that version 1 on TCG takes the average of many sites, while subsequent versions usually have only one or two, making them inaccurate and skewed in proportion.

The only cards it still doesn't cover have been mentioned here before. I'm no LUA scripter and just hack, slash and Google my way into making things work, so this may be fixable with a little help. All cards with punctuation such as commas and dashes don't work, as well as cards with non-English characters, such as Dandân. My plan here is to make string substitutions for ALL accented characters, but it would probably be better to fix this from within MA since every script suffers this problem.

Also, I have been attempting to correct Life // Death etc. to set the price for Life/Death without success, but maybe my string substitution is just off. I'll give that another go.

(Once all this works, updating the low and high versions of this script will be a breeze for those who want them.)

I'm loving Magic Album so hopefully this fixed script is useful to you!

[woogerboy21]

Thanks for the update with version support! I have updated the TCG medium script, which is by far my favorite since I don't have foils (since I only collect older editions and they aren't on TCG) and TCG compares very many other site prices already. In other words, it gives me a very accurate indication of the value of my collection.

The script was in dire need of updating anyway, since beta, alpha, unlimited and revised editions were being overlooked. It now finds everything possible, including versions, although I chose to to give each version of any card the same price instead of its unique price. This is due to the fact that version 1 on TCG takes the average of many sites, while subsequent versions usually have only one or two, making them inaccurate and skewed in proportion.

The only cards it still doesn't cover have been mentioned here before. I'm no LUA scripter and just hack, slash and Google my way into making things work, so this may be fixable with a little help. All cards with punctuation such as commas and dashes don't work, as well as cards with non-English characters, such as Dandân. My plan here is to make string substitutions for ALL accented characters, but it would probably be better to fix this from within MA since every script suffers this problem.

Also, I have been attempting to correct Life // Death etc. to set the price for Life/Death without success, but maybe my string substitution is just off. I'll give that another go.

(Once all this works, updating the low and high versions of this script will be a breeze for those who want them.)

I'm loving Magic Album so hopefully this fixed script is useful to you!

Great! I will take a look at the changes. Can you do me a favor though. Taking the original script that was in the version release could you create an inventory file containing card prices that are missing and post it here? I would like to see an example of the html responses from there site of cards that contain missing prices as well as split card names (and any others you notice). It helped out alot the way it was done by moviemadnessman here.

[woogerboy21]

One other quick thought for people posting errors. Unless there is a common looking explination (or you want to simply ask) posting an issue works but if there is a select number of prices you are wanting corrected if you create an inventory file in MA. Save it and post it along with the pricing script name you are wanting to see it resolved it would help.

I know you said to let you look into the things I already mentioned ... but this is a far better idea when it comes to giving you the missing information, so I've saved the missing card list for both of the scripts above for you to analyze at your own convenience.

Thanks

Version 1.0 is out. Updated those two scripts mainly and should resolve most the items you have listed. There was a lot of promo cards, tokens, and basic lands that I havent written in support in any pricing script for. I will eventually but they are lower on my priority list at the moment.

[Smoosh]

Great! I will take a look at the changes. Can you do me a favor though. Taking the original script that was in the version release could you create an inventory file containing card prices that are missing and post it here? I would like to see an example of the html responses from there site of cards that contain missing prices as well as split card names (and any others you notice). It helped out alot the way it was done by moviemadnessman here.

Always glad to help! As far as I know, though, the only script included with MA is the MTG Mint Card script, so I'm not sure what you mean with the version release. The TCG script in the opening post is outdated, missing the first four sets and has a mistake in the regex that grabs prices (causing it to erroneously miss listed MED prices if the LOW and/or HIGH prices are "N/A"). Thus, it results in many, many more missed prices, so I generated the list you requested with the updated script. I have made two versions, one with all languages and the other in only English, since that illustrates the problems best (as foreign cards are simply generally not available). Just let me know if that wasn't the intention and I'll work on putting something else together for you.

[woogerboy21]

Great! I will take a look at the changes. Can you do me a favor though. Taking the original script that was in the version release could you create an inventory file containing card prices that are missing and post it here? I would like to see an example of the html responses from there site of cards that contain missing prices as well as split card names (and any others you notice). It helped out alot the way it was done by moviemadnessman here.

Always glad to help! As far as I know, though, the only script included with MA is the MTG Mint Card script, so I'm not sure what you mean with the version release. The TCG script in the opening post is outdated, missing the first four sets and has a mistake in the regex that grabs prices (causing it to erroneously miss listed MED prices if the LOW and/or HIGH prices are "N/A"). Thus, it results in many, many more missed prices, so I generated the list you requested with the updated script. I have made two versions, one with all languages and the other in only English, since that illustrates the problems best (as foreign cards are simply generally not available). Just let me know if that wasn't the intention and I'll work on putting something else together for you.

Thanks, sorry if I was a little vague in versioning information. I was refering to the version of the script included in the zip file for the pricing scripts. Whatever version that would be. Also letting me know what version you are using of both the scripts and ma is helpfull. But more importantly I just needed a listing of cards to make sure you are looking at the same thing I am. I have resolved alot of the missing prices and am still working on updating the TCGPlayer scripts and will release the updates in the main release soon hopefully.

[woogerboy21]

Great! I will take a look at the changes. Can you do me a favor though. Taking the original script that was in the version release could you create an inventory file containing card prices that are missing and post it here? I would like to see an example of the html responses from there site of cards that contain missing prices as well as split card names (and any others you notice). It helped out alot the way it was done by moviemadnessman here.

Always glad to help! As far as I know, though, the only script included with MA is the MTG Mint Card script, so I'm not sure what you mean with the version release. The TCG script in the opening post is outdated, missing the first four sets and has a mistake in the regex that grabs prices (causing it to erroneously miss listed MED prices if the LOW and/or HIGH prices are "N/A"). Thus, it results in many, many more missed prices, so I generated the list you requested with the updated script. I have made two versions, one with all languages and the other in only English, since that illustrates the problems best (as foreign cards are simply generally not available). Just let me know if that wasn't the intention and I'll work on putting something else together for you.

Main zip should be updated. Check out the front page about the updates to the TCGPlayer scripts. I was able to capture all but 2 cards (which are whooping my ars to figure out ) I am still leary aout the low price method on the site so if you use that script and find missing prices let me know.

[Smoosh]

Very nice! Thanks! I was working on improving it myself (noting a few more mismatched set names) but was going the string substitution route for odd characters instead of making such an exhaustive list of exceptions. That must have been an incredible amount of work. I also noticed that the version I uploaded didn't have the fixed regex to include N/A prices, but I see you solved that with a different solution.

My lack of knowledge on LUA has me wondering why you chose to make per-card exceptions for version pricing instead of simply setting the version to * for all cards. That would also catch the lands which are currently missing.

[woogerboy21]

Very nice! Thanks! I was working on improving it myself (noting a few more mismatched set names) but was going the string substitution route for odd characters instead of making such an exhaustive list of exceptions. That must have been an incredible amount of work. I also noticed that the version I uploaded didn't have the fixed regex to include N/A prices, but I see you solved that with a different solution.

My lack of knowledge on LUA has me wondering why you chose to make per-card exceptions for version pricing instead of simply setting the version to * for all cards. That would also catch the lands which are currently missing.

I originally debated on various methods for applying prices to multiple version of cards and finally decided to faulter on the side of accuracy (even if it meant more manual work). The way its setup currently will only apply prices if the exact name located matches the known case so there wouldn't be any false positive string searches. Allowing for different prices to be applied per version (if there ever is difference). How ever in the next release of the template as well as the troll and toad pricing script I use string searches and replacements to take care of most the multi card versioning eleminating the need for such a large static list. I still have to work in basic land pricing (which probably wont be in the next release but I am still debating on how to handle.) They will probably be handled with string searches for the basic land name and then using the "*" in the version location.

edit:
And as for the amount of work. It is But since I know a few other languages and being a script kitty alot of the work is automated and written by custom scripts I have wrote to format things out the way I want.

[woogerboy21]

Alright created the cardkingdom and trollandtoad scripts. Cardkingdom was a bit tricky. I do like the way things are working with the updated scripting templates I used for these two sites I must say .

[moviemadnessman]

Alright created the cardkingdom and trollandtoad scripts. Cardkingdom was a bit tricky. I do like the way things are working with the updated scripting templates I used for these two sites I must say .

Very nice

As usual, I am here to post my findings on the two new scripts. Actually looking at the included knownproblem.mai files this time (and not including basic land or promo cards), here are my conclusions:

CardKingdom:
>You have no price for "Super Secret Tech", stating that it is not on the CK site, when in fact it is: http://www.cardkingdom.com/catalog/item/112628

>Everything else is already listed for why the price is not acquired (regular, since I don't check the foil aspects of the scripts). Nice job


Toad and Troll:
>War Elephant 2 (Arabian Nights - known as B on the site) doesn't get get price
>Your Puny Minds Cannot Fathom (Archenemy) doesn't get a price, due to a misspelling of "Punny" on T&T site
>From The Vault: Exiled and Relics (No Prices for any cards, but these may be classified as promos. The other 3 scripts get them, though, and it gets pricing for FTV:Dragons, so maybe they were just forgotten)
>Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang: You have listed as not available, but it correctly got the price of $1.79 for me, so I'm not sure if it was really supposed to be in the problems list or not.
>Super Secret Tech lists its price in the regular column, even though it is only available as a foil. HOWEVER, in cards where only foils are available, I prefer the price to be in both columns, so this is acceptable (the scripts do the same thing with the FTV cards, for example)

>Everything else is known. Great job

[woogerboy21]

CardKingdom:
>You have no price for "Super Secret Tech", stating that it is not on the CK site, when in fact it is: http://www.cardkingdom.com/catalog/item/112628

This card is only available in foil to my knowledge and I didn't see it in the list on the sets page. Thanks for the direct link.

Toad and Troll:
>War Elephant 2 (Arabian Nights - known as B on the site) doesn't get get price
>Your Puny Minds Cannot Fathom (Archenemy) doesn't get a price, due to a misspelling of "Punny" on T&T site

Will check these out too...

>From The Vault: Exiled and Relics (No Prices for any cards, but these may be classified as promos. The other 3 scripts get them, though, and it gets pricing for FTV:Dragons, so maybe they were just forgotten)

FTV are not considered promo's in my mind.

>Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang: You have listed as not available, but it correctly got the price of $1.79 for me, so I'm not sure if it was really supposed to be in the problems list or not.

Probably just forgot to delete it from the "knownproblems" file when I was troubleshooting those cards.

>Super Secret Tech lists its price in the regular column, even though it is only available as a foil. HOWEVER, in cards where only foils are available, I prefer the price to be in both columns, so this is acceptable (the scripts do the same thing with the FTV cards, for example)

It may appear this is the case but infact it is not exactly. The scripts actually use two seperate string searches for non-foil and foil cards. If a site is listing the card sets as containing only non-foil search string style the card prices will be inserted into the regular pricing column. So for example many of the FTV sets (though foil) the card text on the site is actually formated like a non-foil card. I can always tell the script to set either price but for now they are only setting the prices in the columns based on how the text is formated off the sites format. I will see about implementing a way of setting the foil prices in the proper columns so there is no future confusion. Maybe even having a definable variable that you can set that will put the prices in whatever column you want (defaulting to the expected behaviour).


As always thanks for reporting problems. The scripts are always a work in progress in my mind. I am working on going back through the other scripts and implementing basic land pricing and updating the sets list to catch the new FTV set. I will create "knownproblems" lists as I do. So the updates / corrections to these scripts might take a bit.

[VaevictisAsmadi]

Here is the streamlined MTGMINTCARD script:

MTGMintCard.rar

(3.96 KiB) Downloaded 398 times

Thanks to the ma.SetPrice "*" update, it now supports all avaliable english prices. Next version will support chinese ones (simplified chinese actually,) but I probably ain't working on this again till next month. I'm gonna be busy.

So... I generalized "card exceptions," added many fields to them, and the function that process them became more complex. I thought I had enough functionality, until I looked at the Tokens set in MTGMINTCARD. It has some non-promo tokens with no set information other than the pic. I had to hardcode it completely with "card exceptions" and match tokens with the same name by position.

I also did that with B.F.M.. B.F.M. has two versions, but the only difference in MTGMINTCARD is the mana cost. Instead of making ParseURL capture mana cost just to ignore it 99.9% of the time, I went the easy way and did it by position.

So I need to make ParseURL capture pic filenames and mana cost to do everything correctly. This ties in with the chinese languaje support, because it so happens that some chinese tokens with equal names are ordered differently that their english counterparts, so the "card exceptions" that use positional code are already useless there. I'd rather fix the implementation than add more "card exceptions" as workarounds.

Some time next month...

[rjp14]

Hey Wooger,

Thanks for all the great work you've done on these scripts and continue to do on these scripts. I have a couple more sites I'd love to have pricing scripts for. They are as follows:

http://www.gonetoplaid.com
http://www.matchplay.com
http://www.capefeargames.com
http://www.ccgbot.com
http://www.gamersinnaz.com

These are the sites I find myself buying from most often so it would be great to have them added to Magic Album. There's no rush on them it just would be nice to have. Once again thanks for your great continued work on these pricing scripts!:)