Methodology

How we get to a number you can trust.

Shutterdex is a price index, not a pricing oracle. What follows is how we read the eBay market and turn it into a single decision screen. Last updated 21 May 2026. If anything looks off, write to [email protected].

/ 01

Data sources

All numbers come from live eBay listings via the official Browse, Catalog and Taxonomy APIs. We never scrape and we never use a third-party data broker. The eBay API is queried in the background by a tiered cron, never on your visit.

We currently ingest three marketplaces, one per region: eBay.de (EU), eBay.co.uk (UK) and eBay.com (US). EU coverage will widen to eBay.it, eBay.fr and eBay.esas those marketplaces come online. The region pill in the header switches the data, percentile band and listings to your market’s site.

/ 02

Percentile bands

For every model we compute the median (p50) of all active listings, plus the 25th (p25) and 75th (p75) percentile. The shaded area on the price band is the range where 50% of listings sit.

Below p25 is statistically a good deal. Above p75 is a high ask. Between is the fair zone. The band always uses the same currency and marketplace as the listing.

Band calculationmedian · p25 · p75 = percentile(prices, [50, 25, 75])

/ 03

Deal scoring

Each listing is scored against the band of its model, condition and marketplace.

Great deal
price < p25
Below the 25th percentile. Statistically a bargain.
Fair
p25 ≤ price ≤ p75
Sits in the band where most listings live.
Above market
price > p75
Above the 75th percentile. Likely a slow seller.

/ 04

Freshness & cache

Shutterdex is cache-first. Numbers are computed in the background by a tiered cron and stored in our database. Your visit reads from cache, never live from eBay. The timestamp on every page tells you how old the snapshot is.

Fresh≤ 6h
Recent≤ 12h
Stale> 12h

When the daily eBay quota gets near its hard cap (85%), refreshes pause until the next day. We always show the most recent successful snapshot, never an empty page.

/ 05

Confidence

How many listings the band is computed from. More listings ≈ a tighter, more reliable band.

High> 30 listings
Medium10–30
Low< 10

With low confidence we still show a number, but treat it as directional: a single outlier listing can swing the median.

/ 06

Asking vs sold prices

In v1 we only show asking prices.eBay’s API license forbids us from publishing sold-listing prices in this phase. Asking prices are an upper bound on what the market is currently willing to pay, not what it has paid.

Sold-price overlays arrive in v2 once we have enough catalog history of our own. Until then, every chart, every band and every deal score reflects current asking prices.