We founded hobbyDB with a mission to document every collectible ever made. Together we have built a resource that now catalogs almost 1,000,000 collectibles, 6,059,595 price points and is a digital home for 700,000 collectors!
Over the last 10 years, we have been grateful to be able to offer these services on hobbyDB and PPG for free to the entire community. But, as with any business, our goal is to have the resources to not only survive, but also continue making the site better over time.
Back in January, Funko told us that they could not afford paying for our pricing and that they would get price data from eBay instead – that was our biggest contract. We tried to make up the revenue with ads and other initiatives, but nothing was able to make up for that loss. Our costs have continued to rise including all of our suppliers for technical services (our biggest expense category – and what keeps the site online). And on top of that, our entire team has not received a pay increase for the last three years we have been in business. We are so passionate about what we are building, that we have made that sacrifice in order to continue doing what we love.
Last month, we launched hobbyDB Premium with the hopes that it would help us generate more revenue. We launched with new features such as no ads, no selling fees, and collection export. Sadly only 300 people signed up, which is simply just not enough for our business to survive.
On Monday, we will be transitioning the Showcase to be a Premium feature. This will include your collection value, your top ten, and the ability to share your collection or wish list publicly.
We understand that this may come as a shock initially. If we had the choice, we would obviously love to be able to offer all of our services for free, forever. Here are some of the questions we’ve already received –
What happens if I don’t sign up for Premium on Monday?
How much does a Premium membership Cost?
Why add more costs when everyone is struggling from inflation?
What about our Volunteers?
What about our Shareholders?
Premium Features to Come –
Another reason why we had to do this change was to able to have the ability to add new features to the site over the coming year. Here’s a look at what’s to come –
And for all hobbyDB members –
We want to say thank you again for all of your support. We know this is a big change, and we hope that this will ensure that we can grow and provide the best service possible for our loyal community. We’re always open to feedback, please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
If 10% of my entire collection didn’t say “estimated value to come,” I might actually be onboard for the paid subscription. Most of the items aren’t even new things just waiting for a value, it’s items that have been sitting on my list for the past few years.
You can always help add Price Points by joining the Squad. As a Premium Member, you can add Member Estimates. The volunteers have added 6 million Price Points so far and we are working on increasing our tools so can add more faster. Lastly, there are lots of other features like No Advertising, No Fees for any sales, Early opportunity to buy Exclusives and more.
Super stoked for some of the upcoming premium features. I’ve been an investor since the first round, and a premium subscriber since day 1, so I’m all for new and exclusive access and features and have been super happy to support financially after all the years of free service you’ve given me and helped me grow my hobby and business. Excited to see what Hobbydb grows and evolves into!
The upcoming features sound great! I love the idea of the Completeness Test! I can’t wait to see what it looks like.
I personally like the paying the Subscription charge over the fee charged for each sale. Thank you, Mel
So if I don’t pay for a subscription and I’m a shareholder what do I get? Can I still “try” to sell my items and share my list of for sale items to my other socials?
Hi Mary,
you can take screenshots and send those. I realize that is not great. We posted more info on why we did this here. As a Shareholder you get a 25% discount on fees and as a Premium Member you pay no transaction fees to us and can manage the sale through it. Trading is also coming shortly (should be this month). Hope that works for you and thanks for backing us!
I think it is a bit of an excessive jump to go from free to $5 a month. I know it is cheaper by the year. But for those of us who DON’T buy or sell through here and just use it to track our collection and value it’s really not worth it. I may be searching for some other means of doing so depending on what I see Monday after all these changes go live. We shall see
Hi Steve, I hope you stay with us. There is lots of other good stuff in the Premium Subscription. See also https://blog.hobbydb.com/2024/09/06/hobbydb-premium-membership-questions-answers/ for more background.
I love the site, but I guess if I had any complaint it would be that I am already and Investor from day one it was offered AND already have a paid subscription. Why do I have to keep receiving these emails telling me what I am already a part of is coming/happening? I know already!
Super sorry for that. We try to get better to segregate the list. Thanks for all of your support!
Well, as a shareholder I actually am VERY interested to hear about how HobbyDB is doing, and measures taken to keep HobbyDB alive (and therefore protect my investment!). So, please continue to share such updates! It is not like these are filling up anybody’s inbox or something…
We will. We might add a unsubscription option here – https://www.hobbydb.com/marketplaces/hobbydb/user/email_subscriptions
One thing I have noticed being a relatively new collector to the hot wheels world is how fickle collectors are. Every time I see an adult looking at the brick and morter stores I always ask if they know about hobbydb. I was most pleased with the premium to get away from the adds. I basically only use to keep track of collection but I have made many purchases from the market. I really hope this app stays up and working because not many great alternatives. Thank you hobbydb team.
Why the ppg on soda chase drops like that ?
Hi Yamil, you should see every transaction and therefore how the Estimated Values were derived. More on all of that here – https://help.hobbydb.com/support/solutions/articles/36000126828-what-is-the-estimated-value
Every person should have the ability to export a spreadsheet list of every item they track. It has been what’s missing from the beginning and we shouldn’t have to pay to get that feature.
Hi Frank, why should nobody have to pay for anything? It cost us money to operate the site, pay people, insurances, taxes etc etc.
After using the app for many years, I don’t mind $30 a year if it helps the company continue to stay afloat and grow. I do have 2 PET PEEVES that I would LOVE to see fixed.
The first is to add a button to go along with the (Sell) (+ Collection) (+ Wishlist) buttons. PLEASE add a (- Collection) button. I would literally have DAYS of my life back if I could simply hit that button instead of going through the unnecessarily tedious process of using the “Collection Management” interface. PLEASE
The 2nd one is also due to an inordinate amount of time being wasted when we have to click through any given piece and then scroll down to see the # Produced. SO MUCH TIME. Please include the # Produced on the scroll through profile along with the “Type: Brand: Series: Reference #: Released: information. SO MUCH TIME wasted having to click through just to see that one bit of information. PLEASE and THANK YOU.
Keep up the great work! 🙂
Thanks for that comment!
The problem with this Minus button is that you might have one that is mint and one that has a little damage – here you would have to chose which one you just sold. We could of course have the Minus button for only if you have only one.
Re the 2nd point we will look at the space requirements and maybe only display the field if it has a value.
This is like any other business or corporation, this will start at $5 per month then continue to increase in the name of “inflation”. You must understand that inflation is a word of convenience and justification to raise prices.
Hi Jesse, first of all the annual subscription stands at $2.50 per year. Secondly, inflation is real – for example hobbyDB has to pay for services such as hosting and if they increase then we have to sometimes increase ours. Thirdly, we have not made any plans on that yet. We have not increased our fees for serving our members for 10 years (it was consistently at $0 per month 😉
Pagar por la función “Showcase” no es algo viable, ya que es algo que siempre ha estado, yo por eso dejaba los ads activados para apoyar a la plataforma, dejar sin ninguna funcionalidad la pagina y tener que pagar 5 dlls al mes por algo que ya teniamos es algo tramposo, pudieron meter mas funciones para los que pagaban la suscripcion.
Translated this to “Paying for the “Showcase” function is not viable, since it is something that has always been there, that is why I left the ads activated to support the platform, leaving the page without any functionality and having to pay 5 dollars a month for something What we already had is somewhat tricky, they could have added more functions for those who paid the subscription.” – we tried that but it did not work. The article explains it. The annual Premium membership is only $2.50 per month.
I have a bunch of Marvel Legends, Marvel Select, Hot Wheels, and DC Multiverse toys that have yet to have an estimated price on them. And most are older figures. Some from the Toy Biz and early Hasbro (Marvel Legends) and Mattel (DC Multiverse) eras. If this is fixed, then yeah, I wouldn’t mind jumping on board. In the meantime, I’m fine with what I have and rely on what Ebay does. Don’t mean to make a mean comparison, but it feels like going to McDonald’s and SURPRISE, ice cream machine is down. Lol
That’s all fair. Why not joining us and adding Price Points for these for better data (as a Squad Member you would not need the Premium Membership).
$5 a month at 700,000 users. you’re crazy if you think 3.5 million a month is owed to hobbydb. Thats 40+ million a year. why so much money?
That is unfortunately now how it works. We hope 1-2% will sign up for the Premium membership and that others will continue using the free format. It cost $70,000 alone to host the site, we then need a development team and much else besides it (for example PayPal which takes $0.66 ore more than 13% of those $4.99 payments). Lastly, it only costs you $2.50 per month if you become an Annual Premium member.
Is there anyway I can see my total number of pops and the total value without subscribing?
We will bring back the number of items in your Collection but plan to keep the value of the Collection (and soon also the value of your Lists) as a Premium feature. Sorry for that!
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