Help & FAQ

Yes — Diecastry is free for collectors. There's no paid tier, no ads, and you can browse the catalogue without an account.

No. The catalogue at /explore, every model detail page, and public collector profiles are open to anyone. You only need to sign up if you want to track your own collection, follow collectors, or comment.

Click Add model in the top navigation. The wizard first searches the catalogue to avoid duplicates — if a match exists, claim it. Otherwise you'll create a fresh catalogue entry and add it to your collection in one step.

Every diecast on Diecastry has one shared catalogue entry (brand, model name, manufacturer, scale, etc.) — visible to everyone. Your ownership record is private to you and stores your price paid, condition, photos, notes, and so on. Multiple collectors can claim the same catalogue entry; each one keeps their own ownership data.

Yes. Catalogue data is shared, so corrections benefit the whole community. The edit page warns you when more than one collector owns the model and shows how many will be affected. Be accurate.

Yes — when the "Add model" wizard doesn't find a match, you'll see an option to Add new model. Fill in brand, manufacturer, scale, and as many details as you can. Your entry becomes available for other collectors to claim too.

Each model in your collection has an is_public flag (defaults to public when you add it). Public models appear on your public profile, in the catalogue's owner list for that model, and in the feed. Private models only appear in your own collection view at /collection.

Photos follow the visibility of the user_model they're attached to. If your ownership is public, your photos are public — visitors browsing the model page can flip to your tab and see them. If your ownership is private, no one but you sees the photos.

Edit a model in your collection and set Visibility to Private. This is per-model — you can keep some models public (a Ferrari you're showing off) and others private (a high-value piece you'd rather not advertise).

Yes. The photo manager accepts multiple files and uploads them in parallel. You can also drag photos straight onto the model card. After upload, drag tiles to reorder; click the star to set a primary photo; click the X to delete.

Yes — click Download CSV on your collection page. The export reflects whatever filters and sort you currently have applied, so you can export a subset (e.g. only "for sale" rows) by setting the filter first.

Prices are stored in whatever currency you entered. Diecastry also computes a EUR-equivalent for stats and comparisons using current FX rates. Your default currency is set in Settings — it pre-fills new entries and labels the totals on your collection page.

It's the median sold price for that specific model on eBay over the last 30 days, in mint condition, converted to euros. We deliberately use sold prices rather than asking prices — asking prices are aspirational, sold prices are what real buyers actually paid. The card also shows the range (lowest to highest sold price) and the sample size, so you can see at a glance whether the number is backed by 3 sales or 30.

From eBay's official Marketplace Insights API, which returns completed sales for a given search. For each catalogue model we run one targeted query per month — filtered to the diecast category, mint condition, and the model's brand + manufacturer + scale + colour variant — and aggregate the results into a median + range. The "View sold listings on eBay" link on every card takes you to the exact search that produced the number, so you can verify it yourself.

A few reasons: some models haven't had enough recent sales (we require at least 3 sold listings to trust the median), some have ambiguous matches between eBay's listing titles and our catalogue entry (we hide low-confidence rows rather than guess), and brand-new releases or obscure limited editions may legitimately never accumulate enough sales data. We'd rather show nothing than show a wrong number.

As accurate as the available eBay sample. For high-volume models — Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Ferrari F40, popular AUTOart and Norev pieces — the median across 10+ recent sales is a strong signal. For rarer pieces with only 3-5 sales, treat the number as a rough indication, not an appraisal. The displayed sample size tells you which case you're looking at. Colour and variant matter too: a "Speed Yellow" Porsche may sell at a different price than a "Carrera Red" one, and we filter listings to match your specific variant where possible, but eBay's title quality varies.

Once per month per model. A daily background job refreshes a rotating slice of the catalogue, so any given model gets a fresh snapshot roughly every 30 days. The card shows the period it was computed for (e.g. "June 2026") so you always know how recent the figure is.

Not necessarily. A few legitimate reasons your paid price can diverge from the current market: special editions and limited runs appreciate or depreciate independently of the standard model, condition matters (a "mint sealed" piece sells for more than a displayed one), and the market itself moves (a Lamborghini Aventador 1:18 may have doubled in price since 2018). Treat the market value as today's snapshot, not a verdict on your purchase. If you'd like to see the underlying listings yourself, click "View sold listings on eBay" on the card.

Yes, transparently. Diecastry is part of the eBay Partner Network, so when you click a "View sold listings on eBay" link and make a purchase on eBay afterwards, Diecastry may receive a small commission. This costs you nothing — eBay funds it from their existing affiliate budget — and it's a meaningful part of how we keep the site free with no ads or paid tier. The market-value data shown is identical whether or not affiliate tracking is present; we don't influence what number gets displayed based on any commercial consideration.

Visit their profile (their username link anywhere on the site) and click Follow. Their additions, sales, and photo uploads will show up in your feed.

The feed at / shows recent activity across the community — new collection additions, sales, and freshly uploaded photos. Switch to "Following" to filter to only the collectors you follow.

Yes. Open the model page, and above the photo gallery you'll see a row of owner tabs. Click any owner to switch the gallery to their photos — useful for comparing angles or finding photo inspiration.

Go to /auth/login and click "Forgot password?". You'll get an email with a reset link.

In Settings under "Email address". A confirmation link is sent to the new address; your email only changes after you click it.

In Settings, scroll to the Danger zone and click "Delete account". This permanently removes your profile, ownership records, photos, comments, follows, and notifications — and the auth row itself. The action cannot be undone.

The Marketplace is in development. Listings will let you put a model from your collection up for sale, set a price, and reach other collectors directly. Updates will be announced in the feed when it launches.