THECollective

Privacy & Terms

How TheCollective handles data, and the terms under which you use it. TheCollective is a signal-intelligence tool for collectibles markets. It is informational only and is not financial or investment advice.

Last updated — May 2026

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Privacy Policy

TheCollective ("we," "us," or "the engine") is a collectibles-market signal engine. We are committed to collecting as little data as possible and being transparent about what we do collect.

Browsing is anonymous; accounts are optional

You can browse TheCollective without registering, signing in, or providing any personal information. An account is never required just to view the engine.

Sign-in is optional and offered through Google. If you choose to sign in, we receive your email address and basic Google profile information (such as your name and profile image) to create and identify your account. We never see or store a password — Google handles authentication.

Paid subscriptions are processed by our third-party payment processor, Stripe. When you subscribe, your payment is handled directly by Stripe under its own privacy policy — we never see or store your full card details on our servers.

What we collect

When you browse without signing in, we collect minimal, non-identifying data:

Aggregate, anonymized page-view and visit-frequency counts for internal analytics
Bot and scanner traffic is filtered out of those counts and discarded
Display and view preferences stored locally in your browser (localStorage) — these stay on your device and are not transmitted to us

For anonymous visitors, we do not collect names, phone numbers, payment details, or any other personally identifiable information.

If you sign in, we additionally store the email address and basic profile information provided by Google, along with your account settings and subscription tier. We use this only to operate your account and the features tied to it.

Cookies & local storage

TheCollective does not set advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Preferences are kept in your browser's localStorage and never leave your device.

Some outbound marketplace links are affiliate links (via the eBay Partner Network and TCGplayer's affiliate program). When you click one, the marketplace or its affiliate network may set its own cookies to attribute the referral. Those cookies are governed by that company's privacy policy, not ours. See our affiliate disclosure for the full explanation.

Third-party market data

The engine reads publicly available pricing, population, and listing data from third-party marketplaces and price guides — including eBay, PriceCharting, PSA, JustTCG, the Pokémon TCG API, GoCollect, and OpenSea — together with public social-mention signals from Reddit's public RSS feeds. We display and analyze this data; we do not host or claim ownership of it. When you click an external link you leave The Collective and are subject to that platform's own privacy policy.

AI-assisted explanations

Some cross-market explanations are generated with OpenAI's API from the catalyst and item names already shown on the card. No personal data is included in those requests. Generated text is cached on our side so the same signal returns the same explanation; the cache holds no information about you. See OpenAI's Privacy Policy for how they handle API data.

Data security

All connections to TheCollective are encrypted over HTTPS. Because we collect no personal information, the risk surface is intentionally small.

Children's privacy

TheCollective is not directed at individuals under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

Terms of Use

By accessing or using TheCollective, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please discontinue use.

Not financial advice. TheCollective surfaces observations about collectibles markets — price velocity, supply and population pressure, social momentum, and event catalysts. Nothing here is financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any item or asset. Collectibles are speculative and illiquid; you can lose money. Always do your own research and consider professional advice before making any purchase or sale.

Nature of the service

TheCollective is an informational signal engine covering seven collectibles markets: NFTs, trading card games, sports cards, comics, sealed video games, sealed card boxes, and nostalgia tech. Each signal is a named, defined threshold you can audit; the engine does not promise that any signal will be followed by a price move. It is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied.

Accuracy & availability

We make no guarantee about the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any data or analysis. Third-party market data can be delayed, revised, or wrong, and our scoring depends on it. The signals we surface are observations of current market activity, not predictions of future results.

Intellectual property

Item names, images, set data, and marketplace listings remain the property of their respective owners, creators, and platforms. The Collective does not claim ownership of third-party content. The Collective name, interface design, scoring methodology copy, and original presentation are our property.

Affiliate links

Some outbound marketplace links may be affiliate links (via the eBay Partner Network for eBay links, and TCGplayer's affiliate program for TCG links). If you click one and complete a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Affiliate participation never influences which items are scored or how they rank — the markets are scored independently and the scoring math is deterministic. Full details are on our affiliate disclosure.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

Use automated tools to scrape, crawl, or bulk-download data from TheCollective
Attempt to disrupt, overload, or interfere with the engine's infrastructure
Misrepresent the engine's signals or analysis as professional financial advice
Reverse-engineer or attempt to extract proprietary scoring logic or data

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, TheCollective and its operators shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, the engine, or from any decision you make in reliance on its data or analysis.

Changes to these terms

We may update this Privacy Policy and these Terms of Use from time to time. Changes are reflected on this page with a new "last updated" date. Continued use after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Contact

Questions or corrections: info@thecollective.market.