Madison, Wisconsin-based Nostomania, Inc has announced the launch of Nostmania.com, a website that provides users with a free state of the art collectible management system. This system allows a fan registering at the site to determine the total value of his or her collection at any time. The key to the system is software that automatically tracks price changes based on actual sales. In addition to collectible pricing, Nostomania.com provides collection, want-list, and sales inventory tracking, automatic matching of users' wanted items with for-sale items, as well as collectible message boards.
Aside from providing a constantly updated total value for a collection, the most useful feature of Nostomania.com may be the NostoMatch system, which matches collectors' wanted items with dealers' for-sale items.
Nostomania is facing stiff competition from The Pit, Wizard World, and, of course, e-Bay. Wizard World operates in four categories--cards, comics, action figures, and CCGs. It was funded with a $4 million Series A round last summer. We reported in March that a Series B was being raised--there's been no announcement of a closing on that round to date. ThePit.com focuses on trading cards and also has substantial backing. It raised a $4 million Series A round in March, and announced that Topps would be investing $1.6 million in its Series B round shortly thereafter. Both Wizard World and the Pit also have some form of real-time price reports incorporated into their sites. The problem for Nostomania and all of e-Bay's competitors is reaching critical mass -- which in Nostomania's case means getting enough members and transactions to make the sales figures current across a broad category of collectibles like comics.
