Frequently Asked Questions
App Information
Yes, almost all the features can be accessed for free. Credits are only required for price discovery and for market listing. You have many ways to earn free credits as well. If the free credits are insufficient, a credit card will do wonders!
We bring transparent and direct pricing, with all settings honestly to you. Our 3D imaging system is industry first. We use AI technology to identify unknown products. FX system customised to your needs. We share market listings of fellow members in the industry.
We use state of the art 3D scanning equipment to get high quality images. In fact, we had to compromise on quality to reduce loading time on your phones. Pictures sometimes don’t do justice. With 3D, however, you can look at a converter from all angles. And we have another purpose too—check out Identify!
Yes, somewhat. We auto update the metal prices hourly to reduce strain on our servers. However, we do not store prices on our app. Only upon price request will the metal prices, the analyses, weight of monolith, your personalised price settings and FX settings be called to calculate the prices for you in that fraction of a second!
Sorry no. We have extremely high quality control standards. Not just the 3D object and normal images. Our sample preparation is rigorous; We have so many steps to follow through even before a sample is analysed. We also do 6 analyses on 1 product, and we have our high standards for sampling, mixing errors, along with very low tolerance ranges. So it has to pass through those gates of scrutiny before we list anything!
Yes, there are many terms there which might be common to some but greek to others. If you know your personal terms, please edit it according to your requirements, and all the pricing of the products will be based on those settings. If you have no clue about it, leave it as default. The default settings is based on a small retailer who probably sells no more than 100 pcs a month.
Let me count the ways! From daily logins, consecutive logins and more, we want you to keep coming back! Send us samples, report an issue, help us improve, and we’ll scratch your back too. Finally, as a customer who deliver in volume—that’s where the big credit rebates are!
We have used the 3D images to generate thousands of various images of a single converter under different orientations, different backgrounds, simulating rusts, dents etc. We then use AI (Artificial Intelligence, much like facial recognition) to identify unknown converters. So far it has worked exceedingly well for the converters in our database. We have made it free under the Beta Phase for you to test it. Unfortunately, it is not able to guess the image on your phone if it’s not in our database, but our database is growing every day. Send us your converters now and help improve the accuracy in your region!
Commonly Asked Questions
Google or Wikipedia might be a better resource for a basic understanding of a catalytic converter! The information on how it works, the types of it, the feel of the good stuff and bad, is all out there.
We don’t pretend to have all the converters! In fact, we share even the country of origin, and if it’s not covered yet in your country, we can buy samples from you. If you are nice, we might even pay for shipping, and also give you free extra credits.
We want to bring this knowledge and information which always has been in the hands of a few to everyone, especially those who don’t have the resources to test for themselves. So no more low balling someone. But we do realise the buyers do need to make a cut, so we have a retail margin feature—basically how much lower than the refining price they ought to buy to cover their manpower, logistics, overheads, other costs and to make some profits. The refining prices are generally available to those who do roughly 1,000kgs and above of monolith and who have the cash flow and risk appetite to do it.
Well, firstly the emission standards are different across the globe, so are ever evolving models. We differentiate the same markings across countries, which might be interesting for you to compare.
We analyze the metal contents and match it with live metal prices. You can customise the FX settings to your own values. You can also customise your return rates, lease rates, lease days and all associated charges to get the price suited to your own requirements. When it’s customised and it’s still low, chances are it is!
No, absolutely not! In fact most of the features are free, including unlimited searches. When you know exactly what you are looking for, you only use the credits for knowing the price. We got to earn at least that much to make our services viable!
Glad you asked. Our analysis system is extremely stringent. We know our ppms. We match that with latest PGM prices and your own price/FX settings to determine prices. So if the price is different chances are the converter itself is different. We have converters with exact same markings from different countries with different ppms. Therefore different prices. This is primarily due to different emission standards in the various countries.
It works in a few ways; You can choose to list there (it’s your choice but we have to accept it too), then others will be able to contact you if they purchase your information. It’s a form of free marketing for you. Other users can review you too! We want to weed out cheaters and conmen. You can list your capabilities, and if Catalopedia can verify it all the better! You can also buy information of other companies if they are relevant to you.
How Can We Collaborate
Yes, like we said, we don’t profess to know it all. We are human after all. If you find an error in any one of our products, send us a report, by clicking report an issue. We will recheck it and if you are right, some free credits for your efforts! win-win! Suggest your local lingo, or correct us if we called it the wrong make or model. Think of it like Wikipedia for the converters!
Of course we do, in a few ways in fact! We can offer you highly competitive terms for refining basis. We work directly with few of the best refiners. We can arrange all logistics and documentation as well. You can monitor your lots via Vault, and sell the metal at your convenience right from your phone.
For individual converters, we buy if we are operating in your locality or you can work with our partner companies who send on refining basis. They can purchase smaller quantities at your convenience.
Well, when we have a collective volume that is considerable, we have better negotiating power and assured deliveries to the refiner. Therefore even with our small cut, our offer to your is likely to be more attractive than what you might be offered directly! When we have growing consortium of sellers we will also be improving our terms over the longer period.
Well, firstly, upon analysis, we will pay you in USD equivalent to the converter values based on our default settings. That means you get value for the converters! We will then reward you with free credits for your assistance. Also, if you are a nice person and sending some decent volumes, we will even pay for your shipping! You have nothing to lose, all to gain!
We could but we don’t! Think about it. If some middle man does that and he is not a refiner—which most of them aren’t —He is then subject to the risk of the final analysis from the refiner. Do you think this middleman will offer a better result than the refiner and make losses? He is at best equal, at worst, likely to have a safety margin!
We exclusively use the refiner’s sampling and results. No safety margin is required like many others! You get the best possible value for your converters!
The choice is entirely yours! Catalopedia offers real information to all parties.
But if you choose to send us, first referring to the question on sampling and analysis, rest assured the analysis is from the refiners and not manipulated. There isn’t any logic to anyone providing you the final results other than the refiner. If they are, you really should question it! Will they pay you more and expect a lower result from the refiners themselves?
If you are already working with a refiner, or a collector and you are happy, please continue to do so, use our app for the purposes of price discovery and market information.
If you are indeed our customer, we will throw in the Vault feature for free and also provide free credits based on the USD value of each lot when it’s closed! Furthermore, we take an awfully small margin when we work with you on refining basis. We want long term business and volume!
We are looking for really few Franchises across the globe. Our app infrastructure is already built to accommodate it. If we can choose to co-operate, we will setup the entire scanning, sample preparation and analysis at your site including the training and equipment. With this, we hope to grow our database exponentially. The franchise will of course have to make some upfront payments for the equipment and know how. But they will earn a portion of the revenue whenever ‘their’ products are purchased online. And a lot of market information to expand the converter business as well!
However, we want only one such partner company for each country / region, depending on their geographical coverage. So we want only a serious and honest partner!