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netsmithUK

Want an unfair ebay advantage?

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Inspired by Snollan's great NIB SS find a month or so ago - I decided that there are still bargains to be had on ebay if you are quick enough. So being a web developer I sat down and wrote an applcation which searches ebay every 30-60 secs for new items on ebay [using whatever search criteria you normally specify when doing the searches manually]. If it spots that new items have been published it gives you a visual and audible alert.

I've shown it to a couple of people and they can testify it works - when visiting new items you are always within the vist 3 viewers.

Its not perfect,

- naturally you need to be online to use it. (sods law the best stuff comes up when you are off line icon_smile_angry.gif ) and by the fact my showrrom is not full of great stuff you can tell its not bagging me 100's of bargains but thats down to the fact that stuff i'm interested in justain't coming up while i'm online.I've have seen quite a few things that others might have liked and passed.

- you need to be near your computer for lengths of time to get the most from it. (no problem if you are online all day like me)

- great bargains really have to be BIN (which seem to be fewer and fewer)

Just wandered if anyone thought this might be a marketable application. Problem is the more copies you sell the less of an advantage it is for anyone that buys it. Maybe I could rent it out - no more than two users at one time, each with the option of using it for a month - but then its a gamble, which month do you use it for? etc etc etc

These are just my sunday night ramblings - anyone got any ideas on what I should do with it or interest in this?

Let me know

Cheers

Chris

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Hi Chris:

It sounds like a winner as I am always trying to do searches on the obsecure titles and look for those who don't know what it is that they have. I am on-line pretty much most of time myself. The only problem that I have is having our companies internet police monitor. You could have it as shareware and establish a certain amount of time as a free period. I've downloaded stuff from Cnet thats done this before. It works off the PC's system clock. If you could tap into that, I'd think you'd have it.

Regards from a fellow programmer...

J3CUBFAN

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Its just like the poker player that has his own "System". I hope it works for you. But like Kenny Rogers always says "You got to know when to hold them... got to know when to fold them."

As far as the NIB SS goes -- well that was luck I sat down and saw Buy-It-Now. I would of been dead in the water without that one.

Let us know how it goes. I don't think I could use it or I'll be really broke.

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Hi Sean,

I wrote it just for the day you decide to pack this rc lark in and sell your NIB SS for $100.00 - I'll be waiting icon_smile_wink.gif

chris

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I don't expect anyone to give out there secrets but what has everyone found to be the best way to find these great deals? My first searchs are -

newly listed

buy it nows

newly listed canada

buy it nows canada

newly listed uk

buy it nows uk

And ebay is the only one that seems to have great amounts of Tamiya stuff. Yahoo auctions have some but not much.

thanks for reading

UTS.gif

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If I sell it for a 100 then I can make 30 bucks...hmmmmmm. Or I can trade it for a runner fighter buggy any takers?

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Sean if your willing to throw in some cash and that scorcher, I have a nice mad bull I'l trade ya. I would even throw in the stock motor

How often does Ebay update it's new today listing? It always seems to be about 4 hours behind and the listings come in one lump increments

Jim

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watch my application for a day I can say absolutely definately .... it varies.

I've got my search looking at .com and .co.uk and on some days you get batches going in every 2-3 hours on other days, weekends in particular its a lot less. There is definately no pattern to it. My guess is thier system collects new items (Any items) until it hits a certain number (1000, 10,000 etc) and then adds them as a mass.

Chris

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Sean....

Don't get to excited......and yes its a one off but as its you i will trade a used but complete Sonic Fighter.....

Adam icon_smile_big.gif

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Chris

Im used to be a beta-software test site. So just send me the software and Ill test it till I get a Nice bruiser/mounty and then Ill return/delete the software and give you a "detailled" report.!!! logo_member2.gif

Of all the things I Lost - I miss my Mind the most

Edited by - jacolouw on 09 Sep 2002 22:55:02

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I found a great way to search, you go online when Chris or Sean are on, chat with them on Messenger for a while, and sit back as they let you in on all the goodies they've spent hours searching for !!

id='Verdana'>

Stu in Scotland

logo_member2.gif

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That's right STU and you better buy me a beer for that ranger when you move north of the states. I'm going to hold out and trade my SS for a QuickDrive Thunderdragon.

So Chris how long do you think it will take STU to figure out that we only throw him ebay scraps?

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I seem to get higher than 4 hour lags sometimes and it really ******** me off. Especially the Buy it Now stuff is usually gone, if it's anywhere interesting.

Like now for example, the most recently posted item in a search for 'Tamiya' was posted @ 16:12. It's 02:17 now, so that's 10 hours ago.

A couple of times I hit refresh every minute or so and all of a sudden a new batch shows up. I go look at the items and they are already gone and 64 people looked at it already. And the person who bought it, bought it two hours before. Go figure.

Anyways, this program Chris, sounds pretty cool. One of the 'features' it should have is only alarm when there's a new item with 'Buy it Now', given a certain search query. Basically any other auction is not that important because there's plenty of time.

On a side note, may I ask you what tools you use to write a program like that? Did you reverse-engineer the eBay 'protocol' or do you parse the html to find the auctions?

I'm a coder, but fairly different field,- Embedded Operating Systems etc. but I'd like to write some web tools myself.

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Hi Mickey,

Although auction show up as being posted 4hrs ago, it doesn't ness mean that they have been available to bid on for that time. My app often shows that items were posted a couple of hours before being available. Most times I'm still the first to see them though.

Like I said I think when you put an auction up for sale it goes into a big off line pot of items - when that pot is full eg there are 1000 items (guess) in it they are then all made available.

As for how I do it, I run IIS on my machine (Effectively making it a web server) then this allows me to use a Microsoft technique, called Web Scraping - not a nice sounding word is it logo_member2.gif

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Okay Chris, you teased us long enough. are you going to make available this software?

thanks

Jim

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Hi Jim,

its a tough one - one of the reasons for the very first post in this thread was to ask for advice on who it could be 'released' - I can't just send it out into the world without the right sort of protection.

The more copies out there, the mor pressure it puts on the server and the less of an advantage it is for anyone using the software.

maybe I should put it up for auction logo_member2.gif

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quote:

If I sell it for a 100 then I can make 30 bucks...hmmmmmm. Or I can trade it for a runner fighter buggy any takers?


id=quote>id=quote>

Sure.... icon_smile_tongue.gif

Got one right here 4 U icon_smile_wink.gif

Sjoerd

I love Sand Scorchers, but I don't have one... Please help this poor collector...icon_smile.gifid=size1>

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Hi Chris,

Now i know why i have seen your name on so many items as the winning bidder.

I wondered how you did it, i remember one day i kept refreshing the newly listed page every minute or two just to work out how ebay updated them & find some bargains if i was lucky, but when ebay added them you had used BIN.

You sly fox!

What a stroke of genius.

If you do auction the program, can you let me borrow your copy so i can win it straight away with BIN. hee hee!

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