Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
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Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#2I am tempted to write a bot to submit $1 items that his bot is likely to buy.
Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#3A neat bot would be one which automatically buys and then resells things with a markup. It would figure out the usual price an item goes for on a website like Ebay, and purchase it if the price is set far enough below.
Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#4Amazed it took so long for someone to do this! Start a blog with a post for each item that it buys!
Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#5Amazed it took so long for someone to do this! Start a blog with a post for each item that it buys!
Or just follow his twitter account ;)
Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#6Amazed it took so long for someone to do this! Start a blog with a post for each item that it buys!
The bot has a Twitter account: http://twitter.com/trademe_xkcd576
Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#7A neat bot would be one which automatically buys and then resells things with a markup. It would figure out the usual price an item goes for on a website like Ebay, and purchase it if the price is set far enough below.
A classic case of arbitrage. But it seems to me that it would be quite hard to achieve on ebay. You need to have very little overhead, mailing stuff isn't usually that cheap.
Drop shipping --send things directly from seller to buyer-- is allowed on ebay but has many restrictions.
It would be very interesting to see if you could get some heuristics that choose products that are at least moderately useful instead of screen protectors and (exploding) batteries for various mobile phones.
Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#8A neat bot would be one which automatically buys and then resells things with a markup. It would figure out the usual price an item goes for on a website like Ebay, and purchase it if the price is set far enough below.
Especially if you delay sending the seller a postal address long enough to find a buyer.
Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#9A neat bot would be one which automatically buys and then resells things with a markup. It would figure out the usual price an item goes for on a website like Ebay, and purchase it if the price is set far enough below.
A classic case of arbitrage. But it seems to me that it would be quite hard to achieve on ebay. You need to have very little overhead, mailing stuff isn't usually that cheap. Drop shipping --send things directly from seller to buyer-- is allowed on ebay but has many restrictions. It would be very interesting to see if you could get some heuristics that choose products that are at least moderately useful instead of sc…
The mailing/shipping could be handled by Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller/fba/fulfillment-by-amazon.ht...
Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576
#10I am tempted to write a bot to submit $1 items that his bot is likely to buy.
Let's start a new monetarist paradigm: low frequency trading.