Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

Post by GavinB » Mon, Nov 08, 2010, 3:04 PM UTC

DEinspanjer wrote: post #24

qjz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a $1 bill priced at $2 w/free shipping? From every angle, it would be an interesting experiment. From the consumer's standpoint, it challenges the notion of free shipping . From a seller's standpoint, it challenges the notion of easy money (would you really want to stuff a thousand envelopes if the item sold well?). From the middleman's standpoint, it might help to identify bots (or possibly even money laun…

You just gave me an idea, but I don't have time to implement it so I'll give it away. Maybe if someone makes money with it, they could sell me my bill. $1 bills priced at $2 w/free shipping.. the hook, the bills are listed by birthdates contained in the serial number. heh

Post by eru » Mon, Nov 08, 2010, 3:10 PM UTC

JonnieCache wrote: post #10

niyazpk wrote: post #2

I 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.

Post by bieh » Mon, Nov 08, 2010, 3:16 PM UTC

vog wrote: post #32

Just a small announce on HN, and the site is down. Why does most blog software fail at simple tasks like delivering static content? Apart from comments and quick corrections, blog articles _are_ nothing more than static content. And I'd be happy to not see any comments due to high server load, as long as I can read the article.

Post by patrickk » Mon, Nov 08, 2010, 3:30 PM UTC

Post by amackera » Mon, Nov 08, 2010, 3:41 PM UTC

albertsun wrote: post #19

mike-cardwell wrote: post #3

A 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.

Many people do this in the World of Warcraft auction house using a tool called Auctioneer. Was one of my favorite parts of the game back when I played.