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Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

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Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

#41

Post by Xurinos »

amackera wrote: post #39
albertsun wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's a little remarkable that a virtually-real auction house (WoW AH) has better auxiliary tools than a real(ish) auction house (eBay). If only I could hover my mouse over items around my house to discover what they are worth on eBay!

The items are worth whatever people are willing to purchase them for in WoW and IRL. All you have to do is keep track of how various items are selling. You could implement a browser plugin to capture your hover and give you a floating window with stats from your database. About the point where I had this realization, I stopped caring about WoW auctioning and decided I would rather spend that time making real money.

Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

#43

Post by xenophanes »

niyazpk wrote: post #2

I am tempted to write a bot to submit $1 items that his bot is likely to buy.

This will be tricky. Soon people will copy your bot. Then neither of you will make sales because he searches for rare items.

Maybe then you start putting bizarre titles and explain what you're selling in a field his bot doesn't worry about.

And don't forget you can calculate how much money the bot has available from its Twitter feed, so you can price accordingly!

Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

#44

Post by xenophanes »

bieh wrote: post #12

Heh, cool - I was going to submit this myself after it bought a few more items, but I guess I was beaten to it. Any questions, or suggestions for smarter ways to select items to buy, feel free :)

Scan the item description field and buy items with lots of long words!

Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

#45

Post by patrickgzill »

qjz wrote: post #15
niyazpk wrote: post #2

I am tempted to write a bot to submit $1 items that his bot is likely to buy.

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…

Unfortunately you are not supposed to send money via the USPS.

Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

#46

Post by Bostwick »

patrickgzill wrote: post #45
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…

Unfortunately you are not supposed to send money via the USPS.

You could send a check instead, payable to CASH. Although, your bank might get suspicious if hundreds of people start cashing small checks against your account.

Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

#47

Post by jcl »

patrickgzill wrote: post #45
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…

Unfortunately you are not supposed to send money via the USPS.

FWIW, it sounds like the OP is in New Zealand.

Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

#48

Post by JabavuAdams »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #21
templaedhel wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always wanted to try something like this with stocks or commodities. Make a bot watch the market, and buy and sell. I even got far enough to imagine some sort of genetic filtering, aka give the master bot 10k, then it distributes it to 10 bots, all which are slightly different, they spend it, the master takes any profit above 1k and invests it in another bot that is a combination of the best 2. Etc. That way y…

Yeah, this is interesting, but there are some annoying realities: 1) If you make something like 3 intra-day trades (buy and sell on the same day) in some defined period (a week?) the SEC will classify you as a "pattern day trader". To be allowed to do that, you need an account with something like $25k USD min. 2) There are a few items that people often forget in simplified models that will completely eat any theoreti…

I should add that (market-price) trades aren't completed in an all-or-nothing fashion, unless you specify this (which brings another set of costs and risks). E.g. if you want to buy 1000 shares, it might happen in several chunks (say 200, 200, 600), with the price going up each time.

So, the process of buying or selling moves the price, which is another reason why trading with real money against competitors is different from training against historical data.

Re: Implementing the auto-buying bot from xkcd #576

#50

Post by alextgordon »

patrickgzill wrote: post #45
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…

Unfortunately you are not supposed to send money via the USPS.

Snopes says that's not true: http://www.snopes.com/legal/postal/sendcash.asp
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