I still dont get what priceonomics provides that craigslist or ebay doesnt.
Craigslist:
* Listings have "ASKING" prices and can easily negotiated down 5-20%. So even if you provide a historical information of "Asking Prices", its still not a 1-1 relationship to how much you expect to sell your item for or its "BUYING" price
* I do question the value of historical information on CL: Its never been available, therefore neither buyer nor seller expect it and their view of the marketplace is limited to the time they hit search. And it is this view that they will use to determine a good price for an item.
When I need to buy something that I need NOW, I try to choose the nearest, cheapest item, satisfying my requirements that is CURRENTLY available. Historical information doesnt come into play.
Ebay:
* Since I already have access to historical information(completed items) and I can use it to figure out how much to sell my stuff for, I dont see what Priceonomics bring to the table here.
Again Im trying to figure out where you guys are going with this. From technology standpoint, all this content scraping, indexing and searching is interesting, but what problem are you solving and how do you plan to make money with it(short of arbitrage of aerons)
You sort of answered your own question -- in both examples you specifically pointed out work that you have to do in order to calculate a price -- you need to sift through Craigslist items, keep track of what you find, apply a calculation, and come up with an estimate. Same for eBay.
The work you're doing there takes time and has value, and Pricenomics is trying to capture that. I'm not intimately familiar with the company nor do I know if they'll figure out a viable business model, but I do see the intrinsic value in what they're proposing.
effort wise, it looks like search craigslist == search pricenomics, with craigslist being smart enough to limit my last search to the geographical area where I last searched, whereas pricenomics showed me the results around the country(with option to filter it down to location later).
All things being equal, the effort is the same in my opinion
I'm not sure if Priceonomics' vision is a viable business but it is relatively easy to see how it can offer information that is better and more valuable/useful than the very raw data currently found on Ebay and Craigslist.
There has always been a market for price info on collectibles antiques etc. they are just trying to make use of technology to expand this down to lower priced goods. Whether this is viable is less clear.
Craigslist:
* Listings have "ASKING" prices and can easily negotiated down 5-20%. So even if you provide a historical information of "Asking Prices", its still not a 1-1 relationship to how much you expect to sell your item for or its "BUYING" price
* I do question the value of historical information on CL: Its never been available, therefore neither buyer nor seller expect it and their view of the marketplace is limited to the time they hit search. And it is this view that they will use to determine a good price for an item. When I need to buy something that I need NOW, I try to choose the nearest, cheapest item, satisfying my requirements that is CURRENTLY available. Historical information doesnt come into play.
Ebay:
* Since I already have access to historical information(completed items) and I can use it to figure out how much to sell my stuff for, I dont see what Priceonomics bring to the table here.
Again Im trying to figure out where you guys are going with this. From technology standpoint, all this content scraping, indexing and searching is interesting, but what problem are you solving and how do you plan to make money with it(short of arbitrage of aerons)