Textbook Marketplace Price Comparison Alert Notification

• Project ID:

  1413163

• Project Type:

  Fixed

• Budget:

  $250-$750 USD
  

Project Description:

I recently started a small business a year ago buying and selling used textbooks online. During the school semester I manually search for bargain prices from several textbook marketplaces. The main 3 being amazon, half and eBay. When I find a textbook at a low price I buy it and then will resell it for a higher price once the school semester beings which is January-February (Spring) and August-September (Fall).

So far it has been fairly successful and I'm looking to expand. However this process can be time consuming and I'm currently looking for a faster and easier way to build up my book inventory while still finding profitable deals online through a variety of marketplaces.

I'm looking for either a web (preferably) or software (mac compatible) based program in which I can view (in real time) the lowest textbook prices from a wide range of textbook marketplaces. A prime example would be any of the textbook comparison tools such as http://www.addall.com/. I would be entering criteria of the textbooks based on the ISBN #.

I would like to be able to create a so called digital library with categories such as "Art," "Math" and "Science" in which these ISBN numbers are stored and organized. Along side each ISBN # should include: title, photo/picture of textbook, edition number, date of publication and display the lowest price from the variety of marketplaces. I should be able to view multiple textbook information and their price ranges all on the same page rather than individually which is the case for the example provided on: (http://www.addall.com/).

In a nutshell this would be a textbook price comparison but at a larger scale searching multiple ISBN numbers all at once rather than individually.

Secondly, I would want a price change notification system integrated in which I can designate a desired price for each individual ISBN #. When the desired price is met in any of the marketplaces that is being searched/compared an alert message will be sent out specifying the new price and on which marketplace. This will allow me to quickly purchase multiple textbooks at my designated price before it is bought by another buyer.

I have been currently using a price drop notification tool called: http://www.camelcamelcamel.com/ however this only deals with the amazon marketplace and neglects the several others such at half.com. I have also noticed a considerable delay time in the notification of the up to date price drops.

May textbook marketplaces sell international editions, instructor/teacher editions, annotated editions, illegal copies or e-books which can influence and fluctuate the low price of textbooks on particular marketplaces. It would be ideal to create a filter in which these types of books are not accounted for in the low price. Many textbook price comparison tools already have this filter tool in which you can check mark which types of books you want filtered out.

Many of the textbooks have varying conditions (New, Like New, Very Good, Good, Acceptable). This is not as important but a possibility to display the lowest prices of each condition as the prices are different when considering the condition of the book.

I would want this program to be in real time, constantly updating, searching/crawling all of the textbook marketplaces. It need to be fast and responsive immediately notifying of price changes of desired prices.

Skills required:

PHP, Software Architecture