Thread: Competetive Analysis Addon?

So I was cancelling auctions earlier (via TSM) and started to think about the competitive landscape on my server. I hopped over to the Undermine Journal and was looking over the competitors who pop out at me (meaning whose name I tend to remember) and got to thinking that this seems like a good spot for an addon to fill... I don't think I've ever seen one focused on this, has anyone else?

Specifically here's what I'm thinking (bear with me, I've been drinking while auctioning...)

• When do my competitors post? TUJ tracks this, but I have to know names (and not be drinking). I'm thinking an addon that analyses the "best" times for me to post in various markets. i.e. The guy who undercuts me most often in enchant scrolls usually does so at 8:36PM, therefore I should aim to run a cancel scan around 8:40PM.
• Who are my competitors in each market I'm active in? (This should probably be thought #1) On my server there are a few bank alts with obvious/stupid names who I remember and can mentally track - but my biggest competitor might be the guy who posts on his six 90 "mains" and I never realize it.
• Multiple alts who belong to the same person? This is probably a stretch, but earlier i added a few new bankers to my friends list (primitive spying) - later I noticed one would log off and another immediately on, indicating they are actually the same person. This data is valuable when considering patterns to sell against.
• Ok, super-big stretch: What addon or method are they using? This should theoretically be determinable over time by watching patterns. Examples: prices always seem to line up with Wowuction market -10%, or prices are a simple undercut of -1c, or seller simply resells and jacks everything up by 100g, etc. I'm not saying the addon has to spit out "joeyjoejoe is using auctionator! you can beat them if you try....". but if I can get some sort of indicator it could be helpful.
• Overall a list (sortable and filterable) of potential competitors, what markets they play in, times they tend to play, and methods they tend to play by. Similar to TSM's accounting, Auctioneer's Beancounter, or other general data tracking addons.
• Successes/Failures. With enough data collection it's presumably feasible to calculate how often a competitor is actually successful and therefore assign them some sort of score. i.e. "Who's my most dangerous competition?" sort of thing.

I assume any addon like this would need to rely on external data from TUJ, Wowuction, or elsewhere - calculating this kind of data from manual scans would likely be very flawed based on frequency of scan. I'm not a developer (not really anyway, I can fumble my way through HTML/CSS/PHP/Javascript - does that count?) so maybe this very concept is flawed - but I think it makes sense and would be very valuable to the AH-Player community...

Thoughts? Opinions? Anything like this exist or any developers interested in tackling?

Ok let me first ask what it was you were drinking?

This idea is interesting to say the least and unfortunately it got me thinking as well.

Only thing I can come up with is to use WoWuction and add another tab within each profession under the professions tab.
This tab is Market Competition tab. Some general scoring system of top players in that given profession. Could be based on Volume of sales, estimated sold, pricing in relation to PMkt value, and possibly AH uptime based on posting times across a 24 hour period. This last one is kind of interesting as you would easily identify the ones who post 24 out 24 hours possible. I know TuJ has similar for heat maps and the like. I am not suggesting getting into deeper stats displayed for individual sellers. Hell after getting it to report this basic layout of who to watch for kind of info you could have each name listed link to its respective data on TuJ. Not sure those would work well together but a Goblin can dream eh?

Curiosity is a good reason in and of itself. Could also help to answer some of the questions you occasionally see on here. For example, thread earlier today someone asking about a quick exit strategy for transmog... suggestion given was to find another person in the market and offer then your stock at a discount. This could help identify possible candidates for an issue such as this. Now obviously if you were in that market you would hopefully know your competition to begin with.

Also it could serve as a personal rating for a goblin as well. Similar to top sellers listings on a given day for TuJ. I have seen toons of mine up there and felt proud. I then see people with mass glyph posting and realize it merely a volume thing. This could serve if coded right to be a more accurate economic epeen meter. LOL

I wrote a query to get seller name, num of auctions, num of distinct items, num of live auctions for various professions. Won't make it to the category page for a while as I've got some IRL stuff to take care of lately.

Oh?!?!?! Very nice, I look forward to seeing what you have. I love the site and all the work you continue to put in to upgrades and features.

Very interesting idea, i'd love such an addon!

Red wine is my drink of choice (a malbec in this case)!

I'd prefer to see this in addon form I think, although I can't put my finger on exactly why - just seems like it would integrate better into my typical AH workflow. But even having this type of data accessible via a site like Wowuction or TUJ would still be great.

I thought of another potential application for this data set: identifying possible trade partnerships or alliances. Perhaps a particular player has a huge volume of the ore market on a server but the analysis indicates they never touch gems - you could possibly establish a bulk purchase order agreement and handle the gemming.