Calguns auto pilot

[Skyler76]

Hello, I have gun ADD. Because of this, I end up spending hours browsing for sale the forums, looking for good deals or just a particular firearm, part or reloading component.

The other night I had an idea. "Why not right an application to do it for me?". So, without much ado, I did.

I'd like to say it's about 50% complete yet 100% functional. It browses the forums, logs the posts and alerts me if something of interest comes up. It let's me know if prices change too. I can also number crunch on prices to make sure I'm pricing stuff right or buying at the right price.

It monitors all the forums I am interested in (configurable though) and scrapes all the information it can from them. Most items it can grab prices from but not always. The data is normalized, searchable and retains historical information (price changes, posts, bumps etc).

Here's some screen shots.








Green dots are all FFL 01 Holders. Crazy, never knew there were so many in my area. The app contains the statewide list now.. all 2800 of them.

[C.G.]

Sweet! I wish I had this when I had more money for guns.

[ColdDeadHands1]

So... you need beta testers?

[Skyler76]

Maybe in a couple of weeks. Right now and playing with it and adding features as I need them. It's proving to be a really handy tool though especially for pricing statistics. It's an interesting project.

[ConcealedKalifornia]

So... you need beta testers?

Totally down for some Beta Testing!

[fighterpilot562]

2nd idea, have a program that marks all gun ranges in CA, and for those members who want to be on it, they can tag which ranges they go to. For example, I go to Insight, Field Time, and ASR most of the time.

So if a member wants to go shooting, but not alone, he can PM those members who are on the ranges "list".

And if someone doesn't wanna tag the ranges they go to, they don't gotta.

[vtrigger77]

^that would be cool

[sealocan]

clever thinking & nice app. Skyler76.
I often use lionseek to do the same thing but it is hard for it to find and list the prices I'll give me exact locations.


I do like fighterpilots idea a little better but maybe have it when you're leaving for the range you "log in" that way when you go to any range.
then we would all know how many Calgunners are there.

[Skyler76]

clever thinking & nice app. Skyler76.
I often use lionseek to do the same thing but it is hard for it to find and list the prices I'll give me exact locations.


I do like fighterpilots idea a little better but maybe have it when you're leaving for the range you "log in" that way when you go to any range.
then we would all know how many Calgunners are there.

Lionseek will do some of it - not very well. For example a lot the prices on lion seek are wrong when it comes to CG.

The major thing I wanted was to be able to add an alert on my desktop when a gun I was looking for came up. Then it evolved and it just won't stop. I parsed the entire site today and can fairly reliably tell you trends, distribution and prices for guns throughout CA sold on CG from 2008 on. CG doesn't lend well to being probed though. The un-normalized data (free hand) sucks to parse but I've got it down to where I'm happy with it.

Sounds like you guys need a range app for your phones. I wrote a proximity app once which was similar to this concept. It was for locating your friend without being on the phone say "I'm standing over by the ..". It was primitive and I really never finished it. It's since been eclipsed by a bazillion other apps that do the same thing (Glimpse is one I use).

[MontClaire]

Great App! Thank you! Please let me know when it's available to download.

[FresnoRob]

I'd go broke using it but well done.

[dyson]

Nice app, sounds like gunbot for the used marketplace

[sealocan]

"Lionseek will do some of it - not very well. For example a lot the prices on lion seek are wrong when it comes to CG. "

I agree with you 100% on that one Skyler. also it doesn't have a map, like your application does.
as you put it the unnormalized data & free hand is why I think the search engine here does not seem to work that well.

I hate hard rules myself...but if I could make one for Calguns, I would require that everything on the marketplace have 3 or 4 simple items in the title. Every title...always!
1.)
make / model you're selling (if you're not sure exactly what it is just make your best guess.)
2.)
the county/city you want to sell it in, with a yes or no right next to it, for your willing to ship status.
3.)
price with the words firm, B.O. or just "trade only".

I think people don't realize how long Calguns generously allows your thread title to be,
I want to say it's like 70 or 80 characters long..That is plenty to give more information than most titles do, it is a problem I see in almost every subforum as well.

additional information like condition, year manufacturer, why you're selling, round count, items you want to trade, photographs...
etc. could all be covered in the body of the thread.
just my 2 cents.

[ben_r_]

Awesome idea man and it looks like youve got it working very well so far. Next step and IMO will be the most important if you want widespread usage, make it a smartphone app.

[Skyler76]

Yeah.. I had thought about that. The back-end (database, core data crunching stuff) is what I wanted to get working well. The front end could realistically be anything at this point. I'm not a phone app developer though. I can do it, just don't really like doing it. Too much different hardware and maintaining different versions of apps isn't something I have time. I can maintain one app in my spare time but not 3+ different versions of the same thing.