I'm automating my job
I work at an online auction house (we use 3 platforms) in a non technical role. Honestly, it's what I'd call an administrative monkey job, but it pays the bills. Around a week a go I decided to automate the thing.
It's kind of wild. In 15 lines of Python code, I can effectively save the company 10-15 hours a month at $25/h. There is so much low hanging fruit. When all is said and done, I assume I'll have automated around 90% of my job.
I'm still finishing everything up between Python and Google Apps Script, before I'll put a nice box an top of it with UI. I know other auction houses are equally as non technical. Certainly an opportunity for SaaS.
Very interesting! Would love more details and maybe build something together if you are looking for a technical partner.
I'd mainly like to work with someone physically close to me (Bay Area), but if you want to build something then I'll tell you how to get started. The main auctioneering websites are LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable (and Ebay). For both of those sites, you're required to re-upload all items for every auction - (if someone did find success in automating this for auction houses, then creating a better auction website than the two I mentioned is the next step) - as well as upload new lots. This takes more time than you'd think.
The problem: take as input item descriptions and a file full of pictures (average 12 per item), rename the images to their corresponding item (in the form of a 'lot number', so lot 55's pics are 55_1, 55_2, and so on), then upload the items descriptions (in Spreadsheet form) to the sites, then upload the pictures.
There is more to do after that (e.g. automating shipment creation with FedEx et al), but that's a lot of the work. Get in touch with an auction house (e.g. show up at their door) when you've finished, and learn more about what you can do.
Scratching your own itch is the most effective way to find a new business, especially in non-technical fields. Starting to work for this kind of business and automate the pain points is awesome, hope you'll find something you could offer to other auction houses.
This comment was deleted 6 years ago