Bargains Automation - Feedback | Porn Fan Community Forum

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Janitor Retired Porno movies, sexy videos, xxx. Adult DVD Talk at your service. 6409 Posts 11/99	Posted - Jul 15 2002 : 10:40AM As is pretty obvious I'm not exactly on top of updating bargains. I'd like to provide an alternative bargains listing that's automated based on certain criteria. Here are some ways we can do this - I'm open to suggestions. Above Average DVDs under $12 this would mean titles that have gotten 3 stars or higher in at least one review, and at least one store has it for less than $12. (dollar amount would be different for gay bargains.) DVDs priced $3 or $4 less than their worth this would depend on the worth assigned in reviews. obviously that's a subjective worth, but deciding whether or not a title is a bargain is also subjective. if there are multiple reviews we could average the worth field, or go with the lowest one. Basically this system would identify good, cheap titles. We'll do up a different system to maintain studio sales. [Link]
menace Member Of all the fishes in the sea, the mermaid is the one for me! 410 Posts 6/02	Posted - Jul 16 2002 : 12:47AM Steph--how do you do the bargains now? Do you average the prices from all stores for each title-then list it if a store has it below a preset % below avg.? If so, you can identify the well-reviewed bargains by an asterisk (or # of stars) or something & still use the same system. Then you would not need to take the "worth" into account. ???---menace Edited by - menace on Jul 16 2002 [Link]
Janitor Retired Porno movies, sexy videos, xxx. Adult DVD Talk at your service. 6409 Posts 11/99	Posted - Jul 16 2002 : 10:07AM menace - right now I search studio by studio with the advanced search, sort by price and see if there are any deals. I also check the best deals at each store with deal finder. if there are reviews of the titles i identify as deals, i check the review to make sure it's a good deal. then i mark the bargains on a bargains manager page. as you can imagine this takes a ton of time, and is why i don't do it often enough. Do you average the prices from all stores for each title-then list it if a store has it below a preset % below avg. Click to expand That's a good idea. Though sales across multiple stores would be missed. [Link]
petemurphy Member 226 Posts 8/01	Posted - Jul 18 2002 : 3:03AM That sounds like a LOT of work! "Madness takes its toll, please have exact change." -- Pete Murphy [Link]
YogaGrrl self-removed user 757 Posts 12/01	Posted - Jul 18 2002 : 9:29AM To be honest, I rarely look at the Bargains page. Normally, I have a very specific wish list, along with a few specific stores that I would be comfortable shopping at, and so the !Alerts system is what's really working for me. Still, I like the automated system you're describing, Steph, and I haven't been able to come up with any further suggestions over the past few days. It might not be perfect, but it would be so much more efficient than the current system, which sounds incredibly labor intensive! As a reviewer, I do put a lot of thought into both the overall rating of the DVD and its worth. If I rate it at 3 stars, I truly do feel it is an "above average" disc; and any DVDs priced $3–$4 less than the value I assign really would me bargains, at least in my eyes. So the criteria you have suggested seem to be good ones. [Link]

GaySatyr Senior Member Half dirty ol' man; half horny ol' goat! 1684 Posts 10/00	Posted - Jul 18 2002 : 1:06PM Steph - I suggest you create two automations, both of which could be used for both str8 and gay/bi titles. 1) BARGAIN BASEMENT: These would be chosen from the entire database based purely on price: Create a search that identifies titles where the price at one (or two) store(s) is significantly lower (say, 25% or greater) than the price at other stores, e.g., Fever ($29 at Jaded and $48~50 at two other sources) or An American In Moscow ($20 at Five Star and $30~40 at all other sources). These would be great deals, but AYOR (At Your Own Risk). 2) RECOMMENDED SPECIALS: These would be chosen from the reviewed titles database with the requirement that the title have no lower than a 3-star review. Basing a further requirement on the worth evaluation is problematic in that a significant number of reviews (at least, many of the gay reviews) do not have a value assigned to them. In addition, especially with gay reviews, the worth evaluations are all over the board in terms of price range. Therefore I suggest that price selection method similar to the BARGAIN BASEMENT system described above be used, maybe with a less stringent percentage requirement. A good example is Exhibition (worth $40 - $19 at Adult Video Universe !!! and $35~50 at other sources). ~ GaySatyr [Link]
Janitor Retired Porno movies, sexy videos, xxx. Adult DVD Talk at your service. 6409 Posts 11/99	Posted - Jul 19 2002 : 9:53AM thanks for your input. the problem with asking you guys is that you really know how to use adt to find what you want :) there are a lot of people who just want to be pointed to the bargains, or the "best" dvds, etc. i'll talk with drew about what would be easy to implement since he has other priorities. thanks again [Link]
rieekan333 Member 388 Posts 3/02	Posted - Jul 19 2002 : 10:14PM I doubt this is a helpful suggestion (they're not really my trademark ) but have you thought about removing the Bargains feature? [Link]
petemurphy Member 226 Posts 8/01	Posted - Jul 20 2002 : 11:55AM I have always liked the "Bargains" feature, but I never imagined how labor intensive it is. "Madness takes its toll, please have exact change." -- Pete Murphy [Link]
Janitor Retired Porno movies, sexy videos, xxx. Adult DVD Talk at your service. 6409 Posts 11/99	Posted - Jul 21 2002 : 8:39AM the bargains page is heavily requested. we'll get something new and improved there shortly. [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Jul 23 2002 : 5:15PM Ask and you shall receive. (At least once in a while.) From the home page: Adult DVD Talk Bargains will now be updated daily, pointing you to above average DVDs at below average prices. All bargain titles have been reviewed by Adult DVD Talkers and rated at least 3 stars. Some are genuine steals! Pretty Little Asians $9.99, Buttslammers $7.95, Ona's Doll House $6.95... go see the new Bargains! Click to expand The logic used in generating the list of bargains is based in a number of factors. The common theme is that all bargains have to have at least one review with an overall rating of three stars or higher. The current bargain hunter logic works reasonably well but we'll be fiddling with it over the next few weeks. The bargain list is updated every 15 minutes based on the most recent review ratings and price search data. (So check it often.) [Link]
astroknight Questionable Moderator Tastes so good... 4187 Posts 11/99	Posted - Jul 23 2002 : 5:58PM Very nice changes! I really like the list of bargains at the bottom, since it gives a quick way to scan for something cheap or something from a certain studio. The only thing I could see to improve it would be if you could sort the list at the bottom by either price or studio, rather than just having them listed by price. [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Jul 23 2002 : 6:09PM If the list becomes unweildly I'll have to add a paging and sorting mechanism to it. In it's current form the logic only returns the very best bargains in the price search. I suppose the list will shrink/grow from time to time but not by large numbers of titles. It will be interesting to watch the list over time. [Link]
BIGmike B-I-G-m-i-k-e 2335 Posts 3/01	Posted - Jul 23 2002 : 8:57PM It will be interesting to watch the list over time. You're telling me, there are a few titles on there that I paid $20+ for, now for $10 or under. Oh well. I like it. The new setup, that is. Not the fact that I paid double or triple what a few of those DVDs are on sale for. I already see a few on there that look very promising. Keep up the great work. ---BIGmike, over & out!--- [Link]
aybesea Senior Member Caroline Cage - Hungarian Hottie! 1485 Posts 5/02	Posted - Jul 24 2002 : 10:43AM The changes are very nice! I have to agree with Astroknight, though. The ability to sort on column headers would be very useful. Also, since this new algorithm only displays titles with favorable reviews, looks like we need to pitch in and start reviewing. I may just have to try doing one... [Link]

GaySatyr Senior Member Half dirty ol' man; half horny ol' goat! 1684 Posts 10/00	Posted - Jul 24 2002 : 4:01PM Maybe you could have it list the results using the same scripts that generate the Compare Prices screen after we Compare Total Order Cost from the Comparison Cart - https://www.adultdvdtalk.com/price_search/search_results.asp?sku=nnnn/nnnn/nnnn/nnnn/nnnn ~ GaySatyr [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Jul 24 2002 : 4:24PM It would be something like that page. [Link]
joeblow69 Member 946 Posts 2/00	Posted - Jul 25 2002 : 11:50PM Is the gay bargains page accessable from anywhere on the GayDVDReview front page? Is that eventually going to replace the "recommendations" page? [Link]
GaySatyr Senior Member Half dirty ol' man; half horny ol' goat! 1684 Posts 10/00	Posted - Jul 26 2002 : 2:03AM bowblow69 -- it is listed under the *Shop* heading on the left side of the screen. ~ GaySatyr [Link]
joeblow69 Member 946 Posts 2/00	Posted - Jul 26 2002 : 7:50AM Thanks GaySatyr, I figured it was there and I was just missing it. Now that I think about it, though, would it be possible to do a similar automatic script for the Recommendations page (which hasn't been updated in a while). It looks like they are just sorted by quality and price, so it should be pretty easy to automatically pick those out: High Quality/High Price: 4 stars and up for $40- High Quality/Medium Price: 4 stars and $25-$39 Medium Quality/Medium Price: 3-4 stars and under $25 [Link]
Janitor Retired Porno movies, sexy videos, xxx. Adult DVD Talk at your service. 6409 Posts 11/99	Posted - Jul 26 2002 : 9:14AM jb - good idea. (yes, i'm hiding my head in shame about the lack of updates on the recommendations - and a few other pages throughout the sites that i won't mention... ) automation is the key to my sanity... [Link]
aybesea Senior Member Caroline Cage - Hungarian Hottie! 1485 Posts 5/02	Posted - Jul 26 2002 : 10:08AM Steph, I had an idea. I'm not sure if it's feasible or if it would belong in bargains, or a new page all its own. Anyway, it goes like this: Dynamically generate a list of DVDs whose price has fallen by xx% (maybe 20% or 25%) over the last xx days (maybe 1 or 2 weeks). This is somewhat analagous to the "Deal Finder", however frequently 2 or more stores drop their price on a DVD at the same time (e.g. the recent Private sale) and therefore will not be identified by Deal Finder. This feature, on the other hand, would readily identify the fact that Brides & Bitches sold for a lowest price of $19.95 last week, but now sells for $10.95, even if more than 1 store has dropped their price on it. I know that I can set up alerts to tell me this, but it means that I have to either set up every potential title I could be interested in into alerts, or choose whole studios and scan all the pricing myself. There are any number of titles I might be interested in if the price were to drop dramatically. I'm just looking for a way to quickly identify those titles. Again, I have no idea of whether this is feasible, just thought maybe it would be useful. Thoughts? [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Jul 26 2002 : 2:32PM This is very feasible. I'll put some thought into it. Here's a hint of something I've been working on that makes the bargain picking logic that you have suggested very possible. Edited by - Drew Black on Jul 26 2002 [Link]
aybesea Senior Member Caroline Cage - Hungarian Hottie! 1485 Posts 5/02	Posted - Jul 26 2002 : 3:14PM Drew, that's cool! That means that you have the historical data on pricing for the various DVDs. Yes, now I can see that perhaps my suggestion is feasible. I'm not sure if the graphs aren't a bit of an overkill (at least for me), but the concept would be very useful if presented in an ergonomically friendly tool. The best thing about the tool I have in mind is that it is really useful to the regulars and not just to newbies ! [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Jul 31 2002 : 2:03PM I put together a sample bargain watcher/suggestion page that takes into account historical pricing changes. The DVDs on this page are not based on review ratings. There are three criteria that are used to pick these titles: Current price+2 <= average price for last 14 days Current price <= historical average - 25% Current price+.99 <= average low price for the past 60 days. I think it's a pretty good sample of bargain selections. Let me know what you think about this list. BTW, I will create a comparable page for gay bargains. I still need to tweak the values used to pick gay bargains since the price model is so different. [Link]

aybesea Senior Member Caroline Cage - Hungarian Hottie! 1485 Posts 5/02	Posted - Aug 1 2002 : 10:14AM Drew - This is incredible! It is exactly what I had in mind. I believe it will be extremely useful. The only tweak I can think of to suggest is that maybe you could allow the user to adjust the values. Either all 3 individually, or else maybe just an "aggressive" or "moderate" mode kind of thing. Just an idea. BUT - this is very useful the way you have it! Thanks. P.S. I've got an idea for another tool, so let me know when you have finished with this one and I will describe another . Lawdy - This Place Rocks! [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Aug 1 2002 : 10:31AM I don't think there's an easy way to enable a user to tweak the values. The SQL procedure that generates this list is fairly hefty and would be very slow if the values were defined as user-defined variables. We'll stick with this formula for a little while and tweak it as necessary. I'll need to add paging and sorting options to both lists but it will be a little while before I can tackle that task. I think I'll also look into including Bargain Watch selections in the Alert System. What's the next tool concept? Edited by - Drew Black on Aug 1 2002 [Link]
aybesea Senior Member Caroline Cage - Hungarian Hottie! 1485 Posts 5/02	Posted - Aug 1 2002 : 11:19AM Drew, I can see what you mean. The dynamic SQL could slow things down a bit, and the tool is VERY useful as is. Cool. Here's the next idea: I'm sure you are aware of DVD Price Search. I use them religiously for finding non-adult DVDs (the way I use ADT for adult titles). They have 2 great tools that I think you could "borrow" in some form. The first is the My Coupons feature. It allows the user to add any specific coupons they may have in their possesion that are not for the "public". I am thinking that this is analagous to the "kickback" dollars I have in my account. It would be great if my kickback dollars were accounted for in Price Search comparisons that I perform (including DVD Advatage's extra $5 for each $10, or 5 Star's extra 15% on kickback orders). This would allow me to truly eke out the rock bottom price. The second is in their comparison cart. Besides showing me the cheapest store to purchase my items from, it also shows me the cheapest combination of stores. In other words, if it is less expensive to buy 3 discs from store A and 2 discs from store B, than to buy all 5 discs from any store (including shipping), it lets me know to break the order up. It then gives me links to each store to allow for my convenience and their profit. I would love to see this feature also account for my kickback dollars in selecting the right mix. Thoughts? I just love this place! [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Aug 1 2002 : 11:38AM I've looked into the My Coupons type of feature about a year ago. I decided against it at the time because no adult retailers were issuing customer-specific coupons at the time. At the moment I think Adult DVD Empire is the only retailer that routinely emails coupons to their customers. I know Five Star has done this in the past but I'm not sure how often. I don't beleive there are any other retailers that send coupons directly to customers. If I'm mistaken (which would be a good thing) please let me know. I'll have to look at their order comparison/combination logic. I've never used it but it makes sense. I may try to tackle this when I finally implement the multi-cart feature. I think a cool feature would be if a user could maintain a master list/cart of items they are interested in and in a single click have all of the items distributed into seperate comparison sub-carts, one for each store to achieve the most economical combination of carts. (Of course this logic would have to include coupons and Kickbacks as part of the cart distribution logic.) I'm looking into including Bargain Watch results as an option for an Alert. I think it would be great to include Bargain Watch by studio notifications in the daily alerts. [Link]
aybesea Senior Member Caroline Cage - Hungarian Hottie! 1485 Posts 5/02	Posted - Aug 1 2002 : 12:52PM Drew - I absolutely agree. Alerts and Bargain Watch seem like a natural pair. I would love to be able to have an alert generated for new Bargain Watch hits based on a) Studio, or b) Genre. [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Aug 1 2002 : 4:13PM Bargain Watch is now integrated into the Alert System. Edited by - Drew Black on Aug 1 2002 [Link]
aybesea Senior Member Caroline Cage - Hungarian Hottie! 1485 Posts 5/02	Posted - Aug 1 2002 : 4:33PM Too cool! I've got my alerts set up and watching! Thanks much - Aybesea [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Aug 4 2002 : 2:23PM I added a link to the price history charts near the bottom of all price search results pages today. [Link]
aybesea Senior Member Caroline Cage - Hungarian Hottie! 1485 Posts 5/02	Posted - Aug 5 2002 : 11:41AM I love it! Now, Drew, tell me - what is AdultDVDPriceGuide? [Link]
Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99	Posted - Aug 5 2002 : 12:09PM It's just another domain name we have. We thought about providing the data at on ADT but figured it would just clutter up the site even more. ;) We'll be building a site there some day, hopefully soon. The intent of the price guide site is to provide data in a simple format sans graphics, banners, pictures of nekkid people, etc. Price guide will be more of a research tool than a shopping tool. [Link]

YogaGrrl self-removed user 757 Posts 12/01	Posted - Feb 3 2003 : 3:02PM Drew Black wrote: I added a link to the price history charts near the bottom of all price search results pages today. Click to expand I just want to thank Drew for providing this excellent service. I used it yesterday evening and this morning while shopping for the first time ever at Five Star DVD. I had noticed that Amateur Angels and Sex Across America - Second Stop: New Orleans were listed at $6.99 on the Recommended Bargains page. These had been on my wish list for quite a while. When I saw that this was their lowest price since March of last year, I decided that I needed to buy them now. Five Star also has some VCA titles at excellent sale prices right now; I picked one of those up for only a dollar over its lowest historical price. After applying a $20 Kickbacks rebate and using Five Star's free shipping offer, my total order was a little under $18 for four highly rated DVDs. My sincere appreciation goes to Drew and Steph for all their continued outstanding work on this site. [Link]