Making computer work for you (purchasing goods)

[Digby]

I know there are websites that can track prices but I wonder, has anyone set up their own computer program to monitor multiple websites for particular items or prices to drop to level, at which it then alerts you and you can purchase or the program just buys on your behalf?

I miss out on some deals by buying things only as and when I need them, it'd be better if I could know when prices were low and buy in advance, there are web based systems to do this on Amazon and other websites, but does anyone have the own program they use for such purposes, that will keep track of a number of websites of your choosing?

 

[Dunring]

It would be hard to make a program like that because web sites change over time and they'd have to keep up with it. Google shopping price alerts, and camelcamelcanel.com sends alerts for Amazon. Signing up for newsletters at vendors or manufacturers keeps me in the loop when they have sales too.
eBay lets you do a search and get email or push notifications when that item is listed at the price you want. Between those you can cover a lot. A standalone app would just be impractical when a site changes their formatting or layout.