East Digital - Price Monitor / History Google Sheet

Hey Cheapies,

This is for all the DataHoarders and "lowest price per TB" HDD hunters. I've made a Google Sheet to parse the 3 main HDD categories on East Digitals website, namely:

  1. New HDDs
  2. Factory Recertified HDDs
  3. Pulled HDDs
Features:
  • Tables can be sorted and filtered by Date, Drive Size, Price Per TB, Price, and Sale Price
  • Pivot Table per category for consolidated stats per unique product
  • Script is adaptable to any other similar Shopify website (see source code linked below)
  • Added bonus, even though the sale prices are hidden on the website, it is still in the page source code, the script will parse for this info as well, so you can see the last sale price
  • Products are hyperlinked with previews (no affiliate links)
  • HDD Lookup table - enter your desired size and it will spit out the lowest price, date and link to the relative cell
  • Pagination handling - script will go through as many pages of listings as there are in each category
Things to Note:
  1. I was unable to "trick" the website into pulling NZD, so the script uses the current USD -> NZD exchange rate + "a Shopify correction rate" to get the prices as close to what we see when browsing the website.
  2. The aforementioned prices are then rounded up in tables (same as the website)
  3. Due to the way the prices are sourced, I'd recommend just using the Sheet solely for comparisons. I.e the actual HDD price may be $1 higher or lower on any given day, but because the the whole sheet uses a correction rate, the prices are all relative. In theory, the cheapest HDD should still be the cheapest.
  4. Script automatically runs once a day (7pm-8pm each day)
TODO (i.e if someone smarter than me can help, that would be awesome):
  • Pull stock status (in or out of stock) | Github PR
  • Column / Cell formatting if a drive is on sale | Github PR
  • Obtain NZD from website instead of calculating it (room for error) | Github PR

Feedback welcomed, feel free to make a copy and use as you wish.

East Digital Price Monitor Googlesheet | Source Code

Related Stores

east-digital.myshopify.com
east-digital.myshopify.com

Comments

  • +2

    Great work MoodKiller!

    • Many thanks Alan, appreciate the kind words.

  • +1

    I also use this,
    https://diskprices.com/?locale=au&condition=new&capacity=14-…

    Can you add historical low?

    • Nice find :-)

    • Nice, forgot about that site. Were you thinking a dedicated sheet of historical lows for each product?

      • You could do that to track it and then if the product matches on the other sheets it displays it on those.

        Gives people a decent reference as to how low the price for the drive could go

        • Will see what I can do - had a play around last night, just need to grab the historical date and it should be good to go

  • Being a cynic, but does anyone else get a bit hesitant when the website is a 'myshopify.com'

    • +1

      Most smaller businesses and solo business use such website design + eCommerce platforms, the other popular one being squarepace
      they don't have the money to fork out for custom stuff

      • it makes sense, but I guess it's also a sign of the times

        • It does indicate an almost total lack of any technical understanding to use the 'myshopify.com' subdomain - not a good look.

    • +1

      They sell on eBay as well, the Shopify is so they can avoid the eBay fees so it's cheaper. They put no effort into branding though lol

    • More and more companies are leaning towards off the shelf websites like these theu jist hide the domain, why pay a developer agency to come up with custom code you cant maintain when you can do it yourself and keep everything internal.

    • +1

      I've bought from him once in November last year it is legit and going well still :D

  • +2

    Great work actually really helpful 😄 cheers 🎉

    • Many thanks!!! I am happy to hear and you are welcome.

  • +1

    Came in to "upvote", thanks OP.

    • +1

      Here, take mine :D. Also thank you!

  • +1

    Nice one.

  • +3

    Quick update: Script / Sheet is now up to v1.5. Many thanks to the 2 Cheapies so far that have contributed via PR's to get the TODO's in place. I really do appreciate the assistance and contribution. Thank you!

    Current list of features since original post:

    • Prices now match the ED site exactly. Room for error removed.
    • Added "On Sale" and "Stock Status" columns. These can be used for filtering and historical tracking.
    • Tables are now sorted by newest to oldest to save scrolling as they get longer.
    • Various bug fixes.

    Change log from v1.0 to v1.5

    • +2

      HT to you MoodKiller (and those that have assisted).

  • +1

    This is great. I've given the repo a watch to potentially contribute in future if possible.

    Anyone have suggestions for some 3.5" HDD enclosures?

    • Nice, thank you! Will come up with some other ideas (the historical lows are still a WIP, I cant quite get the formula to link back to correct cell

      Not too sure on 3.5" enclosure suggestions BUT I have 2 left over Seagate 3.5" enclosures from drives I shucked if you would like? Happy to take a "donation" towards them or can do a TradeMe listing if would prefer. Note: they do have the USA power adapter pins, but it does support 220v

      Otherwise a small NAS? Feel free to DM.

      • +1

        the USA power adapter pins

        Ah yeah this is what I was trying to avoid ha. I'll keep it in mind, but may just end up getting the pbtech $36 one if I can't find a spare case at the parents house

Login or Join to leave a comment