🔥 Gun Deals Scraper

Goal: Scrape r/gundeals, score deals by historical value, monetize via affiliate links.

Target: MVP in 2-3 days → First revenue within a week

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📋 Kanban

🔜 Backlog

• Email/SMS alerts for 5-fire deals (premium feature)
• Ammo price tracker integration
• Coupon stacking suggestions
• Mobile-friendly PWA
• Browser extension version

📝 To Do

• Research: Identify top affiliate programs (Brownells, PSA, etc.)
• Affiliate: Implement affiliate link injection
• Deploy: Set up auto-start on Mac Mini (launchd)
• Cron: Schedule hourly ingestion
• Alerts: Slack notifications for 4-5 fire deals

🚧 In Progress

• UI: Test web interface with real data
• Deploy: Set up persistent hosting

✅ Done

• Idea validation: Confirmed demand (Ammoseek exists, subreddit active)
• Project kickoff: Created this tracking doc
• Research: Analyzed r/gundeals post structure
• Scraper: Built Reddit JSON API integration
• Parser: Extract price, item name, category, retailer from titles
• Database: SQLite schema with deals, price history, categories
• Scoring: Fire rating algorithm (1-5 🔥) based on historical pricing
• Ingest: Full pipeline (scrape → parse → analyze → store)
• UI: FastAPI web interface with filters
• First data: Ingested 100 deals, 87 price points

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🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
│   Reddit API    │────▶│    Scraper      │────▶│    Database     │
│  (r/gundeals)   │     │   (Python)      │     │   (SQLite/PG)   │
└─────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘     └────────┬────────┘
                                                         │
                        ┌─────────────────┐              │
                        │   Price History │◀─────────────┘
                        │    Analysis     │
                        └────────┬────────┘
                                 │
                        ┌────────▼────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
                        │   Fire Rating   │────▶│    Web UI       │
                        │   (1-5 🔥)      │     │   (Next.js)     │
                        └─────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘

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📊 MVP Features (v0.1)

Feature	Priority	Effort	Notes
Scrape new r/gundeals posts	P0	2h	Reddit API or RSS
Store deals in database	P0	1h	SQLite for MVP
Compare to 90-day price history	P0	3h	Need historical data source
Calculate fire rating (1-5)	P0	2h	Based on % below average
Simple web UI	P1	4h	List view, sortable
Affiliate link injection	P1	2h	Map retailers → affiliate URLs
"I saved you $X" tracker	P2	2h	Gamification
Deploy to production	P1	2h	Vercel or Mac Mini

Total estimated MVP time: ~18 hours of work = 2-3 days

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💰 Revenue Model

Phase 1: Affiliate

• Gun/ammo retailers have 2-8% commission
• Key programs to join:
  • Brownells
  • Palmetto State Armory
  • Primary Arms
  • Optics Planet
  • Aero Precision

Phase 2: Premium ($5/mo)

• Instant alerts for 5-fire deals
• Custom filters (caliber, category)
• Price drop notifications

Phase 3: Donations

• "This tool saved you $X this month"
• "Buy me a box of ammo" prompt

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🔍 Research Notes

r/gundeals Structure

• Flairs: [Handgun], [Rifle], [Ammo], [Parts], [Optics], [Accessories], etc.
• Title format: Usually [Type] Item Name - $Price (notes)
• Deal validation: Community upvotes/comments indicate quality
• OOS tracking: Posts often updated when out of stock

Historical Data Challenge

• Reddit only keeps ~1000 posts per subreddit via API
• Options:
  1. Build our own history going forward
  2. Use Pushshift/Arctic Shift archives
  3. Scrape gun.deals (aggregator site)
  4. Partner with existing data sources

Competition

• Ammoseek: Ammo-focused, no fire rating
• gun.deals: Aggregator, less analysis
• WikiArms: Price comparison
• Gap: Nobody does the "how good is this deal historically" analysis well

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📅 Timeline

Day 1 (Tonight/Tomorrow)

• Set up project structure
• Build Reddit scraper
• Create database schema
• Start collecting historical data

Day 2

• Implement fire rating algorithm
• Build basic web UI
• Test with live data

Day 3

• Add affiliate link mapping
• Deploy MVP
• Post to r/gundeals for feedback (if allowed)

Week 1+

• Iterate based on feedback
• Add premium features
• Apply to affiliate programs

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🎯 Success Metrics

Metric	Target (Month 1)
Daily active users	100+
Affiliate clicks	500+
First commission	$50+
Premium signups	10+

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📝 Session Log

2026-01-29 (Night Session)

• Project kickoff
• Created kanban and architecture doc
• Built complete MVP in one session:
  • Reddit scraper (JSON API, 100 posts/fetch)
  • Title parser (extracts price, item, category, retailer)
  • SQLite database (deals, price_history, categories)
  • Fire rating analyzer (compares to historical prices)
  • Ingest pipeline (scrape → parse → analyze → store)
  • FastAPI web UI (filters by category, fire rating, sort)
• First ingestion: 100 deals, 87 price points
• Most deals show no fire rating yet (need historical data to build up)
• One deal hit 🔥🔥🔥 already!

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Last updated: 2026-01-29 00:20 PST