What statistical analysis of historical prices would be useful for a buyer?

May 12, 2011 10:58 PM

What statistical analysis of historical prices would be useful for a buyer?

I made this tool to analyze used book prices at Amazon.com, based off the user's Wshlist.
It's working fine and dandy, but I want to take it to the next stage: collecting historical data on used book prices.

Problem is, I don't really know what the best format for relaying any historical price info to the user is. I never took University-level stats, but am more than eager to read and learn if pointed in the right direction.

Would they want average used price for the last week? The last 100 days? A chart to display any drastic variations?
I just want to buy art books at the cheapest prices...

The database contains:
id for a specific book
a day (only one price entry stored per day)
the lowest used price for that day (if available)
the amazon price for that day (if applicable)

I'm stumped as to the best historical insight I can give to the consumer.

posted by Theta States to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

Response by poster: Well, got no replies but I did update the program. I used colours to indicate deviations from average price, and included the stats in the mousover text.
posted by Theta States at 2:19 PM on May 16, 2011