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A comment on Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for?.

Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by popcalc on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @04:21AM (#34593062)
No one wants to pay for APIs. They want to solve headaches, appease their bosses, build cool things. Figure out a problem that a niche group of people have and you're golden. There are people making 6 figures selling CS:GO skin price feeds.
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by mrprogrammerguy on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @04:31AM (#34593136)
Lol I see what you mean. Thanks.
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by weird-eye-issue on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @05:14AM (#34593405)
> There are people making 6 figures selling CS:GO skin price feeds.

Really?

I was working on a project a few years ago that needed this data so I setup a scraper to get all price data from Steam and Bitskins. It was running 24/7 and putting everything into a database that was very clean and neat. Maybe I should boot that back up and just sell access to the API...

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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by popcalc on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @05:40AM (#34593556)
Yes. The gambling sites that accept skin deposits invest a lot of effort into guaranteeing that someone can't fleece them by manipulating the price of an obscure item.
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by WJW on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @06:23AM (#34593803)
> The gambling sites that accept [CS:Go] skin deposits ...

I had never heard about this before, but it makes (some small amount of) sense. Steam game hour idlers are also something I never imagined btw. We are truly living in the future.

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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by weird-eye-issue on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @06:46AM (#34593932)
I figured they have their own scrapers and algorithms to determine what the prices are for an item. Because a third-party could subtely scam them by altering the prices
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by fnomnom on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @08:51AM (#34594969)
>steam game hour idlers

could you elaborate on that? what does this do exactly? idle for example on tf2 servers for drops but you dont have to run your own pc for that?

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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by popcalc on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @03:28PM (#34601458)
No, that's a whole other business. Idler services just run up the hours on games in your library without the games actually running. Vanity knows no limits.

https://steamtimeidler.com/

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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by fnomnom on Wednesday February 01, 2023 @04:20AM (#34608256)
oh wow. im the polar opposite. i wouldnt want to know most people the hours i out into some games at all
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by weird-eye-issue on Wednesday February 01, 2023 @10:46PM (#34621770)
It can be used by scammers to make their accounts seem more legit. "Why would they scam me for $200 and risk their account they have played CSGO for 5000 hours with?"
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by ryanackley on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @06:29AM (#34593835)
Ok but you could easily view the question as "What headaches to you want to solve and/or cool things you want to build that could be done using an API that you would be willing to pay for"
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by hestefisk on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @07:34AM (#34594293)
What is CS:GO?
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by slig on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @07:45AM (#34594385)
Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
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Re:Ask HN: What API's do people wanna buy/pay for? by robertlagrant on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @08:03AM (#34594536)
> Figure out a problem that a niche group of people have and you're golden.

Hence the Ask HN question.

[ Parent | on HN ]