You've probably noticed that BTM isn't finding any resale opportunities for many new TBC items. This is because the code as previously written wouldn't look for these opportunities if we didn't have some "sanity" pricing data (read: cross server average prices we grabbed from allakhazam). This was an artifact of the original Bottom Feeder, which needed this data to ensure we never automatically bought an item because the local price history was (for whatever reason: scammers, bad luck, etc.) far from the norm.
For a number of reasons, we haven't yet begun to collect this information for new TBC items (or update the data for old items, many of which have substantially changed). We may eventually get around to doing this (once we think the items have been around long enough to have stable, "sane" price histories to begin with), but there is a chance we will never get around to it, or that we will collect it but not include it in future versions of BTM. Since the user has to manually approve each purchase, this data isn't, strictly speaking, necessary for successful operation any more.
What does this mean for you?
Short answer: you will probably want/need to change your BaseRule if your current one does any calculation involving the "sanity" prices. In the BaseRule, these have the variable names consMean, consPrice, and consSeen.
Starting with the next build, we will be providing "default sanity prices" for any item which doesn't have them. These prices will be 0. This should cause BTM to once again start looking for resale opportunities.
Having said that, many of the successful BaseRules we users have shared with each other tend to rely on the sanity prices in ways which will (given sanity prices of 0) cause the BaseRules to decide that all such new item are "Don't Buy" valuations. This is obviously no more helpful than having no valuation at all.
My suggestions
I haven't yet re-written my baserule, but when I do, I will do one of two things:
1. Rewrite it to ignore all the sanity prices. We don't have data for the new items, and the data we have for the old items is stale and possibly more harmful than helpful. 2. Rewrite it to test for 0 values first. If they are zero, use some other baserule variation. If they are non-zero, use my current baserule to evaluate. Obviously, if you go this route, it means you are willing to trust the sanity prices for older items.
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So, that's the heads up. Changes are coming in the next build which will make BTM work for resale for new TBC items, but they will probably require you to update your BaseRule if you want anything meaningful to occur as a result.
Feel free to discuss new BaseRules here, or anything else above you want to discuss.
I was never a big fan of the sanity checks even when using Bottom Feeder on a high pop server. It just seemed that my server was too far off the norm and was missing too many good deals, so I left it out of my baserule.
With Bottom scanner now using a popup confirmation, it would seem like doing a sanity check should be more interactive. I recall someone making the suggestion to move the pop up to the side so that we can still do a quick search on that item to see what current prices were. Or perhaps the popup should included an automated search of the current listings for that item for a quick comparison. To me that's the best sanity check you can make. I would vote for this before asking to reinstate the conservative pricing check.
automatically launching an item search for that item is in the works (i.e. ticket created for it), as is automatically switching beancounter to that item.
yes. "Starting with the next build, we will be providing "default sanity prices" for any item which doesn't have them. These prices will be 0."
I should also note one other fairly major change - your BaseRule can now direct bottom scanner to bid/buyout/ignore the item, regardless of resale profitability. see the BaseRule wiki for more info.