Primer Searches with Anvil

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Mon May 11, 2009 6:30 pm

Well, I finally spent the time to modify my Anvil program so that people other than just me can use it. It's perhaps not perfect and needs to have more event logging enabled but it is running and in place. In fact, at 4:08pm today it sent me a text message to tell me that MidwayUSA had Federal SP Match primers in stock. They only lasted about 45 minutes or so before they were gone and I never posted the notice up here ... I was in a meeting at the time.

You tell Anvil what you're after and it will search during the day for you. Anvil will typically notify you about 75 seconds after it finds what you're looking for on a vendor's online site. Of course, if you get too picky you're not going to get a notice for a while. But if you'll take any 'ole Small Pistol primer for example, you can generally find it within the week. Federal and Winchester have apparently delivered primers to several outlets this past week. Of course, Federal is from $6 to $9 more per thousand that most of the others in many cases.

You have to be registered to use Anvil ... so it's not a free for all that can propagate outside of the Leverguns forum. If you PM me your email address, I'll put it the Anvil database and Anvil will then send an email to that address about how to use the program. You have to do all of your interaction from that email account ... which is to say, setup your searches and your notification address.

Once you get the Help email, pay close attention to the "Notify" database entry. That's how I bought all of my primers the week before last and that's how I know to post messages up here on the forum when stuff comes available.

I'll be taking the program up and down now and then to update it or fix bugs, but for the most part it should be up and running throughout the day ... when the retailers take new stock into inventory and make it available in their systems.

If Anvil takes time to get back to you, it's either down for upkeep or fighting with MidSouthShootersSupply. Their database is up and down like a yo-yo during the day.

If you need me to setup your search after you read the help email, just send me a PM and I'll enter it for you.

Good luck in finding and buying your primers.

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Mon May 11, 2009 7:25 pm

That is amazing to those of us with no, or marginal (I used to write assembler and compile with Turbo-Pascal under 'DOS'...

) computer skills. I'd be clueless to write the kind of thing you've created, though, and probably couldn't even understand how it works at the nuts and bolts level if you 'splained it to me in single syllables.

Thanks for doing, and sharing. I won't join in the fray at the moment, because I'm shorter of time to reload than I am primers, but I'm sure your program will help some others.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Mon May 11, 2009 8:40 pm

Yeah, I really just got tired of posting the primer availability notices on the forum. Most people are at work during the day and couldn't take advantage of them. So now, people that need primers will be notified as needed.

I usually do control hardware, control software, database, or communications apps in C or C++. I decided I needed to try my hand at C# but it kind of got out of hand. This thing is over 2400 lines now and still needs some work. It runs as a service under Windows.

It works pretty well now. It found and I bought 25k primers of various types that I needed the week before last. And thankfully, not at the GunBroker prices but the regular retail rate.

crs · Post by **crs** » Mon May 11, 2009 8:53 pm

Good post and thank you.

Post by **Hobie** » Mon May 11, 2009 9:41 pm

THANK YOU!

You've helped me tremendously! Please look for my PM.

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Tue May 12, 2009 12:31 am

I am....astounded

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 8:13 am

Well, if you were registered with Anvil and were looking for small pistol primers, you would have gotten a text message on your phone at 8:34am Eastern that would have looked like this ...

(Primers) Grafs @ (800)531-2666 has Fed SP-Match(#100M) for $33.99/k.

Apparently, Grafs and Midway got a delivery of these yesterday and Miday put them up late yesterday afternoon while Grafs posted them this morning. Not that people are looking for the rather expensive Federal Gold Medal Match stuff, but hey, if you need small pistol primers and have a load that will take these ... it's a way to keep shooting for far less than factory ammo prices.

Modoc ED · Post by **Modoc ED** » Tue May 12, 2009 8:35 am

Nice job Rimfire. Thanks.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 9:39 am

Here it is 10:34am Eastern and Anvil has just sent me anther text message ...

(Primers) Natchez @ (800)251-7839 has Fed SR(#205) for $30.90/k.

I know small rifle has been scarce lately, but it looks like Federal is pushing stock into the market this week. That's two primer finds just this morning ... SP and SR.

hondo1892 · Post by **hondo1892** » Tue May 12, 2009 10:37 am

Sent you a pm rimfire. Thanks

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 10:50 am

Got this a few minutes ago (11:38am EST) from Anvil ...

(Primers) Natchez @ (800)251-7839 has Fed LP(#150) for $33.66/k.

See, primers are around ... they are just fleeting.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue May 12, 2009 10:53 am

I must have missed somthing...

But what is "Anvil" (I know it's software...)

Is it an installable, or is it a Web Ap?

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 10:56 am

Wow, those Fed LP's got sucked up fast. They're already gone. Probably was just one package of 5000 that came in.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 11:06 am

Look what Anvil just sent me at 12:02pm EST ...

(Primers) Grafs @ (800)531-2666 has Fed LR(#210) for $28.99/k, Fed LR-Match(#210M) for $33.99/k, Fed LRM-Match(#215M) for $35.99/k, Fed SR-Match(#205M) for $33.99/k, Fed LP(#150) for $28.99/k, Fed LP-Match(#150M) for $33.99/k, Fed SP(#100) for $28.99/k, Fed SPM-Match(#200M) for $33.99/k.

Apparently, Grafs just unloaded a truck from a distributor and scanned the items into inventory. Not sure of the quantities so they probably won't last long but it's just about 1/2 of what all Federal makes.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 11:17 am

Old Ironsights wrote:I must have missed somthing...

But what is "Anvil" (I know it's software...)

Is it an installable, or is it a Web Ap?

It's a service that's running on my workstation at the moment. You communicate with it via email and it sends you emails in return. It spends all day scanning the online retailers that carry primers looking for what you want. When it finds what you're looking for, it send an email about it to the email address you're registered with and potentially a second email address. The second email address is used to put the SMS target address of your cellphone for getting text messages.

I didn't take the time to put a web interface on it, just used email because I already had to interact with email to get the primer availability messages back out the door.

It's the program I've written and been using for several weeks to find primers for myself and post messages about my finds on the forum here. I've decided that most people are at work and can't make use of the postings so I made the program avilable for use by memebers up here. That way, they can input what they're looking for and get a text message when it comes in. If they're at work, they can probably get an order placed with a phone call before the retailer runs out.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue May 12, 2009 11:24 am

Ok...

So, if I was wanting/able to buy primers and wanted to use this program I'd PM you for details?

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 11:30 am

Old Ironsights wrote:Ok...

So, if I was wanting/able to buy primers and wanted to use this program I'd PM you for details?

You'd PM your regular email address. I would enter it into the auth list and Anvil would send you a help email within a minute or two. Then you can enter your search or PM me your needs and I would enter it for you. If you want a text message on primer finds, you'd have to "Add" a "Notify:" item with Anvil and put your cell phone's SMS message address in email format into the system. Then you'd get text messages when your stuff is found.

I suppose if you're doing a friend a favor, you could set a search and put THEIR text message address in the "Notify:" item and then they would get the messages.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue May 12, 2009 11:48 am

Thanks. Like I said, I was missing somthing somewhere about how that was to work.

Fortunately(?) I'm not in a buying position right now, but have enough "hoarded" to get me through a bit... but it's nice to know the option is there.

JohndeFresno · Post by **JohndeFresno** » Tue May 12, 2009 2:26 pm

I received two Anvil messages after I gave you the e-mail, but wasn't at the 'puter in time to snag the primers. I'll hook it up to my phone, next.

With the e-mailed instructions, text notification and the program's straightforward format, you put together a very nice application.

Impressive work, Rimfire, and most appreciated. Thank you very much.

John

BenT · Post by **BenT** » Tue May 12, 2009 4:03 pm

I just thought that you were a very diligent shopper.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 4:12 pm

Another hit at 4:38pm EST ...

(Primers) Natchez @ (800)251-7839 has Win LP(#7) for $26.99/k.

Apparently they sold out before I got the chance to post this.

SmokeEater2 · Post by **SmokeEater2** » Tue May 12, 2009 6:15 pm

Some primers are slowly getting back into the pieline. My dealer called me yesterday to let me know that primers he had ordered several months ago were starting to show up. I stopped by and picked up the 1K of small pistol he had set aside for me.
He said none were going out on the shelf until all his regular customers got some if they wanted them,but he was expecting a fairly large shipment at the end of the month.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 6:33 pm

Yeah, Federal seems to be pushing some product out. Not much from the others though. Grafs got some today from Federal (several types) but they were wiped out after a couple of hours.

brianh · Post by **brianh** » Tue May 12, 2009 7:27 pm

Yep, things are looking up, stopped in my local reloading shop which had bare primer shelves last week and found them stocked with all kinds of primers (everything but small pistol, they may have already been gobbled up) in Winchester/Federal/CCI/PMC flavors.

Neat program, I did the same thing but in java. Does yours do cabela's site? I haven't spent time on that one yet, but it looks to be hard to scrape a stock status for primers from their site.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Tue May 12, 2009 7:41 pm

Yeah, Cabelas doesn't show stock status until you try and add it to the cart ... too much of a pain. I passed on doing their site and Sinclair's. I focused on the big online retailers that seem to do real-time inventory management. BassPro and Gander Mountain also carry primers but not on their online sites ... just in the stores.

Most of my code is in parsing email requests, dealing with the database, and logging exceptions. The site searching wasn't too bad. MidwayUSA is the only site that seems to use reasonable tag names for their tables ... making the searching a bit easier.

Oh, and welcome to the forum brianh.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Wed May 13, 2009 10:14 am

Anvil just notified me at 11:07am that Natchez posted stock on CCI Large Pistol Magnum (#450) primers.

EDIT:Now at 11:18am ... poof, they're all gone. You'd have had to have had Anvil pointed at your cell phone address to have been able to snag those I think.

brianh · Post by **brianh** » Wed May 13, 2009 10:39 am

Just got a notify that Grafs has Federal small pistol match by the case in stock

11:33: bricks of same now in stock

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Wed May 13, 2009 11:07 am

brianh wrote:Just got a notify that Grafs has Federal small pistol match by the case in stock

Grafs is weird that way. I only have Anvil looking for the 1000 packs and presumably when Grafs has stock in the 5000 quantity, they should also have stock in the 1000 quantitiy. For some reason, they show 5000 but not 1000 yet. It's almost always the case that they will sell 1000's out of the cases until they get below 5000, at which time the 5000 case will show out of stock and the 1000's will show something like "in stock - only four left".

hondo1892 · Post by **hondo1892** » Wed May 13, 2009 11:15 am

Rimfire I sent an email to anvil but never received a notice back. The mail didn't return to my box. Could I have done something wrong I followed the destuctions that came with the original email. Hondo

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Wed May 13, 2009 12:38 pm

hondo1892 wrote:Rimfire I sent an email to anvil but never received a notice back. The mail didn't return to my box. Could I have done something wrong I followed the destuctions that came with the original email. Hondo

I'll PM you my email address and you can send the email to me. My parser may have not recognized something in it. Anvil surely has a bug or two. I'll enter your request from the email if I can't get Anvil to eat it.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Wed May 13, 2009 12:42 pm

Oh, and while I was at lunch I got ...

MidSouth @ (800)272-3000 has CCI LPM(#350) for $27.15/k and

Grafs @ (800)531-2666 has Fed LP(#150) for $28.99/k

which may be leftovers for botched orders from yesterday at Grafs. However, both MidSouth and Natchez took deliver of CCI LPM (#350)'s today. Natchez ran out quickly though.

brianh · Post by **brianh** » Wed May 13, 2009 1:46 pm

Fed Mag Large Pistol Match 1000 in stock at Grafs
Fed Large Pistol Match 1000 in stock at Grafs
Fed Small Pistol Match 1000 in stock at Grafs

Post by **Hobie** » Wed May 13, 2009 3:04 pm

I am looking for CCI SRM so am awaiting Anvil's notification. Looks like somebody might get some in the next day or so.

stretch · Post by **stretch** » Wed May 13, 2009 3:38 pm

I called Grafs on the pistol primers today. Twice.

Both times I was told there were none in stock.

Each time I reset my account I got the message that they
were in stock.

What's up, do you suppose?

I never got messages fo Natchez or MidSouth.

-Stretch

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:14 pm

stretch wrote:I called Grafs on the pistol primers today. Twice.

Both times I was told there were none in stock.

Each time I reset my account I got the message that they
were in stock.

What's up, do you suppose?

I never got messages fo Natchez or MidSouth.

-Stretch

I'm not sure. In order to make sure Anvil is working right, I get the messages whenever they go out. If I'm near my computer, I pull up their web sites to validate what was sent to me. When I check within a few miniutes of getting the messages, I always find the primers properly listed on their sites. Sometimes though, they get bought up within 10 or 15 minutes ... sometimes they stay up for an hour. Grafs is odd though. They list their primers as both 1000 unit items and 5000 unit items. If they have one 5000 unit case, both the 1000 and 5000 will show in stock. Hoever, if someone comes along and buys that one 5000 unit case, it wipes out both the 5000 and 1000 item listings.

Did you get the text messages on your phone? I would hate to think that Grafs is listing stuff on their Web site that the people taking orders over the phone can't see. I would guess they run from the same database though ... I can't imagine them operating otherwise.

stretch · Post by **stretch** » Wed May 13, 2009 6:39 pm

Funny, I didn't get a phone message. I'm on Verizon, and I entered the stuff as
you advised. No soap. I'm actually through Unicel, who was bought out by Verizon,
whose new cell phones we are aupposed to set up for this coming weekend, so
maybe the text isn't working on the old setup. Who knows? Not this fella, that's
for sure!

I got a message from Graf each time I reset things according to your instructions.
The last lady was gettin' a wee bit testy, so I didn't tell her I just got a message
from the Graf database via a third-party program and could ya please double-check.......
I responded within 5 minutes of the email, so I don't THINK I was too slow, but
there is, of course, no guarantee.

Anyway, no criticism implied or intended of your efforts, I'm just curious. As a
programmer myself, I know and appreciate how much effort went into your code
and the fact that there are ALWAYS glitches with new programs - not to mention the
unforseen cirscumstances or the ingenious fools trying to run it, or those who don't
follow directions, can't reaqd, (or type!

), etc.....

So, I'll take the info at Graf with a grain of salt.

Whaddya think? Any other thoughts?

Thanks, again. Awfully nice effort on your part.

-Stretch

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Wed May 13, 2009 7:04 pm

I think what I can do is modify the program so that it both records when primers go from showing out of stock to in stock and then also record when they go back from in stock to out of stock. That way, we can try and get a better feel for how long the windows are and if, perhaps, someone at Graf's put something in that wasn't correct and then took it back out.

Also, the next time I see something go in stock at Graf's, I'll call as well and see if what they say on the phone matches what their web site says. Should be an easy test if I'm not in a meeting or something at the time.

I'll also send an email/text to your phone in a bit and you tell me of you got it. That way we'll know if Verizon is properly passing the messages. I'm on Verizon as well and I get them in a timely manner from Verizon. In fact, I actually get the text messages on my phone about 30 to 40 seconds faster than I get the actual emails.

So, I'm going to keep working on it and see if I can't find if there's an error occurring somewhere.

brianh · Post by **brianh** » Wed May 13, 2009 9:19 pm

Inventory management is never perfect, no matter how much technology is involved. I know that last batch of stuff at Grafs that I posted at about 1:45 was only there for about 5 minutes. The earlier Fed SP Match 5K post, that stuff was available for about 1.5 hours. I placed an order about 3-4 minutes after it showed up (my program loops about every 2 minutes), so we'll see whether that was a glitch or not. Order is showing a status of "processed", not sure what that means with them.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Wed May 13, 2009 10:45 pm

brianh wrote:Inventory management is never perfect, no matter how much technology is involved. I know that last batch of stuff at Grafs that I posted at about 1:45 was only there for about 5 minutes. The earlier Fed SP Match 5K post, that stuff was available for about 1.5 hours. I placed an order about 3-4 minutes after it showed up (my program loops about every 2 minutes), so we'll see whether that was a glitch or not. Order is showing a status of "processed", not sure what that means with them.

Yeah, I have some doubts about Grafs website. Of all of the sites I scan, that one comes back the quickest. It makes me wonder if it's not mostly static or very loosely tied to the inventory database. You'd think Midway would have the best infrastructure but Grafs is much quicker ... and it makes me wonder.

stretch · Post by **stretch** » Thu May 14, 2009 9:02 am

Hi, Rimfire!

No phone email/text received.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Thu May 14, 2009 4:45 pm

I sent you another. If you're on Unicel ... the format is phonenumber@utext.com and not @vtext.com. Unless you've been moved over to your Verizon phone already.

Also, I've fixed the problem with Grafs. They apparently had put up Fed LP showing stock and then instead of updating it to show "out of stock" they simply removed it from the listing. My program was assuming that the last state was still valid if it couldn't locate an updated page with the item listed. I've modified the program now to assume that stock is depleted at Grafs if an item goes from "in stock" to completely de-listed.

Also, the program will send the HTML pages that it used to find the items as an attachment to the email that goes to your main address for the items you're looking for. The graphics will all be broken links, but if you pull the pages up in IE, FireFox, etc, you will be able to see most of the text on the pages and see where the listing was that I used to declare stock. I'll mark the page attachments with date/time so you know how old they are.

I'll put this stuff up later tonight and it will be running for tomorrow.

stretch · Post by **stretch** » Thu May 14, 2009 7:32 pm

You're a prince, Rimfire..........

Thanks.

MikeS. · Post by **MikeS.** » Thu May 14, 2009 8:37 pm

Rimfire, PM just sent. Thanks!

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Fri May 15, 2009 10:39 am

I just got this from Anvil at 11:36am ...

MidSouth @ (800)272-3000 has CCI LR(#200) for $25.21/k, CCI LRM(#250) for $27.15/k, CCI LR-Match(BR2) for $39.47/k, CCI LP(#300) for $25.21/k

I will check their website to verify that Anvil got it right.

EDIT:Yup, it's right. Though many are marked as "Low Stock".

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Fri May 15, 2009 10:57 am

And they now show as "On Order" at Midway. Wiped 'em out. You gotta be quick.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Fri May 15, 2009 12:39 pm

Holy cow, at 1:22pm I got ...

MidwayUSA @ (800)243-3220 has Rem SP(1-1/2) for $27.49/k

I haven't seen Remington primers for sale in months online. They are, of course, already gone.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:07 pm

Sneaky buggers ... at 3:58pm EST

MidSouth @ (800)272-3000 has CCI LR(#200) for $25.21/k

I wonder if they have orders that cancel or if they miscount or something that causes this. They had these earlier in the day which leads me to beleive they got a delivery from a distributor. At that time they entered a bunch of primers into their system and they showed on the web site. However, they ran out quickly. Am I to believe that these were somehow found when they got to the back of the truck they were unloading? I wish I knew.

Fortunately, I'm full up on CCI #200's.

stretch · Post by **stretch** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:17 pm

Hi, Rimfire!

I got an email on REmington SP at 1:29 at Midway.

I called at 1:29, was told there were none, asked the
fella to please double-check. Oh, yes! By the time he borught
my account up, they were gone! I just could not have been
any quicker on the draw....

Same thing on the Mid-South - by the time she got my account
setup (never ordered from them before), they were gone.

Close on 9K of the little buggers, but no success yet.

Thanks again for your efforts.

-Stretch

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:54 pm

stretch wrote:Hi, Rimfire!

I got an email on REmington SP at 1:29 at Midway.

I called at 1:29, was told there were none, asked the
fella to please double-check. Oh, yes! By the time he borught
my account up, they were gone! I just could not have been
any quicker on the draw....

Same thing on the Mid-South - by the time she got my account
setup (never ordered from them before), they were gone.

Close on 9K of the little buggers, but no success yet.

Thanks again for your efforts.

-Stretch

I know. I couldn't believe how fast they disappeared from Midway. I'm going to start logging the length of time they are in stock. Just couldn't get to it today.

When I get a message and I'm at my desk, I always jump on and build a Web order as fast as I can. I already have an online account setup with most of these vendors, so I'm ordered and out the door in about 2 minutes.