[INTRO]
[gabriel] who is rui, what’s behind the name breakfastfan4
[rui] rui (芮) is my last name. you can pronounce it like “ray”. it’s an old chinese surname, i’m not japanese.
i actually don’t usually eat breakfast, but i had an insane breakfast taco the morning i made my account, and 4 is my favorite number.
[gabriel] how would you describe what you do in a sentence
[rui] i build things i’d use.
[gabriel] when did grailbot first go from a random idea to something you actually built out
[rui] i initially got into data collection and automation after seeing auction snipers on hypixel skyblock. i think i was in middle school when i coded “grailedbot” to help me fetch listings on grailed. i discovered mercari japan and thought, “why not?” – i had a prototype out that same day.
[gabriel] when did you first get into archive fashion and what pulled you in
[rui] i wouldn’t say i’m into archive as a whole. i just love number (n)ine. it was maybe a year ago when i saw a listing up for those 03 crying heart patchwork shoes. i thought they were really cool, i watched that 2003 touch me i’m sick runway, and that got me into the brand.
[ORIGIN / INFLUENCE]
[gabriel] what was the first piece you ever bought from a japanese auction site
[rui] a size 0 number (n)ine pleated shirt from ss07.
[gabriel] when did you realize there was a real system to finding and flipping rare pieces online
[rui] before i even bought or sold anything, i saw a cheaper marketplace to buy from, and a more expensive one to sell at. there was never any question.
[gabriel] what made you want to automate it instead of continuing manually
[rui] besides that it was much more efficient, we were about to hit our isp’s bandwidth limit, and automatic polling was more data efficient.
[gabriel] what did your early setup look like before grailbot existed, like before the server and everything
[rui] when i initially began automating, i had the app running out of a vscode terminal on my mom’s old work laptop.
[TECH / DEVELOPMENT]
[gabriel] how does grailbot actually work in simple terms
[rui] it skips the webpage, images, assets, and trackers, and directly queries the api mercari uses to search for listings to get raw data about search results. grailbot stores a little info about the listings on a database, then sends out notifications through discord.
[gabriel] what kind of tools or languages did you build it with
[rui] asynchronous programming in python and a postgresql database. discord.py, asyncpg, aiohttp.
[gabriel] did you keep it private at first or let a few friends test it
[rui] 3 others from the number (n)ine discord server have had private access since early development.
[gabriel] do other people make similar bots or was this something you had to figure out on your own
[rui] i figured much of the querying logic out on my own. i learned a little while ago that similar, slower bots do exist, performing different functions.
[gabriel] how long did it take before it worked smoothly without breaking every few hours
[rui] as long as it took for me to realize that selenium probably wasn’t the best library for the job. what grailbot used to do was actually navigate to the website and read the html response. that was slow, expensive, and liked to shut down every few hours.
[gabriel] how fast can it catch a new listing once it goes live
[rui] with the way mercari’s search indexing works, listings will take 1–3 minutes after initially being posted to actually pop up in search results. when they do show up in search, grailbot catches them within 5 seconds. internally, i’ve been developing a way to fetch the listings minutes before they hit search (and are accessible to any manual user).
[gabriel] what was the hardest part to get working right
[rui] keeping grailbot as quick as possible without triggering mercari’s rate limits.
[gabriel] are there things you intentionally kept simple or limited so it doesn’t get too out of hand
[rui] i could definitely have more customization with users’ queries (such as blocking sellers, following listings, pattern matching in the titles). utility wise, a bit useful. ux wise, would be annoying.
[BUYING / RESELLING]
[gabriel] what’s been your favorite pickup using grailbot
[rui] those number (n)ine key necklaces. they were my first post ever. paid $270 for the two.
[gabriel] do you remember the first time it actually paid off financially
[rui] selling a number (n)ine x marlboro tee on grailed.
[gabriel] do you mainly resell to fund the project or just to keep the hunt going
[rui] to keep the hunt going. the funds from subscriptions are more than enough to maintain hosting and proxy costs.
[gabriel] how often do you use it yourself compared to other users
[rui] i have no way of knowing, but i rely on it a lot. shoutout to the guy with 4 different channels for rick owens though.
[gabriel] when you post stuff like the crying heart patch denims or aw03 necklaces do you see them as investments or just pieces you like
[rui] i don’t think of clothes as investments in the typical sense of the word. i like every piece i post.
[gabriel] have you ever regretted selling something you found through the bot
[rui] that crying heart key necklace.
[gabriel] how much of your current collection came directly from grailbot alerts
[rui] all the archive on my page, except for 2 pairs of jeans, came from grailbot.
[COMMUNITY / CULTURE]
[gabriel] how did the discord start and how did it grow to around 100 members
[rui] it’s mostly an information server. i keep demos, tutorials, and info on how to purchase there. sometimes, i post my purchases on my story, and many find it from there.
[gabriel] what kind of people usually join, collectors or resellers
[rui] both. lots of diehard archive fans and a fair share of large reselling pages.
[gabriel] how do you balance keeping it small but still active
[rui] haha it’s not really active at all. it’s a server for information, questions, and business. i’d love to see some more finds and discussions though.
[gabriel] what’s your take on people saying bots ruin secondhand markets
[rui] mercari bots have been privately developed or sold in closed off discord servers for a while now, and they definitely have been ruining secondhand markets for the manual user. however bots make secondhand markets better than ever for their users. i intentionally made grailbot accessible, easy to use, and cheap. my message is, get on board.
[gabriel] do you think people would compare grailbot to those sneaker release bots
[rui] yeah, and fair enough.
[gabriel] what separates what you’re doing from people just flipping hype
[rui] nothing. i really do love the brands whose pieces i flip, but either way, the end result is profit, right?
[gabriel] have japanese sellers or platforms ever caught on or reacted to automation like this
[rui] i imagine it’s a little startling when your item sells within a minute of uploading. i’ve had a couple sellers cancel on me, but no real response.
[OUTRO / VISION]
[gabriel] what’s next for grailbot, are you adding new features or keeping it as is
[rui] grailbot is already pretty much all a mercari sniper would need. eventually, i want to take grailbot to yahoo auctions, rakuten, grailed, and vinted.
[gabriel] would you ever open source it or make it public at all
[rui] grailbot is built on oss. one day, i’ll return it back where i found it.
[gabriel] is there another tool or idea you want to build next
[rui] i have no need for a new tool at the moment, so nothing comes to mind. i’ll build whatever i think is useful to me next.
[gabriel] if you could give one tip to someone trying to start reselling archive pieces, what would it be
[rui] get grailbot.
[gabriel] what keeps you motivated to keep improving something this decently small and niche
[rui] i don’t make that much from the project itself. i just love seeing people get shit they love for cheap thanks to my work. most of the traffic going through grailbot is from subscriptions i’ve given out for free.
also, the fact that grailbot may not be so small or niche one day.