Method, not magic
What we saw, when we saw it, and what it does not prove.
SurplusFox is useful only if you can tell source evidence from our interpretation. This page sets that boundary.
Discovery every 30 minutes
Fixed-price source category pages are checked on a 30-minute schedule. Requests are identified, sequential and paced. Detail manifests are fetched when a lot is new or its listing fingerprint changes. A source can be paused if its published access rules change or it objects.
Raw evidence before parsing
Each fetched response is stored by its SHA-256 content hash before the adapter parses it. Every observation points back to those immutable bytes. Identical pages can share stored bytes while retaining separate observation times, which keeps the clock without filling storage with duplicates.
Availability is evidence-labelled
“Live” and “sold” are used when the source page exposes an explicit state. A lot absent from two healthy full discoveries becomes “gone”; that does not prove a sale, so its reason remains unknown. A partial or shape-broken capture is never used to mark stock gone.
Daily-cadence caveat replaced by a 30-minute floor
A lot can appear and disappear between source checks. Its observed lifetime therefore has a 30-minute resolution, not a precise sale timestamp. Listed duration means time since SurplusFox first saw the lot, which may be later than the source first published it.
Source values stay source values
Catalogue value, grade, item description, retail figure and sold-at percentage are the source's statements. SurplusFox does not treat them as condition evidence or expected recovery. VAT is added arithmetically from the published rate; delivery and resale expenses remain separate.
Valuation waits for comparable evidence
Later item estimates will use labelled marketplace asking-price observations, a disclosed asking-to-realised adjustment, wide ranges and sample sizes. User-submitted and internally executed sales will be stored as realised outcomes. Asking prices will never be relabelled as sold prices.
Correction policy
Stored source evidence lets us fix the parser without rewriting history.
If a source page was parsed incorrectly, we can re-run the corrected parser over the raw document and mark the prior parsed record as superseded. We do not alter what the source page contained or hide a material correction.