UnitScout - Gemini 3 Hackathon. The Post-Competition and Real-Time Application.

Hi everyone, the UnitScout is an AI application which uses Gemini 3 APIs and I built this app using AI Studio and made for Gemini 3 Hackathon and you can read more about my submission here as this post is more about the post-hackathon and the use of this app in the real world.

The usual process was to download the photos from the online auction and load them into UnitScout. Long story short - here are the results:

For sure, I did a lot of investigation and price range checks - basically, what would be the maximum price I could pay for this.

Let's jump to the actual day of the auction, and I'll show you the screenshot of how I won the bid on this, along with assumptions collectively with the app's details and a reality check.

I was prepared to pay up to $800 for this and was pleasantly surprised to win it for $351.

This isn't the final price, as the bidding company took its 15%, and I also need to pay 13% in taxes, plus rent a U-Haul ($230 for one day, plus distance and $40 for gas). The total came to around $700 (plus coffee).

Why was it so cheap? There were over 20 auctions ending within about 5 minutes of each other, and most likely, people didn't want to deal with heavy furniture (I later realized the furniture was heavy).

Preservation 85/100 - I wondered why the app deducted those 15 points. First of all, there was no video showing how they cut the locks (it's usual practice to show that nobody "inspected" the unit before us), and in any case, we paid for what we saw in the picture.

What was on the pictures and what we found on top of it?

The larger Staples metal file cabinet is listed on the Staples website for $950, so even selling it at a reduced price could cover the cost of the entire unit.

We realized how expensive the furniture was when we attempted to load the tables into the truck. The table's thickness is about 1 inch. I searched online and found a similar one on a Canadian website (I suspect the office chairs are from there too) priced at $4100. There are two more tables hidden behind the chairs.

The marble coffee table is very nice (my wife refuses to consider selling it).

In the picture, you can see a Canon copy machine and a monitor... not really...

The Canon machine is actually a color one with toner (not sure if anyone is interested in buying it).

The HP monitor is actually an all-in-one desktop with a touch screen.

Yes, that red item is a Dyson vacuum cleaner model 7 (and it's a new one).

We have over 10 packs of printing paper and pens to use for the next 5-10 years.

As a bonus, we also received $200 in gift cards (25/50), which were still active (LCBO was my favorite).

Tons of marketing material (thousands of printed pliants), which we had to recycle.

Final thoughts:

$$$$ - I tried checking the Marketplace, and it seems there's little interest in most of these products, despite their high online prices. In the worst-case scenario, the goal is to sell them for at least $700 to recoup the expenses.

Not material - I advise others to bid on auctions featuring quality products that you might use at home. This way, you can spend a few hundred dollars instead of thousands on new items.

END: We spent $700, and the "theoretical used value" is $2,500 or possibly more, depending on luck and Marketplace demand.

Here is the link to the UnitScout App. Please use it, and I hope I have inspired you to try the AI Studio's amazing prototyping tool.

Explore and experiment with UnitScout (AI Studio) by trying it out.