Non-developer builds resale scoring tool with Claude and eBay API

How a non-developer built a practical resale scoring tool

A detective without software engineering experience created FlipIQ, a resale scoring tool to help evaluate whether items are worth flipping for passive income. The tool addresses the research grind of checking sold comps, estimating margins, and determining listing viability.

Technical implementation

FlipIQ pulls sold data from the eBay Browse API and feeds it into a Claude-powered scoring layer. The setup is free to run locally using Flask and SQLite. Users need their own eBay API key and Ollama running. There are no paid tiers or subscriptions.

Key features

• Confidence scoring based on real comp data before purchase commitment
• Photo ID feature for snapping items in the wild and getting fast evaluations
• Local Flask/SQLite setup requiring only eBay API key and Ollama

How Claude contributed

The developer's workflow involved describing what they wanted, then having Claude and Codex generate code, followed by review and redirection. The scoring logic is particularly interesting: Claude demonstrates strong reasoning about margin risk when given structured comp data. Instead of simply averaging prices, it flags variance, outliers, and thin markets in a way that mirrors how experienced flippers think.

The developer is asking others about using Claude for domain-specific scoring tools in non-tech fields and how they structure prompts for evaluation logic.