The app that tells you what a used tech listing is really worth and what's wrong with it, before you drive.
Used tech marketplaces (Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, Craigslist, eBay, Mercari) are full of listings whose real value is nothing like their asking price. Every existing tool values the model. None of them value the risk.
Respelling of assize (pronounced "uh-SIZE"). From Old French assise, "a sitting," via Latin assidere, to sit beside. Three layered meanings, all of which fit:
- A formal session of judgment. The English Assizes were traveling courts where judges rode a circuit through the counties to hear serious cases, from the 12th century until they were abolished in 1971.
- A fixed standard of measure, weight, or price. The Assize of Bread and Ale (1266) fixed what a loaf had to weigh and what ale could cost, with penalties for bakers and brewers who cheated. The Assize of Weights and Measures standardized weights across the realm.
- The market inspection that enforced it. Officers physically checked goods and scales in the market to confirm merchants weren't shortchanging buyers. Among the earliest consumer protection law in English history.
So: a formal judgment, a true standard of value, and the inspection that keeps buyers from being cheated in a marketplace. The whole product in one 13th-century word.
Sibling word: assess, same Latin root, originally "to sit beside a judge and fix an amount." (Unrelated to assay, which comes from exagium, "a weighing.")
Inspection is the brand, not deal volume. Name chosen 2026-08-22. Domain: filtrsoft.com
Used tech has binary, hidden value-destroyers that price comps cannot capture. Not "worth 15% less." Worth nothing:
- iCloud Activation Lock — a $400 iPhone becomes a $40 parts unit
- IMEI blacklisted (reported stolen, or unpaid carrier balance)
- Carrier locked vs unlocked
- EFI / firmware lock on a MacBook
- Battery health under 80%
- Mined-on GPU, banned console, refurb sold as sealed
Plus, on bundled listings (a "gaming PC" is seven components), value swings 10x on which parts are inside, and there is no single sold comp for a custom build.
Reliability over coverage. Missing a good deal costs nothing. Sending someone 45 minutes to a scam ends the brand. The engine is allowed to say "I don't know." Every competitor always gives a number; that is their weakness, not their strength.
In: laptops, phones, GPUs, prebuilt PCs, consoles, tablets, components. Out: furniture, clothing, cars, everything else. Out as of 2026-08-23: cameras and photo/video gear. Yish marked all 8 camera listings UNKNOWN in the Phase 0 audit — he doesn't know the category. Lenses and bodies comp well on eBay, so valuation isn't the problem; the risk layer is (fungus, element separation, focus motor wear, mount play, cosmetic grading conventions). Risk is the differentiator, and a category he can't audit is one where the engine could be wrong indefinitely without either of us noticing. Revisit only if a domain informant turns up. Not in v1: alerts and monitoring (commoditized), cross-listing, auto-messaging.
Phase 0 complete. Phase 1 engine built and self-scoring against Yish's audit. See HANDOFF.md.
docs/research-2026-08-22.md— full market, competitor, technical and legal researchdocs/sessions/— session logs, newest lastHANDOFF.md— master plan + current state. Start here.