A used-gear business, rebuilt as one Magento system.

What it doesThe business originally ran as two systems: a separate custom app that held the quoting engine, pricing engine, catalog, and eBay services, plus a Magento storefront. We migrated that logic into Magento as native extensions so the whole operation runs as one system.

Why from scratchKeeping two synchronized apps in step was fragile and slow to change. Folding everything into Magento removed the sync layer and put the business on a single, maintainable platform.

What it doesA valuation engine that computes a buy price and buy percentage from formula tables (condition grade, grade ratios, price settings, shutter-count ratios) fed by real eBay sold-listing data, with a daily cron that refreshes a current price for every catalog item.

Why from scratchPricing used gear is judgment-heavy and never fit a generic markup formula. The engine encodes how US Camera Pro actually values gear so an offer is fast, consistent, and grounded in live market comps.

What it doesA scraper that pulls eBay sold and completed listings to source comparable pricing, with carefully encoded queries (a stray + vs % changed result counts dramatically) and a weekly cron that refreshes the comps table behind the pricing engine.

Why from scratchThe pricing engine is only as good as its comps. Scraping real sold prices, accurately, is what makes each quote reflect what gear is actually selling for.

What it doesA Quote Management area in the admin: quote lists, create and edit forms, and line-item grids carrying grade, serial number, shutter count, discount reason and percentage, buy price, buy percentage, and retail price, with statuses through the buy workflow.

Why from scratchBuying gear from customers is a workflow Magento does not ship with. Quote Management models the whole trade-in process the buying desk runs every day.

What it doesA customer-facing Sell Gear quote tool and a My Quotes area in the account, plus a synonym-aware quote search (so f2.8, f/2.8, and f28 all match) and a quote bonus or adjustment that recalculates each line.

Why from scratchSellers want to see what their gear is worth without a phone call. The storefront tool turns the internal pricing engine into a self-serve quote.

What it doesA model where the Magento catalog acts as a template (custom attributes for pricing title, quote title, eBay category, price bounds, identifiers) and each acquired unit becomes its own salable item with a condition grade, serial number, and shutter count.

Why from scratchNo two used units are identical. The model treats every camera and lens as a unique graded item while still pricing it against a shared template.

What it doesA B2B customer group that sees the exact buy price and full discount and retail detail, while consumers see a price range (one grade above and below), with an admin toggle between range and flat pricing for non-B2B buyers.

Why from scratchTrade partners and walk-in sellers need different levels of detail. Group-based pricing shows each audience the right view of the same quote.

What it doesGenerated quote PDFs for customer and internal printing, email-a-quote to one or many recipients with automatic account creation, and automated expiry reminders that skip weekends and public holidays and fire a set number of working days before a quote lapses.

Why from scratchQuotes move through email and print, not just the cart. The workflow makes a quote a shareable document and nudges sellers before it expires.

What it doesOngoing two-way synchronization between Magento and the eBay store via M2E Pro: new eBay products pull into Magento and Magento products push to eBay, and an eBay store category feeds the homepage clearance and savings sliders.

Why from scratcheBay is a primary sales channel. Two-way sync keeps both channels current from one catalog instead of listing each unique unit twice.

What it doesUSPS (via a Stamps.com account) and FedEx label generation directly from the Magento admin, replacing rate-only carrier methods, with configurable flat or percentage handling fees, customer tracking in My Account, and tracking details in notification emails.

Why from scratchThe team had been depending on eBay to create labels. Generating USPS and FedEx labels in-house put fulfillment back inside the store, with tracking the customer can see.

What it doesA MySQL-based catalog search tuned for the used-gear catalog: an all-words, any-order match across product, pricing, and quote titles, admin-managed stop words to filter noise, and quote-search synonyms.

Why from scratchThe catalog could not run Elasticsearch in this environment, so we tuned the MySQL queries and added stop words and synonyms to make search behave the way buyers and staff expect.

What it doesMagento's CSV import extended for the custom catalog attributes for a large template catalog, with validation that caught real data issues (blank prices importing as zero and breaking the scraper's price ranges).

Why from scratchA template catalog this large can't be entered by hand. The extended import loads it cleanly and protects the pricing engine from bad data.

What it doesA front-end refresh across the homepage, category, and product pages, layered on the functional build, with Core Web Vitals performance work.

Why from scratchOnce the engine worked, the storefront needed to match. The refresh modernized the buying and selling experience and tightened performance.