Investigate sources, such as auctions, estate sales, liquidators, wholesalers, or trade shows for new items, used items, or collectibles.

“Investigate sources, such as auctions, estate sales, liquidators, wholesalers, or trade shows for new items, used items, or collectibles.” is a supplemental task performed by Online Merchants. Among the occupation's 34 rated tasks, workers place it 5th by importance (#30 most important). About 52% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Obtain information about goods or services. in Getting Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Fill customer orders by packaging sold items and documentation for direct shipping or by transferring orders to manufacturers or third-party distributors. · importance 4.5
• Create, manage, or automate orders or invoices, using order management or invoicing software. · importance 4.5
• Receive and process payments from customers, using electronic transaction services. · importance 4.5
• Deliver e-mail confirmation of completed transactions and shipment. · importance 4.4
• Correspond with online customers via electronic mail, telephone, or other electronic messaging to address questions or complaints about products, policies, or shipping methods. · importance 4.4
• Design customer interface of online storefront, using web programming or e-commerce software. · importance 4.4
• Purchase new or used items from online or physical sources for resale via retail or auction Web site. · importance 4.4
• Determine and set product prices. · importance 4.3
• Calculate purchase subtotals, taxes, and shipping costs for submission to customers. · importance 4.3
• Compose descriptions of merchandise for posting to online storefront, auction sites, or other shopping Web sites. · importance 4.3
• Compose images of products, using video or still cameras, lighting equipment, props, or photo or video editing software. · importance 4.2
• Upload digital media, such as photos, video, or scanned images to online storefront, auction sites, or other shopping Web sites. · importance 4.2
• Calculate revenue, sales, and expenses, using financial accounting or spreadsheet software. · importance 4.2
• Cancel orders based on customer requests or inventory or delivery problems. · importance 4.1

See all tasks on the Online Merchants page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-15720,
  title  = {Investigate sources, such as auctions, estate sales, liquidators, wholesalers, or trade shows for new items, used items, or collectibles.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-15720}
}