Wowecon uses a packet sniffer to intercept the data stream coming from the game servers. They run a similar site for eq1. It is my understanding that the encryption is much tougher on eq2 and that combined with SoE's stance of now third party data gatherers is going to keep eqecon.com from making an eq2 version. Our site relys only on player submitted info, which keeps us in compliance with the eq2 EULA and also provides more accurate price info then the econ site does. The econ site only show you what people are asking for on the market, it does not tell you what items actually sell for like our database does. Also, many of the prices get skewed as people use the sale of items as a way to transfer money from player to player. This system is also used by 3rd party sellers to deliver their coin to their customers so for example, on eqecon, the price of bone chips was always like 10000gp. Now anyone familiar with the game knows that they are not worth anywhere near that much but because they are listed for sale at that price from the 3rd party vendors, that is what the price show up as in the database. Someone new to the game, looking at the eqecon site, might not realize this.
Our goal at eq2markets was to present an ACCURATE picture of what items are ACTUALLY selling for. Anyone can browse the market and get a good idea what ASKING price items are being offered for but to the best of my knowledge my site is the first site to build a database from game generated player logs so as to keep the information as accurate as possible.