I was able to piece together some past database and get quite a few merchants going. The prices there, were they keyed in by hand or somehow parsed? They are strikingly accurate.

Would have been done by hand, the current data is based off the same logs and all logs that came after so the fact that the new data doesn't have the price for items means some one likely did most of the old by hand.

Wow, that is a lot of work someone did. And a hell of a lot more work ahead.