Questions: eBay Buyer/Bidder Tools?

[Nick Knight]

In the beginning ... well, for me it was the late 90's when I discovered
eBay and hacked up some REXX scripts to assemble custom search lists for
myself ... and to autobid while camping or otherwise out-of-town (or simply
asleep).

After 6-7-8 years of procrastinating about an idea, I'm working on a more
polished tool to aid in my own searches and item management ... from a
buyer's prospective. It's already found things for me I would have
otherwise missed. More ideas to come, but I intend to mine for more
features. The plan is to release it as shareware.

Does anyone out there use a tool that helps them manage simple->complex
searches? If so, does it work well? Web site or installed on your
machine? Any package names or pointers would be appreciated.

Funny, after I started mine, I found out that there are some items out there
that sorta-kinda do what I was thinking. But not quite. And not to the
degree I'm doing (think "search for *these*, but only show me what's new
since I checked last, and/or what I've saved"). I'm currently working on
auto-archiving closed auctions (printing to a file and/or saving the basics
of the seller's part of the listing). This works well, I'm simply trying to
figure out the best set of options to offer.

I'm interested in collecting a small group of folks who could tell me what
they think they could use in a tool. I'd have a alpha/beta out already,
except that I'm using eBay's API's and these are metered. I have a plan to
address this for a small number of testers. So ... anyone who might be
interested please email me. NOTE that I'd prefer power-user types at first
... folks that know their way around eBay and a computer, in-general. For
example, you know what it means when I say "requires the .NET 2.0 runtime"
and already have it, or given a link, can install it.

My tool does NOT bid. It may, however, do so in the future and/or interface
with existing bidding programs. Auction Sentry is already working for me,
so this isn't something I need to solve "now".

Nick

[Bob]

Nick, I've pretty much given up on searches. The biggest bargains on
eBay are the coins that are misattributed, ones that will NEVER come
up on any search, no matter how sophisticated. In my (narrow) areas,
I just look at every listing periodically.

[Nick Knight]

In <50780d09-cbb9-4a42...@x16g2000prn.googlegroups.com>, on
11/07/2008

at 03:47 PM, Bob <RLWin...@aol.com> said:

>Nick, I've pretty much given up on searches. The biggest bargains on eBay
>are the coins that are misattributed, ones that will NEVER come up on any
>search, no matter how sophisticated. In my (narrow) areas, I just look at
>every listing periodically.

Sure, I see. I have the same opportunities from time to time. Or, I see
lots listed where there is one sleeper burried in the middle.

But you're still searching. Perhaps we'll call it "browsing". And I do
that with this tool, too. You hit on a solid distinction, tho. If you
only browse occassionally, this may not help you much. However, if you
browse regularly so that you're sure you see everything that's listed at
least once, this tool can help. You can use it (as I do) to make sure you
only see the uninteresting things once.

Thanks for the input.

Nick