eBay Product Research/Sourcing Tools

Product research is essential to building a successful eBay business. I have used all of the research tools over the years, but the new release from HammerTap is without question the best research tools I have used.

In return for promotional consideration, I have recently made a great deal for my readers. Instead of a 7-day free trial and then $24.95 a month, you can get try HammerTap3 for 14-days and subscribe for only $17.95 a month.

The Firefox toolbar for eBay is an excellent eBay tool for buyers and sellers. The Firefox add-on lets you quickly access things like your eBay auctions, price comparisons for various products and customer reviews. You can easily search eBay using this tool and get preview pictures for products in the search results. The Firefox tool also supports eBay in the UK, Australia and Canada.

If you don’t have Firefox the default toolbar provided by eBay has similar features.

Here is a link to a great sourcing tool. It's a Wholesale Search Engine that will help you find wholesale sources for eBay and your web site.

eBay Tools for Sellers

Auctiva is a great tool for small eBay sellers. Auctiva costs $9.95 per month but it includes several features that eBay charges for such as photo hosting, scheduler and hundreds of auction templates. The Auctiva eBay tool also includes a scrolling gallery you can put in your auctions or on your website or blog so you expose everything you are selling on eBay when someone looks at just one of your auctions.

I have used Seller's Voice for over a year now. It has increased both the sell through rate and the average final value of my auctions for my firepits, Starbucks collectibles and my EZ Cube light tents.

It is easy to use and pays for itself many times over. I have arranged for my readers to get a three-week trial for only $1.00.

AuctionBloopers lets you search for misspelled items on eBay which escape the eyes of most of the buyers and hence you could get them at a lesser price. A simple but effective tool which saves you money.

FatFingers, like AuctionBloopers, is another free online tool which helps you find misspelled items on eBay and cash in on the low bids. It also provides some advanced search options.

ListingTicker is a simple tool that helps you post all your listings on your blog or website. The site asks you to input your eBay user ID. It then creates a widget to be placed on your site. It shows all your auctions that will be ending soon. It also provides your site's visitors with a search box in case they want to find something else.

Photoblat is a neat utility if you want to save some money on adding photos to your eBay listings. The site allows you to upload photos to the service. From there, you can add those photos to your eBay listings page through tools like eBay's Blackthorne Pro. All the photos are hosted on the Photoblat site. Photoblat charges $3.99 per month for access to its service. Personally I would rather use Auctiva or Vendio for $9.99 month and get other services like scheduling and free templates.

Selling Manager and Selling Manager pro are eBay's apps. They are installed into the My eBay section of a seller's listing page. The apps allows you to manage all your listings in one place. You can also create customized e-mail templates to send to buyers who won your auction. If the buyer doesn't pay, it automatically relists your item. If you want all these options, you'll be forced to pay $15.99 per month. The free version of the Web-based app will let you create a professional listing and edit your listings in bulk.

Toolhaus is a service that allows you to see the reliability of an eBay user. It lists all the feedback the user has received, including both positive and negative reviews. It's not the most useful tool in this roundup, since it basically lists information you'll find on eBay, but it does come in handy when you want to quickly determine if you can trust users.

eBay Tools for Buyers

Auction Sniper is an excellent eBay tool which can increase your chances of winning eBay auctions. It automatically places your bid just before the auction closes so you “snipe” last second bidders and get the best price.

Auction Sniper isn’t free. They charge you a small fee only if you win the auction. I used to use BidSlammer, but I like Auction Sniper better.

If you are having a hard time searching eBay for that one rare item and just can't find it, then Stuff Alert is a great eBay tool. Stuff Alert helps you set up a customized alert for a specific product and let’s you know when it appears on eBay. Alerts are sent through email or via SMS on your cell phone.

PicClick is a visual search engine for eBay which lets you browse through the product images based on product categories, price range and listing or ending time of bidding. It is a faster way to browse through thousands of items on eBay.