Question
I'm wondering if any of you have tried some of the eBay research options that are out there? A couple of them were brought to my attention today.
I've looked into these three:
HotBidz
Deep Analysis
and of course...
Andale Research
I didn't demo HotBidz because it seems to focus on the number of bids. That's all well and good, but a lot of bids doesn't necessarily mean anything.
I'm impressed with HammerTap. They offer a 30 day trial with limited features. However, the registration is $179 and $39 per year afterwards. That's OK if there is some assurance of the company still hanging around a few years from now. They appear to be affiliated in some way with channeladvisor, so that might mean some stability and reliability. At least, I would hope so. You can also search by category and seller besides item. The category searches especially could be useful.
Andale Research seems nice. And you know they're not going anywhere, which is a big plus. I know that the demo also wasn't full-featured, but it was faster than HammerTap. The data is limited to the last 100 auctions in the last 15 days, which appears at face value to be a big minus over HammerTap, which covers the last 30 days of unlimited auctions with the full version. But, perhaps there is such a thing as too much information. There is no way to search by seller or category.
Anyway, my interest in this research issue has been peaked, and I'm wondering if any of you have signed up with any of these programs or compared them in any way. What do you think about them?
blackcastlebooks
Answer
I just discovered another one that I'm trying out.
AuctionIntelligence
Just wanted to add this in case some of you are bouncing around the free trials of the others. Here's another one to consider.
blackcastlebooks
Answer
Here's another one that sent me an email yesterday, but I haven't tried it yet
WiseResearch
My European vintage linens on eBay
Cool non-linen European goodies (from our container!)on eBay
VISIT MY WEBSITE!
Answer
Just wanted to say that I cancelled my trial with AuctionIntelligence today. I found a bug in the system, at least regarding my own seller list. It picked up some auctions of mine that were still running and added them to the database at the current prices they had been bid up to at that time. Of course, there was no way to correct this after they closed. The database wouldn't update with the correct information after they closed because the incorrect information had already been put in the database!
No way to tell if this is just a quirk when you do a seller search or if it also makes errors and picks up open auctions by title search as well. Who has the time to doublecheck each search against eBay results? Kind of defeats the purpose IMO.
blackcastlebooks
Answer
because of the threads about this on these boards I have signed up for the andale research. I'd RATHER sign up for deepanalysis quite honestly but on dialup it's just too cumbersome. If I ever get isdn or satellite I'll probably try it again.
Mel-