Mac OS X: JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Free Edition Beta Release

JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Free Edition for Mac is released for beta test. Mac OS users, who don't use Firefox browser, can now snipe eBay auction for free.

JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Free Edition is a desktop software to monitor and snipe eBay auctions. Support instant & snipe bid on 22 eBay sites with multiple eBay ID. Track item status and price with visual/audio alert. View essential information including shipping, location, seller, item activity log and photo. Extensive configurable options. Although easy and free to use, ideal for casual eBay buyers, it doesn't have the advanced features of Pro Edition

JoyBidder is officially Powered by Mozilla

Mozilla.org has recently approved JoyBidder.com the use of Powered by Mozilla logo for JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper. The site is also listed in Mozilla web site.

The logo is available for individuals and organizations that use parts of the Mozilla code-base in their application or product. JoyBidder uses Gecko and XULRunner, which are the core Mozilla technology that Firefox Web Browser is also built upon.

Because the use of Mozilla technology, not only JoyBidder can run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (The standalone desktop version for Mac OS X and Linux are currently being developed), but also JoyBidder can employs the same features as you would find in Firefox, such as version update mechanism, secure login manager, Growl notification on Mac OS X and more.

JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Free Edition is now Public at AMO

JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Free Edition is now Public at AMO. This is quoted text from the email AMO sent to last Friday.

Congratulations! Your nominated add-on, JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Free Edition, has been reviewed by a Mozilla Add-ons editor who approved your add-on to be public.

Since last year, I have been revising the Pro Edition to meet AMO guidelines, so that it can be approved to be public. I even disabled auto version update alert, since extension cannot do that if it is not approved public by AMO. Today, lots of users are still using 1.4.6 because they are not aware there is new version available. I was hoping once the Pro Edition is approved public, the auto update issue will be resolved. However, in the end, I was notified that because Pro Edition is a shareware, AMO will not approve it. This is a quite shock. It might be more helpful if I was informed of this a year earlier during the first review. Now with all my efforts, it hits a hard wall.

At the time, I almost want to give up, since the newly released Windows desktop version is doing well, and I am planning to work on Mac desktop version. During the same time, browser market is not looking good for Firefox. IE8 is bundle with Window 7 holds steady. Chrome is gain popular every day. More people are buying Mac with Safari as the default browser. Inside Mozilla, there is uncertainty among addon developer community as the development of Gecko 2 and JetPack.

After much debate, I finally decide to build a free version, this is how JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Free Edition comes into being. I consequently rename the shareware version as the Pro Edition.
Now the Free Edition is approved public, I feel I finally got a closure and will move on to other things I want to do with JoyBidder.

Here are some of them in the near term:
1. host Pro Edition on my own server, so that it can provide version update alert
2. release Desktop application for Mac

Apple iPhone 4 16 GB is sold as high as $1925 on eBay

Apple iPhone 4 is released today. It is in such a high demand that an Apple iPhone 4 16 GB was sold as high as $1925 on eBay. On averaging it sells at around $800, a $600 profit from the $199 pre-order price.



This is the only thing that cheered me up today when mortgage rate hit all time low and Wall Street has suffered another significant loss due to fragile recovery fears.

How much used iPads are selling on eBay

Beside just released the JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Free Edition recently, I have also been working on an eBay Sales Data Analysis tool for a while now.

Since the tool is almost done, I wanted to run some tests on real eBay data. I am really interested to know how much used iPad 16GB is selling on eBay, so I set up a scheduled search in JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Pro Edition. To save some electricity and mostly spare my aging computer, I have JoyBidder running in sleep mode, so it only wakes up computer every 2 hour, search eBay and import any newly ended iPad 16GB items to JoyBidder and then back to sleep. Although I only had it running two days, I am already getting some interesting results. See charts below.

used iPad 16GB Daily Price Trend

used iPad 16GB Daily Volume Trend

You will notice some interesting stuff here:

• Both price and volume have a big rally during the Father's Day
• Once in a blue moon, there is some incredible bargain on eBay. Some used iPad 16G were sold under $300. (This is the total price including shipping). Here is one of the link if you are suspicious of any wrong doings. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290443689687

Something useful

• The eBay sales data analysis tool will be released as a separate purchasable module of JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper Pro Edition for a very affordable one-time fee.
• You can use JoyBidder Pro Edition to run scheduled search to find bargain or rare items.

JoyBidder Free Edition is released

The Free Edition has a much simpler user interface and only support sniping one auction at a time. Because its simplicity and free of charge, it is ideal for casual eBay buyers who usually don't snipe multiple items during the same time. Click here for more Free vs Pro feature comparison.

The most obvious reason of releasing the Free Edition is to promote the Pro Edition and www.joybidder.com web site. However, I have another reason of my own.

Most of my registered users are savvy eBay buyers and some of them are eBay sellers who makes a living by buying/selling on eBay. They understand how a good auction search/tracking/sniping software can save their time and money. Since they make money on eBay, the small amount of registration fee is never their concern. In fact, lots of my users have told me that I have priced JoyBidder way too cheap. But for casual eBay buyer who buy from eBay occasionally and only snipe one item at time, they will very unlikely use many advanced features or buy the software. The more advanced features I added to JoyBidder, the more I tailor to savvy eBay users and the further I alienate from the casual users. There has to be a simpler product for those casual users.

Compare to Pro Edition, this is much simpler, isn't it?

Schedule automated search with JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper

Starting from version 1.5, you can save your search when you add items to a group from eBay search result page. You can then run the saved group search with one click or on a scheduled interval. The items found by the search are automatically added to the group. If the items are added through a scheduled search, the item description is bold typed, just like how new emails are bold typed. This is done so that you can easily spot and review them later on. You can also choose to play sound alert or send email alerts when new items are found.

Save the search

Run and schedule searches

Besides the ease of quickly re-run the search and import, there are other usefulness you might want take advantage of.

Search BuyItNow bargain:

Create a scheduled search for BuyItNow items with the price range you want. JoyBidder can find the items and alert you before the deal is gone.

Search Rare Item:

Create a scheduled search for rare items. Let the search run on the clock. When the items are found, you will be alerted.

Sales/Price analysis:

Want to know the average selling price or is the price go up or down in the last several weeks. You can create a search for completed items. JoyBidder will run the search on scheduled interval and collect information, such as quantity sold, quantity available, price sold and etc. You can then use the build-in Price Trend chart to see the trend of the selling price. You can also export the data to Excel for further analysis.

(Heads up: In the next major version update of JoyBidder, probably 1.6.x, we are planning to introduce a full suite of data analysis tools into JoyBidder)

Version 1.5 is not yet available through auto-updates or from 3rd party download site yet. If you don't want to wait, you can get from JoyBidder eBay Auction Sniper web site.